The Sims 4 Guides Dine Out

The Sims 4 Dine Out Review

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06 05 16 9 01 50 PM

It took us almost a year to get the next Game Pack for The Sims 4 but it’s finally here now! Was The Sims 4 Dine Out worth the 11-month wait?

reviewnote

This review is based on 15+ hours of deep gameplay.  Even though I was given an early review copy to test the game, I am not by any means paid or bribed to state positive (or negative) opinions about this game pack.  I will give my honest opinion of the game pack; its content and what it brings to the game.

Create A Sim

Unlike Outdoor Retreat Game Pack which came with over 80 CAS assets and Spa Day Game Pack which brought over 50 CAS assets, Dine Out is a Game Pack with the lowest amount of new CAS content, bringing only over 40 CAS assets to the table.

The CAS part of Dine Out mainly focuses on Staff Wear, and there are different styles for different types of Restaurants.

It would be nice if they added more hairstyles though as they only introduced 1 Masculine and 2 Feminine Hairstyles for Teens to Elders and 1 Masculine and 1 Feminine Hairstyle for Children.

For a full overview of new Create A Sim items, CLICK HERE!

Build Items

However, Build Items did not disappoint! There are over 120 new Build Items that are focused on Restaurants.

Beside this Fish Aquarium, The Sims 4 Dine Out doesn’t come with any new objects that bring some kind of new gameplay outside of restaurants.

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I’m pretty happy with new Build items! There are different objects for different Restaurants. If you want to build a Diner, a Seafood Restaurant or even an Italian Restaurant, there is enough diverse content that will make each Restaurant unique.

For a full overview of new Build items, CLICK HERE!

Gameplay

The Sims 4 Dine Out Gameplay revolves around 2 aspects:

  • Going to the Restaurant
  • Running a Restaurant

As you may have expected, going to a Restaurant won’t be much of a blast unless you make it. Sure, you get to take pictures of your Experimental Food, post it on Simstagram and collect the Experimental Food Prints which is another ‘Collections Activity’, but beside watching your Sim getting stuffed with expensive food and receive moodlets for it, there’s not much going on unless you put some storytelling work to it.

The thing I like about going to a Restaurant is that they’re never dull and empty. Sims will make sure to take every seat there is, and if there’s not enough room, they’ll find more at the bar.

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Another thing which I really like is the integration with Clubs from Get Together. Before being seated, you can start a Club Gathering and have your Sims from the Club seated together for some fun times!

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Sims can also celebrate their Birthdays in a Restaurant! Even the Wait Staff will come and help spread the cheer!

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However, the real crown jewel is the Restaurant Management, where you get to purchase your own Restaurant, build it from the ground (or get one from The Gallery), manage the Staff and socialize with customers who will help you make your Restaurant have 5 stars!

I started off small with Hogan’s Bar. I hired the Staff, added some new things to the menu and I was ready for business!

At first, one of the huge obstacles you’ll run into is your Staff. They’re all unskilled, unexperienced bunch of people who need your guidance. Their required skills will improve overtime, but the customers won’t tolerate that and it’ll result in bad Reviews.

Luckily, I managed to get my Staff on the right track by paying for their training.

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The owner of the restaurant will occasionally have to take care of the customers as well in order to improve their opinions and reviews that they’ll give after they finish with their meals.

You’ll have to know what to do with your customer in the right time. If they don’t like the quality of the food, you can put the meal expenses on your tab and they’ll simply forget about it. If they think that the food is too expensive, offer them a free drink or dessert.

Some Sims will also ask for your recommendation when it comes to picking the right meal. I love this feature because I always get to pick the meals that are more expensive!

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Every time you close your restaurant you’ll get a full report on how your Restaurant did. This includes where you excelled at and what can be improved. At first, you won’t be earning a lot of Simoleons, but eventually you can set the price markup higher and higher, which will bring lots of cash!

For more details and information on what it takes to run a successful Restaurant, CLICK HERE!

Watching your Restaurant expand, grow and get good reviews is so much fun (in my opinion, MUCH more fun than going to Granite Falls or going to the Spa). Stuff you do around your Restaurant actually has an impact and means something compared to what the other last 2 Game Packs brought, and it’s an entirely new way to earn Simoleons.

The Sims Team really hit the jackpot with combining game features in The Sims 4 Dine Out. I can’t think of another Restaurant-management video game that delivers so much Restaurant customization options like this Game Pack.

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About the author

Jovan

Reticulating splines as a webmaster for Sims Community over the last 11 years. You can find me here writing articles and doing reports on your favorite life sim games, among other things!

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Ester
Ester
8 years ago

Can’t wait to buy this new pack and try it myself, sounds fun!Thanks for this quick review!

Selin A.
Selin A.
4 years ago

I recently started playing this so I don’t know everything about it yet. However, my sim is a celebrity and has a “Refined Palate” quirk. She was dining and the food that came was a “normal” quality so of course she was annoyed. There should be a way to tell this to the chef and request an “excellent” dish. Also they can not order two different dishes. Why is that? There should be more attractions within the dining experience such as; tipping the waiter (if he did something nice to my sim) , sending word to chef weather it was a good dish or not, proposing at the table and maybe if you are in the Critic Career you can critic the restaurant. Really hurt them or help them with their reputation according to the career level. If the ideas that I mentioned above are already exist, I’m sorry. Like I said I have just started playing this and I got excited about the “normal” quality dish. But if it’s not that please consider adding some more fun to the extention.

Selin A.
Selin A.
4 years ago

I recently started playing this so I don’t know everything about it yet. However, my sim is a celebrity and has a “Refined Palate” quirk. She was dining and the food that came was a “normal” quality so of course she was annoyed. There should be a way to tell this to the chef and request an “excellent” dish. Also they can not order two different dishes. Why is that? There should be more attractions within the dining experience such as; tipping the waiter (if he did something nice to my sim) , sending word to chef weather it was a good dish or not, proposing at the table and maybe if you are in the Critic Career you can critic the restaurant. Really hurt them or help them with their reputation according to the career level. If the ideas that I mentioned above are already exist, I’m sorry. Like I said I have just started playing this and I got excited about the “normal” quality dish. But if it’s not that please consider adding some more fun to the extention.