The Sims 4: Dine Out

The Sims 4 Dine Out was developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts, released in 2016. It is a major game pack that requires the base game and shifts gameplay focus toward community venues by letting players create, customise and run restaurants for their Sims.

The DLC introduces a full restaurant ownership and management system where players design dining spaces or customise pre-made restaurants, hire and train staff, set menus and prices, and manage service to earn ratings and profit. It also allows Sims to visit restaurants to dine out socially, try experimental cuisine, take food selfies, and learn new recipes by frequently eating out, providing both player-directed business simulation and new social roleplay opportunities.

Promotion for Dine Out used EA’s and Maxis’ standard channels, including the game’s store listings, trailers, social media announcements and short showcase videos that emphasised restaurant creation, the hireable staff mechanics and the social dining experience. Community creators, livestreams and build showcases were widely used to demonstrate restaurant designs, service gameplay and creative menus, with marketing pitched at players who enjoy venue-based play, storytelling and simulation-style management.

Reception was mixed to positive, with many players and critics praising the novelty of restaurant ownership, the depth added by staff and menu management, and the new social experiences of dining out, while some criticism focused on bugs at launch, limited long-term depth compared with larger expansions, and repetitive staff-AI behaviour. Overall Dine Out is regarded as one of the more substantial non-expansion packs for The Sims 4, commonly enjoyed by players who like running venues and staging social outings.