Top 10 Food Board Games

10. Diced Veggies

This is a pretty simple game. And a lot of them that I own really do fall into that category. But Dice Veggies is a board game where you are completing recipes. To do that, you need to slice off veggies from a big block of dice. But the rule is that the veggies can only be up to, I believe, 10 total on their pips. So you might want to try and get a bunch at once, but you can’t get the color you really need because the value is too high.

The big selling point on this game is the chopping off the dice. You get a cardboard cleaver that you use to make you cut. The rest of the game is pretty light, though they try and add in a little bit with some modifier cards that you can use or bonus cards. But I like the game for what it is. It’s a silly little filler or family weight style game that is easy to get to the table.

9. Coffee Rush

Next up for our food themed games we have Coffee Rush. This is one that I have been enjoying on BGA. And you can find my review here. Coffee Rush is another order fulfillment game, this one though works with an interesting central mechanism. You move around a central board to collect ingredients and how far you move is limited each turn. Plus how you move, at least at the start of the game, is limited as well.

But you unlock more that you can do. However, there is a cost to that, if you want to unlock more to do you need to spend points that you already have. And in a game where the points are tight, it’s a very good decision.

Plus, this game comes with amazing artwork and coffee/tea cups where you make you drink. Not just that, but the ingredients that you collect are 3D as well, not just cardboard tokens or wooden cubes. This is a great one for your coffee fanatics in your life.

8. Cafe Baras

But Coffee Rush isn’t my favorite of the coffee or tea themed board games. I like a few better than it including Cafe Baras. The theme is really what gets me for this game, you are capybaras running a coffee shop, get it, Cafe Baras?

This game is from the same company as Dice Veggies, but I like Cafe Baras better. There is a bit more going on as you gather in different menu items that are going to score you points. And you are grabbing them so that you can then grab customers and score them for points. Sometimes you just grab a customer to get more money to get more items for your menu. Other times you try and hold off so you can get them as repeat customers.

This is another pretty simple game. But with a theme that is a ton of fun and very good artwork, it’s a nice accessible game. It is going to feel like a set-up for people who don’t play too many games, but not so complex and not too much reading to learn and play the game.

7. A Nice Cuppa

A Nice Cuppa is one that I played on the Malts and Meeples YouTube. If I didn’t play at night time, I might have had a nice cuppa Earl Grey tea with it. But this is a solo game where you are seeing if you can get the steps of making a cup of tea in the right order. But that’s harder than you think because the actions available to you are limited. I could say more about this one, but if you want to learn more, please checkout the video down below.

6. Vegetable Stock

Vegetable Stock is one that I debated about putting on the list. It is less about eating food, but it is about food. In Vegetable Stock you are manipulating the vegetable stock market trying to grab as many points as you can. As you see, like Cafe Baras and Diced Veggies, it’s another play on words.

The game is simple and I really like it for that. You play out a few rounds of drafting cards with the first player switching each round to draft. To draft you deal out one more card than there is per player. The last card is used to adjust the market. Any veggie symbols push the value of that veggie higher. But if you get too high it is going to bust and go back down to one. So are you able to balance that or bust something early and get it pushed back up by the end of the game.

5. Matcha

Matcha is probably the least known game on the list, this or A Nice Cuppa since that is solo, but Matcha is a two player trick taking and set collection game. You gain resources by winning tricks. But it’s not a standard trick taking game. You don’t play out a card to a single trick. Instead you play out I believe it’s four tricks at once. And where you add cards and how tricks are won is determined by the spots the cards are played. It’s a clever and enjoyable trick taking game.

Now, I do want to add in a caveat here. I like this game a ton. However, the rules are not great for the game. I think that they are overwritten and because of that it causes a bit of confusion as you learn the game. So if it sounds interesting to you, see if there is a how play video out there to learn from, it’s going to be easier than the rules.

4. Point Salad

Now we are to one of two board games that I’m sure everyone assumed was going to be on the list. Point Salad is one of the most popular board games with a food theme. Now, I don’t actually own the regular version anymore. I own the Eevee version because it’s Eevee and the theme is more fun. But Point Salad is a great food game.

Point Salad is an open drafting food game. What do I mean by open drafting? In an open drafting game everyone sees the cards available to take. But it is does something clever. On the back of the cards is scoring. So on your turn you either take two vegetables form six to add to your tableau of veggies, or you take a single scoring card. If you take veggies the scoring cards on top of the deck flip down. And now those are gone from the game.

I love that push and pull of when you grab your scoring cards versus when you just grab veggies. Too many scoring cards are not enough veggies, you won’t score well. Too many veggies and not enough scoring cards, likely the same case. But there are ways to get around both, but you need it play out perfectly.

3. Fromage

Now we have the cheesiest game on the list, Fromage. Yes, this is a game all about cheese and it uses some awesome mechanisms as you play that I don’t see in many other games. It’s a worker placement game about making cheese. The more cheese you make the better you’ll do in the game. But let’s talk about the unique element of the game.

The main central element of the game is this big wheel, not of cheese but locations where you make your cheese. And that wheel turns each round of the game. Now each round you can use two workers on the board and then potentially your other one, or a couple of them, on your player board as you unlock things. But on the main board everything has a timer. That timer is how long it takes to get back your worker. It is easy to tell that timer though, because when you wedge of cheese worker is pointed back at you, you get it back.

That element is so clever in the game. And the game does a good job of scaling itself for player count. You swap out board parts for each wedge of the board. And, I forgot to mention this, the board is modular. Yes, there are only four modules that make up the whole wheel. But how those go together changes up what comes after each other. I’d love to see this in more board games.

2. Homebrewers

Next up a game that I love to champion. We have Homebrewers a game about homebrewing beer. I love beer and I love homebrewing beer, so it’s a game made for me. But I also love engine building and Homebrewers is a fun engine building game.

In this game you want to be the best homebrewer, not surprise there. So your goal is to be the best at brewing four different styles of beers to gain medals and points as Summerfest and Oktoberfest. But as you brew, you gain ingredients. These ingredients modify your beers. They might give you more money or raise up how good you are at brewing that beer faster or an adjacent beer.

One of the elements that I love at the end of the game is you have a bunch of wild beers. Since I love beer, I always think, would I drink that beer? The answer is basically always, yes, I’d drink it once. But sometimes the flavors are a bit out there.

1. Sushi Go Party!

Finally, at number one, we have Sushi Go Party. This is my favorite food themed game that is all about drafting the best meal possible. Everything is going to score you points, potentially, as you draft them. And most of it is pretty simple set collection. Sometimes, though, you get a card with a special power that is going to let you break the rules and swap what you are drafting.

One element that I love about Sushi Go Party is how you tailor it for your group. I make really mean drafting combinations sometimes. When I say that you score points, it’s possible to score negative points. Or I can make it really friendly so that everyone is getting a ton of points. That to me separates it from the base Sushi Go where the game is going to be the same every time. This is one that I really recommend people checkout just for a fun time.

Final Thoughts

Now, I am sure that people are noticing a few missing board games. Food Chain Magnate is a food themed game that just isn’t interesting to me. It’s too big and too much going on that I don’t want to learn it, play it and then need to play it a few more times. Also Vihnos or Viticulture are likely ones people might note as well. I am actually interested in playing both.

I did on my list have a few board games that I didn’t put on there. Fruit Picking is a fun one. I like the mancala style mechanism of the game. Cacao is a chocolate creation game, I guess you could call it, and it’s fun with it’s tile placement element to it. And Charcuterie is another one. I like Charcuterie, the game and the food style, but it’s a super light game that I’ll gladly play but probably am not that apt to pick myself.

What are your favorite board games with a food theme? And which is your favorite of the 10 Food Board Games I listed?

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How To Play Cacao

Cacao is a tile laying game where you are trying to get the most points for selling cacao beans at the various settlements. And you gain points for also having workers adjacent to water, temples and more. But for the most part your turn is very simple.

On you turn you take one of three tiles that you have and you add it to the grid of tiles out in front of you. There are very few rules for placement, the main one being that you can’t put a worker tile adjacent to another worker tile. You can rotate your worker tile any way you want. The tile is always going to have four workers on it.

Then after you place if there is a empty spot adjacent to that tile and another worker tile, so the two tiles form a right angle, you fill in that spot, or spots with scoring tiles. The scoring tiles might be villages where you can sell cacao or it might be spots where you can get your crop. As I mentioned as well there is water, temples, and more that give other scoring opportunities.

Then you activate the workers on the tile you just placed. And you decide which order to activate them. So you might want to harvest cacao beans first so that you have something to sell. Or you might want to sell first so you have room harvest more cacao beans.

The game ends once every player has placed all of their tiles. It’s possible at the end of the game that someone might not be able to place a scoring tile because they are all already out. In that case, just place the tile and activate the worker. Whomever, at the end, has the most points, wins.

What Doesn’t Work

The game plays differently at different player counts. Mainly at lower player counts, two or three, it’s going to be more strategic. I play a tile out in a way that is going to benefit me greatly and maybe will be hard for you to come and get to it. Higher player counts it’s going to be more random. More on the board will change between. It only plays up to four, which is nice it won’t be too random, but as compared to two players, it’ll be way more random. I think for some people it might limit how many players they want to play with.

What Works

The turns are fast-ish and simple. Yes, you need to really think about where you want to put things. But the decision space is limited. It does grow as the game goes on because there are more spots to play. The decision space, though is never too bogged down. And often times, if you don’t have cacao beans or you do, that is going to help make your determination for you as to where you want to go.

The game is also not too long, but it’s not too short either. This could be a game where it goes on and on and you make a giant map of tiles. But it’s not like that, the game plays quickly. But it’s also not too short. I feel like I have a good amount of time to make decisions and get points in the game. If I do that well or not is on me. But the time is there for me to try and do that.

And I like that the tiles are different. On a tile, for your workers, you might have two on one side, and one on either side flanking it. Or one it might be one worker on each side. Or even three and one for a few of the tiles. So when do you play that really powerful action? Because two workers means that you could sell two cacao beans to a village. But maybe I want to get that many instead. The choice is always good.

Who Is Cacao For?

This is for people, I think, who like a game like Carcassonne. I think this one is easier in some ways. And that’s not a bad thing. Carcassonne can sometimes be challenging to teach farmers and there’s a bit going on in there. This one it’s just that little bit simpler and there isn’t the worker management, at least not in the same way. So it’s going to be a game that is very welcoming and friendly to people who are maybe newer to board games.

My Final Thoughts on Cacao

I enjoy this game quite well. I own it now so that fact should be pretty obvious. There are certain elements that really draw me towards this game. In particular, I like the different workers on the tiles. And I didn’t mention it, but some of the cacao “fields” have two beans on them, so you get two for one worker. I think there is a good amount of emerging strategy in the game as well.

The water is interesting as well. If you don’t get water, you get negative points. So that is rough, and it means that you need to think about that. I like how it can block people out as well from water. So now they need to be more effective on the temples having worker majority there to get the higher of the two points. So Cacao while simple is not a game that is devoid of some really good decisions.

Let me know your thoughts on Cacao.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B-
Casual Grade: B+

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