Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2025
The Way of the Tray: Japanese Restaurant Simulator 🍙
Developer Who is Terry?
The Way of the Tray is a waiter simulator with action puzzle elements in a Japanese spirit world setting. Your task is to master the skill of serving dishes and earn the trust of yokai patrons. Will you be able to prove yourself and find your way home? From the Steam store page
36 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 1, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
77
LovedLoved
23 positive · 7 negative
95% range 59–88%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 23 | 7 | 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).
6 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
69 of 86 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
36 of 36 · most liked firstStep into the world of Japanese spirits on August 25! The release of The Way of the Tray on Steam is just around the corner — watch the announcement trailer, start practicing your balance, and don’t forget to wishlist the game! store.steampowered.com/app/3373830 #indiedev #indiegame #gamedev
unlabelledView post →I really liked that fun game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story begins with an unpleasant supper, when your character leaves the house in anger and storms outside. This would be unremarkable on most nights, but tonight happens to be the night of the Yokai festival. Anyone who crosses the spirits’ path is instantly swept into the supernatural realm. Fortunately, you end up in a restaurant where you have to serve dishes to passing spirits in order to pay the rent demanded by your landlord, who also happens to be the chef. The gameplay is designed…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →PROS: - Nice graphics. - Good music and soundtrack. - Interesting, unusual main mechanics with Tetris and tray balance. - CONS: - The difficulty at some point becomes simply prohibitive. In addition, there is practically no room for error. - The balance of receiving and spending coins is broken. The cook's debt grows too quickly.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really really wanted to like this game. The art is adorable and the mechanics are unique. Sadly it seems like the devs are not interested in updating it or answering questions/addressing game play issues. There are a number of bugs (half the menus just display ???) and despite getting perfects on every level you never seem to get enough money to accomplish anything. I had to switch from controller to mouse + keyboard because the controller controls were so poor. Keep that in mind if you plan…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I didn't think it was so difficult to work as a waiter, it's very difficult to hold a tray with one hand, it's not for you to play under the table )))
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chilling, funny, Japanese vibe. Good gameplay, I really like it. I recommend this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i like this game and the art and the idea behind it and the mechanics, but it gets quite overwhelming the further through you get. i have also encountered a couple of bugs that result in just having to reset the day, when you have like 40 patrons and its close to the end its incredibly frustrating. i also find that earnings vs debt is unbalanced, it feels as though you will never get out of your debt
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is really pretty and honestly i really wanted to love the game, however the whole game feels like a noose that keeps getting tighter for small mistakes. so much of the game was stressful for no reason as each mistake would make the next customer harder and harder to deal with, not to mention the uneven payment. there are things called "soot" as well as other harmful things that if you drop them the game counts it as "food" and would tax you for dropping "food" but if you have it on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No real difficulty progression, it hits you with every mechanics right out the gate. After 4 shifts you about have seen all the game has to offer in terms of mechanics. The yokai that drive the story sometimes have random modifiers, some of them are cleared very easily, others are just frustrating with how the game works. Don't try to go for perfect shifts, a single misplace will cost you the entire shift if for example, you place one of the soot sprites 1 tile of or accidentally drop an item…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game! Good art, cool upgrades, unique gameplay about balancing dishes
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →4/10 thought it would be more complex tweaking the sensitivity but the controller tray tilt control just wasnt working for me very well at all every menu is janky weird controller style ive never seen before in games end up spending more time than i should trying to press one of two menu options i have up
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I dropped the sushi, but at least the tanuki tipped me
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A game infused with a Japanese vibe. You play as a waiter tasked with putting together orders, but there's a catch: you'll need real skill and dexterity to keep everything from falling. I really enjoyed it; it's a fun and interesting blend of mechanics.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A stylish waiter simulator with a lot of quite interesting mechanics. Accessible training, excellent musical accompaniment and relaxed gameplay fully contribute to relaxation.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →**I'm coming back to say that this game is incredibly addictive and actually really fun and strategic once you've played it for about 15 hours. There are a ton of glitches and sometimes the game will just stop working altogether in the middle of an hour-long level, but when you learn how to work around most of the glitches, it's pretty fun. My biggest complaint is that the rules different Yokai have are too vague. I'll think I've prepared dishes exactly how they want and then they'll get mad at…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game was a delightful surprise! The art style immediately grabbed me. It perfectly captures the cozy chaos while keeping everything visually pleasing. The character and food designs are genuinely satisfying to look at (I swear I got hungry more than once). Gameplay-wise, it’s both fun and engaging - sounds simple, but the game finds clever ways to make every tray a little adventure. There’s a rhythm to it that feels rewarding once you get into the flow, and it can be hilariously hectic in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A game with active puzzles. Beautiful pixel art design. To be honest, it was a bit difficult to get used to the fast gameplay at first, similar to Tetris
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool management and upgrades, I especially love pixel art.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried my best to keep my balance, but a couple of times I couldn't hold on to the tray and everything fell down. It was sad, but I got up and kept going.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Art is fantastic and the mechanics are unique. But thats all. Its overwhelming and boring. Not for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really, really like this game, lots of fun and charm. BUT there are a few bugs that I've encountered that stop this from being a straight recommend. When things get more complex and you have unlocked all foods, several things seems to start to happen - most frustratingly, one of the yokai (Tsuchigomi) has just started being invisible in serving view! This stops me from serving her, meaning I fail her every time. This means that I can never finish the ame. It's a very affordable game, though,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#NintendoSwitch Review Video: #TheWayoftheTray - Has some interesting ideas that add some challenges to the classic table-waiting sim, but that also makes its intended audience more of a question mark #IndieGames https://youtu.be/sMfpsOH6TI8
unlabelledView post →#NintendoSwitch Video: #TheWayoftheTray - A somewhat odd waiting work sim with its own unique mechanics to contend with #IndieGames https://youtu.be/CThmwgAuOBk
unlabelledView post →Cute style, fun, very cool concept with the Yokai, makes me think of Spirited Away/Tetris combined
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to like this game but the controller controlls need a massive update. It's almost impossible to select what you need to and moving the hand under the tray is the same. Hopefully this issue is resolved soon.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At first this game feels impossible, with too many orders, food falling too fast and a hard time balancing and fitting everything on the tray, but after getting a hang of it, it gets very entretaining! The pixelated artstyle is very charming, the gameplay is smooth and simple, the sounds are very satisfying to hear, the storyline of each yokai really makes you want to progress through the game, and even when things get pretty rushed with 40 patrons on the restaurant, I still find it relaxing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A little unpolished, had to look up a YouTube video playthrough because i wasn't sure if it was bugged or just... Annoying enough that i would stop playing. Interesting mechanic, could've been a really amazing game if polished a little more.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried playing Japanese Restaurant Simulator, but I got fired on the first day. Apparently, flipping the sushi chef is not the same as flipping the sushi.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →decent at a discount
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Felt like a waiter, great gameplay
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An extremely entertaining game. I felt like a service person. But this experience has made me a little smarter than I was.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm giving this game a thumbs up, but with an asterisk. I love the setting plus it builds off the gameplay of one of the best games of all time: 625 Sandwich Stacker. The new things like, the ability to pause orders + Gifts/Curses powerups from the yokai, is a really creative concept to keep the gameplay from getting stale. Unfortunately the Gifts/Curses is just way out of balance imo. Only a small select of yokai give actually useful Gifts, while some of their "requirements" (like stacking the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Way of the Tray Fun, almost cosy game despite the franticness. Stacking plus balancing plus serving wrapped up in a wacky package. It does its primary gameplay loop well, by tying in all the different parts. Though, I can see it becoming chaos. Also, the demo was in default russian?
unlabelledView post →It's a game The Way of the Tray: Japanese Restaurant Simulator store.steampowered.com/app/3373830/...
unlabelledView post →The Way of the Tray is a Japanese yokai take on diner dash, as well as that one lily and stitch flash game we all played as kids. Jump between taking customers orders and then carefully placing them on your tray as they fall down the screen tetris style. Dropping them costs you money and time!
unlabelledView post →
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