Food / Cooking

The food court: It's a haven for hungry and thirsty patrons as they go about their lives, but for some, the food court is life. Every restaurant wants to attract the most customers, tailoring their menu and hiring famous chefs to work in their kitchen. In the end, only one will be the most successful. You wanna grab a bite to eat?

In Foodies, players take on the role of managers in a food court. During the game, they will add new dishes to their menu, connecting the stars between different dishes. These recipes come from all over the world, granting different bonuses when added. What's more, players can hire chefs to work in their kitchens, including special, prestigious chefs who are the best in the business. In the end, the player who gains the most popularity will be declared the food master and win the game.

—description from the publisher

You've just inherited an old restaurant and you must turn it into a successful business! Hire personnel, order the right ingredients and be ready to serve the customers that enter your restaurant. The success will depend entirely on your efficiency in the kitchen!

Kitchen Rush is an innovative real-time cooperative game that simulates the excitement of a high-pressure kitchen environment. It does so through worker placement, using hourglasses as your workers. These hourglasses are used to take orders from customers, prepare their dishes, serve them on time, buy groceries, clean plates and make sure enough money is made each round to cover wages, expenses, upgrades and hopefully, leave a profit. Any worker placed on an action space may not be used elsewhere before the sand within the hourglass runs out, making each decision important as time is limited.

The game is for 1-4 players and plays for 4 rounds of 4 minutes. The fun, excitement and rush it brings to the table offers a full course for gamers and family members alike.

The theme of the game is an eating contest in a Taiwanese Snackbar.

"In this competition you will eat more than you can imagine as your competitors continually challenge you to shove even more in. Play your cards cleverly or the servers will serve you food until you fall from your seat. Let the competitors be the ones to fill up until they drop and the snack bar throne will be yours!"

The players add "dish"-cards or special cards to a common "order"-pile until one of them can´t (or won´t) add any more cards. Then that player has to "eat" the whole order by drawing the appropriate amount of cards from a draw pile. If he draws one (or more) of the "No More!"-cards, he accrues negative points and the round ends.
The played cards are then set aside and new "No More"-cards are shuffled into the (now smaller) draw pile, making for an ever more tense experience as the contest goes into the later stages.
When one player has collected 3 negative points the game ends and the player with the smallest amount of negative points wins the game.

It's a fine dining frenzy! In Menu Masters, you are a world-class chef, brimming with ideas for the greatest menus ever crafted, but the only way to become the Menu Master is to beat the other chefs to Market Street for the freshest, most delicious ingredients! You may choose to open a store to earn some money...or just grab your shopping basket and be the first in line at the market. It's the only way to get the best selection! But beware of the other chefs as they drive up demand and increase prices! Earn your stars in this deliciously fun race to gourmet supremacy, proving you are the greatest of menu masters!

Game Synopsis: Lord of the Fries is a thematic sequel to Give Me The Brain!. It takes place at the same restaurant, has the same cast of characters, and requires roughly the same equipment. But the game is entirely different.
Players choose orders (sometimes randomly, sometime not) from the figuratively colorful Friedey's menu, and try to fill them with cards from their hands. Some orders are easy, like the Cowabunga. One Cow Meat, one Bun. Some are a little harder, like the Chickabunga Conga: same as a Chickabunga (Bird Meat plus Bun), plus Fries and a Drink. Sound easy? Now try your hand at a Lord of the Fries, a Meat Munch, or the infamous Patriarch (Fish Meat, Cheese, Bun, Fries, Drink, and the oft-maligned Strawberry Pie).

Awards

1998 Origins Award Nominee: Best Traditional Card Game
2003 Listed in GAMES Magazine's GAMES 100

Online Play

GameTable Online (free, multiplayer, real-time)

Versions

1998 cardstock version (out of print)
2003 Special Edition (color) as Lord of the Fries De-lux
2008 Third Edition (color)

Third Edition card count - 12 Drink, 12 Bun, 12 Fries, 12 Veggies, 12 Cow, 10 Bird, 8 Cheese, 8 Sauce, 8 Fish, 4 Pie