Okay, so if you’ve been sleeping on Cook and Merge, now’s a pretty good time to wake up. The London-based studio Supersolid just dropped a major update, and if you’re already playing, there’s a free gift sitting in there waiting for you. Go update it. Seriously, do that first, then come back.
For everyone else who hasn’t heard of it yet, Cook and Merge is a matching and merging game built around food. You combine objects, build up a kitchen, serve customers, and slowly rebuild a whole lineup of restaurants. It sounds simple. It is simple. But it’s also the kind of game that suddenly has you looking up wondering where the last 45 minutes went.
Starting Out: Two Chefs, One Recipe Book, and a Lot of Crates
When you first open the game, you get a short tutorial. Two chefs, Hunter and Kate, kick things off. They’re fed up with their old boss and, in a very convenient turn of events, Kate’s grandmother leaves her a recipe book. So naturally they decide to open their own restaurant.
It’s a light story, nothing too heavy. But it gives the game a bit of personality that keeps things from feeling too mechanical.
Gameplay itself is genuinely easy to pick up. You drag matching objects together to merge them. Keep doing that and you’ll eventually create things like a bread oven. One small tip: if you ever lose track of what something is or how it’s made, just tap on it. A little sign pops up explaining everything. That feature saves you more confusion than you’d expect, because the board fills up faster than you’d think.
Oh, and the sound design deserves a mention. There’s this constant soft clatter of dishes in the background. It’s oddly satisfying and not annoying at all.
Energy and Stars: Use Both Wisely
Two things drive your progress here: stars and energy. You earn stars by completing customer orders. Earn enough stars and you unlock the café area, which is where the real game opens up.
Energy is what lets you keep playing. Run out and you’re either waiting for it to refill or spending diamonds to get more. Ten units cost a few diamonds, which feels fair enough in the early game. Later on you’ll want to be more careful. Don’t blow through your energy doing low-value merges when you could save it for bigger moves.
The Areas You’ll Be Working Through
You start with the café. After that, you’ll gradually get access to Maya’s Diner, Rossi’s Italian restaurant, Don’s BBQ, Rin’s sushi shop, and eventually Grandma’s Tea Room. That last one takes a while. There’s a good amount of content to work through before you get there.
Each restaurant has its own vibe and its own set of tasks. It keeps things fresh instead of feeling like you’re just repeating the same loop over and over.
The In-App Purchases: Honest Take
Yes, there are in-app purchases. They’re optional, but they exist. Eighty diamonds will run you about $2.99. Three hundred and twenty coins is the same price. On the far end, there’s a $149.99 option that I’m going to assume most people skip entirely.
None of it feels aggressively pushed, which is nice. You can play the whole game without spending anything if you manage your resources well. But if you want to speed things up, the option is there.
Is It Worth Playing?
Honestly? Yeah. It’s not trying to be something it’s not. The graphics are clean, the story is light but enjoyable, the background sounds are relaxing, and there’s enough content to keep you busy for a good while. You can change the language settings too, though the default is German, so watch for that if it opens up in the wrong language.
Supersolid has been putting out regular updates and it shows. The game feels maintained, not abandoned.
One actual warning though: do not play this when you’re hungry. The food visuals are detailed enough to make the problem significantly worse.
