Like most of the cozy games I find, Cuisineer randomly appeared on my YouTube front page whereupon I immediately sent it to CGM’s Dayna Eileen because it looked adorable. But I’ve been on a bit of a cozy kick lately—spending the better part of December playing Harvest Moon 64 and Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town—so I was looking forward to something genuinely new.
Cuisineer surprised me in a lot of ways. At first glance, I had assumed it would be a fairly simple experience. But it has such a unique sense of personality and such a satisfying gameplay loop that every time I sat down to play it, I would get lost in it for hours.
In Cuisineer, players take on the role of Pom—a young adventurer who, after returning to her hometown, finds she’s been left the run-down remains of her parents’ once-prosperous restaurant. After her friend, Biscotti, reminds her that the restaurant was a beacon for the town, she decides to use her adventuring skills to restore it to its former glory.
“Cuisineer surprised me with its unique personality and satisfying gameplay loop, making it easy to lose hours in its world.”
It is a simple story that follows the standard Story of Seasons model, but it does not really need to delve any deeper. Almost all the best sim games of this ilk boil down to “save the farm,” and that is enough. Like most of these games, the story is just a justification for the gameplay, and that is where Cuisineer really shines.
The game has two distinct parts—managing the restaurant and dungeoneering to acquire supplies. But what makes Cuisineer so enjoyable is its simplicity. Fighting through dungeons plays like a relatively simple version of Hades, with a similar isometric view, combat style and dodge mechanics. It is not too difficult that players will be turned off, but it is not so easy that they will be left wanting more.
Every enemy drops a different kind of foodstuff—and sometimes gear—so there is a solid incentive to fight monsters and stay alive as long as possible. However, it is not really a “go to the end” kind of dungeon. Once your bag is full of materials, you can leave at any time to bring your haul to the restaurant, ending the day in the process.
Operating the restaurant is equally simple. It plays a little like Overcooked on easy mode. Customers will come in and state their orders, and players will need to use the required apparatus—prep table, frying pan, pot or oven—to prepare their food.
Luckily, these necessary kitchen tools are enchanted and do not require Pom to actively use them, so she can simply give them the orders and let them work their magic. Dishes appear on the serving counter, and most customers will grab them on their own. Once they are finished eating, they will line up at the cash register, where players will need to collect the money. Like the combat, it can get a bit frantic, but it is never too overwhelming.
But what makes Cuisineer’s dual gameplay so incredible is the degree of nuance in its simplicity. There are a lot of little things that add so much flavour to the proceedings without overcomplicating anything. Take the combat, for example. When you start the game, you are given a basic weapon and a projectile. I had assumed this meant I could equip a main and sub weapon—in traditional ARPG style.
However, players can set any weapon they want to their two weapon slots, allowing for incredibly varied playstyles and unique combinations. On top of this, weapons and armour can have a range of buffs corresponding to the five flavours—but we will get to that shortly—that make mixing and matching really interesting and add a bit of manageable complexity to the otherwise simple combat.
The same goes for the restaurateuring. While I was initially disappointed that I could not do things like set menus and prices, I found myself coming back around when I learned of the little ways Cuisineer adds nuance to restaurant management. While it seems simple at first, different customers have different behavioural quirks that mix up the strategy of food delivery in simple but effective ways.
Elderly people take their time, wait patiently and move slowly, while children typically order simple dishes or sweets but do not have much patience after ordering. Soldiers come in, eat quickly and get back to work, while high nobles typically order extravagantly and expect to have their food served to them—the nerve, right? It genuinely was not until I encountered this customer that I realized you could bring people their food. Not only that, but sometimes people will try to skip out on the bill, and you need to catch them to make them pay.
The design and layout of your restaurant—something you can manage—plays a small but effective role in operations. Adding certain decorations will increase foot traffic from specific customers, and you need to arrange tables strategically to boost daily profits while maintaining a smooth flow of movement.
Not only that, but while returning from a dungeon always ends the day—which was a little disappointing—players can open and close the restaurant whenever they want. However, the longer you work, the more fatigue you will accumulate, which limits your maximum health. This means players need to balance moneymaking and adventuring carefully. There is really so much going on!
“Despite some performance issues on Switch, Cuisineer is a cozy, charming game with a satisfying gameplay loop and a dash of spice.”
Although, if I could give a small tip to newcomers, it’s to upgrade your restaurant and backpack as much as possible as quickly as possible. For some reason, Cuisineer is REALLY stingy with its space limitations but upgrading your restaurant to a size where you can not only fit all the necessary restaurant equipment but more than three tables only ever costs 25 of the basic wood and stone and 2500 gold. While the backpack upgrade cost does increase with every purchase, it is HYPER necessary, given how much material and loot you’re given almost every time.
The other thing I really like about Cuisineer is its charming sense of personality. There is a distinct love of food that runs through the entire game. The five days of the week are named after the five taste sensations—sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami—and those same tastes are utilized as status effects: sweet is charm, bitter is poison, and so on. Even the way all your weapons are utensils or food items and all the enemies are little food monsters makes the game unbelievably fun.
Furthermore, players can unlock new recipes by completing quests for the local townsfolk. The way each recipe is presented—with a gorgeously artistic rendering and an absolutely mouthwatering description—makes acquiring each new recipe exciting. I also love how the game incorporates some of the more common Story of Seasons elements into its meta-game.
Certain days feature “cravings,” where townsfolk want an abundance of dishes with a particular ingredient, incentivizing players to dive into a dungeon to stock up. On top of this, every month has special holidays that not only prioritize particular ingredients but also give players access to exclusive furniture and clothing. This makes the world feel much more alive and adds a cozy seasoning to the dungeoneering.
I could probably go on and on, but you get the idea. Cuisineer isn’t exactly perfect—it’s got some performance issues on Switch, but hopefully, a patch fixes that—but it looks great, has a really nice soundtrack, a great sense of style and an extremely satisfying gameplay loop. If you’re looking for another really great little cozy game with an added dash of spice, then you’ll want to give this a look!
