The Sims 4 Dine Out Game Pack

Building a Restaurant Part 1: (Lot Type Requirements)

The Sims 4 Dine Out Pack - Build your own restaurant
You can build your own restaurant in Dine Out, fully staff it, customize the menu, and run it.

To even begin managing a restaurant in The Sims 4 Dine Out, you must first own one. This guide will teach you to build your own. First, know that unless you're cheating, building/placing one from manage worlds will not be a shortcut to ownership. You'd then need to pay the lot value to purchase the restaurant. So, if you've saved up some money from your Sim's careers or other money-making methods, you may want to start with what you have. I'd estimate you wanting a decent chunk of Simoleons (at minimum 12,000-15,000) before ever starting this process, because you will need to put funds into the restaurant to pay employees and cover expenses. If you just buy one that someone else has built, you'll need even more Simoleons because it's probably not built on a budget. So, I'll cover making one from scratch and the requirements to do so.

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Making Your Own Restaurant
Consider your size needs and also that you might expand the building. You can own more than one restaurant, so you could start with a small diner and later sell it, only to build a bigger restaurant. Click in the bottom right corner of the screen and select, 'Buy a Restaurant'.

The Sims 4 Dine Out - you must transfer funds to your restaurant to begin construction
You must transfer funds to your restaurant to begin construction. I suggest at least 12-15k on hand. It's expensive to start, and you won't be rolling in Simoleons your first day.

You need to first cover the cost of the lot and transfer money to it. When you first pick a lot, you'll be prompted to transfer funds to the business. Like with The Sims 4 Get to Work, the owner can remove or add funds to the business at any time. The game recommends $10,000, and it's a good starting point. I think you'll need more like $15,000 due to Chef's Stations being so expensive. You can always add more. If you start a restaurant and don't have enough money, you can even leave build mode, go home, make more cash, and return with more to finish construction. Click the little icon in the bottom left corner when you're in build mode on your restaurant lot to transfer funds.

Qualifying a Building as a Restaurant

The Sims 4 Dine Out Pack

Restaurant Lot Requirements
For a lot to be complete and allow you to open the restaurant, you will require the following items. Thankfully there's no strict building code. You only need:

  • 1 Toilet
  • 1 Sink
  • 4 Dining Spots (Tables, bars with seats)
  • 1 Chef Station
  • 1 Waiter Station
  • 1 Host Station
  • 1 Dishwasher (Recommended)

Toilet/Sink - these two are obvious. Visiting Sims need a place to use the restroom, and you can provide that. You really only need one or two bathrooms at most. Ensure they are separated by a wall if you make more than one.

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The Sims 4 Dine Out Pack Making a Booth
Booths were a little clunky in my review copy, but they are possible and I expect them to improve.

Dining Spots & Booths - The game pack introduces booths. You can use any proper-height two square table. Tables that are three full squares long will not work, despite it being symmetrical with the booth. Booths are meant to serve four Sims maximum. A corner booth will allow two Sims to be served and takes a single-square table. Most other table/chair arrangements are obvious, therefore the focus on how booths work in Dine Out. If you have trouble making a true booth with two sides, try to place the table first THEN the booth seats. Know that 2/3 of your visits will be 1-2 Sims, while family gatherings are a bit more rare - this will help you decide the proportion of smaller to larger tables.

The Sims 4 Dine Out Restaurant Employee Types
Three stations are required for your employees. They're rather costly, but necessary to operate.

Host Station - If you've been to a restaurant, you know the host will seat guests. Place this near the entrance of your restaurant so the host can direct Sims to an empty spot.

Waiter Station - It's obviously more efficient if these are nearby the tables, so that waiters can get menus for visiting customers.

Chef Station - This is the most expensive item - they're $3300. Note that the Full Disclosure Chef Station must be placed along a wall within the restaurant. As though you were making a room for the kitchen. It will create a hole in the wall through which waiters can get the food, and management can even speak to the chef. I found it hard to place, and they'll probably fix this, but once it's placed you can fiddle with it, select it again, and hopefully get it to face the direction you want. The second type of chef station is much easier to handle. Place these so the areas the plates go are closer to the waiters, with the chefs in the back.

The Sims 4 Dine Out Restaurant Employee Types
Dishwashers (and trash cans) may be helpful to cleaning up after guests.

Dish Washer (Not Required) - While a Sink may be used to wash dishes, you really want a dish washer for efficiency's sake. Somewhere near to the tables so that waiters do not have to walk far to take care of them. This lets them spend less time in a public bathroom - either impeding Sims who need to use it or else just taking longer to do a job. A waiter could also be blocked if a Sim's in the restroom. You can get by with a sink early on, but you want your waiters serving Sims and clearing tables, and a real dish washer will get the job done. It also looks better and can be placed much closer to tables.

Other Dine Out Guides

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Comments (32)

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New
Jordansays...
I have a bar in my restaurant, and no one orders drink. I made my own sim to tend the bar, people come to talk to her, but they don't order anything, just socializing. Any tips?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Occasionally NPC sims will order a drink but not very often. I think I've seen it about 3 times in my own games. I tend to just delete the bars in the Maxis made restaurants as they don't really serve a purpose unless it is for your own controlled sims.
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New
Shannon Meskissays...
Is there a way to own/run a cafe? I've tried building and then buying and it says I can't buy an owned lot, but I just built it no one owns it. I've tried making a sim and buying a lot but it won't let me change it from residential. I've tried owning a restaurant and changing it to cafe and it won't let me do that either.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
No sorry, the Dine Out Game Pack is all about owning and running, visiting restaurants. There is no way to own a cafe. The best you can do is build one using the Get together pack content and then just have your sim take over the making of coffee but they can only make coffee for themselves and other controlled sims. Some people make bakeries/cafe's where they place the Get Together coffee machine in the bakery for sims to use and free food for the sims to eat which gives the illusion of running a cafe.
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New
Daniellesays...
This isn't about dine out but i think it would pretty awesome if ea would make a idol game pack and acting,and becomeing a superstar idk i think it would be really good
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Senior
Briansays...
So I'm not really interested in running a restaurant, but I'd like to create some for my sims to visit. Anyone have a walkthrough for setting one up and just letting it run? I'm thinking top-heavy waitresses, caveman food, and beer-- yes, a Hooter's clone.
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Just simply make one and then when you leave the lot it will function as an NPC run restaurant that your controlled sims can visit. All you have to do is make sure as you build that you have included all the 'lot required' items and set the menu to whatever you want. You can also set the staffs uniforms in build mode. Then you can save it to your library and place it in any other save file you want.
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Senior
Briansays...
Sweet, it works! I was thinking I would have to control, say, the Landgraabs, build the restaurant and start it that way. Is there any way to get the restaurant to hire female wait staff? One of them (I've done 2 so far) has a hostess, but all male waiters. I don't come here for the diner food or the dudes wearing the "Suburban Cowboy" outfit, I wanna see the waitresses wearing Daisy Dukes, sneakers, and a friendly smile!
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Admin
Playlotsays...
To get specific staff requires a bit of wrangling to be honest. You have to make sure the target sim is 'Not In The World' and does not have another job. Then keep firing and hiring until the target sim shows up in the hire panel. If the target sim still doesn't appear then you can delete a number of the Out of The World sims using the Manage Household menu until your target sim finally appears on the hiring menu.
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Senior
Briansays...
And to do that, I WOULD have to buy the place, at least by jumping in as a game generated household, right? I was hoping I was just missing an option where I could set hiring preference to "female" and "young adult to adult." Placed another of these, it did have waitresses-- two old ladies. No thanks! lol
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New
Elizasays...
How Do you Add more waittesses?
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Press the manage employees button from the restaurant management menu (bottom right) when your sim is on the restaurant lot. From here you will have the option to hire/fire staff if you have unlocked the extra slots with perk points.
Guide to Managing Staff (click)
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New
KaitlynMariesays...
Do one of my sims need to be at the resturant in order for it to run properly? Or would everything be okay if i just opened the place up and did other things?
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Simply answer, yes, your sim should be actively on the lot. Longer answer - there is a perk you can buy called Well Managed that allows the restaurant to run when your sim is not on the lot however the results are much better when your sim is actively on the lot.
Perk Guide
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Regular
Rachelsays...
Can my sim buy an existing restaurant rather than buying an empty lot (then build from scratch)? Will that affect things like; I can't choose my staff (chef, etc) later coz the restaurant already exist before my sim bought it?
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Yes you can buy existing set up and pre-built restaurants. You will still be able to (in fact actually have to) choose your own staff and menu etc.


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