Whether players are professional chefs, home cooks, or just enjoy casual games, cooking sims are a great way to bring a variety of virtual dishes to everyone. Games such as Overcooked, Cooking Simulator, and Cooking Mama have let gamers explore plenty of culinary styles over the years, but they're far from the only ones.
While cooking is often a focus in these types of games, gameplay, visuals, and time-management are often what sets each cooking sim apart. Whether players want to manage every aspect of a restaurant, cook traditional meals, or simply experiment with new flavor profiles, there's something to suit everybody's tastes.
8 Claire's Cruisin' Cafe: High Seas Cuisine
- Released: February 6th, 2022
- Platform: PC
In Claire’s Crusin’ Cafe: High Seas Cuisine, players are put in charge of feeding the guests of a luxury cruise line. They'll be able to prepare a variety of dishes from meatballs to sushi, as the ship sails across the ocean.
In order to succeed, players will need to fully utilize Claire’s crew to serve the most customers, while each location also introduces new challenges and tasks.
In addition to cooking, players will help solve a mysterious missing person case. There are plenty of side quests, matching games, and even a bonus chapter that takes place in a brand-new area.
7 Totally Convenient
- Released: March 4th, 2022
- Platform: PC
In Totally Convenient, players will have to multitask and use a conveyor belt to ensure customers receive their food quickly. They'll have to control a set of machines attached to the aforementioned conveyor belt, which is used to deliver food to hungry customers.
The game is playable with only four buttons, and the short levels offer a fast-paced gameplay option. Each level has a forty-five-second timer, and players must fulfill as many orders as possible before it counts down.
As players progress through the game, they'll find each restaurant has new machines with their own unique uses. Totally Convenient offers seventy different levels, that will test players' reflexes.
6 Recipe for Disaster
- Released: November 4th, 2021
- Platform: PC
Recipe for Disaster is a restaurant management and social simulation game in which players take control of a Head Chef who has big dreams of becoming a well-known restaurateur.
The journey to culinary fame is not an easy one, and players will have to wear a variety of hats at once. In Recipe for Disaster, players can design the interior and exteriors of their restaurants to attract new customers.
Players will also have to assemble a staff from procedurally generated applicants, each of whom has their own strengths and weaknesses that can help or hinder the restaurant. In addition, players can create custom menu items, and experiment with ingredients to create unique dishes.
5 Chef RPG
- Expected Release Date: Q3 2023
- Platform: PC
In Chef RPG, players are traveling Chefs who must revive the once-famous restaurant, Le Sequoia. The game takes place in a beautiful seaside town, and players will be able to hunt, harvest, and shop for their ingredients.
The game offers five different restaurant operation modes: Restaurant, Social House, Pub, Confectionary, and Teahouse. Each mode features its own benefits and challenges, ensuring that they all feel unique.
Chef RPG is an open-ended RPG, meaning players are free to choose their own culinary adventure. Whether they strive to impress guests with adventurous ingredients or grow their business through charisma and influence is entirely up to them.
4 Pekoe
- Estimated Release Date: Q3 2022
- Platform: PC
Players looking to combine their love of tea-making and their love of cats will probably want to keep an eye out for Pekoe. Pekoe is a cat-filled tea-making simulation game, that puts an emphasis on self-care.
Pekoe players will become the owner of one of the town's teahouses and will learn how to harvest, prepare, and serve tea. There are various techniques players will learn to perfect their tea-making styles and an endless number of tea flavor combinations.
Players will also be able to build relationships with members of the town, which can benefit them in a number of ways. Players can also visit their neighbors' teahouses to purchase equipment and ingredients.
3 Soup Pot
- Estimated Release Date: 2022
- Platforms: PC, XBOX Series X, and Series S
Players can make a wide range of home-cooked meals in Chikon Club's upcoming cooking simulator, Soup Pot. Soup Pot focuses on creativity and experimentation as they attempt to master one hundred different dishes.
Whether players are seasoned chefs looking to find a game to inspire them, or new to the kitchen entirely, Soup Pot is very welcoming. Players can follow suggested cooking methods or experiment with new styles and combinations as they see fit.
The ingredients in the game also add a whimsical element to proceedings. Eggs, vegetables, and other ingredients shout their names when added to the pot, while dough reacts to being kneaded and punched. There are also dozens of interactive steps involved, such as grilling, baking, and mixing.
2 Venba
- Release Date: TBD
- Platform: PC
Venba is a narrative-driven cooking game in which players step into the life of an Indian immigrant mother. Throughout the game, players will help the titular character restore her recipe book, which was badly damaged during the family's move to Canada.
Players will craft mouth-watering authentic dishes, all of which are based on regional Southern Indian Cuisine. In Venba, players will also get to converse with the rest of Venba’s family which can be interesting as well.
There are various branching conversations with different narrative beats to explore, which provides a degree of replayability. The game explores the themes of family, love, loss, and more; all to an excellent soundtrack that was inspired by Indian musicals.
1 Bakery Simulator
- Release Date: TBD
- Platform: PC
Players who want to experience the life of a Baker may want to try Bakery Simulator, an upcoming cooking sim by developer Live Motion Games. Unlike more traditional cooking sims, Bakery Simulator lets players learn to bake several dozen types of bread.
Every day begins before dawn, as players will have to manage all their tasks and get ready to deliver the final products. Bakery Simulator features realistic machines, which players can use to experiment with a variety of ingredients.
In addition to baking, players can also customize their bakery, manage their inventories, and choose which orders they want to complete. The game features an open world with a changing customer base too, which really helps to set it apart from some of its peers.