Restaurants take too long

The game could accommodate both. Just order what you want on the menu. If you want 5 courses, order an appetiser, a drink, a salad, a meal, and a dessert. If you want 2 courses, order a drink and a meal. What I was saying from the beginning is it shouldn't take 3 hours to get a fish taco.

"Anthonydyer;c-16456658" wrote:
The game could accommodate both. Just order what you want on the menu. If you want 5 courses, order an appetiser, a drink, a salad, a meal, and a dessert. If you want 2 courses, order a drink and a meal. What I was saying from the beginning is it shouldn't take 3 hours to get a fish taco.

The thing is though, if you do the three course meal (i.e. app, main course, and dessert) then it will take slightly longer than with just ordering a drink and a meal. I've had it where my sims have sat down, and another table will get their food right after my sims places their orders. The other sims will finish eating and my sims still haven't gotten their food yet. A second table will get their food, then finally my sims will get served.

I like the idea of them popping in for a quick bite. But it takes three hours sometimes. That is not quick. lol But I also like the idea of my sims going out for a nice formal dinner. That's when I don't mind them sitting, chatting, and eating for a few hours.

But I do agree, it would be nice if they game could accommodate both options, but within a reasonable amount of time.

"GoldenBuffy;c-16457548" wrote:

"Anthonydyer;c-16456658" wrote:
The game could accommodate both. Just order what you want on the menu. If you want 5 courses, order an appetiser, a drink, a salad, a meal, and a dessert. If you want 2 courses, order a drink and a meal. What I was saying from the beginning is it shouldn't take 3 hours to get a fish taco.

The thing is though, if you do the three course meal (i.e. app, main course, and dessert) then it will take slightly longer than with just ordering a drink and a meal. I've had it where my sims have sat down, and another table will get their food right after my sims places their orders. The other sims will finish eating and my sims still haven't gotten their food yet. A second table will get their food, then finally my sims will get served.

I like the idea of them popping in for a quick bite. But it takes three hours sometimes. That is not quick. lol But I also like the idea of my sims going out for a nice formal dinner. That's when I don't mind them sitting, chatting, and eating for a few hours.

But I do agree, it would be nice if they game could accommodate both options, but within a reasonable amount of time.

I generally control it with the menu choice. Like want a quicker experience limit your menu to just sandwiches and maybe salad and basic beverages like coffee and milk - so it is sort of fast food style. But for full services restaurants limit their menus to type of restaurant - like a seafood restaurant have just seafood. A steak house - steaks, beef, dishes. So changing up and limiting choices of menus may make a bit faster experience. Keep the sandwich restaurants smaller - nothing to attract sims attention, fewer table etc. Perhaps that will help you.

I just know earlier restaurants were slower than they are now - but if you are still having issues and long meals perhaps giving them less choice and less distractions will speed up the process. As for not staying seated - I just have no idea as my sims no longer roam like they used to - so I have no idea why some of you still have those issues.

I agree. It just takes way too long, especially if you’re in a big restaurant, and it’s a nightmare if the waiter drops your food. I also hate how you can’t order appetizers, main dishes, and desserts all in one go. It already takes long to just order one thing so I can’t even be bothered to order other stuff because of it.

"Writin_Reg;c-16458080" wrote:

"GoldenBuffy;c-16457548" wrote:

"Anthonydyer;c-16456658" wrote:
The game could accommodate both. Just order what you want on the menu. If you want 5 courses, order an appetiser, a drink, a salad, a meal, and a dessert. If you want 2 courses, order a drink and a meal. What I was saying from the beginning is it shouldn't take 3 hours to get a fish taco.

The thing is though, if you do the three course meal (i.e. app, main course, and dessert) then it will take slightly longer than with just ordering a drink and a meal. I've had it where my sims have sat down, and another table will get their food right after my sims places their orders. The other sims will finish eating and my sims still haven't gotten their food yet. A second table will get their food, then finally my sims will get served.

I like the idea of them popping in for a quick bite. But it takes three hours sometimes. That is not quick. lol But I also like the idea of my sims going out for a nice formal dinner. That's when I don't mind them sitting, chatting, and eating for a few hours.

But I do agree, it would be nice if they game could accommodate both options, but within a reasonable amount of time.

I generally control it with the menu choice. Like want a quicker experience limit your menu to just sandwiches and maybe salad and basic beverages like coffee and milk - so it is sort of fast food style. But for full services restaurants limit their menus to type of restaurant - like a seafood restaurant have just seafood. A steak house - steaks, beef, dishes. So changing up and limiting choices of menus may make a bit faster experience. Keep the sandwich restaurants smaller - nothing to attract sims attention, fewer table etc. Perhaps that will help you.

I just know earlier restaurants were slower than they are now - but if you are still having issues and long meals perhaps giving them less choice and less distractions will speed up the process. As for not staying seated - I just have no idea as my sims no longer roam like they used to - so I have no idea why some of you still have those issues.

I'll fiddle around with my menus. I do have one fast food type, it's called "Good Dogs", all they serve are hot dogs, tofu dogs and pop (soda). And I believe ice cream or brownies. Yet, even with that limited menu, the wait time is pretty long. *sigh* Hopefully I can find a nice in between! Thanks for the suggestions!

"Hermitgirl;c-16458217" wrote:
Well I'm not sure how many of you have actually tried it but you can buy "quick" food at bars (base game) and cafe's (Get Together). You have to direct your sims more but if you go order before the crowd shows up you can do your eating pretty quick. There is also retail where you can set up food in cases for your sims to grab. I don't know the in's and outs of that but I have sent ghosts to buy ambrosia from retail places made by other simmers that I downloaded. In that the food goes in your sims inventory but you can go to a table with it and eat. There are also of course the food carts (City Living and JA).. it's meant to be quick.
I'm not trying to be a jerk about it..even if it comes off that way. I am saying there are multiple ways to get a quicker meal in the game without asking them to redo a system already in place. Not that I think this sort of desire will be catered too. I think you will basically end up modding in a quicker system.. which is available.
I am going to add that I do hope they do add in for us some type of fast food establishment that works better than our current cafe's do. I just know I avoid them as you can really only order one thing at a time (food OR drink) or it's highly subject to being swiped.

Yeah, I use to do this before DO was released.

"Astreon;c-16458223" wrote:
I agree. It just takes way too long, especially if you’re in a big restaurant, and it’s a nightmare if the waiter drops your food. I also hate how you can’t order appetizers, main dishes, and desserts all in one go. It already takes long to just order one thing so I can’t even be bothered to order other stuff because of it.

Yessss! lol It always seems to happen to my sims when I just want them to stop for a quick bite. The waiter will drop their order. It does make me laugh almost every time though.

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.

"Astreon;c-16458223" wrote:
I agree. It just takes way too long, especially if you’re in a big restaurant, and it’s a nightmare if the waiter drops your food. I also hate how you can’t order appetizers, main dishes, and desserts all in one go. It already takes long to just order one thing so I can’t even be bothered to order other stuff because of it.

You know, the waiter dropped my sim's food yesterday. I left the restaurant without eating because I was sick and tired of waiting.

"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.

That's true. I wish they would just slow down the game clock just a little bit. Therefore it won't take a sim hour to take a shower.

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.