Crowds are gathering from all around to taste your mouthwatering dishes! Can you create the tastiest plates, or will another chef pack a bigger flavor punch of umami? Let’s find out!

What Is It?

🥅The Goal is to have the most points at the end of the game
⚙️Open Drafting/Contract Completion – Each turn, every player will play 1 ingredient card from the ingredients area, and 1 from their hand in front of them to their dishes. If they complete one of the available favorite cards, they can also take that to “set” the dish
⚙️Take That – Players are able to steal ingredients from rivals with certain cards, or favorites, if they can make a tastier version of the dish.

Who Is It For?

👥2 to 5 Players – Scales fine. I definitely think there’s a bit less stealing with less players though
👥Ages 10 & Up – Approchable, small ruleset
👥Fans of light, quick card games with contracts
👥Players who don’t mind a bit of take-that

PROS

🟢Aesthetics – The ingredient cards aren’t very exciting, but the favorite cards have great art – Such cute animals!
🟢Good quality cards
🟢Rules well written
🟢Quick, snappy turns
🟢Compensation for stealing helps it not feel as mean
🟢Variety of favorite cards; you never use them all in one game, so you can never guess what might be coming up, or what other players have as their private ones

CONS

🔴Not a ton of choice turn to turn – seems to always be the best choice to grab up the point cards
🔴Game doesn’t change much play to play

Final Thoughts

The game is cute and plays smoothly. While it does have take-that, which I don’t love, I think it’s nice that the player stolen from does get a new ingredient to compensate. It might not be exactly what they want, but it’s better than getting nothing. The shuffle/luck can still add some swingy-ness if one player seems to be getting all the point cards while another is getting mostly blossoms. Overall, I think it’s fine, it just doesn’t do anything super exciting or unique. But, if you’re a big card gamer, it’s worth at least a few plays!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designer – Don Eskridge
Artist – Ikuko Nakai
Publisher – HeidelBÄR Games; CGE
MSRP – 15,95 €
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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