Penguin Cafe Game Review

Penguin Cafe Game Background

Penguin Cafe is a simple restaurant simulator. As a penguin waitress working on a restaurant in an iceberg, serve customers before they lose their patience. Make sure to give the customers exactly what they want as quickly as you can. Use the profits you make to improve your restaurant.

The game was developed by RavalMatic. Its gameplay resembles that of Open Restaurant, but with a limit to how long the game runs.

How to Play Penguin Cafe

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. On the welcome screen, select the play button on the bottom right corner to get started. Choose a level from the level selection screen to begin.

Select a customer, then select a chair and table to seat them. A customer can only occupy an empty seat. Once they’re ready to order, select the customer again to take their order. Move to the kitchen and select the order to pick it up, then select the matching customer to serve it. Make sure you get the order right; if you don’t, you can dispose of it by selecting the order then selecting the trash can.

Pick up the tip left behind by the customer once they finish. Repeat the process with every customer that comes in until the restaurant closes.

Basic Gameplay Advice

The game has 25 levels, which are unlocked sequentially. The first level acts as an easygoing tutorial for the rest of the game. As you play through the levels, you gain more chairs and more customers that arrive progressively faster. You can replay any of the levels you’ve previously beaten for extra cash.

The store will close when the timer reaches a specific time. Any customer still in line when the restaurant closes would still need to be served. Collect the tips made by these customers to finish the level.

The end screen of the level shows you whether you’ve met your cash goals for the day. To beat the level, you must reach or surpass the cash goals. Although your goal is to reach a 3-star rating, you can still get a 2- or 1-star rating and unlock the next level as long as you’ve met your cash goals.

When you’ve earned enough money, you can buy upgrades from the catering industry supply shop. Open the shop screen by selecting the shopping bag button on the bottom right corner of the screen. The following upgrades are available:

• The Frostblister Skates cost 499 and help you serve your customers faster.
• The Ice-P Blender costs 999 and speeds up the kitchen service.
• Fancy tablecloth costs 1,499 and makes the restaurant more attractive to wealthier customers.
• The Sub-zero woofers cost 1,999 and helps make the lines bearable for the customers, which buys you more time to seat customers before they get angry.
• The Sir-sits-a-lot costs 2,499 and increases the restaurant’s seat quality.
• The Igloo Peruk Swedish glare resistant curtains cost 4,999 and upgrades the restaurant quality, helping improve customer moods.

The Sir-sits-a-lot, fancy table cloth, and Igloo Peruk Swedish glare resistant curtains also have the benefit of increasing the value of the tips given by the customers.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

Sometimes, you might end up leaving the kitchen counter without holding the order. This can waste a lot of time as you must backtrack to receive the order and serve it again. When serving, make sure to select the food at the kitchen counter before selecting the customer.

The key to mastering this game is timing. To receive generous tips, you can’t keep your customers waiting too long. Although upgrades can help mitigate the customers’ mood decay, the only long-term solution is to serve them faster. Rather than waste your time constantly zigzagging around the restaurant in an aimless fashion, try to create a system that helps anticipate your tasks in an orderly manner.

What I recommend doing is staggering your tasks in a cycle. Move through tables so that each pass has you do something in at least one table. For instance, you take an order in one table, clean the nearest one, and sit another customer immediately after to make the best use of your time before the order is ready. When you go out to serve, repeat the process to the tables nearest the one you served food at.

Educational Aspects

This game hones players’ response times and encourages them to think strategically when serving customers.

Player Age Recommendations

The fast pace of the game make it suitable mainly for older players, such as school-aged children and above. We recommend this game for players who like challenging restaurant sims.