[FIXED] [DO] NPC Sims Not Eating in Restaurant

I'm having the same problem but it's happening to sims that are dining with my sims as well. It's happened in every restaurant I send them to. Hopefully, someone is able to find the reason soon!

I've been having the same issue. I keep my sims' motives high, but that has never stopped them from eating before at a restaurant. It's an especially annoying issue when they're on dates and are unable to fulfill the "Discuss Meal" goal. It's impossible to discuss a meal one hasn't eaten.

I've been playing in restaurants a lot tonight and I've been seeing other households eating their meals just fine. Staying seated, however, is not very consistent.. Just like with the market stalls, Sims are suddenly very uninterested in sitting while they're eating. I've been seeing a lot of Sims getting up with their plates and wandering the room, usually to talk to a random person or view art or something. 😞

For the most part NPCs will finish their meals, though I have noticed that sometimes my SIm and their date will stop eating their food once they've finished their drink. 

I'm also having the issue where npc sims will drink their drinks and then be done and pay for their meal, and if an npc sim is eating out with the sim household I'm playing then they'll drink their drink and then just stop without eating their food.

npcs are not finishing meal in restaurants and both active sims and npcs clean when they enter any restaurant lot

Same thing happens in my game. I've noticed that everyone, including my played Sims, stop eating once they finish their drinks. If you don't order a drink, they'll finish. NPC Sims in the restaurant do eat so this issue seems to only affect those you're playing and dining with. I always have to click my Sims to get them to continue their meal and I stopped ordering drinks for my group/dates if I they aren't in my household. This is definitely annoying but at least no one steals the food anymore!

So I recently encountered a similar issue after Anniversary patch (September 5, 2019).

My sims own a restaurant and the customer does drink their drink, but won't eat the foods. They sit there, didn't talk to anyone, literally doing nothing. Since they didn't eat the foods, the stars stuck at 3 stars (Picture 1). After around 1 hour in-game, the customer still won't eat their foods (Picture 2), as you can see, they just sitting and didn't do anything. The third picture show the Santa Claus and the woman beside him left the restaurant (with 3 stars rating) after sitting around 5-6 hours in-game. And it's clearly the foods still there.

Because of this, the restaurant earning reduced a lot and Dine Out become totally unplayable. Please fix @SimGuruNick

Sorry, there's no interface showing in the screenshot even I've marked "Capture Interface" option.

I know no one asks for the save file, but for the sake of quicker fix. Here is the save files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gRrKHaWBrgEfHp2Q1HuBZmBYHlbuGBAd along with 3 videos to show various issues I encountered when opening the restaurant.

Restaurant bug 1 video

• 0:01 Waiter deliver foods to the table, she does the usual animation, but foods didn't show up on the table. I also didn't receive money.
• 0:06 Waiter deliver foods to the table, and the foods do show up on the table. But nobody sits down and eat it. At 3:03, Octavia Moon finished her foods and left the restaurant, the foods that delivered at 0:06 also suddenly disappear even no one eats it.

Restaurant bug 2 video

• 01:26 Food instantly finished after customers sit down. No drinking and eating animation.
• 04:41 Two customers do drink animation only but the foods also finished. This is kinda not realistic, there should be at least few eating animations. This one isn't a big deal, but I still hope it gets fixed.

Restaurant bug 3 video

• This entire video show Thorne Bailey family didn't eat the foods but finished their drinks. He and his son literally doing nothing, no talking at the table, no eating, literally nothing. While his wife signs an autograph to someone, then standing at the same place forever while she is supposed to be back to her chair. As you can see, no matter how long they are at the restaurant, the rating stuck.
• 2:10 Customer left without finishing her foods. She didn't even do the eating animation.
• 2:35 The guy that sits with the previous customer also didn't do eating animation, foods not finished too. This will probably make the game assume that table is empty now even if there are still unfinished foods because the customers have left the table, and if new customers appear, Host may seat the new customers there. Since the foods aren't finished, waiters won't clean it up. Making the new customers sit on that table with the previous customer's foods. For more details, look at reply #8 in this thread.
• 07:21 When I closed the restaurant, all unfinished food on the restaurant suddenly disappear like it's finished.

Hope the save file will help TS4 Team to find the solution quickly.

I'm having this problem too.  Especially with dates.  My sim asks another sim out.  They have their drinks but NPC date only has drink and does not eat meat.  My playing sim drinks their drink but I have to click on their plate again to get them to eat because it drops out of queue.

Wow, I didn't know this was an issue other people were having. I noticed it last night after taking my sims to restaurants several times. My experience is basically as described by others in the thread. I ask a sim out on a date, order drinks and meals for both sims, and they both finish their drinks but won't eat. The NPC sim doesn't touch their food at all. My sim will only eat until their beverage is finished and then stop eating as the food drops out of their queue. My sims' dates won't even sit at the table unless I make them (sit and chat here/sit together), but there's no way for me to force them to eat, so it's pretty obnoxious!