Red Glove - Ristorante Italia

Description

It's time for YOU to put on your chef's hat and mix up the ultimate Italian meal with Ristorante Italia! You are the manager and head chef of a new Italian restaurant, hoping to make your mark on the culinary world. Your ultimate goal is to wow the critics with the greatest Italian meal you can create. But, you must balance your creative drive with the economic realities of keeping your restaurant profitable. Focus too much on making the perfect meal and you won't have the funds you need. But concentrate on growing your business and you won't have the artistic feast the critics demand!The game is played over four "seasons." In each season, you will have six actions to improve your restaurant and your menu. You can learn new recipes, take a cooking class to improve your skills, go shopping for essential ingredients, or even add dining rooms for extra income. At season's end, if you have collected the right ingredients you can prepare new dishes, just in time to impress the critics.At the end of the game, you must prepare a single meal-the best you can put together-to complete in the national cooking competition. The best chef will earn the coveted "Golden Spoon!"The winner will be the player who has created the best menu. You can earn bonuses from the critics, by growing your cooking skill, and by matching the perfect wine to each dish. The player with the highest score wins the game! Review: Played it once, we only played the base game ... - Played it once, we only played the base game. It was just ok. We need to play it again with all the different options in play. Review: Great game, but exhausting set-up process - Ristorante Italia is a Euro style game that puts the plays in charge of running their own Italian Restaurant. Players take turns gathering ingredients to complete recipes, upgrading items in their restaurant, and looking to earn the most money and most "prestige" points in order to win the game. It's a very fun game, but requires a lot of involvement. There are different rounds involved in the game and one scores something differently. For example, you'll have a normal round of selecting what you want to do and then the next will be about discovering the player who has completed the most recipes (that are worth the most points). The next will be a bidding round to attract celebrities to your restaurant. The next is a visit from a food critic. It can be confusing to remember exactly what to do during each round. The directions are well written but you will need them easily at hand for quite a few games before you catch on to everything. Also, there are A LOT of pieces to this. I mean A LOT. Because of that, it takes some time to set everything up and then put away after. Since the game itself is rather time consuming, especially with 3 or 4 players, the amount of time it takes to set up and put away is frustrating. So much so, that we often skip the game just so we don't have to spend all the time organizing everything. The final scoring process is also rather time consuming, and again, will require you to look to the directions many times. It is not a hard game to play, but like many Euro games there is a lot going on, there are a lot of choices to make, and a lot to keep track of. There is a simplified version that you can play, but it loses a little bit of the fun. I would recommend this game based on the theme alone, which is fantastic, but the game is also fun to play and has been enjoyed by everyone that I've played with. The many pieces are high quality and detailed, as well. Its a great choice for a game night with family or friends, but be aware that it's a commitment that takes some time to play. Opening the box the first time and punching out all the pieces took over an hours, just to give you an idea. There is a lot to organize. The game is a little on the expensive side, but this is a high quality and well designed game.