Read in this order
Start with the opening service if you have not hired anyone. Move to the rice fallback before you expand, then train only the levels that change stats. Farm, events, layout, fishing, and milestones are separate jobs.
Which Run a Restaurant! guides are published?
First service: cook, serve, and the first hire
Run the opening loop yourself, then spend the first cash on the role that is actually stuck.
Stop the kitchen from falling back to rice
Layer a gourmet dish, a mid-price backup, and a stocked farm so a missing ingredient does not collapse the ticket.
Train staff on the levels that actually change stats
Stop on levels 3, 5, 7, and 10. Training sends that worker away, and only three can train at once.
Reach level 55 and decide if the manager is worth 2.5M
The manager is a late hire. Level comes from five skills at once, not from cooking alone.
Set up crops, beehives, sprinklers, and the windmill
Harvest toward the free sprinklers, then decide whether giant beehives are worth two slots each.
Use Taco Tuesday without rebuilding the restaurant
The event is on a timer. The useful prep is seats, jars, and a kitchen that can clear orders in a few seconds.
Build a short path from seat to stove to sink
Distance costs more than cheap furniture. Tighten the floor before you buy a second dining room.
Fish for sunken crates only after the second dock
Crates are tied to an expansion and to fisherman levels. The base dock does not produce them.
Claim milestone rewards and the 15 gnomes
Several permanent bonuses are milestone claims or map clicks, not shop prices.