Continental Café is a conglomeration of puzzles, story and delicious recipes. It is cleverly held together with an unlikely tale about Laura winning the lottery, buying a restaurant with a mystery behind the former owner, a sinister character and then traveling the world to learn how to cook recipes made famous by other foreign chefs. It somehow works.

Your play begins on an airplane clicking on lit stars for hints. You click until you are suddenly stopped. Hopefully you will get far in this mini bonus game but you can also lose everything. The world map will take you first to France to meet Kallie Crotteau, a well renown French chef. She will help you with new recipes after you do some favors. Running errands for the chef consists of multiple puzzles – all different with some easy and others difficult. There are jigsaw, match the shape, word, slide, and tasks to complete puzzles before you can play the hidden object scene. One logic game is similar to World Mosaic and fun to play. The rewards for completing these puzzles are the real recipes you can use and make a delicious meal for your family. This is similar to the latest cooking Mac games like Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen.

Each puzzle is different and all may not be something you are into so the game provides a rain check if you are lucky enough to earn it. This rain check will allow you to pass on a game if you want. This feature is great because I do not like all the puzzles and opted to skip a game. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play the Word Wheel because it kept timing me out. I later learned that if you play it in the hard mode, the game will progress normally.

I enjoy this game even with the minor flaw. The puzzles are diverse making it feel like you are getting a variety of games and the recipes are bonuses on top of the excellent graphics and well thought out puzzles.

Features of Continental Café:
-Challenging Puzzles
-Recipes
-Top 5 Chefs

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Gordon Ramsey is famous for many things such as his restaurants, books, TV show, his merciless cuts at his underlings, and now he is known in the Mac game world as the reigning king of culinary arts with Hell’s Kitchen. You can make a career in cooking and develop your own restaurant in this sim time management play and on top of all that get constant gibes from Chef Ramsey. If you have what it takes to run a restaurant and put up with Ramsey’s insults, you will have a pleasant day playing this game.

You begin this game as a dishwasher working in Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant and work yourself up to apprentice, junior cook, cook and senior cook if you survive. If you have seen any of his TV shows you know he will be yelling and screaming at you at every turn. Being called a donkey is softened by him saying he’s a proud man when you are fast and efficient.

The play begins in greeting the customers at the door by clicking the maitre d’s podium, the customers are seated and a click on the table will give them the menus. After taking their order the waiter will process it to the kitchen. You click on the kitchen arrow and you are now the cook. In this section you need to coordinate the cooking of the different dishes so they finish at the same time. There is another arrow back to the dining room area to serve the people.

If you can take the heat of doing all these things and take the chef’s scorns, you may make a great cook and gamer yet and get access to locked levels and recipes. Gordon Ramsey’s recipes are interesting and sound delicious. This is a definite plus for all the cooks out there. The recipes are broken down as Starter (Appetizers), Main Courses, and Desserts. Pumpkin Risotto with Roasted Mushrooms, Grapefruit and Blood Orange Terrine with Marmalade Ice Cream are 2 recipes available at the beginning of the game. Can you imagine what you will be able to unlock? After opening these locked recipes, you’ll get yourself a full cookbook with 35 recipes.

If you are not a cook and live in the New York City area, you can go to the London Hotel where his restaurant resides and taste some of these delicious dishes for yourself. Have fun getting contemptuous phrases from the famous Gordon Ramsey and play a fast paced sim Mac game and whip up some mouthwatering meals.

Features of Hell’s Kitchen:
-Gordon Ramsey’s Commentary
-In the Kitchen and Dining Rooms
-Unlock 35 Recipes

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars