Coffee Tables useless?

[Crewmember 123]

Correct me if im wrong, but once you're far enough in on days what do coffee tables actually do...? If you have a queue outside, you have a queue outside. What are the coffee tables even doing then? Seems like nothing, correct me if I am wrong though

[Chris!!]

It increases the buffer of how many customers can be inside before a queue starts to form, and it allows your restaurant to maintain a "serve through window" structure where you can stay in the kitchen and don't have to walk outside to serve the customers.

Place down like 6 of those and that's 6 groups that doesn't have to wait outside at night in the rain. Even if the buffer does fill up eventually, as long as you reach the end of the day where no more customers show up then you'll have an easier time getting the remaining customers seated at the coffee tables and you are no longer at risk of losing to queue patience.

It becomes less effective in multiplayer or restaurants serving burgers or salads etc where you're expected to get many groups, but in solo and/or restaurants with stir fry or with lots of items in the menu, meaning fewer groups overall, the coffee tables are a boon to help you make it further in overtime.

[Crewmember 123]

Originally posted by Chris!!:

It increases the buffer of how many customers can be inside before a queue starts to form, and it allows your restaurant to maintain a "serve through window" structure where you can stay in the kitchen and don't have to walk outside to serve the customers.

Place down like 6 of those and that's 6 groups that doesn't have to wait outside at night in the rain. Even if the buffer does fill up eventually, as long as you reach the end of the day where no more customers show up then you'll have an easier time getting the remaining customers seated at the coffee tables and you are no longer at risk of losing to queue patience.

It becomes less effective in multiplayer or restaurants serving burgers or salads etc where you're expected to get many groups, but in solo and/or restaurants with stir fry or with lots of items in the menu, meaning fewer groups overall, the coffee tables are a boon to help you make it further in overtime.

Okay that is what I thought, they are actually not worth having if you have a queue.

[Chris!!]

Originally posted by Fluffybunnies:

Okay that is what I thought, they are actually not worth having if you have a queue.

What are you talking about, of course it really helps, it's literally there to help deal with outside queues that often will be the thing that kills your runs. Customers have much shorter patience waiting outside than inside, especially during the rain and at night.

If you do manage to get a queue outside, the customer(s) resets their patience back to full once they're seated at the coffee table, and later reset again once they move to the actual tables - this is astronomically better than not having their patience reset at all, and have it run out later on since you can't get them inside fast enough.

Coffee tables are at least A if not S tier when it comes to objects in the restaurant, even if you end up with a large number of groups that you can't seat them all.

[Purple Monkey]

Seems like they would remove the variable of rain.

[Ryvaken Tadrya]

It's important to remember that queue patience is a function of queue size. The shorter the queue, the longer they'll wait. Coffee tables help manage that. Eventually they won't help enough -- inherently every restaurant WILL fail -- but they buy a LOT of time to get to that point.