Idle Restaurant Tycoon Guide: Tips, Tricks and Strategies

Idle Restaurant Tycoon is an excellent restaurant-themed game from Kolibri. Since it focuses mainly on eateries, managing won’t be that tough, but maintaining daily profits could be a challenge, especially when you open a bigger chain of restaurants.  

You will be placing tables, hiring additional employees, (if needed) and expanding your restaurant by unlocking more rooms. Guests will arrive, dine and you will earn cash from the dining tables populated by your customers. You will also gain additional cash from the restroom.  

Each room has its own set of upgrades, which not only increase profits but also speed up staff movement and services. Keep upgrading objects and max out all upgrades in each room to earn stars, which will allow you to unlock new locations.  

Need more tips and tricks? Our Idle Restaurant Tycoon guide will help you get started and increase your daily earnings in no time.  

Hit the X2 Boost Right Away  

As soon as morning begins and guests arrive at your restaurant, tap the x2 boost on the bottom of the screen to double your earnings for 12 minutes. To activate the double boost, you will have to watch a 30-sec advertorial.  

If you want to extend boost time, continue watching more ads. The max time for double earnings boost is 2 hours.  

Max Out all Room Upgrades 

Upgrading all objects in Idle Restaurant Tycoon will help you increase earnings, speeds up hosts that are attending guests, increases food value (which increases the overall earnings) etc. 

The lobby is where guests arrive to book a table. It’s right in front inside your restaurant. There are several upgrades that will help the receptionist attend each guest. Just tap the lobby to see all upgrades: 

Desk, Computer and Phone and Decoration – Level these up to speed up the host/receptionist receiving guests. The circle above the host fills up faster each time you upgrade these three, one at a time, ensuring faster check-ins if tables are available.  

All Upgrades for Dining Tables – Tap a dining table and level up each object one my one. All upgrades, such as table, decoration, seats, plates, drinks and condiments increase the cash earned on that table.  

Kitchen – Upgrade all objects in the kitchen, such as ovens, refrigerators, cupboards and the sink to increase the value of food. This will automatically increase your total earnings from all guests.  

Restroom: Upgrade stalls, ventilation, hand towels, sink and decor to increase the tip earned from the restroom. Happy guests leave tips whenever they leave the restroom. Maxing out upgrades for all objects in the restroom boosts total tip given by guests.  

Make sure you have enough cash to upgrade all objects in each room. The best way to get quick cash is through influencer bonuses and x2 earnings boost. More on this later.  

Start with upgrading dining tables as they will bring in maximum cash. Having more tables ensures more guests dining, which results in more cash. Max out all dining table upgrades.  

Next should be the restroom as you will get bonus cash on a regular basis each time customer leaves the toilet. Your guests will enter the restroom after finishing their food. Max out all restroom upgrades to increase bonus cash.  

Finally, you should upgrade the kitchen and other rooms. It actually increases the food value, which boosts the overall income.  

As you progress, you will be able to expand your restaurant by unlocking more rooms. Make sure you upgrade all objects in those rooms.  

Some objects will require electricity (lightning flash icon). You will have to upgrade batteries in the generator room to get more power for making restaurant improvements.  

• Check out our Idle Firefighter Tycoon Guide from the same game developer.

A Table for Two or a Table for Four?

Dining tables come in various sizes. There are small tables, big tables and even an outside table. You might have noticed that guests leave your restaurant even when a table in empty. This is because it’s a table for two and the guests who have arrived at the lobby are four.

If you have a table for four and an empty table for two and the former is already occupied by four people, then those 4 guests who arrive in a group won’t get a table. They will have to leave the restaurant.

Use the Instant Guest Booster Wisely 

Tap the taxi icon on the right side of the screen whenever it appears. Watch a video to get a crowd of customers instantly. Use this booster when you have lots of tables and some of them are still empty.  

Try not to use this booster when your restaurant is full.  

When Should You Hire More Staff? 

When you hire chefs, waiters, receptionists etc., you pay them wages at the end of the day.  

Salary to your staff is deducted from your total earnings at the end of the day, when it’s sharp 12 PM and all employees leave the restaurant.  

Try to hire staff based on the number of tables placed in the restaurant. If there are fewer tables, then it does not make sense to hire additional chefs or waiters as it will add more salaries to your overall expenses thereby reducing your daily profits. 

If there are more tables, then it’s obvious that you will need to hire an extra waiter. If more guests arrive in your eatery, then you will have to cook food fast, which means more chefs in the kitchen. You don’t want angry customers leaving your eatery if food is cooked late or the waiter arrives at a table late. Having more than one waiter ensures that both attend each table and serve food fast.  

The hourglass icon above a customer suggests the waiting time. When a waiter serves food, the hourglass symbol vanishes, indicating the wait time is over. With faster servings and cooking food, you will surely be able to serve customers fast before the leave the eatery.  

To attend to more customers for faster check-ins, you might need an additional host/receptionist at the lobby.  

Check Stats to Know Your Expenses and Total Profits 

You can check wages paid to all members from the stats menu. Tap the bar graph on the right side of the screen.  

Under the “Statistics” tab, check the total “Salary Costs”. You can also check salaries to individual employees in your restaurant from the staff tab in the same menu. This will give you a clear idea of your expenses and will help you decide whether you want to keep additional staff of fire them.  

Stats section also shows expenses related to marketing. With higher forms of marketing, you will incur expenses every hour. Read our Idle Restaurant Tycoon Review to know more about this.  

Note that the “Fire” button can be pressed when there is more than one employee in the same profession. For example, if you have two chefs, you can fire the second chef if you think he is not needed at the moment.  

To hire or fire employees, tap on the bar graph icon and then go to the staff tab.  

Get Instant Sunrise 

Your staff leaves your restaurant at night and it gets empty. You will have to wait for a few minutes to start a new day and being an armchair tycoon, I am sure you wouldn’t want to waste any time to increase earnings. You can fast-forward to a new day instantly. When night falls, tap the crescent moon on the right side of the screen and watch an advert to skip to morning.  

Upgrade Parking  

Leveling up the parking lot outside your restaurant will allow more customers to arrive by car.  

There are two upgrades – Parking spaces, which unlocks an additional space for more cars and Entrance barrier, which ensures that guests access the parking spaces faster. Leveling up the latter will require power, which you can receive by upgrading generators in the generator room.  

Food Influencers Offer Bonus Cash 

Noticed those trendy influencers taking a selfie in Idle Restaurant Tycoon? They have a certain glow around them. Tap on an influencer and then press the “Watch” button to see an ad. You will get bonus cash from the food influencers instantly.  

Last Updated on May 9, 2021 by Jude