Tavern Keeper – Food, Drink, and Unlockables Walkthrough

So you’ve got a bustling tavern full of hungry guests, and now it’s time to feed them something better than burnt skewers. Cooking and drinks in Tavern Keeper aren’t rocket science, but they’re also not “buy food, serve food.” Once you get the hang of flavor profiles, food quality, and pricing, you’ll start raking in gold like a pro innkeeper.

Let’s break it all down in a simple, no-stress way.

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Cooking 101 — The Basics

Cooking in Tavern Keeper revolves around three main types of food: Meals, Sides, and Ingredients.

Meals

• The main course.
• Made from one or more ingredients at specific cooking stations.
• Usually need a Chef to prepare.
• High-profit, but take time and effort.

Sides

• Simple, ready-to-serve items like bread or cheese.
• You can buy them from the market or bake your own once you unlock a Bread Oven.
• Great way to quickly serve hungry guests and keep profits steady.

Ingredients

• The building blocks of your meals.
• Can’t be served on their own — they’re strictly for cooking.

Pro tip:
Keep at least one meal and one side for each tier of customer. Example:

• Tier 1 guests → 1-star meal + 1-star side
• Tier 2 guests → 2-star meal + 2-star side

That way, everyone gets something they can afford and enjoy.

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Kitchen Setup — Stations You’ll Need

Once you unlock the Kitchen, it’s time to fill it with the right tools. Here’s what you get early on:

• Grill → Perfect for making Skewers (simple, fast meals using small meats).
• Soup Pot → Used for Soups & Stews. Stores 10 servings and doesn’t spoil easily.
• Bread Oven → Lets you bake bread from flour for sides. Homemade bread can have better flavors and higher ratings.
• Food Window → The serving hatch where finished dishes wait for your Servers. One is mandatory, but you’ll need more as business grows.

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Creating Your Menu

Adding a new dish is easy:

1. Click “Add Dish” in your food & drink menu (top-left corner of the screen).
2. Choose ingredients and cooking method.
3. Make sure the dish is enabled afterward — it won’t serve automatically.

Experiment with different ingredient combos to unlock new flavor profiles and star ratings.

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Understanding Flavor Profiles

Every dish in Tavern Keeper has a flavor type that appeals to certain races. The four main flavor categories are:

Flavor	Loved By
Gross	Orcs, Dwarves
Sweet	Halflings, Elves
Tough	Orcs, Dwarves
Pure	Halflings, Elves

If you’re serving Orcs in Gugamush, focus on Gross + Tough foods. In Halflington, go Sweet + Pure for Elves and Halflings.

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Food Traits & Spoilage

Some ingredients come with special traits, like “Lasts Twice As Long.” These are worth the extra cost since they cut waste and save gold.

Food (and drinks) do spoil. Keep them on proper storage shelves, not pallets — pallets speed up spoilage and can wreck your profits.

If you’ve unlocked specialized storage racks, use them for every ingredient and dish you stock.

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Menu Management & Pricing

Meals aren’t always auto-added to your menu — check manually:

• Open the menu.
• Tick the boxes for any dish or drink you want to sell.

Star Ratings & Pricing Strategy

• Higher-star dishes = higher prices = richer customers.
• Cheap food attracts lower-tier patrons.
• Balance prices so each tier buys the food meant for them.

Example:
If Tier 2 guests keep buying your 1-star stew, your 2-star entrée might just be overpriced. Adjust until buying patterns make sense.

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Drinks — Easier but Still Important

Unlike cooking, drinks are simple to manage. No Chefs, no stations — just buy, tap, and serve.

How It Works

1. Order drinks from the local market.
2. Load them into your tavern taps.
3. They sell automatically as long as they’re in stock.

Flavor Ratings

Hover over a drink in the shop or menu to see how much your patrons like it.
Try to keep drinks with 100% interest for the majority of your crowd.

Drink Pricing

Same principle as food:

• Have at least one drink per patron tier (1-star, 2-star, etc.).
• Adjust pricing so the right crowd buys the right brew.

If your premium ale isn’t selling, it’s probably priced too high — simple fix.

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Unlocking New Stuff in Tavern Keeper

There are two types of unlocks in the game:

1. Global unlocks — available across all scenarios.
2. Scenario-specific unlocks — only usable within certain maps after meeting rating goals.

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Global Unlocks (Work Everywhere)

You can earn these by:

• Completing parts of a scenario (progress = more furniture).
• Receiving gifts from patrons (often decorative or cosmetic items).

Once unlocked, you can use them in other taverns as long as your current tavern meets the star requirement.
Example: even if you unlocked a Kitchen elsewhere, you can’t build it until your new tavern hits 1★.

Some furniture also has variants — upgraded versions with better star ratings or aesthetics. Check the yellow arrow on an item to browse these.

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Halflington Unlocks

• Bread Oven
• Firefighting Gear
• Hearth
• Larder Shelf
• Meathook
• Scroll Rack
• Small Barrel Rack
• Stage
• Voting Booth

Gugamush Unlocks

• Front Office
• Registration Desk
• Key Rack
• Bedroom + Bed + Footlocker
• Chandelier
• Cooling Fan & Cooling Fountain
• Infestation Attractor

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Tavern Rating Unlocks (Per Scenario)

Within each scenario, hitting new star ratings unlocks new rooms and gear.

0-Star (Base Setup)

• Hallway
• Outdoors
• Staffroom
• Storeroom
• Taproom
• All basic furniture

1-Star

• Kitchen
• Bread Oven
• Food Window
• Grill
• Soup Pot
• Toilet (Simple Toilet + Wash Basin)

1.5-Star

• Bedroom
• Bed + Footlocker
• Front Office
• Registration Desk
• Key Rack

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Final Tips from One Tavern-Keeper to Another

• Always match food and drink tiers to your patrons.
• Keep ingredients fresh — spoilage is silent profit loss.
• Don’t ignore flavor preferences; they can make or break your popularity.
• Tweak pricing regularly — the economy shifts as your tavern grows.
• Use unlocks strategically; a better oven or rack can drastically improve efficiency.

At the end of the day, cooking and drinks in Tavern Keeper are all about balance — matching the right food, price, and flavor to your guests. Once you get that rhythm going, your tavern will be the busiest (and richest) joint in town.

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