Supplementary goals

Occasionally TeamLava issue goals encouraging you to download another of their games and be rewarded with gems. You then get some further goals which require playing these games:

Castle Story goal which will reward with three gems

Note that there are no rewards specified in the above image. This is because upon completing the goal you will be given another goal which will have a gem reward. This goal tends to be something easy within Restaurant Story, typically buying a table or serving any dish.

These goals are a great chance to earn some extra gems (usually six for downloading, three for various challenges - there tends to be two or three such challenges).

And there's also the possibility you could fall in love with another game. To date I've had goals for downloading and playing the following:

• Bakery Story
• Bubble Mania
• Dragon Story
• Jewel Mania
• Home Design Story (Christmas Edition)
• Bingo
• Bubble Mania Seasons (Christmas Edition)
• Fashion Story (Valentine's Edition)
• Slots (Valentine's Edition)
• Castle Story (Valentine's Edition)
• Slots
• Castle Story

That means I've earned well over 100 gems in total from completing these goals! Well worth it!

And among those I still play Bakery Story (although not with the seriousness I do Restaurant Story), Bubble Mania/Bubble Mania Seasons and Jewel Mania. The latter of these is particularly fun and I wouldn't have discovered it without the goal.

Sometimes it can be a pain such as trying to reach Level 21 in Fashion Story (I'm a guy and know little/nothing about fashion!) but the rewards make it worthwhile.

The bottom line? Don't ignore these goals. The gems are FREE and you can just delete the games when you've completed the goals if you don't like them.

Game update: 27/03/13

For some reason, this week's update came a day late. I've got no idea why, but don't have a problem with that anyway.

So, after building up the chance of a big Easter update over the last week, I'm left mightily disappointed. That's because for the fourth consecutive week, it's less Easter and more Eastern:

Notification for latest Asian theme update

So what is an Origami Chair? And how about an Action Counter? Well first up, here's the full list of new content:

Tables:

• Origami Table - 74,000 coins
• Shrine Table - 75,000 coins

Chairs:

• Shrine Chair - 2 gems
• Origami Chair - 37,000 coins

Wall decorations:

• Action Scroll - 40,000 coins

Wallpapers:

• Garden View - 2 gems
• Washi Screen - 36,000 coins

Flooring:

• Ancient Tile - 1 gem
• Heian Mat - 4,200 coins

Counters:

• Action Counter - 5 gems
• Buddha Counter - 36,000 coins

The Origami Tables and Origami Chairs look excellent, but I wouldn't want to eat my supper on them! However their prices reinforce my concerns over the inflation of costs in Restaurant Story - something which we have already seen in Bakery Story.

In my opinion the rest of the new stuff is so-so. Basically there isn't anything which we haven't already had added to the game in recent weeks anyway. And I'm a bit down over the absence of any floor decorations, which is usually rare for an update of this nature, but has been a common denominator in the Asian updates.

However, with an array of new Asian themed content of late, I decided to refurbish my Steampunk section and go for a Far East look:

Asian themed section of The Garlic Tree

I've already discussed my admiration of the Origami Tables and Chairs, and also decided to include the new Washi Screen and Action Scroll. The two Paper Lanterns come in a 20,000 coins apiece, which I thought wasn't too bad. The flooring is Sandy Brick (it's cheap and has that wood brown tone). Now as far as counters go, none of the recent releases really fit the colour of my section, so I went for the Frontier Counter from Cowboy week, even though they are 38,000 coins each. And a Sushi Bar is obviously a must in this scene!

I feel that I'm missing something in this new look section, probably a floor decoration or two. But as outlined above, there aren't any! With 31 gems in the bank at the time of writing, I'm toying with the option of having a go at the Action Chef Box, but am very wary of blowing my gems on a theme that doesn't really light my fire.

Back to the update itself, and overall I'm disappointed that TeamLava have decided not to bother with Easter (at least yet). The Asian theme seems to have tired itself out, and it's time to move on to something else. Having said that, it's great that a new update is released every week at all - this does wonders in keeping the game fresh.

Of course it is possible that the Easter update could still be coming later in the week (I think the Christmas Edition was released to iOS users on a Thursday) but I'm just being optimistic at this stage. We're too close to Easter to expect anything major.

Even if TeamLava were just to re-release last year's Easter content so that players such as myself who started playing less than a year ago could engross themselves in some Easter treats it wouldn't be that bad.

But it looks like we're going to be spending Easter weekend in the Far East.

Latest from The Garlic Tree

I thought I'd take some time to discuss the latest goings-on at my restaurant, The Garlic Tree.

Just over a month ago, I made an expansion to 18x21, and so the saving for upgrading to 19x22 began. Well now I'm almost there - only a few thousand coins short of the 3,500,000 coins I need to expand again. However I do like to ensure I've got plenty of coins in reserve before expanding for new flooring, wallpapers and the odd chance of wanting to buy something from an update, so I'll not carry out the expansion for a week or two yet.

This expansion will be a landmark for me, as I plan to do a complete overhaul of my current restaurant layout.

Current layout of The Garlic Tree

A plan of what I'm aiming to produce is detailed below.

Plan of future layout of The Garlic Tree

Now there are one or two items included in this plan which are not currently on show in The Garlic Tree such as the Flamingos and Lotus Flowers. These were bought some months ago in anticipation of this big day! Plus there's one section which I've not filled with furniture - I've got a few possible themes stored up for there and haven't decided which to go for yet.

I'll post more about my transition from one layout to another when it happens!

Elsewhere, a Slots goal this week has boosted by gem count along with mastering several dishes on special appliances at the fourth level for the first time. The Strawberry Malt on the Malt Shake Maker was the first recipe I mastered at the fourth level:

Reward for mastering Strawberry Malt at fourth level

A well as the Malt Shake Maker, I've been working on mastering recipes at level four on the Burger Grill, Orange Deep Fryer, Tiki Oven and Fusion Sashimi Block. Now I've got just about enough gems to have a go at a box (I so badly want the Petal Pond in the Action Chef Box!) but am going to hold off for now in anticipation of some goodies over Easter.

Meanwhile, having completed the Asian Goals, I have placed some of the unlockables in my restaurant including Action Chef Lee, a Penjing Tree and the Jade Dragon.

Jade Dragon from the Asian Goals

With the centrepiece of The Garlic Tree (the four pillars with food arranged around them) remaining in place in the new layout, I will be able to keep the Jade Dragon out, but there may not be space for my Penjing Tree. In fact, I'm not sure how long to keep the Asian themed stuff around for. Probably not long if Easter provides some more nice things.

Follow up on Action Chef Box

Yesterday I reported on the latest update in Restaurant Story.

Within, I conjectured that the glorious Petal Pond which is an item available in the Action Chef Box is a first prize. I can reveal it is not!

In fact, it is a second prize, meaning there is a 5% chance of winning the Petal Pond. Personally, this doesn't alter the situation for me, as I can't even afford one go at the Action Chef Box currently. But if you desperately wanted this beautiful decoration before but were put off by its inclusion in a box, at least this news will encourage you to gamble a few gems on trying to win the Petal Pond.

So what is the first prize? Well, it is called Action Dining and can be seen on the TeamLava Forum in post #27 (you may need to log in using your StormID and password which can be set within any TL game). Quite a prize eh?

It's just a shame I'll never own it. It's in situations like this that I'd like the top prizes in boxes to be offered (even at more than 24 gems) for a limited time more often than just on Black Friday and at Christmas. Perhaps a sale like this will take place on Easter weekend... I can dream!

Game update: 20/03/13

If you have enjoyed the Asian theme of the last couple of weeks, then things are going to reach a real crescendo for you with the latest update!

Notification for latest Asian theme update

The notification says it all - the Action Chef Box is the only notable new item this week:

Flooring:

• Garden Pavers - 4,000 coins

Boxes:

• Action Chef Box - 24 gems

Clearly it's disappointing to only see two new additions (and especially when one costs 24 gems), but I do think this is rounding off the Asian theme we are currently getting. The Garden Pavers is a strange item to release effectively on its own - I wonder if it was ready for publishing late and thus was lumped into this week's update. As far as the Action Chef Box goes, the TeamLava Blog has an image showing some or all of the box items...

Items from Action Chef Box as shown on TeamLava Blog

It's difficult to make out everything in this image, except the Petal Pond in the left corner which looks amazing! Presumably it is the first prize, and no wonder considering the beauty of it. Anyone with a garden area in their restaurant will seriously want this new item, but with such long odds on winning it, you're probably safer to just purchase the Zen Garden from last week (if you've got 34 gems!) even though the Petal Pond is infinitely more attractive.

Meanwhile, on the back of me doing some speculating over the possibility of the next big update being Easter related (see here), it appears that one of TeamLava's other games - Pet Shop Story - has got an Easter edition this week.

Homepage for 'Pet Shop Story: Easter Edition'

Note that the special editions of TeamLava's games don't tend to all come out at the same time, so this gives me great hope that Restaurant Story will get an Easter edition over the next week or so. However not every game always gets an app update so it's fingers crossed for now...

Predicting the next big update

It's now approaching two months since the Valentine's Edition of Restaurant Story was released, and so I feel the time has come to speculate on what could be the next special edition.

The obvious answer is an Easter Edition as this is the next big holiday coming up at the end of March. A set of goals wouldn't be hard to draw up for this. For example, 'the Easter Bunny has lost his Easter eggs and needs your help to find them'. Then each goal would 'find' one of the Easter eggs for the poor guy.

However there's never been an Easter Edition before, so this seems a less likely possibility. I do expect some sort of update for Easter though, even if it's just a regular one.

Another option would be a Spring Edition. We've had some Spring related updates recently (the Zen theme specifically) and there are plenty of items which TeamLava could include, particularly elements of the natural world such as flowers, plants and cute little animals.

Other than those two, I'm struggling to come up with many ideas for new Editions. There's always the chance of a set of goals revolving around a theme not relevant to the time of year just like the recent Asian Goals, but these aren't really worthy of a new app.

Then again, a sparse Carnival Editon was released on Android last month, so perhaps TeamLava won't worry about being relevant to the time of year.



Also, it look like we're not getting any St Patrick's Day content this year, which is a shame. With St Andrew's Day (Scotland) and St David's Day (Wales) already passed, any hopes of a major update involving a patron saint are pinned on St George's Day (England) which isn't until 26 April.

Whatever is coming, I'm sure it will be good!

Game update: 13/03/13

Although everyone's still in full flow with the Asian Goals, there is a new update this week, albeit a small one.

Notification for Zen theme update

The Asian theme seems to be continuing, specifically with a range of Zen items:

Tables:

• Zen Table - 72,000 coins

Chairs:

• Zen Chair - 2 gems

Wall decorations:

• Paper Lantern - 38,000 coins

Floor decorations:

• Zen Garden - 34 gems

Wallpapers:

• Autumn Lanterns - 2 gems

Flooring:

• Koi Tile - 3,800 coins

Counters:

• Zen Counter - 40,000 coins

So it's all rather low key this week which is hardly surprising considering the intricate goals currently on the go.

The high price of the Zen Table continues a worrying trend for table prices - the recent Frontier Table cost 63,000 coins and the Svanga Table was 72,000 coins. It seems that the cost of tables is going to be at this high level from now on, except when a table is needed for completion of goals (such as the Meditation Table which is only 14,000 coins). This isn't good news for newish players without hordes of money.

The Zen Garden is a strange one. The top prize in the Asian Fusion Chest is an Indoor Zen Garden which takes up 4x4 spaces. This one may or may not be the same size (see it here). If anyone has been lucky enough to obtain an Indoor Zen Garden already and has the gem capability to spend 34 gems on this one when I'd say go for it! Otherwise unless you're looking at an outdoor theme give it a miss.

I really like the Paper Lantern. It is classy and if anyone has a red theme (perhaps involving the Red Pattern wallpaper) I'd highly recommend installing a few of these. However I do not currently have anywhere to hang these beauties so I'll refrain from purchasing for now.

Coupling the Paper Lanterns with the new Autumn Lantern wallpaper could make for a great combination, but with that particular wallpaper 2 gems a roll, it isn't too economical.

So there you have it. Not much, but not a problem as the Asian Goals are continuing to occupy our thoughts!

Asian goals (in full)

So with this week's update we got a new set of goals revolving around the infamous Action Chef Lee. The first goal is called 'The Fallen Champion' and requires the following:

• Serve 2 Garden Salads
• Serve 2 Spaghetti
• Serve 2 Boiled Lobsters

Asian goals step 1: The Fallen Champion

All of these recipes can be found on the Basic Stove. Due to the long cooking time of the Spaghetti, you'll have to wait for a whole day to complete this goal.

After completing this opening goal, the targets split into two. Details of the second second strand are further down this page. The first strand has the following opening goal entitled 'Friend in Need':

• Buy a Cherry Blossom for Lee
• Serve 10 Corned Beef Hash
• Serve 10 Chocolate Milk

Asian goals strand 1, step 1: Friend in Need

The Cherry Blossom is a one-off payment of 10,000 coins, while Corned Beef Hash takes 14 hours to cook on the Basic Stove and Chocolate Milk needs 3 hours to prepare via the Drink Machine. It's good to see both of these recipes returning after a brief disappearance in the New Year. If you only have one or two Drink Machines then this goal could take a while whether you choose to make do with having few appliances or choose to build more and wait for the required component requests to be fulfilled. Completing this goal will unlock the Penjing Tree which is needed to progress with the second strand of goals.

Next up is 'Sense of Serenity':

• Buy 4 Meditation Tables (costs 56,000 coins in total)
• Buy 4 Meditation Chairs (costs 28,000 coins in total)
• Buy 8 Cherry Blossom (costs 8,000 coins total)

Asian goals strand 1, step 2: Sense of Serenity

So that's a total spend of 92,000 coins there which is pretty hefty if you're a new player. However just think of the new recipes and decorations that you'll unlock in doing so. Completing this goal unlocks the Action Ice Cream Maker.

With the Action Ice Cream Maker now unlocked, you'll be asked to build a couple of them:

• Have 2 Action Ice Cream Makers (costs 16,000 coins total)
• Buy 2 Action Chef Lee Champion Portraits (costs 18,000 coins total)

Asian goals strand 1, step 3: Confidence Boosters

The Ice Cream Makers are of course constructible appliances, requiring 7 Zen Rakes and 7 Jades, both of which are new components. Due to the need for 28 components in total in order to build two Ice Cream Makers, this step may take over a day if your neighbours don't respond promptly. Luckily mine did as they are brilliant!

The fourth step utilises the Action Ice Cream Maker with the focus on Mochi Ice Creams:

• Make 30 Mochi Ice Creams
• Serve 30 Mochi Ice Creams

Asian goals stand 1, step 4: A Friendly Push

Just to clarify that to 'make' a dish means to start it while to 'serve' a dish means to place it on a counter after cooking. This means that any Mochi Ice Creams started on the first Action Ice Cream Maker prior to activating this goal by building a second appliance will not count towards completing the goal.

The concluding goal in the first strand is 'Ice Cream Machine!':

• Bring Mochi Samples to 8 Neighbours
• Serve 40 Sesame Ice Creams
• Serve 55 Green Tea Sundaes

Asian goals strand 1, step 5: Ice Cream Machine!

To complete the first of this goal you simply need to visit 8 neighbours. The Sesame Ice Creams and Green Tea Sundaes take 1 and 2 hours to prepare respectively so get busy! Finishing this goal off will result in the unlocking and award of the Jade Dragon.

Moving on to the second strand of goals, we start with 'A Piece of Home':

• Buy 2 Penjing Trees (costs 12,000 coins total)
• Buy 2 Soothing Waterfalls (costs 16,000 coins total)

Asian goals strand 2, step 1: A Piece of Home

The Soothing Waterfalls look very fancy, but the Penjing Trees remain locked by goal - to unlock them you will need to complete the 'Friend in Need' goal within the first strand of goals.

Once you've done that, you can move on to 'Prepare to Cook!':

• Have 2 Action Chef Stoves (costs 24,000 coins total)
• Borrow 14 Eggs from Neighbours

Asian goals strand 2, step 2: Prepare to Cook!

Although collecting eggs from neighbour may seem simple enough, it will be more difficult given the fact that you will no doubt also be collecting parts for both the Action Chef Stove and Action Ice Cream Maker (within the first strand of goals) - remember you are limited to receiving 20 item requests and 20 gifts per day. As a result it could take a bit of time to get this one done.

But once you get there, you'll be met with 'Back to Basics':

• Cook 14 Egg Drop Soups
• Serve 14 Egg Drop Soups

Asian goals strand 2, step 3: Back to Basics

Not only will completing this goal earn a goal item (time will tell which) but there is also the incentive of 3 gems too. Credit to TeamLava for that!

Following the soups are the pork and noodles in 'Rise of Action Chef Lee':

• Cook 16 Steamed Pork Bao
• Serve 16 Steamed Pork Bao
• Cook 18 Yeung Chow Noodles
• Serve 18 Yeung Chow Noodles

Asian goals strand 2, step 4: Rise of Action Chef Lee

The pork takes 6 hours to cook, while the Yeung Chow Noodles needs 1 hour. Both are new recipes on the Action Chef Stove. So it is recommended that you invest in several more than the two Action Chef Stoves needed to get to this point. I have got four and may yet add another. Completion of this goal is rewarded with Action Chef Lee and brings an end to this strand of the goals.

Game update: 06/03/13

Our first update in the month of March is an Asian theme. We've already got quite a few Asian items, but there are some more pretty nice looking ones in this release. However, some are locked by goals. That's right, we've got some new goals too!

Notification for Asian theme update

So here's the full list of items, including those which can only be unlocked by completing goals:

Tables:

• Meditation Table - 14,000 coins

Chairs:

• Meditation Chair - 7,000 coins

Wall decorations:

• Action Chef Portrait - 9,000 coins
• Wooden Om - 5,000 coins

Floor decorations:

• Soothing Waterfall - 8,000 coins
• Jade Dragon - locked by goal
• Action Chef Lee - locked by goal
• Penjing Tree - locked by goal

Wallpapers:

• Cherry Blossoms - 1,000 coins

Counters:

• Meditation Counter - 5 gems

Appliances:

• Action Ice Cream Maker - locked by goal
• Action Chef Stove - locked by goal

It's very unusual to see the new table and chair both costing coins (usually one or the other costs gems) which is really good since these Meditation furnishings look quite slick. Since both cost coins, you should fully expect to be required to purchase one or two of each for the goals. So hold off on buying them just yet.

Also, there's the prospect of two new appliances when the goals are completed. Presumably with multiple floor decorations as goal items to unlock we will unlock these appliances during the course of completing the goals and probably need to use them to complete further goals.

So that's four new appliances in just three weeks after the Swedish and Cowboy Stoves, giving us plenty to be getting on with, even after completing the goals. Notice that one of the new appliances is an Ice Cream Maker of the same design as the one we had for the World Games Edition last summer. It has since been removed, so it will be nice for newer players to get their hands on an ice cream machine.

Note that the gift list contains four new items: Origami Paper, Zen Rake, Jade and Chef Hat. Presumably these will be needed to build the new appliances so get gifting them!

For full details of all the steps for the new goals, see here.

Being a Masterchef

The prime method of collecting gems in Restaurant Story is by mastering recipes. At the second and fourth levels, perseverance with foods will result in the awarding of a gem. With so many recipes in the game, that's a lot of gems up for grabs.

But what is the best method to go about harvesting these gems? Most restaurants I've visited tend to cook a single food in large batches which will get gems quicker but sporadically.

I do the opposite. Keep rotating the recipes and slowly move the meter up. This is beneficial on two accounts. Firstly it keeps a bit of variety to proceedings - it can get pretty stale to cook the same items continually (anyone who participated in the Christmas goals in 2012 will know just what I mean). The second reason is a technical one - by rotating your recipes you can master most of them around the same time, resulting in a high influx of gems in a short space of time. In my case, I recently reached mastery at the second level on most recipes on the Basic Stove, Basic Oven and Basic Grill, meaning I was just about drowning in gems. Nice.

Those gems have been well spent now with some going towards some future sections for the restaurant while I also used 30 gems to purchase the Kissing Swans pond for Valentine's and it looked swish:

Kissing Swans

However I no longer have these lovers on show as Valentine's has come and gone!

If you choose to use my method of mastering recipes you do have to be prepared for a long slog though, as I've taken about 6 months to reach the second level. Patience is crucial.

Of course my problem now is that I have a heck of a long wait to master any of the main recipes at the fourth level. But at least I've now got the full complement of 18 appliances to work off. I'll get there!