Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2023
Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator
Developer Cyanide Studio
Create and manage your dream restaurant! Menus, purchasing, décor, staff, equipment, customers… and don't forget the actual cooking! Experience the daily life of a restaurateur and earn your awards from the Michelin Guide. From the Steam store page
192 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 6, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74
Fresh
135 positive · 48 negative
95% range 67–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 135 | 48 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
9 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
2,371 of 2,834 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 192 · most liked firstDo not buy the game - they are not fixing long reported bugs. Has the potential to be great - multiple bugs within this game. Including the inability to clean your restaurant - or to have a staff member successfully clean it. They will do the actions for hours and hours and hours with no results. Then that has a negative effect on the restaurant success. Which is the point I stopped playing. Seems many people have reported this over time and it just isn't being resolved. So save your money…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite the hours I put into the game when it still worked, I have to change my review after spending 2 years communicating with Cyanide support. Do not buy this game, the DLC that came out in 2024 completely broke the employee quest system making it impossible to upgrade employees without a guide to make sure you don't upgrade a dish before you're supposed to. The Patch that came out after the DLC made it impossible to complete many of the recipes and broke a lot of the chopping animations.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At first glance this game seems well put together however, there are so many bugs and they have no intention on fixing them or doing any updates. I bought the game just 5 days ago with all the DLC's which roughly cost about $50. I just now found the discord link by accident. I thought this game would have a lot of potential but playing something and having to start over and over again because there is no way to go to a previous save is just insane. The bugs cause freezing where you have to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a chef, I'm liking it!! Bit too real though, wouldn't play this after an IRL service, would feel like im working unpaid hours...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really good restaurant sim. Cooking the dishes yourself is actually fun and there’s a lot more to do than just stand in the kitchen. You build your menu, buy ingredients, organize the restaurant, hire staff and slowly improve everything. Some days in the kitchen can get pretty chaotic, especially when several orders come in at once, but that’s part of the fun. There’s plenty to unlock and enough different recipes that I never felt like I was doing the exact same thing all the time. Definitely…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is good yes, but like almost every game from Cyanide Studio, they get an update like every 2 years, so it would be nice to add more content like entrees, desserts etc or even multiplayer which tbh could be a great addition, but the game just feels dead and the last DLC was released with like 2 - 3 new things in it so doesn't really worth it. So maybe more content & updates for this game are necessery for bringing it back to life.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ABANDONWARE The game is unfinished, there are game-breaking bugs, but the developer has abandoned the project. The worst thing is that you cannot promote your sous-chef beyond a certain level, the quests will not finish no matter what you do.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to enjoy this game. I enjoy cooking and such in real life and love restaurant tycoon type games but this one is infuriating. There's no way to restart a day or reload to a specific point in case you mess up, the controls need to be reworked to make rerouting them more accessible and easier to use, and there are bugs that I find that keep me from wanting to play. 1. The game says you can prep hot meals beforehand and you can place them under the heat lamps to keep them warm, but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A mostly relaxing game that's a decent approximation of being a chef and running a kitchen. It's primarily about time management and planning ahead, but there are some light dexterity mechanics as well. There are loads of tiny details and interactions that all together really make this game shine. Good variety of recipes which can be upgraded, tons of ingredients, many, MANY kitchen gadgets to save up for and learn how to use. Probably this game's best feature is the surprisingly in-depth…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There’s a few reasons I wouldn’t recommend the game - first off the game doesn’t explain the packaging concept of the game at all so you kind of just have to figure that part out. Secondly for a chef game you’d expect a full menu, desserts, drinks etc which the game doesn’t have. And lastly, only being able to add 5 menu options to the menu and having such a short evening time making meals is disappointing. There’s so much potential for the game to expand and improve on. I was excited to get…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My favorite game! I do love it ^_^ Dear developers, could you pls add DLC with desserts (cakes, pastries, pies)?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The mixing station has locked me out of mixing the summer soup...the recipe just wont show up for me to put the ingredients down. I have restarted the game, verified my files, and deleted and replaced the station. Nothing works. I was going to try and stay after service to see if I could fix the issue but as I was cooking, the ingredients I had on me just disappeared after I placed a saucepan on the stove. These are very annoying and potentially soft locking bugs. This game was really fun too,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Controls for keyboard are quite bad, but otherwise with that I'm happy, life unfortunately took a different route for me, so at least I can cook like this, and then experiment for myself in real life.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Because I spend so much time in the kitchen perfecting real recipes, the game ends up giving me the same kind of quiet satisfaction you get after pulling off a dish exactly the way you imagined it. What I love most is turning off the timer, opening one of the shows or movies I’m currently watching, and letting it play in the background while I’m cooking but without any of the cleanup or the pressure to finish something before it spoils. No leftovers, just the joy of creating something that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My friend got me this for my BD. I had it on my wishlist just for fun, as it seemed like a fun cooking mama type of game… Ooh I was wrong!! ☺️ This game is sooo entertaining and well done!!! First, I wanna say what an amazing job the people who planned all the tutorials and in-game explanations did! The game is so easy to understand and everything is well explained resulting in a very smooth gameplay experience :) From the start, you are supported with good explanations and it’s easy to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great idea but trying to use the controls to cook and no little time is too frustrating for me. It a good game for someone who likes to be rushed however it's not relaxing to play....especially as a chef where quality is more important that rushing food like a fast chain restaurant.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is honestly my favorite cooking simulator to date. The game feels incredibly immersive, with detailed, realistic step-by-step cooking mechanics that make every dish feel authentic. I also love how much freedom it gives when it comes to plating — you can get really creative and make dishes look exactly the way you want. It’s just a shame that the game hasn’t received any updates since 2024. I really wish the devs would continue improving it, because it has so much potential.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We can't make anything sweet. I need a moment (dreis tears) But if you're not bothered with desert in any form, This is the the best cooking sim sinec forever and up to 2022, in all categories. And I've been plyaing lots of cooking sims for long time. I wish they made DLC about patries (cakes, pies, cookies) ice cream, nougat, candies and chips. Also, we can't leave the kitchen when customers enter the restaurant. Pobably because there is no dynamic PNC pathiong and that would cause epic…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My wife said to me 'I'm actually in the kitchen cooking dinner while you pretend to...' Cool game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →..it was okay to start. The thing I hated the most was right before service I had prepped some dishes and put them under the warmer, but as soon as I opened the restaurant they completely disappeared. Made me not want to play the game anymore.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Neat concept and I can see what they're going for, unfortunately the bugs make it unplayable. I've tried 3 times to get through a dinner service and each time I get stuck in cook mode and can't complete any of the dishes (I just have to watch as they burn and then hard exit the game because I can't do anything). Hopefully some of the bugs get fixed, otherwise it's just too difficult to make any progress when you have to go back and do the same day 4 or 5 times before it randomly allows you to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If there was any game that needed a SAVE feature it would be this one !
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked how this game has cooking in first-person view with walking in third-person rather than having the walking in first person. This helped prevent nausea for me. The cooking is really fun and I enjoyed the variety of recipes, ingredients, and cooking processes. It is more relaxing to turn off the customer patience feature to give plenty of time to cook at your own pace. The sous chefs were helpful especially when they were at max level. I enjoyed being creative in designing the plating for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has it's moments, but honestly? just go play cooking simulator, it's a watered down version of that packaged to look shinier with a few extra things and actual people interaction, but, that's about it. Wish there was a neutral option, it's not a bad game, I'll leave positive for now but I'd say it's a 6/10 for me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A cozy game for cooking and creating recipes. You can fail at cooking or elevate your dishes. Some of the food, you can pre-prepare and put on heating but that is up to your exploration because once you "open your restaurant" some of these prep may disappear (annoying but i learn from my mistakes). You can present the dish in your own way. It's a slower game, there is no full-house so far I've played due to the limited service time. Kitchen helpers can help prepare the foods but they can't use…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is great first of all but around 30 minutes in I started to drop frames constantly , even turning it down the lowest settings caused me to have so many frame stutters. So I couldn't enjoy the game afterwards which is sad because I was genuinely enjoying it but the frame drops made it super unenjoyable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OMG how have I never heard of this game? I love Simulators of all types and my biggest criticism has always been that simulators tend to go down easy routes for the players and while they start of realistic enough, they quickly end up either becoming too easy, too repetitive or so complex that it ends up becoming to much like real life...xd This game has such a smooth gameplay, granted of course things like camera control could be better but I find it so easy to navigate the key bindings and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tha game not have option to 3440*1440
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's fun, wish it was multiplayer though
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very buggy. Nothing has been fixed. Buy at your own risk lol
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly this game makes me feel like im running my kitchen. It's not a hard game so far but i can see how it can get challenging. There's controls so you can make it as easy or as stressful as you want. I like that you unlock new recipes as you play and then will eventually have to sub menu items out to have the new ones on the menu. Im intrigued to see what all I can do in this game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've spent entirely too much time in this game because it is really one of the best cooking sims out there. While there are a few bugs occasionally, I found the overall experience to be smooth. There's a large variety of food to prepare and several ways to expand and improve upon your kitchen. The food prep is just involved enough to be engaging and fun while not being too overly detailed and concerned with being realistic. Chill mode is a godsend, I'm not here to play an Overcooked style…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is not exactly "unfinished" from a technical standpoint. It does have some bugs, but in my 20 hours, I found nothing major. Not using physical interactions like flipping things, pouring or slicing sounds like a bad thing, but if you have ever played cooking simulator, you know why it's a bad idea to do such things with physics. This game avoids that and also has - for it's purpose - great graphics and a nice way to present the preparation process and the food to you as player. But it got…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Woke and Broke... The tutorial is broken with multiple game blockers, I picked up my steak when it was cooking, and then the tutorial instructs you to start cooking the steak, but you can't use the frying pan as its dirty, and you can't clean the pan as you can't pick it up. Despite it's issues, the cooking part is great fun, so it's sad they felt the need for wokey to spoil a good game. Devs will learn one way or the other. This game doesn't allow you to choose your gender, instead, it asks…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really really want to love this game. It just seems like such a fun game. But instead, I found that the controls are tedious to the point of rage-inducing. ♥♥♥♥ makes ZERO sense and it's incredibly clunky. Like, I just don't get it- this could be a great game, so why tf did they add the dumbest keyboard/mouse controls like this? Why is everything non-intuitive? There's also the issue with bugged quests, no optimization, barely any QoL features, you can't serve a whole table's entrees together…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →HELLO, WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE DORITO FLAVOUR? Mine is spicy dill pickle or cool ranch Anyway this game is addicting in the worst ways for myself, personally. I was born and raised in the restaurant industry and have worked low end pubs to med-fancy (think The Keg level) places as a cook and to me I've been absolutely addicted to cooking games. I was a major fan of Diner Dash until....whatever the hell it turned into nowadays.. I digress I love this game and it honestly takes me back to my…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is definitely the definitive restaurant simulator I can think of. The most iconic part of it is the partnership with the actual Michelin organization (that tire company that creates the Michelin guide and doles out the coveted Michelin stars), and the fact that there are dozens of gourmet recipes in the game to produce. Before each service you will ensure your stockroom is full and that your menu has 3-5 dishes ready to serve to your patrons that evening. You also get to decide the decor…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very fun and addicting to anyone who enjoys simulations or cooking games without the chaos and frustration of Cooking Simulator. It's definitely less interactive and yet and I find myself losing hours of my time into it. It has some things that can be approved such as customer patience and the general pace of the game but over all it's a solid 8/10,
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoying the game and building a restaurant from the ground up. The technical side of making dishes is enjoyable and there is room for creativity.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: Chill, relaxed game plenty of recipes and stuff to do immersive and fun Cons: The time requirement for tables SUCKS. I just turned it off. Also, I rarely use my chefs because I would rather just have fun cooking the food myself. I didn't get this game to rush, I got it to relax. I get hungry from playing seeing the food I cook and then I go get a snack and now I'm fat. Is it worth it? On sale. $30 is an insane price for this and when it goes on sale a lot is taken off, like 80%. Just…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Felt like diving into a chill game tonight, so I'm trying out Chef Life. Hope everyone is having a nice evening. store.steampowered.com/app/1122340/... #Gaming🎮#ChefLife
unlabelledView post →I thought it would be a relaxing game, and now I'm stressing over serving 4 different dishes at the same time while my sous chefs keep saying "I have nothing to do"
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Okay, I absolutely love this game! I know my playtime isn’t very long yet, but I swear: this game *feels* incredible to play. The gameplay mechanics and the way you interact with everything make this experience completely unique and deeply satisfying. There are several Reddit posts out there where people are searching for games similar to **Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator**, and honestly… nothing really matches this feeling. So please… Developers: we need a full series of this. Chef…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It looked promising, but the controls felt so clunky I could barely get through the tutorial and the audio had issues cutting in and out (which looks like an ongoing problem if you look at comments here and on Reddit). If you want to try the game, wait for a really good sale (which is what I did, thankfully, since I'm past the refund period).
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Requested a refund 14 minutes in. Aside from the fact that cooking the most basic recipe feels like crafting in Black Desert Online, you also have to use pronouns in character creation. I don't subscribe to that idiotic obsessive bs and will never support any developer who tries to shove it down my throat. Live in your alternative reality all you want. But don't try to force me to live in it. Good day.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've motion sickness so I never able to play most Simulator games due to most of them are in first person This rare third person + Sim game is greatly appreciated. I wish there were more games like this for people like me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played for a total of 25 minutes and the whole time there were audio issues. Kept cutting in and out, no sound worked for the voices. Went to other games and had no issue so it is a game issue. triple checked all sound settings in game and on my pc and it still kept cutting out to eventually have no sound at all. unfortunate.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well after playing this game for a few hours I can now say that I do recommend this game. I have had so much fun on this game and running my own restaurant, I have had so much fun unlocking new recipes and making the plates just how I want them to look when I serve the meal. It has some challenges if you are not prepared before you open and making things that you can store before you open. I got the content packs for the game and it made it so I could add more recipes and cook more in my…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game isn't as challenging as Cooking Simulator. We just need to focus on the menu, ingredients, and the steps to prepare beforehand. Each recipe has instructions on the ingredients and steps to follow, so finding the necessary ingredients and preparing the dish isn't difficult. So far, this game is quite enjoyable.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoy this game. If you are looking for a cooking sim with depth and character look no further. Its a completed game, there are a few DLC's if you want to expand the vanilla content. Game play loop feels good and with the ability to level up recipes even things you make semi frequently can get updated and made fresh again as the game progresses. I would say its worth getting at full price if you like this type of game, but if its on sale then its more than worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i like to pretend i can cook for a lil while <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has very good simulation of a chef like situation within a high end restaurant environment. I enjoy it very much.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →as a chef myself i really like this little game! it's a pleasure to step into the kitchen of my "House of Food" after a day in the real-life kitchen 🙃 but i could assume that all the mechanics could be a little too much for non-restaurateurs ...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →操作和引导简洁易懂，烹饪场景相对精致，但后期剧情有点枯燥，一打就要求保持十几天的菜单才能完成任务，一直做菜一直升级，喜欢烹饪游戏推荐扔进库里反正打折也不贵！
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game. The animations, the progression, the varied recipes, and the challenges, its a really relaxing game. I wish the developers would update the game. It seems like they don't have plans to anytime soon, but I highly recommend. You will be entertained for hours.. There are a few bugs and a few gripes I have about the game such as plating multiple dishes of the same item, the way produce is bought and etc. But I still enjoy it nevertheless. I hope to get a baking DLC…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator is a rich and carefully constructed experience that captures the heart and chaos of running a professional kitchen. Developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Nacon, it aims to deliver an authentic simulation of the restaurant world without losing the accessibility and charm of a management game. It invites players to step into the shoes of a chef who must balance the passion of cooking with the pressures of business ownership. The game manages to blend…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So apparently I was stuck in the game for 15.5 hours, or at least according to Steam. I... I was stuck cooking for 15.5 hours... Yea. I'm not sure if I should recommend this game? I bought the sushi DLC right off the bat before I even launched the game. And the sheer size of default content terrifies me. On a serious note, I really wish there was a co-op mode. The game is already great, but if I could cook with one other human being, this would've been incredible.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Until I played this game that I realized how fun it is to play just a normal cooking game: no crazy kitchen fight, no food throwing, no drop and break dishes, no controversial unreal food. The game simulates a real life chef where you start with a small bistro with basic dish, learn and memorize new recipes with more complicated steps, run the kitchen with your other chefs and grow up the restaurant, the experience which surprisingly not much cooking games out there can provide. Pros: -…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chef Life is just a game about managing the restaurant but the way you cook and prep is so satisfying. It is a stupid but very relaxing game.
unlabelledView post →I do enjoy a cooking game and currently loving Chef Life on switch, but can’t for the life of me understand why there’s no puddings! I mean puddings people… #gaming
unlabelledView post →
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