Path to portions

All information accurate at time of publishing.

Slightly later than billed, this is the concluding instalment of my series of posts looking at how to maximise your gains in the game. Our final focus is on the subject of portions and how to stack up your counters with enough food to last a lifetime (or near enough!)

Now for many players this post is largely irrelevant. I'm speaking here of those who already have a feast on their counters and no risk of selling out anytime soon. With my massive heaps of Biscuits and Gravy and Kiwi & Cake, I'm very much in that category, but it's still worth looking into how to once again build up some big stacks in a short time.

Before getting going, I should point out that throughout this post I'll be assuming that your diner is capable of selling somewhere in the region of 40,000-45,000 plates per day. That's the figure most players manage (even if they're not aware of it!) with the only difference really being inflicted by having a very inefficient layout (too few tables, very long walks for the bots etc.)

So as with the previous two episodes, we open with the recipe which offers the most portions. That's the BBQ Chicken (Basic Grill) which provides 4,100 helpings in every batch.

BBQ Chicken

If you were to cook this chicken on a full complement of 18 appliances that would give you enough food to last close to two days. That's pretty impressive and since this dish is 16 hours in length you could get a second wave of them out before the first runs out. So we have already found a set-up that will ensure your counters never go cold!

In fact there are plenty of recipes out there which will do the business of keeping the customers happy for every hour of the day, with all of them being entries from the longer durations. So is there an optimum strategy to be had?

Well, as we've done previously, we turn to the matter of portions per hour. This levels the playing field and gives shorter foods a fairer crack at the whip. Topping the charts is the French Toast (Basic Stove) which can deliver a mighty 1,500 portions per hour if you stay on top of it. Of course doing that is neigh on impossible with this 1 minute recipe, as you'd have to slave over the game all day every day.

 Path to...

 01/08/15 XP
 11/07/15 Profit

Therefore we need to look further down for recipes which can perform strongly on a per hour basis but are also of a reasonable length. That leads us to an old favourite, the Biscuits and Gravy (Basic Stove).

You may recall that this 3 hour dish was the boss when it came to profit. Often profit and portions come hand-in-hand, and that's certainly the case here. No longer recipe yields a higher number of portions hourly, and so we have a possible solution.

Except that the gravy train probably won't be able to leave the station overnight. Unless you sleep for less than six hours or are committed enough to set an alarm during the night (!) it's not possible to keep the flies off the Biscuits and Gravy overnight. We need a substitute for the long hours, and the ideal choice is the Quesadilla (Basic Stove) which is 4 hours in duration.

Quesadilla

Weighing in with 413 portions per hour, the Quesadilla ranks immediately below the Biscuits and Gravy, and so is not a serious downgrade. However it does come with a couple of drawbacks. Firstly, it only gives 2 coins per plate which is down on the norm. That's a bummer as it means the potential income you are creating overnight will be half of what it could be. And secondly, the 4 hour length of the Quesadilla may still not be long enough depending on your sleeping habits. An 8 hour window may be too narrow for you to catch a batch before it rots, so we could do with another option.

Step forward the Kiwi & Cake (Basic Oven). As fate would have it, our top tactics for maximising profit is largely repeated with portions! Statistically the cake is significantly down on the Biscuits and Gravy and Quesadilla, but it's the best we can muster that's long enough to be assured of surviving the night.

So the strategy we've developed here is to cook Biscuits and Gravy four or five times during the day and the Kiwi & Cake overnight.

Biscuits and Gravy and Kiwi & Cake

Even with only four batches of the former, you'll manage to put together 124,200 portions in a day. That's likely enough to last for three days in itself. Repeat the process again and again and you'll have millions of plates stored up before long.

Of course this doesn't work for everyone. The Biscuits and Gravy step requires several logins throughout the day, and that's not always doable. So if necessary the same procedure as for profit can be applied here - ditch the Biscuits and Gravy and just cook the Kiwi & Cake three times per 24 hours.

This still needs a single check in during the day though, so if you can't manage that either we have to default to the next best portions per hour recipe which is long enough to deal with a lack of supervision. Low and behold, we've come full circle, as it's the BBQ Chicken which comes up trumps! However at 16 hours this dish may be difficult to fit into your schedule without losing the remaining hours of the day. That's not very economical, so I'll also throw out the Chicken Tenders (Basic Oven) which are next on the list. Their 12 hour duration is probably easier to work with.

This is all very good, but what if you're at a low level? Then you certainly won't yet have access to the Biscuits and Gravy and probably still have a wait for the unlocking of the Kiwi & Cake. In the mean time what are your options? Well ultimately it's going to be hard work since you don't have as many appliance slots available. But nevertheless we can still mark down those dishes which are the most handy early doors.

We start with the Bagel Sandwich (Basic Stove).

Bagel Sandwich

Unlocked at level 16, this is actually stronger with regards to portions per hour than the Kiwi & Cake. It is only 2 hours in length though, so close attention is needed to keep it ticking over.

Sacrificing some of the yield, you could drop to the Baked Scallops (Basic Oven) or Chocolate Mousse (Basic Stove). Arriving at levels 5 and 14 respectively, these are both 4 hour foods, so at least don't require quite so much care.

As you move up through the levels, the real target is the Kiwi & Cake at level 51. En route you may consider the Hi-Hat Pizza (Drum Set Oven) at level 29, Chicken Alfredo (Basic Oven) at level 37 and Princess Cake (Swedish Stove) at level 45. All are decent numbers wise, and will hopefully help increase your chances of staying stocked up. Note that the Quesadilla becomes accessible at level 44, so you've also got it to consider, but again remember that the coins per plate is depleted on this one.

There you have it then - a rickety path to portions. Along with the delving into profit and XP, we hopefully now have a clearer vision of how to get the most out of our restaurants. The fact that the top strategy for profit and portions happen to coincide is obviously very convenient, and allows you to be effective with regards to both simultaneously. Throw in the odd Technicolor Cake (Basic Oven) every so often for its unbelievable XP gain and you've got the recipe for success!