Order Up! A Review of Lord of the Fries: Superdeluxe Edition

The dead are alive and opening restaurants in this light card game about making burgers and serving coffees.

Gameplay

Each player is dealt a hand of ingredient cards and the menu is laid out in the center of the table. The game will take place over four ‘days’. A day ends once one player is all out of cards.

At the start of each day, the dealer starts out as the leader. The leader rolls the die, which determines which of four zones off the menu the first order will come from. The leader then rolls the die a second time, which determines which item in that zone is the order. For subsequent orders that day, the leader can choose to roll to determine the order or call it, picking the order himself (though depending on the menu you’re using, not all orders can be called).

After an order is selected, the player on the left of the leader can choose to fill the order if she has all the ingredients listed for it on the menu, or she can pass. If she passes, she must pass a card to the leader if the order was rolled or, if the order was called or it is the first order of the day, she will pass a card to the player on her left.

If everyone passes then the order goes around again, only this time players can ignore any one ingredient on the order. The order goes around and around, requiring fewer and fewer ingredients until someone fills it. The player who fills the order becomes the new leader.

At the end of the day, players count up all the points for the ingredient cards they’ve played and subtract any points for ingredient cards still in their hands. The player with the most points after all four days wins.

The Superdeluxe edition comes with two different restaurant decks, each with its own menu, or you can combine the two decks for a third menu that can be played with up to eight players.

Review

Right off the bat, there is something engaging about the menus and filling orders. It’s a fun theme, made even more lighthearted with the zombie artwork. Trying out the different menus is also enjoyable and they each bring something a little different to the game.

With rules that are easy to learn, one order is all it takes to get the hang of how it’s played. If you decide just to play one hand, it makes for a quick filler, but if you decide to play all four days, it’s a nice, light card game that can take up a good thirty or forty minutes. Perfect for a low-key, relaxed evening.

The last few rounds of each hand can go on a bit long if someone calls for a menu item with a lot of ingredients and players have to keep passing. It can also be easy to forget in those circumstances how many times the passing has gone around and therefore how many ingredients you can ignore.

Despite that, Lord of the Fries features a nice blend of luck and theme with just a dash of strategy to keep things interesting. If you’re looking for a card game that can be flexible in both player count and play time, this is a good, solid choice.

Pros: The differences in the menus are fun, nice range on player number, easy to teach and play

Cons: The last rounds of each hand tend to drag

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.