FAQ

[Sapholia]

As always, try playing the tutorials, as they answer a lot of common gameplay questions. If you have already looked at them, try doing so again after playing the game for a little while and can put the instructions into better context.

Gameplay

• What are Prep Stations and Holding Stations?

Prep Stations are the numbers along the left side of the screen while working in a restaurant, where customers give their orders and chores appear.

Holding Stations are the numbers along the top, where you can cook ready-made entrees and side dishes in advance.

• What are the numbers in the upper right corner while working in a restaurant?

The percentage next to the blue speech bubble is the restaurant's buzz. The higher the buzz, more customers you will get and the less patience they will have.

The number of seconds next to the purple arrow is the customers' patience, that is, how long they will wait for their order to be taken before leaving.

The number next to the yellow dollar sign is how much money you've made so far in the day.

• Why does the food I make in my Holding Stations fail sometimes, with blue "meh" faces and a trash can icon?

Holding Stations, like customers at the Prep Stations, will ask for a random, specific recipe. For instance, when making Pretzels, you cannot choose whether to make Classic or German; you must look at the recipe to see which one is required. You don't need to make one of each kind. The customers will order whichever one you have.

• No one is ordering side dishes!
  
• What is a Delicious order?

Customers do not order side dishes on their own. If you have a side dish prepped and available in a Holding Station, then a customer will take one portion along with their order. If you also have drinks available on the menu, the order (if made perfectly) will upgrade from Perfect to Delicious. You will see flashing yellow starbursts on the Prep Station after it's fulfilled and hear a clicking sound.

• Can I back out of an order to make a different one?
  
• I made a mistake! Can I undo it or trash the order and start again?

No. Once you choose a Prep Station order or chore, you must complete it. Making a mistake is not undoable. The core gameplay of Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! is about speed, accuracy, and planning, and practice is needed to become better at all of those things.

If you choose a Holding Station and change your mind, you can cancel by pressing ENTER before doing anything else.

• I can't prepare this Holding Station dish fast enough to serve it to the first customers of the day!

Spoiler blocked just in case someone wants to figure this out on their own.
Try preparing an instant side dish before any customers walk in, such as side salad, fruit spread, or potato salad. This will add a lot of time to their patience. You can also refresh a customer's patience by starting to cook another of the same item they are asking for. You can do this once per customer (i.e., if they were in the restaurant when the first dish starting cooking, then the second will have no effect on their patience).

• What is Chef For Hire (C4H)?

This is the ability to work pre-determined shifts at restaurants other than your own. You can earn medals which unlock some things in the game.

• On the list of restaurants, what do the numbers next to the chef hats mean?

Those are the number of uncompleted shifts you have unlocked and available to play in each restaurant.

• How do I run my own restaurant rather than working in someone else's?
  
• What is CSD Mode?

In the Tower's list of restaurants, yours is in the top left corner, with an infinity symbol rather than a number. You can choose the menu and it will use the decor you've chosen in the Designer. As you level up, it will increase the number of entree, side dish, and drink slots in the menu, as well as the number of Prep Stations and Holding Stations. Playing your own restaurant is known as CSD Mode.

• How do I get new food and decor for my restaurant?

You can buy food in the Food Catalog. Some dishes are locked and will unlock randomly as you complete certain goals such as leveling up (every five levels) or completing certain bonus objectives. (You do not need to buy them once they are unlocked.) Decor is unlocked similarly, in a random fashion as you level up or complete bonus objectives; this is more common and should happen with every level and every objective completed (that does not unlock food).

• I haven't gotten any chairs in my decor unlocks!

Decor is unlocked randomly, and chairs are rarer than other items.

• I leveled up to 50 and suddenly my stars are gone!

You will start earning platinum stars now instead of gold.

• I see seasonal decor items in the Designer. Can I miss out on getting these if I didn't play at the right time?

No. Seasonal additions are permanent and won't be removed from the game.

• Why is there Japanese text at the beginning and end of rush hours?

The Cook, Serve, Delicious! games were originally inspired by a Japanese game called Ore no Ryouri for the PlayStation. The Japanese text is an homage to that game. You can turn it off in Options > Gameplay if you don't like it.

• Where are the emails you get every day, like in the first game?
  
• Can I customize the keybindings for different recipes?
  
• How do I tell what positive and negative modifiers/traits a food has, like in the first game?
  
• What effect does the weather have?
  
• I leveled up too much and now I can't keep up with all the Prep Stations in my restaurant!
  
• Can I upgrade my equipment to make chores happen less often?
  
• I'm missing a sense of progression in my own restaurant, like in the first game when you started with a hole in the wall and eventually upgraded to a five star restaurant.

These will all be addressed in the major game update to version 1.1 sometime this month (October), as laid out in this news post. The custom keybinds may come later.

Technical

• My restaurant background keeps glitching out.

In Options > Graphics, try setting Background FX to Medium or Low. This will hopefully be fixed soon (or possibly already has been).

• I'm trying to set my resolution to something different, but it keeps reverting back.

After applying the resolution changes, you also need to press ENTER.

• I'm playing in windowed mode. How do I move the window around my desktop?

(Windowed mode only, Windows only) Press and hold SHIFT+W. While holding, use the arrow keys to move the window around. Press SHIFT+W+C to recenter the window and reset the position. When changing resolution sizes, press and hold SHIFT and then click Apply Changes to cancel the auto-recentering of the window.

• Where can I report a bug or make a suggestion?

Besides General Discussions, the Steam forums also have a Technical Support forum and a Suggestion Box forum. You can also post in the game's Discord[discordapp.com].

Other

• Who is chubigans?

David Galindo, AKA chubigans, is the developer of this awesome game! Other than outsourcing some things like music and art, he is the sole developer, and is continuing to work on the game to iron out bugs and add community-requested features.

• Who is Ryan Davis?

Ryan Davis was a staff member at Giant Bomb[giantbomb.com], a gaming coverage website. You can read about his influence on the popularity of the first Cook, Serve, Delicious! game and why he has a hamburger recipe named after him here[vertigogaming.net].

• When is the game coming to PS4/Xbox/Switch/Android/iOS?

Currently the developer is working on supporting the PC version. After that, he will port the game to PS4 and then look at other platforms. It's not likely to happen before 2018.

[chubigans]

Thank you so much for this FAQ! It's fantastic!

I'm just going to lock the thread as anyone that has any questions outside of this FAQ should create a new thread. You can PM me Ayako if you'd like it reopened for any changes or anything. Thanks again!!