Workers are slow. A cheap stove next to the pass beats an expensive stove across the room. Customers also take nearby seats. A layout walkthrough puts tables just inside the entrance so guests sit immediately, with the cashier at the exit rather than in a back corner.
A floor that can be staffed
- Cluster tables. Four-seat tables show up as the early capacity choice because one service covers more guests than a row of singles.
- Put the stove and any prep station in reach of the cook. A common ratio once the floor is busy is about one cook per stove and one waiter per four tables. That ratio is a staffing rule of thumb, not a placement law.
- Put sinks or dishwashers on the path plates already travel, not in a side room.
- Leave walking room, but do not spread the dining room to fill the plot. Guides that talk about floor split often use about a quarter of the space for the kitchen and the rest for seats. Test that. If cooks are idle and waiters are hiking, you have too much dining room.
- Add seats only after the current tables clear. A line with dirty plates is a cleaner or sink problem. A line with empty plates is a cook or stove problem.
Upgrades that change speed
Stove write-ups do not share one shop name. The consistent comparison is a basic stove at one cook slot, a golden stove around 2x speed with two slots, and a late industrial or carbon stove around 6x with three slots. Buy the speed upgrade when the cook is the wait, not when the menu is still falling back to rice.
Deluxe tip jars are described with about a 35% tip chance in one guide. Another splits jars into basic, advanced, and premium multipliers. Place jars where customers already walk. A friend in your server is described as a 5% cash multiplier, stacking to about 25% with a full group. That is separate from jars.
Save layout experiments. Update notes describe a restaurant save that stores the floor plan and appliances, not your cash or staff. Name the slot before you knock down a floor that is already earning. Offline cash still needs this same floor to run without you. If you log out while cooks cannot reach a stove, the away session earns less for the same reason a live session would.