Cooking Game Tips

Know where the points come from

Three stars needs 110% of a level's par, and par already assumes you served every single customer in one unbroken combo. So serving everyone is the starting point, not the finish line. Your score is built from two things that multiply each other:

• Tips add up to 50% to an order, depending on how full the patience bar is when you complete it.
• The combo multiplies the whole order, tip included, by up to ×2.0 from your sixth order in a row.

A 50-point burger served instantly at a ×2.0 combo is worth 150 points. The same burger served at the last second with no combo is worth 50. The lesson is simple: protect the streak first, then worry about speed.

Protecting your combo

The combo only breaks when a customer leaves unhappy. A slow order does not break it; an abandoned one does. So when you are overloaded, do not spread yourself evenly. Decide which customer you can still save and make sure that one is served, even with a red bar. A late order at ×1.8 beats a perfect order at ×1.0.

The flip side: if a customer is clearly lost, stop cooking for them. Use those seconds to get ahead on the next guest so the streak rebuilds quickly.

Cooking with a burn timer

From level 6, ready food on the fryer, griddle and oven shows a red ring that counts down to burning. Three rules keep you safe:

1. Do not start more hot batches than you can collect. Each one will demand your attention at a fixed moment. Two at once is manageable; three usually costs you one.
2. The tray is your fire escape. You do not need a customer to rescue a dish. Dragging it to any of the 3 tray slots stops the timer for good.
3. Stagger by cooking time. Start the slow bake first (pizza 5.5 seconds, cake layer 6 seconds), then the fast fry (fries 3 seconds). They finish closer together and you collect them in one sweep.

The blender and the prep board never burn anything. When you are busy elsewhere, a finished milkshake can wait in the blender indefinitely.

The oven is the diner's bottleneck

Cookies, both pizzas and the cake layer all need the oven, and it bakes one batch at a time. On levels with several oven dishes, read all the bubbles and queue oven jobs by patience: the customer with the least time left gets the oven next. While it bakes, do everything else. Glaze a donut, build a burger, blend a shake.

Chocolate cake is the longest dish in the game at about seven seconds across two steps, but it pays 70 points. If the level's first guest orders one, put batter and cocoa in the oven before anything else.

Watch for shared ingredients

Dough goes in the fryer for donuts and in the oven for cookies and pizza. Batter goes on the griddle for pancakes and in the oven for cake. Cheese is used on burgers and pizzas. The ingredients never run out, but the look-alike starts are where mistakes happen under pressure. The game refuses an ingredient that cannot lead to a recipe on that station, so a rejected drop is a useful hint that you picked the wrong station.

Hurried customers and critics

Customers in a hurry (clock badge) wait only 65% as long but tip double. Served quickly, a hurried guest is worth up to twice their menu price before the combo. They are the best reason to keep pre-cooked food on the tray.

Critics (crown badge) wait 80% as long and their order counts double, tip included. A critic ordering a cake and a pizza is the most valuable guest in the game. If a critic and a regular are both at risk, save the critic.

Surviving rush-hour waves

Level 13 sends customers in groups of three with a long gap between groups. Because the guest list is fixed, the lull is your preparation window. Fill the tray with the slowest dishes on the menu and leave quick items like fries and shakes for when the wave lands. Keep one station free so the first order of a wave can start immediately.

Which upgrades to buy first

Each upgrade has three tiers costing 150, 350, 700 coins.

• Quick Burners is the best all-round first purchase. Faster cooking helps every level and every dish.
• Cozy Seating is the one to buy if you keep losing customers. Longer patience means fewer strikes and safer combos.
• Tip Jar matters most when you can already serve everyone and are chasing three stars.
• Non-Stick Pans does nothing in levels 1 to 5, where food cannot burn. Leave it until you reach the diner.

Short on coins? Replaying a level you have already beaten pays out again, and an early level with a full ×2.0 streak is a quick way to earn.

Related guides

See How to Play for the full recipe table and scoring formula, or Levels and Challenges for star targets. For a break from the clock, Sweet Match is turn-based and Kitchen Memory can be played at your own pace.