I thought the Midnight Ramen Shop demo might scratch the Papa's Pizzeria itch, but it actually just made me realise I could never run a ramen shop after getting everyone's orders wrong on purpose

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Sometimes you have to embrace the chaos.

Midnight Ramen Shop showing the ramen prep station
(Image credit: SilentKeep)

I love a good restaurant management simulator. There's something oddly satisfying about frantically rushing around trying to complete orders before your customers storm out of the door, muttering something under their breath about you. As much as I love this chaos though, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't keen to find a game that mimics this pace but without the overarching stress. That's where Midnight Ramen Shop comes in, or so I thought.

As the title suggests, you're put in charge of a ramen shop. Inspired by one of Japan's most popular ramen chains, Ichiran, you never have to see your customers face-to-face either. They come in, sit down behind a shutter, fill out a form you hand them to customise their ramen, and then receive their order when you get around to making it. Once they're done, you lift the shutter, take their money, and close it for the next person. It's efficient, and certainly strips away the stress of having to deal with customers directly.

Midnight Ramen Shop shutters showing money and someone waiting

(Image credit: SilentKeep)

This isn't helped by the lack of real upgrades either, at least right now. At the end of the day, you can use your hard-earned profit to buy things like new ingredients or new furniture for your restaurant. This furniture makes no difference whatsoever to the visual appearance of your restaurant (or at least what you can see from the two views of it you have) so you just have to trust it's doing its job, which can be anything from getting more customers through the door, or increasing the chances of your customers leaving tips. From my experience though, neither of these actually made any difference, which I'm hoping changes by the game's full release.

So there I was, throwing noodles and toppings into bowls and serving my customers, when all of a sudden, I wanted to test whether or not you needed to feed them the right thing to get the same amount of money. Unfortunately for my next customer, all my morals of being the perfect chef went out of the window. Instead of chicken, they had beef broth—criminal, I know. But, to my surprise, they left the same amount of money as all my other customers who had received their correct meal: $20.

Midnight Ramen Shop showing a bowl of ramen being handed to a customer

(Image credit: SilentKeep)

From here on out, I needed to test to what extent I could get away with this, so everyone's orders went well and truly out of the window. I wasn't even checking the tickets, I was just slinging broth and noodles and whatever oils and toppings I fancied and practically throwing it at them, only to be met with a smiley face and some money after a few seconds. This wasn't the punishment I expected. There were no angry customers. I could get away with whatever, or so I thought.

After trying this method for a couple of days, one customer left me $13. I don't blame them, really; I had given them practically everything they ordered incorrectly. It wasn't a huge loss but at that moment in time I felt guilty, and questioned if my previous customers only paid because they felt like they had to. Since I couldn't see their faces, they might've been fuming that they ended up with chicken rather than beef, or their tofu had been substituted for egg, and I simply wouldn't know. For a cosy game, it's probably not a bad thing to not have to deal with angry customers, but I can't deny the fact I missed it.

Midnight Ramen Shop could do with a little refining before it releases in full to perhaps show people like me that your virtual actions do have virtual consequences, but for someone looking for a more laid-back restaurant sim, it certainly delivers. I enjoyed the methodical process of creating all of my visitors' ramen bowls, and would be keen to revisit my little shop at launch. I just hope I'm not forced to go against the grain to spice things up and can stick to doing my job correctly from here on out.

Kara Phillips
Kara Phillips
Evergreen Writer

Kara is an evergreen writer. Having spent four years as a games journalist guiding, reviewing, or generally waffling about the weird and wonderful, she’s more than happy to tell you all about which obscure indie games she’s managed to sink hours into this week. When she’s not raising a dodo army in Ark: Survival Evolved or taking huge losses in Tekken, you’ll find her helplessly trawling the internet for the next best birdwatching game because who wants to step outside and experience the real thing when you can so easily do it from the comfort of your living room. Right?

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