Vacation Cafe Simulator: Best Ways to Make Money

1. Unlock the guitarist income perk

The guitarist quest reward improves the repeat guest-sales loop: guest income +20% after completing his food / drink request.

2. Control the dine-in menu

Co-op footage shows that players can choose which unlocked dishes stay on the normal menu. A smaller menu can reduce prep complexity when you are still learning new stations and recipes.

3. Prepare repeat ingredients in batches

The videos show players pre-slicing frequently used ingredients once Quick Slice is unlocked. Batch preparation reduces repeated interaction time, especially for tomato / basil-heavy dishes.

4. Treat delivery as a separate workload

Player discussion in the co-op footage says delivery orders may still request dishes removed from the normal menu. Do not remove an ingredient from your supply plan simply because you took its dish off the dine-in menu.

5. Spend on workflow, not decorative guesses

Equipment and extra workstations can reduce bottlenecks. There is no verified single “best upgrade order” yet — solve your actual bottleneck first (workstations, tableware or delivery supplies), then spend on decor.

Match your next purchase to the current recipe system

Since 1.0.7, new dishes are bought from the Recipe Book. A level-up alone is no longer the purchase step. Before expanding the menu, open the book, check the dish and its equipment/ingredients, and decide whether you can prepare it without delaying the orders you already serve. Recipe prices are not listed here because the announcement does not provide a price table.

Combo orders now award XP for each dish, rather than once for the whole order. That changes progression, not a guaranteed cash multiplier. Serve the complete combo and check its result; do not confuse faster leveling with proof of a particular profit margin.

A short preparation loop

1. Check the active menu and any delivery orders separately. The earlier delivery behavior remains relevant until a patch explicitly says the two are synchronized.
2. Use the NPC perk guide to check whether Quick Slice and the guitarist skill are active on this save.
3. Pin the recipe you plan to serve, then prepare its repeat ingredients. On Perfetto, select the active slot before slicing.
4. Buy another recipe only when its station and ingredients fit the current workload. More unlocked dishes do not automatically remove a queue.
5. Use the new café–winery-cellar door when that trip is part of your production loop; 1.0.7 supports it in multiplayer too.

The patch restores basket capacity to 200 items and makes tables get dirty more slowly. Those changes reduce particular interruptions; they do not eliminate storage planning or cleaning. Keep each service bottleneck separate when deciding whether the next purchase should be a station, recipe or decoration.

Guests frozen at a table

If a guest eating a jam croissant remains stuck, 1.0.8 fixes that specific problem. Update before changing the entire menu to work around it. The same hotfix restores placing a bucket under the press and fixes uncleanable dirt at the entrance, both relevant when the normal café routine stops working.

Sources: official 1.0.7, 1.0.8. Checked October 4, 2026.

Update 1.0.9 note (Oct 8)

• Recipe multipliers now range from x1 to x5 depending on the machine’s grade or tier. A higher-grade cooking station makes more per action, so upgrade the station that bottlenecks your best-selling dish before buying another counter.
• Lasagna assembles faster, which shortens the slowest step in a lasagna-heavy menu.
• Bait and fish stack to 10 per slot, so a fishing run takes fewer inventory trips and selling stock is less shuffling.