Tipping

As said in my previous posts, you need neighbors for a few main reasons:
1. They send you gifts.
2. They help you expand your restaurant and build things up, right from the bottom.
3. They leave you tips on your tables.
(Neighbors leave you 6 tips, while people from the Community, only leave you 3).
You can add neighbors by posting your Storm8 ID on people’s walls, or you can wait for them to come and visit you, and eventually, leave you their Storm8 IDs.
Or you can go to the Restaurant Story Forums and post your ID there. You can be sure, that by doing this, many people will send you invite to be their neighbor.
Now, tipping is important, because it increases your star level. As shown on picture 1, below. (I am currently level 3)

When you go visiting your neighbors, you will notice a message – That you’ve earned small amount of bonus. As shown on picture 2.

The more you tip, the higher your level will be. It’s good to tip, because this way people start noticing you, and will add you.

People from the Community. Picture 3.

Counters

There are various types of counters. Such are: White Counter, Mahogany Counter, Granite Counter, etc. They are used for storing the food you cook. When a dish is ready, you serve it, and it pops up on a random counter of yours. For example, if you have two coun
ters, and on each, there is
the same plate – let’s say Bacon and Eggs, and you want to cook French Toast. When you serve the Toast, all of the Bacon and Eggs will go on one counter, and on the other – there will be your French Toast. You will see a message : „The chef has placed all of the Bacon and Eggs on one counter“ or something like that. You start the game with only two counters, but you won’t need too many of them. You will probably need around 6-7 counters (if you cook many recipes at a time). It isn’t important what type of counters you have (they won’t change the count of people, that come in your restaurant). But, if you decorate, make sure you suit your place with the right color for counters. You can store as many plates of food as you want on one counter. There is no limit about that. For example, I cooked Stuffed Mushrooms for about an year-and-a-half, and I have 10 million and 400 thousand plates of it.
It would feed my customers for around an year without anything to cook aside.
Some counter can cost you gems.

This is Ruby Counter.

Appliances

There are many appliances in the game. The basic ones are a stove, oven and grill.
You can buy them for 5,000 coins. Next, there are the easy appliances (including grill, stove and oven). The appliances, that cost gems, are Sonic/Forever grill, oven and stove, Charcoal, Blue and others. Some of the appliances, however, must be built with the help of your friends. That’s why you need neighbors. They can send you parts for the appliances, and this way, you can build them faster and easier. You can send request for one part only once a day, which means, if you need 2 different parts, you can ask one person once for EACH. Parts, that you receive as gift daily, would be placed in the „GIFTS“ menu. If you buy constructable appliance and you double-tap it, you will see the parts, that you have inside it. You will also be prompt to use gems to finish your appliance. DO NOT do it. You will waste your gems. Just send requests for the missing parts daily to your friends. You will soon have your first constructable appliance. There are many types of constructable appliances, such as Fusion Sashimi Block, Food Replicator, Chocolate Maker, which also need parts, to be done. With every few levels, you will unlock a new slot for an appliance. However, if you didn’t reach the level, where you unlock new slot yet, there is an option to buy it for 49 gems. But, again. Don’t waste your gems.

Appliances, such as Easy Stove, Food Replicator and Fushion Sashimi Block

XP (Experience)

You need experience to level up. It’s the basic resource, after coins, that you need to progress in the game. You can gain XP, by cooking food, serving food, completing quests, earning badges, buying random things in the shop, such as tables, chairs, decorations, counters, appliances, etc. You also gain XP and coins, by mastering food recipes. When someone leaves you tips, you gain coins and XP, too (20 coins and 1XP, to be clear). Some foods give you small amounts of XP, but some, like Stew, Chocolate Fondue, and such – give you large amounts of XP. When you level up, you unlock new decorations, recipes, aplliances and such things. You need to level up, because the higher you are, the bigger are the chances you can cook better foods, which give you more coins and XP.

This is XP. It has a star-like form.

Gems

A gem is the premium currency in Restaurant Story. It can be, either bought with real money, or earned, by downloading other games, mastering food recipes, completing goals, earning badges, etc. Gems are found rarely. As I mentioned in my previous post about coins – gems are better to be saved. Not to be spent on useless things, or completing food cooking. The worst is, expanding with gems. Because you WILL need a whole magical hat, full of gems, to expand up to 26×24. You can disable the payment and in-game shopping, by going into your device’s settings, and disabling it (currently, I know it’s only on iOS). This way, you can prevent the accidentaly tapping „confirm“, when a pop-up displays on your device. I don’t like spending real money for gems or whatever. I just play. The only currency I use is my time. I’ve downloaded many games to earn gems. But I did not spent money on Restaurant Story. I have almost 66 million coins, all made by selling food to customers, and not a single penny spent. This is a real gameplay! Not these people, trying to get to level „100“, which DON’T EVEN EXIST!!! Some people are buying tons of appliances, like the Sonic or Forever, just to cut the time to get things done. I don’t like that at all. But, believe me. You WILL need gems. So save them for later.

This is an example of things, that can be purchased with these little green crystals, called gems.

Coins

A coin, is the main resource in the game.
You need coins to buy appliances, cook various kind of foods, to expand, and to decorate your restaurant. Coins aren’t that hard to get. You can earn coins by mastering foof recipes, achieving badges, selling food (or items, that you want to get rid off), or just by doing quests (or like many people call them – goals). Goals are not necessary to do, because, for me – you spend 10 times more coins and time to finish them, than what you earn after that.
You need to focus on spending more coins on food and tables/chairs at first, not on decorations. Because the amount of coins you start with is not so huge. You can start decorating after level 30. I, myself, started decorating at level 40. I made my few million coins at level 42. I was cooking dishes, that took around 16-22 hours of cooking time. At level 75, I had around 40-41 million coins. I played non-stop. One important thing – DO NOT TURN GEMS INTO COINS !!! It’s not worth it. Gems are a rare thing in TeamLava games, so every gem, that you get, somehow.. Make sure, that you keep it safe! Better spend it on decoration, than exchanging it for coins! Gems are an exclusive currency. Do not buy them with real money. It’s not worth it, either. You CAN get gems, by downloading other TeamLava (Storm8) games, or by mastering foods, earning badges, etc. When yoh buy something with gems, you WON’T get your gems back, when you sell it. You will sell it for a few coins. So, first think, when you spend gems!  Most of the things can be bought with coins, however, a lot of things must be bought with gems, instead. Believe me, things, that cost gems are almost the exact same thing, but a little too good. And too overpriced.

As you can see on the picture – these yellow circles are coins .

Restaurant Story – Beginning

                             THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME
First off, I will start with saying, that this game is free to play, however, it includes payment methods. You can buy gems/coins within the game, with your credit/debit card. This is your own choice. I chose to not pay a single dollar for the game. And I still have a great looking restaurant. My ID is – SunnyDay45. Feel free to visit my place, and, if you wish – to tip me. Now. The game isn’t difficult to learn. Restaurant Story is an online, restaurant-simulation game, where you cook food for your customers. At the beginning, do not go fast with decorating your restaurant yet. You need a lot of coins for doing this. First of all, focus on cooking foods like French Toast (which takes a minute), and Bacon and Eggs (which takes three minutes). This will guarantee, that you will have enough food on your counters. At least for a while.
A good strategy is, when you get up from bed in the morning, and when you have time to be in the game – cook foods, that take short amount of time to cook.
When you go to sleep at night, start cooking foods, that take at least 10-12 hours. This will ensure, that on the next day, you will have enough plates for your customers.
Also, if a food you cooked gets spoiled (you will notice a fly over your appliance, and your food will look gross), don’t waste gems on instant redoing your dish. It’s not worth it. Especially, if the food, that you cooked, took less than hour to be done. Next thing – tables and chairs.
You will start your journey with plenty of coins, two or three tables and chairs, and a pocketful of gems.
Try saving those gems for decoration, and don’t waste them for instant food cooking, or reviving.
Try expanding after a few levels. Add more chairs and tables at some point in your beginning, because you will notice your „smile“ rating drop down. This is your customers’ satisfaction. It must be 100. When you start your game, it will be around 50, maybe 60. Cook food more often, and make sure you have enough tables and chairs in your restaurant. *NOTE* – If you have 1 table and two chairs around it, only one person would sit there, and eat their food. Do not make the mistake to place more than one chair next to 1 table. I did it at the beginning, and noticed that the „angry customers“ rate started to increase from time to time. A good foods to start with, are of course, the Clam Chowder (takes 30 minutes, gives you around 12XP and 350 coins). Also, Fruit Salad is also equivalent to the Chowder, because it takes 15 minutes less, but for the time, that the Chowder takes to cook, you can make a good 300 coins. At night, you must be focused on cooking foods, that give you the most XP and coins. These types of foods are: Spaghetti, Macaroni and Cheese (which gives you 1,800 coins just for 12 hours, instead of the 22 hours for Spaghetti, which gives you 1,900 coins).
(You must have at least 26-30 tables in your restaurant, to achieve 100% satisfaction for your customer „smile“ rate.
Any number above 30 is optional. Good strategy for you to get as many tips, as you wish is, to tip many people in the Community tab in „Social“. If you tip more, you will be tipped more, too.)
*To increase your neighbor list, just go to others’ restaurants and post your Storm8 ID on their wall.
They will add you as soon as they have a chance to.*
You need neighbors, because expanding your restaurant is able, only when you have enough number of neighbors.
*Expanding can be done either with coins or gems.*
In the first few months, you will face a lot of things in your restaurant, such as – keeping customer rating high, making sure, that you have enough food, until the next day, cooking a lot of food in the day, etc. But at night, you can just cook food, that takes longer to be done. When you get higher in level, you can even cook Chocolate Fondue – a food, that takes 22 hours, and gives you 3,900 coins. (But only costs 800!!!) Pretty big profit for beginners.
If you don’t have food on your counter(s), or you just need some break – just move an object next to the door. This will ensure, that no customers will come in your restaurant, and your level of „smiles“ won’t be decreased, if you don’t have enough food/tables&chairs.

 

 
 

An example of spoiled food. NEVER SPEND GEMS ON RESTORING SPOILED FOOD!