Cuisineer Review – A Little Undercooked

Cuisineer Review

Play as Pom in this cooking and restaurant manager sim with a dash of rogue-lite combat in Cuisineer.  It’s an interesting and cute concept owing to the pretty anime visuals. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t live up to the promise of its visuals, and Cuisineer starts to drag quite quickly.

Handling the Heat

Cuisineer’s story centers around Pom, your character, and their journey to run a restaurant and explore the surrounding world. While Pom’s tale is light and minimal, it doesn’t offer much in terms of depth or engagement. It’s fine, but not something you’ll be invested in as you progress through the game. It’s light and shallow and does just about enough to get going but that’s about it. There’s a hint of narrative, but don’t expect complex plot twists or emotional stakes. The story is functional, giving some context to your actions, but it doesn’t enhance the gameplay experience much.

This game combines elements of rogue-lite combat and restaurant management, with an undeniably charming art style, but falls short on gameplay depth and polish. While it’s certainly cute and relaxing at times, the lack of clear tutorials and repetitive tasks drag the experience down. Overall, it’s an enjoyable, but flawed experience.

Burnt on the Ends

The gameplay mixes two main systems: rogue-lite dungeon crawling and managing a restaurant. Unfortunately, neither system excels on its own. Combat feels sluggish and lacks variety, which becomes apparent early on. The basic concept is simple—you enter dungeons, fight monsters, and gather ingredients to stock the kitchen at Potato Palace. But while dungeon runs are mildly fun, the combat itself is clunky. You attack with a spatula, which is fine for the first few hours, but soon it becomes a repetitive grind. Upgrading your gear doesn’t feel impactful in the same way skill progression would in more polished rogue-likes, like Hades. But that might a bit lofty a bar to put on this game.

Running the restaurant is the other side of the coin, and it doesn’t fare much better. The cooking itself feels overly simplistic, as you activate workstations and cash out customers. There’s no real challenge or engagement, and the lack of staff management makes things feel unnecessarily stressful. You’re stuck doing everything yourself, which quickly gets tedious. Plus, the game doesn’t explain its mechanics well. The result is a lot of self-discovery—and not in a fun way.There’s a hint of narrative, but don’t expect complex plot twists or emotional stakes. The story is functional, giving some context to your actions, but it doesn’t enhance the gameplay experience much.

Eat the Art

Where this game truly shines is in its art style. The characters are colorful and cute, and the dungeons are visually appealing, despite the lack of polish elsewhere. The animations are fluid, and the environment design is charming in a way that makes you want to keep exploring. If you’re a fan of anime-inspired aesthetics, this game will likely grab your attention. Especially the cool character’s around Pom’s town.

However, while the art is consistently adorable, the game’s performance doesn’t always live up to its visuals. At times the games loading screen and menu freeze on the Nintendo Switch. There are occasional yet very minor frame drops, and the environments can sometimes feel too empty for how beautiful they look. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but the overall aesthetic is definitely one of the game’s stronger points.The game is fairly chill in terms of difficulty. There isn’t a strict time limit or too severe penalties, which makes it approachable. This low-stakes approach makes it easier to just relax and play, but also means there’s no real sense of tension or challenge.

Cuisineer feels a bit undercooked. There are a few instances of lack of polish that detracts from the overall experience. Tutorials are sometimes unclear, and there’s an overall sense that things are a bit half-baked. The equipment upgrade system, in particular, is confusing and lacks clarity. There’s no real in-game explanation for how to make upgrades work, it felt as if I was stumbling through trial and error. The game has elements that could encourage replayability, but the lack of variety and depth in dungeon design and restaurant management make it feel like a one-and-done experience.

Cuisineer is a charming game in concept but struggles with execution. The art style and relaxing difficulty make it an enjoyable experience at first, but the repetitive combat and lack of engaging management systems ultimately hold it back. If you’re into low-stakes dungeon crawling with a side of cute restaurant management, you might find some enjoyment here, but be prepared for some frustration with its unpolished mechanics.

***A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher***