Games / Arcade Games / Copper Pot Kitchen / Guide
Copper Pot Kitchen
You start with one camp stove under the string lights of a back alley. Chop, sear, stir and plate real dishes with your fingers, keep a line of hungry guests happy, and grow the stall into the most famous kitchen in the city.
What is Copper Pot Kitchen?
Copper Pot Kitchen is a cooking game with a long career attached. Every dish is a short run of hands-on steps: you swipe to chop, hold to sear, stir in circles, pour to a line and drag food onto the plate. Each step gets a grade, and the dish comes out with one to three stars.
Around that sits the restaurant game. Coins and reputation from your shifts buy new machines, staff, decor and bigger kitchens, and new recipes open up as your reputation grows. There are 90 dishes in the cookbook, from egg on toast and lemonade to sushi rolls, wood-fired pizza and a birthday cake fit for a rooftop. It's free and runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer.
How to play a service shift
Guests sit down at your counter and a picture ticket pops up above each one showing what they want. The bar under the ticket is their patience: green, then yellow, then red. Tap a ticket to cook that dish, or tap anywhere on the counter to start on whoever is closest to leaving.
Cooking happens in the middle of the screen, one step at a time, with the step name and a one-line hint at the bottom. When the last step is done the dish is served, the guest pays, and coins fly up to your total. When they finish eating, tap the plate to clear the seat (a dishwasher does this for you later).
A shift runs for 2 minutes 45 seconds. Then it's last orders: no new guests come in, and the shift ends once everyone at the counter has been served. If a guest's patience runs out, they leave hungry and your combo resets.
Here's a detail worth knowing: the guest you're cooking for doesn't lose any patience, and everyone else loses it at about half speed while you cook. So once you start a dish, take the time to get it right.
The 15 cooking steps
Every recipe is built from the same 15 moves, so once you learn them you can cook anything. Each one is graded Perfect, Great, Good or Oops.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| Chop | Swipe down on each dotted line. On a keyboard the knife slides back and forth, press Space when it's on a line. |
| Sear, toast, blend, steam milk | Hold until the gauge needle reaches the green, then let go. Hold too long and it burns. |
| Bake, fry, grill, boil, simmer | The needle moves by itself. Tap when it's in the green. |
| Flip | Tap to flip when the food is golden. Pancakes and steaks may need two flips. |
| Stir | Stir in circles and keep the speed arrow inside the green band. Too slow takes ages, too fast splashes. |
| Knead, toss, tamp, mash | Rings shrink toward a circle. Tap as each ring hits it. |
| Pour, ladle, scoop, pipe | Hold to pour and let go just before the line. The flow keeps going for a moment after you let go. |
| Season | The shaker swings across the food. Tap when it's right over the middle. |
| Roll out | Swipe back and forth to roll the dough out to the dotted circle. Slow down near the edge. |
| Plate | Drag each piece onto its outlined spot. |
| Drizzle | Trace the dotted line from start to finish. |
| Garnish, top, pleat | Tap each glowing spot. Pleats go in numbered order. |
| Whisk | Whisk fast, back and forth, until the bar fills. |
| Roll up | Swipe up slowly to roll sushi, burritos and pastry. Rushing it costs you. |
| Build | Layers swing above the plate. Tap to drop each one right on top of the last. |
Controls on phone and computer
On a phone or tablet everything is taps, holds and swipes. On a computer the mouse does the same thing as a finger, and the whole game also plays with the keyboard: Space or Enter does the current step (hold it for hold and pour steps), starts the next order between dishes, and 1 to 6 picks a guest by seat number. Esc pauses. On a wide screen the cooking area takes the middle of the screen and the guests sit in numbered cards beside it.
Stars, tips and prices
Your step grades are averaged. A high average gives three stars, a middling one two, and anything lower one star. Stars change the price (a one star dish sells for 30% less, three stars for 30% more) and the tip, and the tip also shrinks the longer the guest waited. Serve dishes of two stars or better in a row to build a combo, which adds 5% to tips per dish, up to ten in a row.
Lots of small things stack on top of the base price:
- Dish of the day: one dish on your menu sells for double today.
- Location favorites: each place has food its guests love, worth an extra 20%.
- Seasonal dishes earn 20% more in their season.
- Fresh herbs from your garden make matching dishes 20% more, and market goods like aged cheese or prime beef make them 30% more.
- Mastery: cook a dish at three stars 3, 8 and 15 times for Bronze, Silver and Gold, worth 10%, 20% and 35% extra.
Chef's Table
The Chef's Table is the calm mode. Pick any dish you've unlocked and cook it with no guests and no clock. It pays half price, but three star results count toward mastery and toward some daily goals, so it's the place to practice a tricky recipe before you put it on the menu.
Daily shift and leaderboards
The Daily is a fixed shift that's the same for everyone today: the same four dishes, the same guests in the same order, and four seats. Your score is the coins you earn, plus 10 for every three star dish, plus 50 if nobody leaves hungry. The score goes on the daily leaderboard, your day streak grows, and a share of the score is paid into your real kitchen.
There's a second board for restaurant rating, which is your total reputation. Sign in on the site to save your kitchen to your account and carry it between devices.
Growing your kitchen
Coins and reputation drive everything. Reputation levels go up to 50, and every level unlocks something: new recipes, machines, a skill point or a new place to cook.
| Location | Reputation | Prices |
|---|---|---|
| Lantern Alley Stall | Start | x1 |
| Maple Street Diner | 9 | x1.6 |
| Gull Point Seaside Cafe | 16 | x2.5 |
| Brightwater Bistro | 23 | x3.6 |
| Pinecrest Mountain Lodge | 31 | x5 |
| The Copper Crown Rooftop | 40 | x7 |
- Equipment: 17 machines, each with three tiers. New machines unlock recipes, and higher tiers make their steps more forgiving. The rice cooker, stand mixer and sous vide are helpers that do steps for you.
- Kitchen: 12 expansions add counter space, patio seats, a bigger prep shelf and garden beds.
- Team: a prep cook, dishwasher, server, barista, sous chef and gardener, each trainable to level 3. They also run a takeout window while you're away, up to two hours of earnings.
- Skills: seven trees (Knife Skills, Heat Control, Plating, Speed, Charm, Baking, Sauces) with 10 levels each. You get a point per reputation level and one for finishing all three daily goals.
- Decor: 35 pieces of floor, walls, lights, plants, signs, shelves and art. Decor makes guests more patient and better tippers, and brings them in faster.
The long game
Once the big purchases are done, two things keep your coins busy. Renovations give every location you own up to five stars, each one worth 6% on prices there and 1% on tips everywhere. Masterclasses (from reputation 18) trade coins for extra skill points, and each one costs more than the last. On top of that there are 10 regulars to befriend, a cookbook to fill with Gold mastery and a wall of awards.
Regulars
Some guests have names and stories, like Bruno the crane operator, Grandma Rosa and a kid called Pip. Serve a regular a two or three star dish and they remember you. After five good visits they teach you their signature dish, a dish you can't get any other way. New regulars show up as you open new locations.
Tips and strategy
- Watch the gauge, not the food, for hold and timer steps. The green zone moves a little from dish to dish.
- Pouring has momentum. Let go a hair early and the last bit of flow lands you on the line.
- Take the least patient guest first. Tapping the counter (or Space) does this for you.
- A rushed dish usually earns less than a careful one. Three stars pays 30% more than two stars, and the tip grows with it.
- Prep items like dough, sauce, batter, broth and rice make several portions. The extras go on the prep shelf, so later orders skip those steps.
- Keep a short menu of dishes you cook well. Guests can only order what's on it, and you can edit it in Recipes.
- Once you've built the Herb Garden, plant chives or basil before you log off. They grow in real time and make the next shift's dishes fresher.
- Finish all three daily goals every day. The free skill point adds up fast.
- Early on, Knife Skills and Heat Control make the most common steps easier. Charm pays off once your guests get pickier.
Questions
Is Copper Pot Kitchen free?
Yes. It's free to play in your browser with no download, no ads and nothing to buy. Coins are earned only by cooking.
Does my kitchen save?
Yes. The game saves on its own every few seconds and when you leave the page. Tap Continue to pick up where you were. Sign in on the site to keep the same kitchen on your phone and your computer.
Can I play with a keyboard?
Yes. Space or Enter does every cooking step, number keys 1 to 6 pick a guest, and Esc pauses. A mouse works too.
How do I get three stars?
Get mostly Perfect and Great grades on the steps. One Oops can drop a dish to two stars, so take your time on the step you find hardest, or practice it at the Chef's Table.
Is there a mode without a timer?
Yes. The Chef's Table has no guests and no clock. You cook one dish at a time for stars and mastery.
What do I do when I have too many coins?
Renovate your locations for up to five stars each and take masterclasses for extra skill points. Both get more expensive as you go, so there's always a next goal.
