Taylor Bauer
Taylor BauerI’m not a complicated person. Can you give me a game where I can hunt for resources, craft items, make money, and improve my gear? I’m totally in. Now, if you throw in restaurant management simulation elements and a cast of cozy, cute characters? I’m so in I don’t know where to start.
After hearing rumblings from PC gamers about the cozy roguelite restaurant simulator Cuisineer, I finally got to check out the game for consoles. At a time when releases from 2024 and early 2025 are all competing for my attention, this game captured it fully and without compromise. In fact, it’s one of my favorite games in recent memory. Let’s dive into our Cuisineer review for Xbox Series X.
Cuisineer starts players off with a simple premise. You play as Pom, a young adventurer who returns home to your parents’ restaurant. Deep in debt and completely stripped down to a basic kitchen, your goal is to bring the eatery back to life. To do so, you’ll dungeon-crawl for ingredients and then cook dishes to sell at the restaurant. With a time clock limiting how much you can resource-gather, cook, and do in a day, there are elements of Stardew Valley, Cult of the Lamb, and even the Atelier series. While I have a few minor gripes with the gameplay loop, the cycle is thoroughly enjoyable and quite addicting.
BattleBrew Productions clearly took popular roguelite elements and made them their own with Cuisineer. For one, you’re dungeon-crawling with weapons you’d find in the kitchen. Secondly, you receive rewards for completing tasks for townsfolk, which are recipes to diversify and grow your restaurant’s offerings. The experience here is familiar, yet has a fun twist. There are over 100 recipes to collect, and the challenges encourage you to find resources for cooking and aid in your menu’s expansion. The loop becomes familiar quickly and is kept fresh with fun events you can track on the town’s calendar. As you might guess, the calendar helps you celebrate festivals and even preview what foods might be popular on what day.
The restaurant management part where you cook, serve, and cash out customers, is simple yet satisfying. Eventually, you expand your restaurant and kitchen to host more patrons and add things like brick ovens and frying stations. You also have some customers who will grab their food from your counter and others (the nearby royalty) who will demand you serve them. I even had a few people try to leave without paying. There’s not a ton of depth to the restaurant sections of the gameplay loop, but I never found myself dreading this part of my daily schedule. You can time out your restaurant’s open hours with things like the lunch and dinner rush, adding some strategy to the mix.
The dungeon-crawling leaves a bit to be desired, but only if you’re seeking that component to be the meat of the game. Not unlike Cult of the Lamb, the part where you’re in combat is only part of the recipe with Cuisineer. I don’t knock those who say this is the weak point in the game, but it’s fun enough to keep me wanting to stay in the loop. I’m not seeking the best roguelite combat ever, but rather a mix of multiple gameplay mechanics that fit my interests. In terms of mixing roguelite dungeons with restaurant management, it’s a slam dunk for me. New biomes even help diversify what you’re hunting for on each trip.
There’s also plenty of charm to the art and style of Cuisineer. The characters that reside in the town are fun to get to know, and the game, while sometimes stressful during a meal rush or dungeon adventure, is very cozy. The soundtrack is wonderful too thanks to the debut original soundtrack compositions of Yishan Mai.
Like any great dish, it’s often the ingredients that make up the final results, and truly, there are no elements of Cuisineer that didn’t bring me joy to play or experience. While I wouldn’t call this a genre-defining title like Stardew Valley, I would recommend this game to anyone who loves cozy games, roguelites, or restaurant management games.
If you’re like me and all three of those subgenres appeal to you, you’re in for a treat with Cuisineer. At $29.99 USD, it’s playable on everything from PS5 and Xbox Series X to Nintendo Switch and Steam. I hope cozy console gamers find this game and show it the love it deserves. Between this and my now-live review of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, 2025 is off to a great start for my gaming. Do yourself a favor and give this one a try!
An Xbox Series X review copy of Cuisineer was provided by XSEED Games for this review.
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54 Cuisineer
29.99
Pros
- Cozy, captivating gameplay loop of restaurant management and roguelite dungeon-crawling
- Wonderful soundtrack and art style
- Hits on a number of genres quite effectively
Cons
- Nothing genre-defining, but not every game needs to be!
