How To Make Money Running A Restaurant?

I haven't played around with restaurants yet since I'm in a mood to build, but try marking things up. If sim don't complain about the price, raise it again and again until they do, then lower it to where they don't complain. It might help :o

I use the 10% mark up ingredients and have the prices set at 300%. Five star restaurant and I make about a 1,000 a day.

did you find a solution? I'm having the same issue. I have all the perks, all the employees are maxed on skills, 300% markup, and the GMO free ingredient option. The restaurant will be open for less than 8 hours and loose money. It doesn't look like the restaurant is getting any customers.

"ElainaMarie;15167723" wrote:
did you find a solution? I'm having the same issue. I have all the perks, all the employees are maxed on skills, 300% markup, and the GMO free ingredient option. The restaurant will be open for less than 8 hours and loose money. It doesn't look like the restaurant is getting any customers.

Hello
If there are not many or no customers at all coming to your restaurant, there are a few things to try doing.
Try reducing the markup on your food and see if that help.
Try paying for the advertising packages and see if that helps to bring in more customers.
Try opening the restaurant at different hours to your current opening hours. Some hours through the day/evening are better than others. Simmers have found that the best time to be open is berween 11am and 9 p.m.

In addition to what @rosemow has suggested, you can also try the following:

• Ensure that there are optimal and convenient paths to each point of customer and employee interaction (host, waiter station, and table placement).
  
• Place at least 5 fully seated tables or the overall equivalent.
  
• Send your manager to greet every customer and check on every customer.
  
• Don't promote your employees within two days unless they're complaining, and pay for training early.
  
• Always buy at least the Gold advertisement package.
  
• If customers or waiters begin idling, exit to neighborhood view, then re-load the lot - delivery should never take more than two sim hours.
  
• If chefs freeze or waiters begin to idle while waiting for meal creation, exit to neighborhood view, then re-load the lot.
  
• Focus on discount and wealthy customer perks early.
  
• Do not send your household members to engage non-customers while the restaurant is open - if you've done so and the household begins to idle, re-load the lot.
  
• If waiters are failing to remove dirty dishes, send a household member to remove them or the customers will wait for an additional interaction cycle before receiving their food.
  
• If waiters continue failing to remove dishes, reload the lot if one or more waiters is idling persistently.
  

You should be able to achieve five stars and a positive income within the range of 1000 to 3000 simoleons per day within one to two sim weeks depending on failure rates and waiter performance.

I just started another restaurant with my chef/owner/mogul and I made over §2,000 profit on day 2. One chef, one waiter, one host, all paid lowest wages. They had skills of 3 after I paid for basic training on day 1. Owner and partner greeted every group, checked on every table, the restaurant had level 2 food ( if my chef is level 2, my food is 1 or 2 level... if chef is level 6 my food is 3 and 4 level, and when chef hits skill 8 I'll put the food up to level 5).

My mark up was %250.

I didn't us any advertising (I never have.).

I've spent a few days running a restaurant from the ground up and I'm now making $4000 a day on it so thought I'd share what worked for me :)

• Start off small - I had 5 tables with 2-4 seats per table up until very recently when I noticed lots of Sims waiting round to be seated. Even now I only added 3 more tables.
• Pay for staff training at the end of every shift until they reach full skills. DON'T PROMOTE THEM!
• Only promote staff when they become "Unsatisfied" - you can check this in your staff settings. My staff are all neutral, don't focus on making them happy. My max skilled chef is on level 4. More pay = more wages to deduct from profits!
• I used the Chef's Kitchen trait from City Living which means all food comes out excellent quality.
• At the beginning I used 200% markup and only had food within my chef's skill range.
• Now he is at max skill the food is 5 difficulty (and earning more money!), price markup is 300% and I use fresh organic ingredients.
• NEVER ADVERTISE. I never have or needed to. Get plenty of Sims coming through each day.
• I unlocked these perks in this order:
1) Patient patrons
2) Inspirational speech (I deliver this to each member of staff every day)
3) Ingredients discount small, then large
4) Well funded foodies
5) Tidy tippers
• Only serve one round of customers then close. My restaurant is never open more than 8 hours, you'll lose money.

Hope this helps someone as I spent a few hours on forums at the beginning, frustrated that my restaurant wasn't turning a profit!

Update: forget the bit about not advertising, I've just started a new restaurant in Windenburg and barely getting 2 people through the door! My successful restaurant with 20+ sims a day is on the pebble lot in Oasis Springs. Hope this helps someone!

"Sha2520032003;d-889757" wrote:
I am having a blast with this game. I have a 4.5 star restaurant. But I am losing money. It's bad...my Sims are working like 12 hour days & not making a profit. I haven't figured out the formula yet. I think I need to use a higher markup. My chef is level 6. I have the ingredients perk and I really don't understand it. I'm spending a fortune on ingredients. I'm using the one that's Fresh Organic. Maybe I should keep at Standard. I guess it's a balancing at.

I'm curious to know how everyone else is doing with their restaurants and if they're making money? If so, do you have any tips? I need all the help I can get lol.

Raise your prices? And maybe don't pay your employees so much. I have never used the ingredient perk and before a bug of DO it was easy to maintain a 4.5-5 star restaurant and make a profit.

I have a 5 start restaurant with 5 employees (2 chefs, 3 waiters) 4 of which are on maximum wage as they are very good. Just hired a new waiter to keep up with demand who is currently on the minimum. The restaurant is VERY expensive lol. My price mark up is 250%, I use the most expensive ingredients and I have the silver package advertising. The restaurant is always full, so haven't had an need to increase just advertising just yet. It currently makes around £1,500 simoleans profit a day after expenses, including wages.
The key is perks! I have the Tidy tippers, patient patrons, fast eaters, well funded foodies, small ingredient discount.
I am struggling to make a decent profit when the sim isn't there, which is a shame. She has an aspiration to be a great chef and the game did say you could have a business AND a career. I thought she coukd have a restaurant and be a prized Chef. Perhaps even cook herself. It was my first restaurant so I was a bit niave! I'm saving up for the well managed perk to see if this helps. If anyone has cracked this let me know!