The first CSD game was pretty great, a ballet of specific key presses in the correct order punctuated by the sting of frustration one feels when they made a mistake while playing an unforgiving game. I had a less good experience with the iOS version but I still fondly remembered the first game. Fastforward to a couple of weeks ago when I started playing the second one and wow does this sequel build up on the original game in fun ways and with very addictive new level structures and hooks. It’s one of these rare games that I review for more than a few hours because I just want to keep playing, Cook, Serve, Delicious 2 is simply amazing and I’m super excited to see what comes next in the franchise.
After a small introduction where you hear about how your previous restaurant from the last game shuts down, you’re thrown in a new restaurant with the need to rebuild your culinary empire. Normally I would’ve gone straight for that, but the new ‘Chef For Hire’ mode took all of my attention. Based on your level and star rating, you have access to restaurants and ‘days’ in these locations, with menus changing depending on the type of cuisine served and each day becoming more difficult. On each of these days you have the 3 same challenges every time and I gave myself the goal of completing the gold medal on each level - beating it with no mistake.
And Cook Serve Delicious is all about mistakes. In levels that can last for about 10+ minutes, any mistake meant I had to restart. Mistakes usually came in the shape of pressing the wrong key at the wrong time. Some dishes are easy to prepare and could almost become automatisms in my brain. The way you prepare dishes in this game is by hitting certain keys and navigating between tabs of your ingredients. Hamburgers will need you to grill patties before adding cheeses and other condiments before choosing the right bun, ribs are easy (there’s only one recipe so you can mash it out automatically), some recipes need prep before cooking, some require it after, some recipes like the stirfrys are always custom made and you have to learn that Tangy Sauce uses the Y key and not the T key (that’s for teriyaki). This level structure was great because I could see a bit of everything in regards to the various foods you can prepare in the game while striving for specific objectives.
Other additions include different type of ‘stations’ while you’re cooking. Some food, like lasagnas, tiramisus and soups will require you to use up a station to prepare a big batch and serve it to your customers from there. You have optional stations where you can make a bunch of burger patties at once instead of one at a time and side stations where you create dishes that both increase the time your customers will wait for you to serve them and give you bonus money. Each food stays good for a certain time so if you don’t sell everything you’ll need to throw them away and make them again, and some food require cooking while other immediately appear. This gives the game a great strategic feel because while you’re forced to make some food in your stations, you can decide how to fill your remaining spots. I rarely used the optional foods myself because customers wait longer while you prepare their food and I always tried to maximize my sides to get more time.
Even if your menu and the difficulty changes, days all go the same. You start by prepping some food and then customers trickle in your restaurant based on the buzz rating of the day. You juggle serving them and completing chores like flushing the toilets, throwing out the trash or fighting burglars. At 12 and 6 you face the RUSH HOUR where clients will just stream endlessly in your restaurant with no respite until the hour passes by. Things can get very hectic when you have 10 plus orders at once to deal with and sometimes I regret not using the optional stations. Having 8 hamburgers cooking at the same time, for instance, means having to prep them incredibly fast because otherwise they’ll burn, but at the same time while these are cooking, you don’t have to make more potentially complicated orders, it’s a balancing act.
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2 is great, I’ll probably play it again in the future. Some levels are pretty tough - so I didn’t complete the whole game yet - and some restaurants do not even have sides, so available time is pretty low. In a world where I had all the time I wanted, I would totally beat every one of these stages, this game is super fun and if you’re not against some hectic arcade keyboard cooking marathon, I recommend it a hundred percent!
