Zynga's Cafe World

Be the Ceasar of Salad: Cafe World Hints and Tips
by Xtian Mac

Zynga finally releases Cafe World, a restaurant/cafe sim that promises to be an addictive treat to a wide variety of players out there looking for great, wholesome, challenging fun. Who cares about running a tiny, low-budget shack of a restaurant? Just ask the thousands or millions of people who sent the system crashing in its first couple of days. As the Zynga people scamper like headless chickens trying to fix things before people actually sue them for the tons of spoiled, rotten, unsold food caused by said crashes, we have thought of offering you, our dear resturateurs, some tips on starting out:

Your troops: You start out with two people, yourself, the chef, and a facebook friend of your choice who becomes your waiter. To be efficient, you must set aside an unobstructed path for them to work with, especially your waiter. Although characters can pass through other people, they behave weirdly when interacting with objects. Make sure the stoves face away from any walls. Same goes through with the counters. Using the Customize option, rotate counters and stoves so they can face to where the people are properly.

Laying it Out: Efficiency is the key to hoarding money and experience, just like, well, any American capitalistic enterprise. Most people have found that arranging tables into squares or rectangles are more efficient. The trick is to close of that square of tables with the food counters. If the counters are made to face the inside of the square/rectangle, the waiter/s ideally would get trapped inside the square/rectangle. As the inside of the square/rectangle is unobstructed, the waiter/s will have a quick/easy time serving and cleaning up.


What to cook: You may want to start off with a few cheeseburgers. Only a few customers will come trickling in expecting to be fed. After you have made around 30 or so, you may want to start churning out the chunky fruit salad. It cooks for about 15 minutes and makes 100 servings. Makes a great buffer and nets you goot exp as well. Although not confirmed, it appears that the customers would prefer a variety of dishes to have your buzz rating increase. We recommend you set aside a stove or two to cook food which need longer preparation times, like the French Onion soup. If you need to leave or sleep in the real world, you might as well prepare the food that literally take days to prepare, like that meatloaf and pot roast and spitfire chicken.


Expansion: In time, if you have gathered enough money and friends, you are given the option to expand your restaurant space. This option can be found in the customize button, represented by a brick wall. Well, ideally, bigger spaces can net you more money, so if you have the cash, buy this upgrade but don't forget to have some cash left over to buy extra tables and chairs. Otherwise you just end up with just more space that doesn't bring you more money.

Friends: Zynga enjoys making users do a ton of the advertising for them. You might as well scrounge up or invite people to play because having friends allows you to expand your restaurant, and visiting friends' cafes nets you some exp and money, so in this game, there's no such thing as having too many friends. However, you need to get them to agree that you be neighbors too, which is simply a task of sending out invites.

Decor: Pretty flowers and lamps are Not really necessary to reach the maximum buzz ratings, and no evidence suggests that they add buzz ratings. However, uneven wall colors and floor patterns are annoying to a number of people, even to restaurant owners.

The Door: When you want to keep your buzz rating intact when you need to leave the game, go to customize, click on the door and drag it down to the other furniture. Without a door, there's no way customers can get in, which is handy when you don't have anything to serve them anyway.

Cafe World: Additional Tips
by brymac

Buzz:
- max(?) 105.0
- One satisfied customer = + 0.1 buzz
- Cant sit down = - 1.0 buzz
- Doesn't get served = - 1.0 buzz
- Sits on an empty plate = - 1.0 buzz

Below is a screen of my 9x11, 6 stove, 17 seat, 88-ish buzz layout:


Edit: As requested, here's my 105.0buzz 8x9, 13 seat :P

Have other tips regarding Cafe World? Feel free to post a comment! Happy Cooking!