Critter Kitchen
Critter Kitchen Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
General components
- 8 Location Boards
- 7 Challenge Cards
- 16 Spice Tokens
- 91 Ingredient Tokens
- 2 Allspice 7th-Round Tokens
- 12 Rumor Tokens
- 72 Star Tokens (1s, 5s, 10s)
- 28 Rumor Cards
- 10 Critic Cards
- 1 Maitre d' Card
- 12 Restaurateur Cards
Player components
- 15 Chef Figures (mice, lizards, and boars)
- 5 Player Kitchen Boards
- 5 Chef Hats
- 5 Player Restaurant Shields
- 45 Location Cards
- 1 Waterfront Board
- 1 Token Bag
- 1 Round Tracker
- 1 Hold Token
- 40 Soup Tokens
- 7 Bisque Tokens
- 12 Zous-chef Cards
- 12 Zous-chef Tokens
- 5 Critic Plates
- 15 Challenge Plates
Solo components
- 1 McDogald's Kitchen Board
- 12 Critic's Choice Cards
- 14 Manager Cards
- 30 McDogald's Chef Cards
Setup
Game Setup
- Maitre d': Nominate a player to be maitre d' and give them the Maitre d' Card. They are responsible for guiding players through setup at the beginning of each round.
- Token Bag: Put all Ingredient, Spice, and Rumor Tokens (the oblong-shaped tokens) into the bag and shake it.
- Waterfront: Place the Waterfront Board in the middle of the table and set it up as follows:
- a. Place the Round Tracker on round 1 of the round track. Place the Hold Token on round 3. Place one of the Allspice 7th-Round Tokens on round 7.
- b. Separately shuffle the Challenge, Critic, and Rumor Cards, and fill the slots along the top of the board from left to right in this order. Return the remaining cards to the box without looking at them.
- c. 6 challenges (face down).
- d. 1 critic (face up).
- e. 3 rumors (face down).
- Locations: Set up the locations as follows:
- f. Find the 5 Location Boards with a number on the back. Return each board with a number higher than your player count to the box (e.g. with 3 players, use locations 1-3). Lay the remaining boards out in a row in numbered order from left to right, then flip each of them face up.
- g. Place the Soup Truck at the left end of the row. Pile the Soup Tokens on the truck in the indicated spot and place the Bisque Tokens next to the Soup Truck.
- h. Place the Midnight Merchant and Chef Academy (in that order) on the right end of the row. Use the side marked "2" in a 2-player game; otherwise use the other side.
- i. Shuffle the Zous-chef Cards and place them in a face-down deck on the Chef Academy. Gather all Zous-chef Tokens and place them nearby.
- Star Tokens: Pile all Star Tokens to the side.
Locations by player count (left to right along the row):
| Players | Locations used |
|---|---|
| 2 | Soup Truck, Garden Top Shop, Desert Vendor, Midnight Merchant, Chef Academy |
| 3 | Soup Truck, Garden Top Shop, Desert Vendor, Water Market, Midnight Merchant, Chef Academy |
| 4 | Soup Truck, Garden Top Shop, Desert Vendor, Water Market, Air Docks, Midnight Merchant, Chef Academy |
| 5 | Soup Truck, Garden Top Shop, Desert Vendor, Water Market, Air Docks, Lantern Lane, Midnight Merchant, Chef Academy |
First Game: If you haven't played before, we suggest using The Mouse as your critic, and removing all advanced rumors from the deck. Advanced rumors are marked by a waiter with an orange cloth.
Player Setup
Each player takes the following steps to set up:
- Components: Pick a color and take the Restaurant Shield, Kitchen Board, Chef Hat, and 3 Chef Figures (mouse, lizard, and boar) in your color. Set up your shield to create your hidden storage next to your Kitchen Board, so everyone can see your kitchen. Place your Kitchen Board with its score side face down and place your chefs on your kitchen.
- Location Cards: Take the 9 Location Cards of your color. Create your hand by keeping the cards matching the locations used in the game and return the remaining cards (including the Break Time Card) to the box.
- Plates: Place a Critic Plate and 3 Challenge Plates anywhere in your player area. These may be hidden behind your shield during play.
- Starting Soup: Take 1 soup and hide it behind your shield.
- Chef Hats: Mix your Chef Hat in with the other players' hats and line them up in a random order on the priority track of the Waterfront Board.
Restaurateurs (optional): Deal each player 2 Restaurateur Cards. Players pick one and display it face up next to their kitchen, returning the other to the box.
Overview
Goal
To win the game, your restaurant needs to earn the most stars. You earn stars by presenting high-quality meals at the end of each day. You'll send your chefs out to Bistro Bay to collect fresh ingredients and other items that can help you prepare the best dishes.
Critics
Each game a celebrity critic will visit the town, seeking a spectacular 7-course meal from every restaurant. Critics each bring a unique rule to the table. Critic rules can affect:
- Challenges
- The Critic Meal
Locations
Each location provides a fresh supply of ingredients, spices, soup, and rumors. You'll send your chefs to these locations each round using your Location Cards. Each location board shows queues at the top and item spaces below.
Ingredients, Spices, Value, and Quality
- Prepare your meals using 7 different ingredient types.
- Add the spice matching your ingredient to double its value.
- Each ingredient brings its own VALUE to meals.
- Add all ingredient values to get your meal QUALITY.
Rumors, Soup, and Bisque
- Rumors give you a peek at hidden information — insight into how the critic meal will score.
- Soup and bisque are the perfect compliment to your challenge meals. Serve them to add to the quality of your challenge meals and/or substitute for an ingredient.
Gameplay
The game takes place over 7 rounds, divided into 3 days. Each round has 5 steps:
- Step 1: Start of Round
- Step 2: Planning
- Step 3: Running
- Step 4: Shopping
- Step 5: End of Round
Step 1: Start of Round
At the start of each round, the various vendors of Bistro Bay must prepare for the day's clientele. The maitre d' can guide everyone through this process by following the Maitre d' Card.
- Reveal a new challenge: Flip the leftmost face-down Challenge Card on the Waterfront Board. If there is a Hold Token on the current space of the round track, place it on the card to cover the rightmost required ingredient.
- 7th Round Only: Do not reveal a new challenge.
- Restock bisque: If the bisque space on the Soup Truck is empty, place 1 bisque there from the supply.
- Restock items: Go through each location, skipping the Soup Truck, and fill each item space with a random item from the bag. Do not place any items on the Midnight Merchant or Chef Academy.
- 2 Players Only: Also fill the 2 item spaces on the Chef Academy from the bag.
- Reveal a new zous-chef: Reveal a new Zous-chef Card at the Chef Academy. Find the matching Zous-chef Token and place it on the location. Remove the previous round's zous-chef from the game if it wasn't picked.
- 7th Round Only: Instead of revealing a new zous-chef, take the Allspice 7th-Round Token from the round track and place it on the Chef Academy.
Step 2: Planning
Once you've seen what Bistro Bay has to offer, it's time to plan where to send your chefs this round. Each player simultaneously gives secret instructions to their chefs by placing Location Cards face down above their Kitchen Board.
You must place 1 Location Card face down in each of your 3 card slots to tell your chefs where to go. Each chef must go to a different location, since you only have 1 of each Location Card. Once all players have placed a card for each chef, you are ready to start the Running step.
Step 3: Running
Now it's time to put your plans in motion. Each player flips all of their Location Cards face up, and immediately moves their chefs to the matching locations.
When you place a chef at a location, place them in one of the 3 queues at the top of the location — the one that shows their carrying capacity. Chefs of the same carrying capacity are placed in the same queue. Zous-chefs are placed according to the carrying capacity shown on their Zous-chef Card.
Carrying Capacity
Each chef has a carrying capacity of 1, 2, or 3, which will determine in what order they act and how many items they can pick. The speedy mouse gets their single pick before the lizard or the slower boar can load up.
Zous-chef Instructions
Each round, the academy presents one fresh zous-chef student for an internship. Pick them and you'll gain an extra chef with a unique special ability for the following round. Each zous-chef works only for the next round, so make good use of their help.
If you have a Zous-chef Card in the Planning step, you must place an extra face-down Location Card in the card slot of your Zous-chef Card. You cannot choose to save your zous-chef for a future round. (If you forget to give your zous-chef instructions, they still go away at the end of the round.)
Zous-chef Abilities
Each zous-chef has a special ability that activates at a specific time in their location:
- Start of Location: before any player takes an item at this location.
- Before Your First Pick: before you take your first item at this location.
- After Your Last Pick: after taking all of your items at this location.
Step 4: Shopping
Once all players have finished placing their chefs, resolve each location one at a time, starting with the Soup Truck and going along the row, left to right.
Resolving a Location
When a location is resolved, each chef there gets a chance to collect items in queue order. All chefs in the queue with a carrying capacity of 1 pick first, then the chefs in the queue with a carrying capacity of 2, and finally the chefs in the queue with a carrying capacity of 3.
- If there is only 1 chef in a queue, they get to pick all of their items at once, before any chefs in the next queue pick.
- If there are 2 or more chefs in the same queue, they alternate picking 1 item at a time in priority track order. Only once each of them has taken as much as they can carry can chefs in the next queue pick.
Breaking Ties During Shopping
If multiple players have chefs in the same queue, they must use their current positions on the priority track to break the tie, with the rightmost Chef Hat indicating who goes first.
Once a tie is resolved, the tied chefs alternate taking 1 item at a time in the established order, until they each have enough items (or the location runs out).
Check if the chef going first loses position on the priority track:
- If the tied chef is the first chef to pick an item from this location, they (and only they) must move their Chef Hat to the back of the priority track.
- Otherwise, no one moves their Chef Hat.
It is possible for a location with one or more ties to be fully resolved without anyone losing position.
Picking Items
As you pick up various items, place them in these specific areas:
- Place ingredients, spices, soup, or bisque into storage behind your restaurant shield.
- Place rumors on the space on your kitchen board that matches their icon.
- Place a Zous-chef Card and its matching Token beside your kitchen board.
Once your chef has collected as much as they can carry, return them to your kitchen. If the location runs out of items before your chef has finished picking, you must return the chef to your kitchen immediately, with whatever they took. If your chef returns without any items at all, you get a consolation soup.
Consolation Soup
If one of your chefs returns to your kitchen with no items at all, either by choice or circumstance, you may take 1 soup. You only get 1 soup, regardless of the chef's carrying capacity. If they have collected even 1 other item, no soup for you.
Leaving Early: When it's your turn to pick an item, if you haven't collected anything yet, you can choose to return your chef early and take a consolation soup instead.
Cleaning Up Each Location
Good ingredients make great meals, and the rest get used for cooking class. When the last chef at a location, except for the Chef Academy, returns to their kitchen, follow these steps to clean up any leftover items there before resolving the next location:
- Collect all leftover ingredients and spices and move them to the Chef Academy.
- Remove leftover rumors from the game. Any hot leads on the critic's tastes are lost if no one is there to hear them.
Follow these steps even if no chef went to the location.
For Chef Academy: after the last chef returns to their kitchen, all leftover ingredients and spices are moved to the Soup Truck. If the zous-chef wasn't taken, return it to the box.
Step 5: End of Round
After the Chef Academy is resolved, follow these steps to end the round:
- Take back Location Cards: Each player returns all Location Cards to their hand.
- Zous-chef leaves: For any zous-chefs that were used this round, remove the Zous-chef Card and Token from the game.
- Prepare meals: For rounds 3 and 6 (end of days 1 and 2) you will serve up challenges (see Challenge Meals). For round 7 (the last day), the critic is here, so every restaurant will prepare the final plate (see Critic Meal).
- Advance Round Tracker: Move the token 1 space on the round track.
Items
Collect a variety of items around town. Items include ingredients, spice, soup, and bisque — and even whispered rumors about what the celebrity chef most desires.
Ingredients
Ingredients are the heart of your dishes, and quality is essential. There are 7 different types of ingredients (bread, carrot, cheese, fish, meat, mushroom, and wine) you can collect, and you'll want all of them to impress the critic.
Each Ingredient Token has a value from 2-7, reflecting its quality (a 7-value is a premium product, while a 2-value is only technically food). Using higher-valued ingredients in a meal leads to more stars, but sometimes you have to make do with what you've got.
There are 13 tokens of each ingredient in the bag (2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7).
Spices
Spices bring out the flavors of your dish. Spice doesn't count as an ingredient and can never be used in a meal on its own. However, if you pair it with a matching ingredient, it doubles that ingredient's value.
Each spice can only be paired with a single Ingredient Token, and it only doubles that ingredient. Most spices have to be paired with a matching ingredient (e.g. meat spice must go on meat). The exception is the legendary allspice, which can be paired with an ingredient of any type.
There are 2 copies of each spice in the bag, including allspice.
Soup and Bisque
When all else fails, there's soup. The critic won't fall for soup served instead of a tasty carrot or meat, but soup can be used to substitute for any ingredient in a challenge meal.
Soup only has a value of 1, but any amount of soup can be added to boost the quality of a challenge, whether or not it is standing in for other ingredients. For example, you can use soup as value 1 wine (weird, but it works) and you can add soup on top of required ingredients just to keep adding +1 to the quality per soup.
Bisque can also be taken from the Soup Truck. Bisque functions just like soup, except it has a value of 3. Players cannot exchange bisque for soup or soup for bisque.
All rules that refer to using soup apply to bisque as well.
Rumors
Gossip about the critic's unique tastes is flying around town, and if your chefs are in the right place at the right time, they might catch a snippet of all-important info. Each face-down Rumor Card lists an extra condition the critic will use to score your final meal at the end of the game. Rumors only apply to the critic meal at the end of round 7.
Your chefs can pick rumors from locations just like ingredients and spice. When you pick a rumor, you may immediately peek at the matching Rumor Card on the Waterfront Board. Place the rumor on the matching rumor space of your Kitchen Board, so everyone can see you know that rumor.
Once you know a rumor, you may peek at it again at any time for the rest of the game, if you forget what it is.
You may not collect the same rumor again — it doesn't exist for you. If there is a rumor you know in your location, you must leave it for the other players.
Wild Rumors: If you collect a wild rumor, you must immediately place it in your choice of any of your empty rumor spaces and treat it as that rumor. If you already know all 3 rumors, you may not take wild rumors.
Revealing Rumors: If every player knows the same rumor, flip the card face up. For the rest of the game, if that rumor is ever drawn from the bag, remove it from the game and draw again.
Only one rumor should be viewed at a time to avoid returning them to the wrong spot.
There are 3 copies of each Rumor Token in the bag, including wilds.
Special Locations
Special locations are resolved like other locations, but each has a unique twist.
Soup Truck
Line up for Bistro Bay's Soup Truck! It has multiple items on offer for chefs to pick, but is best known for its never-ending bowls of soup. In addition to any leftovers from the previous round, and the endless soup, there is a single bisque (the best-valued soup) available each round.
The supply of 1-value soup is unlimited, so the Soup Truck can never run out of items, and chefs can pick soup multiple times.
The Soup Truck can be a good spot to send your bigger chefs, since it's the only location with unlimited items. Although soup isn't very high quality, it can be useful for completing challenges, since it lets you ignore required ingredients.
Midnight Merchant
The Midnight Merchant traffics in ingredients and rumors just like other vendors, but you won't know what's on offer until you shop.
Don't add items to this location at the start of the round. When you reach this location, begin by drawing items from the bag to fill each of its spaces, even if no chefs came here. Chefs then pick items in queue order, as normal.
Sending a chef to the Midnight Merchant is a gamble. You don't know what'll show up until it's time to pick.
Chef Academy
The world-renowned Bistro Bay Chef Academy is where critters become culinary heavy hitters. It offers a zous-chef, as well as a second chance at the round's leftovers before they go to the Soup Truck.
It's an adventure — you can't know all the items that will be there when you are Planning.
The zous-chef counts as 1 item. If you take it, place the Zous-chef Card beside your kitchen and place the matching Zous-chef Token on it. You must use them as an extra chef next round. In the final round, the Chef Academy offers a special Allspice 7th-Round Token instead of a zous-chef (an end-of-class parting gift since there's no next round).
Having an extra chef for the next round is always valuable. As for leftovers, most high-quality items will usually get picked up before they make it to the Chef Academy — but if any locations aren't visited by chefs this round, there could be good pickings.
Challenge Meals
It's time to demonstrate your culinary chops to Bistro Bay by serving your top tastes for the restaurant week challenge meals. During challenge scoring at the end of days 1 and 2 (after rounds 3 and 6 respectively), each player may present up to 3 meals to score the challenges revealed over the last 3 rounds. All players may attempt all challenges and do not influence or compete with each other.
After challenges, any player who is above the current refrigeration limit in their storage must choose what they want to keep for the next round.
When the Round Tracker moves onto a challenge meal space, follow these steps:
- Prepare Challenge Meals
- Present Meals
- Clean Up
- Refrigerate
1. Prepare Challenge Meals
You may prepare 1 meal for each of the 3 face-up challenges, using your kitchen's 3 challenge plates. All players prepare these meals simultaneously, publicly or hidden behind their shields per their preference, and present once everyone is ready.
Each meal you opt to present for a challenge must have at least 1 ingredient matching each requirement on the card. If you don't have a required ingredient or don't want to use one, you may substitute 1 soup for it. You may substitute soup for multiple different ingredients, but you can't prepare a meal that is all soup — you must have at least 1 required ingredient.
As long as the above requirement is met, you can include any number of items of each required ingredient in your meal, as well as any number of soup.
2. Present Meals
Once all players have finished preparing their challenge meals, they simultaneously reveal their plates, presenting each meal in turn and collecting stars.
3. Clean Up
After scoring, return all spent soup and bisque to their supplies. Ingredients and spice served in challenges are returned to the Token Bag, and players take back their challenge plates.
If this is the end of day 1, place the Hold Token on the round 6 space of the Waterfront Board.
4. Refrigerate
After clean up, check that the number of leftover ingredients and spices in your storage is below the refrigeration limit.
At the end of day 1 your small fridge can only hold 5 items. By day 2 your walk-in fridge is ready for business, so you can keep 10 items as you head into round 7. These limits are shown on the Waterfront Board. Any excess tokens are returned to the Token Bag.
Only ingredients and spices count towards your limit. Soup does not need to be refrigerated, and you may keep any number of soup without affecting how many other items you keep. Rumors never count towards your refrigeration limit.
Star Tokens
Every restaurant wants stars and great ratings, and in Critter Kitchen stars are how you win the game. All stars you've collected should be displayed publicly — after all, they signify your restaurant's hard-earned reputation. You may exchange Star Tokens of different denominations with the supply at any time.
| Quality of challenge meal | Stars gained for each challenge meal |
|---|---|
| 0-5 | Not good enough to present! |
| 6-11 | Gain 1 star |
| 12-20 | Gain 2 stars |
| 21+ | Gain 4 stars |
You must reach a quality of at least 6 to present your meal and earn any stars.
Adding Spice
Remember that you can pair spices with matching ingredients to double their value, increasing your meal's quality. Each spice only doubles the value of the single ingredient it is paired with, and each ingredient may only be doubled by a single spice.
Hold the Gravy
For the last dish each day you'll need to get creative. The last challenge revealed before challenge scoring gets a Hold Token, which covers the rightmost requirement. Fewer required ingredients, but you might need more of them. The stars awarded are the same as the other challenge meals.
Critic Meal
The celebrity critic will arrive at any moment — time to dazzle them with your culinary skills. At the end of the 7th round, each player must present and score their final critic meal. Afterwards, the game ends immediately, and whoever has the most total stars wins.
For final scoring follow these steps:
- Prepare the Critic Meal
- Most Soup
- All 7 Courses
- Best of Each Course
- Score Rumors
- Bonus Score
- Final Score
Friendly Ties: All ties when scoring stars are friendly ties. If 2 or more players tie, all are awarded full stars.
1. Prepare the Critic Meal
The critic is visiting every restaurant in one night. They will take a single bite of each course, so serve your best. For each course, you may choose a single ingredient and may add a single spice to it, placing it on the appropriate section of your Critic Plate. You can never serve a spice alone, and you may not substitute soup for any ingredients.
The courses must be presented to the critic in the order indicated on the Critic Plate.
Once everyone has prepared their meal, each player simultaneously presents their Critic Plate.
Critic Card special rules: The Critic Card may change certain rules about how many or what type of items you can add to each course. Keep that in mind when collecting ingredients and preparing your meal.
2. Most Soup
The player with the highest total value in soup and bisque is awarded 1 star.
3. All 7 Courses
Each player who has at least 1 ingredient for 7 courses earns 1 star.
4. Best of Each Course
Go through each of the 7 courses. For each course, the player who has the highest quality earns 1 star.
5. Score Rumors
Reveal all face-down rumors. Rumors that award stars are resolved immediately. Remember, friendly ties reward all tied players. The "Fanatic" rumors (with red tops) modify the scoring of courses and are resolved later during Final Scoring. Clarifications on how specific rumors work can be found at the end of this rulebook.
6. Bonus Score
If any cards (critic, restaurateurs, etc.) feature the Bonus Scoring symbol, gain the amount of stars shown on those cards now.
7. Final Score
Each player flips their Kitchen Board over to the scoring side. Using your mouse chef as a marker, count up the quality of each course starting with the leftmost ingredient and continuing right. Remember to include the effects of spice, any critics, and fanatic rumors.
If your mouse passes the 70 space, collect 10 stars and continue back at the top of the scoring track. Take the number of stars corresponding to your final row position on the scoring track.
Winning
Once everyone has finished scoring their critic meal, the player with the most stars wins.
If there's a tie, the player who progressed the furthest on their score track wins. If there's still a tie, whoever is ahead on the priority track wins.
Restaurateurs (Optional)
You are the executive chef, known for the special touch you add to every meal. Restaurateurs provide each player with a special ability they may utilize in the game.
Setup: After the game is set up and ready to play, deal each player 2 Restaurateur Cards. Players pick one and display it face up next to their kitchen and return the other to the game box.
Bonus Scoring: At the end of the game, score the stars at the top of your Restaurateur Card. Clarifications on how specific restaurateurs work can be found at the end of this rulebook.
Solo Mode
McDogald's, a fast-food chain restaurant, has come to Bistro Bay and is aiming to steal all your customers. They've even nabbed some familiar chefs to work behind the counter. You'll need to grab great ingredients, make fantastic meals, and impress the celebrity critic if you want to get more stars and come out on top.
Setup
Game Setup: Follow the normal Game Setup as if for a 2-player game. In addition, find the appropriate Critic's Choice Card for the critic you revealed and place it beside the critic. Give McDogald's the amount of stars showing next to the critic, then flip to the ingredients side.
Player Setup: Use the normal setup for yourself, however you can leave the Location Cards and Restaurant Shield in the game box as they will not be needed.
Follow these additional steps for McDogald's:
- Place the McDogald's Kitchen Board within easy reach, kitchen side face-up. Place 3 Chef Figures and the Critic Plate of an unused player color on the McDogald's Kitchen Board.
- Separately shuffle the Manager, Mouse, Lizard and Boar Decks and put them face down in that order within easy reach.
- Place a Chef Hat matching the McDogald's chef color at the front of the priority track.
The McDogald's Kitchen Board has designated areas for rumors, the Critic Plate, and the McDogald's Zous-chef Card.
Overview
Goal: To win, your restaurant needs to earn more stars than McDogald's. While you follow the same steps as in the multiplayer game, McDogald's plays by their own rules.
Gameplay
Follow the same steps as in the multiplayer game, with the following differences:
Step 2: Planning
Each round, place your chefs directly on their locations (instead of using Location Cards).
Step 3: Running
Send the McDogald's chefs to their locations as follows:
- Reveal the top card of the Manager Deck and follow its instructions.
- If McDogald's mouse chef is still in their kitchen, reveal the top card of the mouse deck and follow its instructions.
- If McDogald's lizard chef is still in their kitchen, reveal the top card of the lizard deck and follow its instructions.
- If McDogald's boar chef is still in their kitchen, reveal the top card of the boar deck and follow its instructions.
- If McDogald's has a zous-chef this round and it is still in their kitchen, reveal the top card of the deck matching its carrying capacity and follow its instructions.
McDogald's Placement: If a card sends a chef to a location that is already occupied by another McDogald's chef (or McDogald's-controlled zous-chef), ignore that location and proceed to the next location that satisfies the conditions of the card and does not have a McDogald's chef.
If there are multiple or no locations that would equally meet the requirements of a card, use the location arrow on the bottom of the card to determine which location to use. The arrows indicate the order of locations to consider, starting at either the Soup Truck or the Chef Academy and proceeding to the right or left, respectively. Then, follow the McDogald's placement rule.
Each McDogald's chef card shows its carrying capacity, a title and directions, tie-break directions, and a deck icon.
Step 4: Shopping
Resolve each location left to right, as in the multiplayer game. For each McDogald's chef (including any McDogald's-controlled zous-chefs), consult the row of the Critic's Choice Card relating to the current day (1, 2, or 3). Pick the available item that satisfies the condition furthest to the left in that row.
If there is a tie between multiple ingredients, use the list at the bottom of the Critic's Choice Card and pick the tied ingredient that appears furthest to the left.
McDogald's ignores critic rule changes when selecting items for its critic plate.
Step 5: End of Round
In addition to the usual steps, discard any drawn Manager, Mouse, Lizard and Boar Cards.
McDogald's Items
Ingredients and Spice: McDogald's places the highest-valued ingredient of each type on the matching ingredient section of its Critic Plate, keeping lower-valued ingredients to the side. If an ingredient is collected that's higher than the current ingredient of the same type on the Critic Plate, replace the lower-valued ingredient with the new one, moving it to the side. Collected spice is added to the matching ingredient section if not already spiced.
Allspice: Allspice is kept separate and applied during preparation of the critic meal.
Challenge Ingredient: Challenge ingredients are ingredients visible on Challenge Cards. When McDogald's picks an ingredient or spice (not allspice) that matches a challenge ingredient, place a star above the first instance of that ingredient on a Challenge Card that doesn't yet have a star. Each ingredient on the card can have at most one star above it, but multiple instances of that ingredient can each have stars.
Critic Plate Item: When McDogald's picks an item matching this icon, pick the ingredient or spice that most improves the quality of McDogald's critic meal.
Soup: McDogald's returns all soup and bisque to the supply.
Rumors: McDogald's immediately gains stars for each rumor they take, depending on which day it is. Store the rumors on the McDogald's Kitchen Board, placing wild rumors in the leftmost empty space. They cannot take a second rumor of the same type. McDogald's does not interact with the Rumor Cards when picking Rumor Tokens.
Zous-Chefs: Any zous-chefs picked by McDogald's are used in the next round, just as a regular player would. Place the Zous-chef Card and Token to the right of the Boar Cards for the next round. Remember to trigger their abilities for McDogald's as applicable.
Challenge Meals (Solo)
McDogald's collects any stars it placed above the Challenge Cards. They do not serve meals (happy or otherwise).
Refrigeration (Solo)
McDogald's does not need to discard items due to refrigeration limits.
Critic Meal (Solo)
Preparing the Critic Meal: McDogald's critic plate should contain the highest-valued ingredient of each type from those it picked, along with a matching spice if available. If McDogald's has any allspice, it is applied to the highest-valued unspiced ingredient, breaking ties using the list at the bottom of the Critic's Choice card.
McDogald's ignores any critic rule changes when preparing the critic meal.
Most Soup: Draw 1 item from the Token Bag. The value of this item (zero if spice, allspice or a rumor) is considered to be the value of soup McDogald's has. Compare that value with your value of soup to determine the winner of Most Soup.
All 7 Courses: McDogald's also scores a star if it served all 7 courses.
Best of Each Course: Award stars to McDogald's if it has the highest quality for a course (ties are friendly, as usual).
Score Rumors: McDogald's gains stars as follows for the 3 rumors, whether or not they picked the matching rumor token. For an easy guide to McDogald's rumor stars, check for dots in the bottom right of each rumor card. Each dot is a star.
| Stars | Rumors |
|---|---|
| None | Bread Fanatic, Carrot Fanatic, Cheese Fanatic, Extremely Pampered, Fish Fanatic, Hibernator, Meat Fanatic, Mushroom Fanatic, Psychedelic Flavor, Spice Lover, Tender, Wine Fanatic |
| 1 | Big Cheese, Big Dipper, Odd Tastes, Simple Palate, Subtle Flavors, Super Chatty, To Go, Wine Cellar |
| 2 | Mercurial, Nocturnal, Picky, Shortsighted, Sommelier, Unsophisticated, Varied Leftovers, Varied Servings |
Final Scoring: McDogald's calculates the quality of their critic meal.
McDogald's does not apply any critic rules to the final scoring; however, any Fanatic rumors in play are applied to the relevant courses.
Winning: If you have more stars than McDogald's, you win.
Clarifications
The following sections provide clarifications on specific critics, rumors, zous-chefs, and restaurateurs. These clarifications do not cover all cards and concepts.
Critics
| Critic | Clarification |
|---|---|
| The Capybara | You must serve a challenge to get a bonus star for that challenge with this critic. |
| The Cow | You may spice each of these ingredients. |
| The Fruit Bat | A paired wine's value adds to the quality of that course. |
| The Jerboa | Remove the Rumor Tokens from your kitchen and use them as an allspice. These still count as rumors you know. |
| The Kangaroo | Only ingredients with a printed value of 6 are treated as 9's. For example, a spiced 3 has quality of 6 but is not affected further by the Kangaroo. A 6-value token becomes a 9, and if spiced, now has a quality of 18. |
| The Mouse | You may spice each cheese ingredient. |
| The Rabbit | This critic text may have a stacking effect. For example, if a spiced 5-value carrot is served to Rabbit while the Carrot Fanatic Rumor is in play, that carrot has a total quality of 20. |
Zous-Chefs
If a special ability lets you gain an item from the Token Bag, and you draw a rumor you already know, draw another item and return the rumor to the bag.
General note: If an ability would cause two or more zous-chefs to take or be given items at the same time, carrying capacity determines order among them. If still the same, priority track order determines order.
| Zous-Chef | Clarification |
|---|---|
| Carol | If Carol tied this round and moved to the back, she will gain a star. |
| Newton | When playing a solo game, McDogald's doesn't take the soup Newton provides. |
| Otto | Otto's ability rewards each player with a 2 carrying capacity chef at this location. |
| Penny | Penny does not need to be at the Soup Truck location to use this ability. |
Rumors
General note: Rumors never affect challenges, only critic meals.
| Rumor | Clarification |
|---|---|
| Bread Fanatic, Carrot Fanatic, Cheese Fanatic, Fish Fanatic, Meat Fanatic, Mushroom Fanatic, Wine Fanatic | Fanatic rumors only affect final scoring. If a critic card allows you to add multiple ingredients to a course, these rumors double all of them. The total quality of the course (after spice) is doubled. |
| Extremely Pampered | At least one individual ingredient in each course must have a printed value of 5 or more. |
| Hibernator | If you did not serve a wine course, consider the rightmost course you did serve (i.e. mushroom, followed by meat, etc.). Hibernator does not take Fanatic Rumors into account. |
| Mercurial | For example, if your highest served ingredient has a value of 7, and your lowest has a value of 3, gain 4 stars. |
| Odd Tastes | When in play with the Kangaroo, 6-value ingredients are 9-value ingredients, and are considered odd. |
| Psychedelic Flavor | Psychedelic Flavor does not take Fanatic Rumors into account. |
| Super Chatty | Super Chatty only counts Rumor Tokens, not extra Rumor Cards seen for any other reason. Rumor Tokens served to the Jerboa still give you a star. |
Restaurateurs
Players gain the stars at the top of their Restaurateur Card during the bonus score step of the critic meal.
| Restaurateur | Clarification |
|---|---|
| Anthony Boardain | You may choose to leave early (per Consolation Soup) to use this ability. |
| Goat'N Ramsey | When playing with the Rabbit, 2-value carrot ingredients are worth +2 before the critic text doubles their value. |
| Graham Elephant | You may gain multiple bonus items in a round this way. |
| Heron Sanchez | You may do this for multiple ingredient types and in multiple meals. For example, a Tasty Tapas Challenge Meal can have a quality of 23 (7 bread x2, 4 carrot x2 plus 1 for the soup). |
| Jamie Owliver | No other player may peek at your additional Rumor Card. This Rumor Card does not affect the Super Chatty rumor. |
Credits
Game Design: Alex Cutler, Peter C. Hayward Art: Sandara Tang Development: Christian Strain, Peter Vaughan Production: Christian Strain, Lauren Ino, Peter Vaughan, Brad Brooks Graphic Design: Christian Strain, Duane Nichols Additional Graphic Design: Stephanie Gustafsson, Stephen Lambert, Sandara Tang 3D Models: Erick Tosco Tray Design, Storage (Deluxe Edition): Noah Adelman, Game Trayz Rulebook Editing, Layout: Jason Harris Additional Rulebook Editing: Brad Brooks, Jeff Fraser, Christian Strain, Peter Vaughan World-building: Alex Cutler, Sandara Tang Solo Mode: Peter C. Hayward, Christian Strain
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