Restaurants take too long

I remember a time when I sent a family of 4 out for a meal. Parents and two children. They ended up being there for 10 hours, and by then the kids were hungry and tired. I should have had them leave much sooner. I don't know what the massive delay was about. I know food was dropped at least once but I don't know what else contributed to the holdup. It was like the staff simply forgot the family existed. Other diners were coming and going while mine were still waiting. I was expecting to be there for about 4 hours, not 10.

I did make my own restaurant once, it took a bit for me to get the layout right. When I ran it, it only had drinks and one food item, which was Franks N' Beans. Yes, I wanted to see how many customers tooted after eating and I also wanted to see if I could get it to 5 stars with just one food option on the menu. I did!

Anyway, if I place it in my world and not run it myself, I set the menu just to have standard fare. There is a selection of drinks apps, mains, and desserts. There are no holdups or routing failures with it, but it did take a lot of tweaking and rearranging to get it running well. However, I am no builder, it is not the prettiest of places on the outside and it is pretty basic on the inside.

I do like using others creations in my saves but sometimes there is just too much farting around (no wait, maybe that was my Franks N' Bean restaurant, har har) sometimes and meals take an eternity. Not all the time, but I won't forget the 10 hour ordeal. I can't remember if that was a Maxis build or one I got from the gallery.

"waggymiley2013;c-16459538" wrote:
I blame all the cooking animations we get in the game. If we didn't have lengthy cooking animations the meals would get cooked and probably delivered faster. A sim at home cooking takes over a sim hour sometimes all thanks to the animations of dropping salt in the pan and so on. I wish they would shorten the cooking times for the Dine out stations. Its something that seriously needs looking in to.

You may be on to something there. Sometimes I don't mind my sim flipping some spices in the air, or doing fancy knife tricks. Other times, I just want them to cook so every sim can eat. But I doubt they would go in and tune how long it takes a sim to cook. Maybe someone in the modding community could make a tuning mod?

"LeGardePourpre;c-16459640" wrote:
Maybe the restaurant need to be "optimized" a little :

• No staircase
  
• Several chiefs
  
• No distractive object (bookshelf, pool, ...)
  
• Tables near the host and the kitchen
  

Less the waiters will walk, quicker they will serve and remove the dishes.


I always said the Sim time run too quick, x2 slower would be better.

My seafood restaurant is what I would say is "optimized" there's a bar (but no one uses it), only one level. About four to five tables. Two waiters, and once chef. And one waiter hardly does anything, they just stand around, or will move from table to table collecting dirty dishes but never taking them away. They will drop off the pile of dirtiness at other tables or on the floor.

There are only two bath rooms, no wall stereos, no arcade games, no distractions what so ever, yet it still takes a good while for meals to come out of the kitchen.

The in-game time has always gone super fast in my opinion. But it wasn't until Sims 3 that I discovered you could adjust the time using NRaas. I have that game and Sims 4 (using MCC) slowed down to 38. So a day for me is actually a day, and though they don't have all the time in the world, they can at least get more things finished.

I did create my own restaurant. I wouldn't consider it the most "optimized" restaurant in the world, as it has the kitchen on the 1st floor and the dining room on the 2nd floor. Other than that, the design is really straightforward. I never witnessed any routing issues. It just takes the kitchen forever to produce the meal.

I, personally, don't know of any real world restaurants where you enter at 6 P.M. and you don't finish up until nearly noon the next day. However, that was my initial experience with Dine Out. It doesn't represent a typical restaurant experience whatsoever.

Some improvements have been made since then. However, that sweet spot still hasn't been found. Unless it's a dinner theater, a luau, or a recreation of a Roman all-day feast, there's no reasonable excuse for such long waits for service.

I've found a work around before switching games for a while and that was to only have one restaurant with less dining areas. It reduces the time between ordering and being served.

Tips for Better dining experience In Sims 4:

1) A little preparation before you go.
2) Make sure your Sims needs are in the green.
3) Have the kitchen on the same floor as dinning.
4) 3 waiter station, two Hosts, and at lease 2 Chefs.
5) As soon as you get to the table order your main course and drink.
6) As you get your first order to your table, order your second course or deserts.
7) Your table must be clear to be served, if not clear let your sims clear it.
8) Do not add dining tables to a second floor or outside that will slow down the waiters.
Any place its a table and a chair on the lot, it will be included to be served.

**Seems to me they have speeded up Sims eating in restaurants.**

Does the game spawn 1 waiter per waiter station? That may be the key to faster service.

I just got Dine Out and my sims went to the restaurant at maybe 7:30 pm and had finished their one course one drink meal at......8am!!!! Uh, who takes all night to go to the restaurant ?!

Ok so Nancy Landgraab (I think it's her name in English ?) asked my sims if she wanted to eat a burger, so they went there around noon, at 10 pm they still weren't served and it seems somehow the restaurant forgot their order! They had to go home. Speaking of, why can't we complain to the waiter because it takes too long to get our order like people do in real restaurants ??

Not sure, but that would have been a nice feature. If you sims order takes to long, they get a huge discount on their meal.