Improve the opinion of your customers by interacting with them. Everyone likes to meet the owner, especially if he throws in free drinks!
Key to the success of your restaurant are customers and your staff's treatment of them. This part of my Dine Out guide exists to teach you a bit about customers, when they'll arrive, and their composition. We will also touch on food bloggers (critics) who can be a positive or negative influence on your restaurant's rating. Restaurant Rating itself and all the factors that contribute to it are found on the Star Rating page.
Getting More Customers
Advertising is worth it for a well-run establishment, but upper packages too expensive for smaller restaurants.
How Many The number of customers that will visit your restaurant are based upon three major factors. First, your star rating. This one is obvious, as a restaurant with a good reputation is more exciting to visit. Second, advertising to get the word out via 4 distinct packages. You pay for advertisements by the hour, and only during times of operation. Lastly, time of day has a large impact on the types of and quantity of visitors you'll see.
Advertising Packages Find this under the Restaurant Settings menu. There are four packages available:
Silver Package: $5/hour ($120/day). This package advertises via newspaper and brings in 20% more customers.
Gold Package: $10/hour ($240/day). This package advertises via radio and brings in 40% more customers.
Platinum Package: $20/hour ($480/day). This package advertises via web and brings in 75% more customers.
Diamond Package: $50/hour ($1200/day). This package advertises via television and brings in double the normal amount of customers.
Because of the cost, the diamond advertising package is not normally recommended. Great players with very well-managed restaurants may make good use of it. It requires highly skilled and disciplined employees, as well as extra perks to increase the customers' eating speed, reduce aggravation about wait times, and a very high markup to benefit from it. The other packages are great but any of these should be considered before use, as you may waste money.
Customer Peak Hours and Types of Groups
Wait time's a big factor, and customers tend to come in waves during peak hours just as in reality. Be prepared!
When Customers Arrive: Hours to be Open Late-night and early morning are the worst times to be open and waste your Sim's energy, though early birds will come at 6AM. The game's customer spawning system is not unlike real life. Breakfast begins at around 6AM. There's a lunch rush from 11-1, then a good quantity of Sims will come from 4-8PM, with slower periods in between. It's not that you won't get customers if you are open late at night, it's just that you'll get less. If your restaurant is 1 or 2-star it will not see many Sims at all during down hours. A 4-star that can not handle many will still attract a good amount of customers even late at night.
Customer Composition Generally, you will find that customers come alone or in pairs. Many Sims will come on a date, especially during dinner hours. Aforementioned early birds come for breakfast. One third to one quarter of visits will be a family gathering, meaning you need a larger table for them. Family gatherings happen primarily around lunch and dinner.
5 Million Views!My YouTube channel has grown a lot the last 6 months. I now have over 100 videos on Youtube and am nearing 50k subscribers. I'd like to invite people to check out my content and, if you like what I'm doing, subscribe!
Make food bloggers happy, and they'll write a great review of your restaurant. It's worth 10x the normal value!
Food Bloggers (Critics) Food Bloggers are most likely to come in the lunch-evening time frame, and are only about 3-5% of visits depending upon the time of day. You should absolutely cater to them by welcoming, checking on the table, maybe comping dessert. I wouldn't make the meal free unless they're unhappy. You can, of course, prioritize food if their wait time is taking too long. Do these things because a food blogger's review is worth 10 of a normal customer's reviews and a bad review can quickly drop your score, but one critic's review could bring you up a whole star rating depending where you restaurant ranks. I have seen more than one critic at a time. It's possible, just not likely.
Best Times to Operate Given these details, it's best to operate the restaurant between around 11AM to 9 or 10PM to see the most customers arrive. It is a long shift, but can be highly profitable. You'll have some slower times to clear tables, then the peaks will hit. If your waiters get overwhelmed, you could use the manager to clean up a bit and save them some time. Welcoming/checking on tables is not that heavily weighted, just good practice when there's nothing else to do.
The Curious Customers perk gives you an additional social that can be used sometimes - recommend dish. One more way to please your clientele
Too Many: Stop Accepting Customers This is an instant setting you can toggle by clicking the host station. You can allow new customers by clicking it again when your workers catch up. Selecting this when there are no full tables and the kitchen is already backed up is a good idea. Customers who wait too long will become one-star reviews most of the time, and make a heavy impact on your rating. You can salvage the review of a customer who is upset their food is slow (prioritize it) or had a bad meal (comp it), maybe even throw in a free drink or dessert. However you cannot do anything about a customer you don't get to seat and serve, they'll just trash your restaurant to their friends.
If you like my sites and Youtube Channel, consider supporting me on Patreon to help me to continue. If you'd like to support my guides in another way you can use our Amazon link for your next purchase (if in the US). We also offer a paypal donate link so you can contribute directly.
We now have a Youtube Channel with over 50 guides in video format to go along with the huge site I've already created. Check it out and consider subscribing if you like my style.
{"commentics_url":"\/\/www.carls-sims-4-guide.com\/comments31\/","page_id":147,"enabled_country":false,"enabled_state":false,"state_id":0,"enabled_upload":true,"maximum_upload_amount":3,"maximum_upload_size":5,"securimage":false,"securimage_url":"\/\/www.carls-sims-4-guide.com\/comments31\/3rdparty\/securimage\/securimage_show.php?namespace=cmtx_147","lang_text_drag_and_drop":"Drag & drop images (max 3)","lang_text_drop_success":"Success","lang_text_drop_error":"Error","lang_error_file_num":"Only {{fi-limit}} files are allowed to be uploaded.","lang_error_file_type":"Only images are allowed to be uploaded.","lang_error_file_size":"{{fi-name}} is too large! Please upload files up to {{fi-maxSize}} MB.","lang_error_file_size_all":"The files you've chosen are too large! Please upload files up to {{fi-maxSize}} MB.","lang_text_loading":"Loading ..","lang_placeholder_state":"State","lang_text_country_first":"Please select a country first","lang_button_processing":"Please Wait..","lang_button_submit":"Add Comment","lang_button_preview":"Preview"}
No and it seems to be a game bug that will require a developers fix. I haven't had this in my games yet although I keep trying to reproduce it! It's a right pain as it causes you to have to close your restaurant and lose money from the sims that are still eating. All I can suggest is take out any/all mods and cc you might be using and see if that fixes the problem. Remember to delete the loaclthumbcache.package file from your TheSims 4 folder after taking out your mods but before you try your game again.
Doing a factory reset is probably a good idea too as this really helps to clear out any weird bugs and glitches. Factory Reset
does it affect my rating if i close the restaurant wile there are still customer eating? my restaurant seems to be open more than 12 hours waiting for everyone to leave, making my staff tired and unhappy. a few times my staff quit on me. i tried closing after 5 hours from opening time still not enough time :(
Try disallowing new customers after you've been open for about 5 hours and then just close after you've been open for 8. It shouldn't affect your ratings but you will not get paid for any meals from sims that are still eating. Restaurants placed in Windenburg seem to have more problems with the disallowing new customer interaction than other worlds.
Do you have a host sim and the hosts station placed in your restaurant? Try opening the restaurant from your home lot and then traveling to the restaurant, this makes the host automatically seat all the customers. Make sure your sim is not standing in the way or interacting with any of the customers until after the host has seated them. Some Helpful Tips
{"commentics_url":"\/\/www.carls-sims-4-guide.com\/comments31\/","page_id":147,"flash_id":0,"scroll_reply":true,"scroll_speed":1000,"lang_text_view":"View","lang_text_reply":"reply","lang_text_replies":"replies","lang_text_replying_to":"You are replying to","lang_title_cancel_reply":"Cancel this reply","lang_link_cancel":"[Cancel]","lang_text_not_replying":"You are not replying to anyone","lang_button_loading":"Loading..","lang_button_more":"More Comments","show_read_more":false,"read_more_limit":150,"highlight":true,"date_auto":true,"show_pagination":true,"pagination_type":"multiple","timeago_suffixAgo":"ago","timeago_inPast":"a moment","timeago_seconds":"less than a minute","timeago_minute":"a minute","timeago_minutes":"%d minutes","timeago_hour":"an hour","timeago_hours":"%d hours","timeago_day":"a day","timeago_days":"%d days","timeago_month":"a month","timeago_months":"%d months","timeago_year":"a year","timeago_years":"%d years"}
The Sims 4 Tiny Living Stuff releases January 21 for PC/Mac, and February 4 for Xbox and Playstation 4. This new pack centers around the idea of making small homes and receiving bonuses to bills, comfort, and strangely skill gains for living in a small house. I'll make a guide page by release day but for now you can watch my Livestream Summary below to get a good grasp on what's coming in this new Stuff Pack.
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
I've started a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank us for our efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon to help us retain the freedom to do what we love to do.
Video Guides
We now have a Videos page, where I'll list every submission to our Sims 4 Gameplay Guides Channel. I'm taking feedback seriously, improving recording and sound quality and other issues with my video guides. Let me know what you think and subscribe for more like it. If you comment on the videos page with a request I may bump it higher on my to do list (no promises though!). Here is a listing of all videos released to date, in order of release:
5 Million Views! 
Comments (6)
All I can suggest is take out any/all mods and cc you might be using and see if that fixes the problem. Remember to delete the loaclthumbcache.package file from your TheSims 4 folder after taking out your mods but before you try your game again. Doing a factory reset is probably a good idea too as this really helps to clear out any weird bugs and glitches.
Factory Reset
Some Helpful Tips
Thanks! :)