IHOP UHOP's Guide to Island Layouts

Introduction

If you are looking to make your restaurant as efficient as possible, then read on! This guide covers "island" layouts, which are, in my opinion, the most efficient restaurant layouts you can build.

You can begin using island layouts when you have a total of 6 staff. If you have less staff, please check out my General Guide to Efficient Restaurants.

**Disclaimer: island layouts are slightly buggy right now, so you will need to do a little bit of trial and error to get them right.**

What is an "island" layout?
If you've ever seen a restaurant that has two or more separate sections, or "islands", with its own cooks and waiters, then you've seen an example of an island layout. Here's one, as an example:

What's so special about island layouts?
Island layouts are unique in that they are extremely efficient. If you read the basic strategies in my Guide to Efficient Restaurants, you'll see that smaller restaurants (few cooks and tables) are always more efficient than bigger, bulkier restaurants. In a small restaurant, waiters don't have to walk as much to serve customers, while long walks are almost unavoidable for big restaurants.

The beauty of an island layout is that we can take that big, bulky restaurant and split it back down into those smaller, much more efficient chunks.

On Bugs and Problems
Unfortunately, island layouts are plagued with a host of problems. Without the right island set up, the game will get confused and repeatedly put all your waiters in one island or scatter them randomly. However, we can overcome all these problems.

**The next section will show you how to set up your island layout right so that it works correctly and consistently, without any of the problems.**

Island Building
Okay, so you're ready to go out and build your island layout! There is only one thing that you must do to get island layouts to work consistently. I don't know why it works, but if you do it right then you won't encounter any problems.

Check your waiters, swap your stoves
After you've completed your layout, go ahead and assign your waiters and cooks. The following two things can happen:

Possibility 1: Your waiters are in the right position:

Congratulations! Go ahead and Save & Close. If they're still in the right position when you reload the app, then you're done! Otherwise, please read on.

Possibility 2: Your waiters are in the wrong position:

Don't feel bad, this happens. What you need to do now is to go into the furniture view, and swap your stoves (I'm not kidding). Randomly take one of your stoves, and swap it with another one:

After each time, leave the furniture view and check to see if your waiters are now in the right positions. If not, keep going (this should only take 1-3 attempts). Otherwise, Save & Close, and if the waiters are still correct after you reload the app, then congratulations! You are done!

As long as you don't touch your stoves again, your waiters will always appear correctly and your restaurant will run at its peak efficiency.

Recommended Layouts
Here are recommended island layouts that have been tested and verified (I have confirmed that these are all 50 popularity layouts):

Note: The islands pictured here are deliberately placed far apart so that you can see them better. If you are lacking space, you can just squeeze the islands together without any problems. Click the "compact layout" link below each picture to get an idea of how it should look.

4 Cooks, 2 Waiters