How to Play

The goal

Each level is one shift in the kitchen. Customers arrive, sit down and show you their order. Cook what they asked for and hand it over before their patience bar empties. When the shift ends, your score is turned into one, two or three stars. Earn at least one star to unlock the next level.

If 3 customers leave without their food during a single shift, the kitchen closes early and the level is lost. The three hearts at the top of the screen show how many chances you have left.

Controls

You can play with a mouse, a trackpad or your finger, and there are two ways to move things. Use whichever feels better; you can mix them freely.

• Drag and drop. Press an ingredient or a finished dish, drag it to where it should go and let go.
• Tap, then tap. Tap an item to select it (it gets a pink outline), then tap the station, tray slot, customer or trash can you want to send it to. Places that will accept the item glow green.

Other controls: tap the small red × next to a station to empty ingredients you put there by mistake. Press P or Esc, or use the pause button, to pause. The book button opens the recipe book for the current level, and the speaker button turns sound on or off.

The five stations

Station	What it does	Can food burn?
Fryer	Fries potatoes and donut dough.	Yes, from level 6
Griddle	Cooks pancake batter and burger patties.	Yes, from level 6
Oven	Bakes cookies, pizzas and cake layers. Appears from level 6.	Yes, from level 6
Blender	Blends milkshakes. Nothing ever burns in the blender.	No
Prep Board	Assembles and finishes dishes: syrup on pancakes, glaze on donuts, frosting on cake, and the full burger stack.	No

A station holds one batch at a time. Put the ingredients for a recipe on it and, 0.9 seconds after the last ingredient lands, it starts by itself. That short delay is there so you can add an optional extra, such as strawberries for a strawberry shake or pepperoni for a pepperoni pizza. If you are sure, tap the station to start immediately.

A ring fills around the food while it cooks. When the ring is complete you hear a chime and the dish is ready to pick up. The game will not let you add an ingredient that cannot lead to a recipe on that station, so you cannot ruin a batch by accident.

Every recipe

Cooking times below are the starting values. The Quick Burners upgrade shortens all of them.

Dish	Points	Steps
French Fries from level 1	20	Potato on the Fryer (3 s) → French fries
Vanilla Milkshake from level 1	25	Milk + Ice cream on the Blender (2.5 s) → Vanilla milkshake
Pancakes from level 2	35	Batter on the Griddle (3.2 s) → Plain pancakes Plain pancakes + Maple syrup on the Prep Board (0.7 s) → Pancakes
Cheeseburger from level 3	50	Raw patty on the Griddle (3.8 s) → Grilled patty Bun + Grilled patty + Cheese + Lettuce on the Prep Board (0.9 s) → Cheeseburger
Strawberry Milkshake from level 4	30	Milk + Ice cream + Strawberry on the Blender (2.8 s) → Strawberry milkshake
Glazed Donut from level 6	35	Dough on the Fryer (3.4 s) → Plain donut Plain donut + Pink glaze on the Prep Board (0.7 s) → Glazed donut
Chocolate Chip Cookies from level 7	40	Dough + Chocolate chips on the Oven (4.5 s) → Chocolate chip cookies
Cheese Pizza from level 8	55	Dough + Tomato sauce + Cheese on the Oven (5.5 s) → Cheese pizza
Chocolate Cake from level 11	70	Batter + Cocoa on the Oven (6 s) → Cake layer Cake layer + Chocolate frosting on the Prep Board (0.8 s) → Chocolate cake
Pepperoni Pizza from level 12	65	Dough + Tomato sauce + Cheese + Pepperoni on the Oven (5.8 s) → Pepperoni pizza

There are 14 recipes in total, counting the in-between steps such as grilling a patty before building the burger.

The warming tray

The tray next to the stations has 3 slots. It holds cooked food only, either finished dishes or in-between items like a grilled patty. Food on the tray never burns and never goes cold, so it is the safe place to park anything you have cooked ahead of time. Moving a dish to the tray also frees the station for the next batch.

Customers and patience

• Regular customers wait a set time that depends on the level. Each extra dish in an order adds 45% more patience.
• Customers in a hurry wear a clock badge. They wait only 65% as long, but their tip is doubled. They appear from level 9.
• Food critics wear a crown. They wait 80% as long and their whole order is worth double. They appear from level 11.

The patience bar turns from green to yellow at half and to red at a quarter, and the customer's face changes with it. Dishes in an order can be served in any order; a served dish is ticked off in the bubble.

Scoring, combos and stars

You score when an order is complete, not for each dish. An order is worth:

• Menu price is the sum of the dishes in the order (doubled for critics).
• Tip is up to half of the menu price, scaled by how much patience the customer had left when you finished. Serve with the bar three-quarters full and you get three-quarters of the maximum tip.
• Combo multiplier starts at ×1.0 and rises by 0.2 for every order completed in a row, up to ×2.0 on the sixth. It drops back to ×1.0 when a customer leaves unhappy. The “Next order” box in the toolbar shows what your next order will be multiplied by.

Star targets are set from each level's par: what all of its orders would be worth if you served every customer in one unbroken combo and earned no tips at all. One star needs 40% of par, two stars 75% and three stars 110%. Because three stars is above par, you need to keep the combo alive and collect some tips to get there. The Levels and Challenges page lists the exact targets.

Burning (levels 6 and up)

From the Busy Family Diner onward, food left on the fryer, griddle or oven after it is ready starts a red countdown ring. When the ring runs out the food burns. Burnt food is useless and blocks the station until you drag it to the trash. The countdown is 6 seconds in the diner, 5 in the first Master Kitchen levels and 4 in the last two.

Coins and upgrades

Finishing a level pays one coin for every 10 points plus 15 coins per star. A failed level still pays one coin per 20 points. Spend coins in Kitchen Upgrades on the game menu. Each upgrade has 3 tiers costing 150, 350, 700 coins.

• Quick Burners: Every station cooks 12% faster per tier.
• Cozy Seating: Customers wait 12% longer per tier.
• Tip Jar: Tips are 25% bigger per tier.
• Non-Stick Pans: Food takes 25% longer to burn per tier.

The two mini-games

Sweet Match and Kitchen Memory each have their own short rules section right under the game board, so you can read them without leaving the page.