What Is Restaurant City on Facebook?

Restaurant City is an online social game developed and created by Playfish. In this game the user is in charge of a virtual restaurant that may be redecorated and managed. Both the inside and outside of the restaurant can be changed. Friends can be hired and fired. The user can select which dishes to learn and to serve. This game can be difficult to get started in without a large network of online friends or the purchase of game currency. 

The Basics
The game starts simple. The user is provided with a building that has a generic appearance and contains three tables, three chairs, a stove and a mailbox. The user is provided with a small selection of ingredients in an inventory. To begin, the first task is to learn a dish.

Dishes are learned by acquiring the main ingredients. When the Change Menu icon is selected, a pop-up window appears with four main categories (Starter, Main, Dessert and Drink). Learn at least one dish by clicking the Learn button beneath the dish. The ingredients necessary for the dish will be removed from the available inventory. The remaining ingredient inventory will not have enough items to learn any additional dishes at first.

The user will receive gourmet points, which are the experience points (XP) for this game, and acquire the ability to hire an employee. An employee is selected from the user's friends on Facebook. Tasks must be assigned to at least two employees. One must be a chef and the other must be a waiter for customers to be served. Customers walk in randomly from the street and sit down at tables. The employees automatically serve the customer. The user receives gourmet points and game currency for each customer served.

Game Currency
Game currency allows item purchase. Currency is earned by serving dishes and visiting friends, with rewards for going up experience levels. It does not cost any currency to make and serve the dishes. It does require currency to purchase new ingredients, provide food for employees and change the restaurant. Customers provide game currency after being served some food item. Currency is also earned by visiting friends' restaurants and performing small tasks for them as prompted when one enters the friends' place. Another option is to purchase currency, specifically Playfish dollars, through the site. Playfish dollars can be used to purchase additional game currency, special items in the game store and a variety of ingredients.

Employees
Employees will perform the assigned task until they are instructed to do otherwise.  When the employee's energy reaches 0.0% they stop working. At this point they will need food or rest. Food is quick and can be selected from the same menu screen that allows the user to assign tasks to the employees. The options include providing water, an apple, a banana or a sandwich. Each of these replenishes a defined amount of the employee's energy and costs some amount of game currency. The more expensive items replenish more energy. To save on currency, one can choose to assign the employee to rest. As the employee rests, the energy rises gradually back to 100%. Once users reach the point of having three or more employees, they can rotate which ones are working and which are resting each time they check in on the game. The game will progress only about 3 hours without supervision. Once the employees are tired, the game basically waits for the user to feed them or assign rested employees before additional currency or gourmet points are gained. 

Ingredients
The user will have a small inventory of ingredients when the game begins. Ingredients are necessary to learn or level up dishes. Each time that a dish is learned or leveled up, the ingredients used to learn or level up will be removed from inventory. Users must make choices about which dishes they want to spend their ingredients on. Ingredients are acquired via daily play, first time visits, food quizzes, gardens, trading and the market. 

Each day the user will receive a free ingredient of the day. Each day there is a food quiz in the mailbox. If the question is answered correctly, an additional free ingredient is received. The first time that users visit a friend's restaurant, they will receive one free ingredient as a bonus.  

There is an ingredient market on the street just outside the restaurant. There are a random three ingredients featured each day that can be purchased for game currency and a full selection of ingredients that can be purchased using Playfish dollars. The only other way to acquire specific ingredients is by trading for them. When a friend's restaurant is visited, one can choose the option to trade. Clicking on the trade ingredients icon will bring up a menu showing the user's ingredients and their friend's ingredients. The users select one of theirs and one of the friend's and click the okay check mark. The game sends a message to the friend for a trade request. They will have the option to accept or decline the trade. If they accept the trade, they receive your ingredient and their ingredient is sent to your restaurant mailbox. 

Summary
It is easily possible to start this game and begin acquiring XP and game currency. Simply entering the game daily provides the opportunity for two free ingredients. Entering more often allows the opportunity to change employee tasks or energy, thus resetting the automatic gain of XP and currency. Progress at first may be slow. To speed progress one can purchase Playfish dollars from the game developer and/or invite many friends to join the game. More friends allows for more additional ingredients (acquired on first visit, or by trading) and earning XP and currency by helping with a special task provided when visiting. This game may require a certain level of advance planning and strategy to advance quickly and efficiently, but can be enjoyed easily if one does not need to advance.