Build a restaurant customers want to return to
Start by preparing your main dishes and placing tables, then open the restaurant. Growth depends on more than selling a meal once: customers develop Shop Affinity as they eat and use facilities. Improve table comfort, respond to requests and give suitable gifts to build that relationship.
Keep the current area's objectives in view when deciding what to do next. Expansion is handled by Franky, and the surrounding rubbish has to be cleared first with help from the crew and customers. Expansion is therefore part of the management loop rather than a substitute for completing local objectives.
Discover dishes, then improve the menu
Exploration supplies recipes, ingredients and other items. Nami's break room provides another way to buy ingredients, while Robin and Sanji can help improve dishes using spare ingredients. Offering dishes in set meals also lets them level up after reaching their sales threshold.
Watch the crew endorsement attached to each dish. A set made entirely from dishes endorsed by the same crew member receives a price benefit. Set-meal compatibility and decorations can also affect the result. Compare combinations as you develop your menu.
Use comfort and staffing together
Table comfort contributes to Shop Affinity, and further comfort improvements enable remote ordering. Facilities can contribute sales and affinity too, so consider how the restaurant works between orders as well as what is on the menu.
Kitchen work is restricted to characters who can cook. Servers take completed food to customers, and customers with sufficiently high Shop Affinity can become staff.
Explore with the right crew
Exploration can uncover characters, recipes, ingredients and items. A location is marked cleared once everything available there has been obtained. If your level prevents a discovery, training is the manual's suggested next step.
Once you have the Going Merry, crew members can accompany expeditions and provide different benefits. Some encounters specifically require a particular crew member or customer to be available. A failed search therefore does not always mean the location has nothing left; check the people and progression conditions involved.
Day 51 is a score checkpoint
The score tally happens on the morning of Day 51, recording the preceding 50 days. It is not the ending. After the tally, game-speed settings become available, and continued play remains possible.
Ending and carryover (spoilers)
Carryover for a new game becomes available through days played even without reaching an ending, and it uses the saved state. The ending itself follows progression through the areas and the defeat of the Fake Baratie; play can continue afterwards.