The Chef's Shift

Fast-paced restaurant typing game with impatient customers and distractions

Panitia GameDev · Published by Catoptric Games · Released Mar 31, 2025

Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive; 97% of 2,067
Recent reviews: Very Positive; 89% of 46 in 30 days
Playing now: 33; right now
Steam Deck: Playable
Last update: 2 weeks ago; Sep 5, 2026

Free demo available, 4 playing it now: get the demo.

What is The Chef's Shift?

This single-player typing and time-management game spans six chapters in restaurants serving different cuisines. You type to navigate menus, prepare and serve dishes before customers lose patience, and choose dialogue while dealing with rats and unruly customers. A continuing story connects the restaurants and their characters.

For you if...

+you enjoy typing under restaurant time pressure
+you want a dramatic story alongside cooking tasks
+you like increasingly difficult levels in varied restaurants

Not for you if...

−you prefer cooking games without constant typing
−you want restaurant play with little story dialogue
−you would rather click menus than type through them

What players say

97% of 2,067 reviews are positive · 89% of 46 in the last 30 days

Players praise the typing-based kitchen tasks and the soap-opera-style story. Some find the dialogue excessive or poorly written, while others complain about words hidden by characters, awkward symbols, and frustrating late-game difficulty.

Screenshots and trailer

The Chef's Shift system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

OS: Windows 7/8/10+
Graphics: GPU with at least 256MB of VRAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 200 MB available space

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Keyboard and mouse
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Achievements: 34
Steam features: Cloud saves, Family Sharing, Trading cards

Steam Deck: Playable

Sometimes shows mouse, keyboard or non-Deck controller icons
Not fully functional without an external keyboard
All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
In-game text is legible on Steam Deck
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck

Multiplayer and co-op

Single-player

Languages

Text only: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Portugal, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Portuguese - Brazil, Spanish - Latin America, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Polish.