Sizzle & Stack: The restaurant simulating card game that took over our lives

In the VGG house, video game obsessions can sometimes be obvious. A cute farming sim? That's 40 hours minimum between Julie and I. Survival crafting with an enjoyable game loop? Well, that's September spoken for. A multiplayer game with an emphasis on teamwork, randomized encounters with loot to be gathered, and good proximity chat? Find the two of us squawking at each other in the VGG office until 3 a.m.

But one look at Sizzle & Stack doesn't necessarily mark it as one of those crystal clear fixations for the VGG team. It's a card game with limited visuals and runs that can take up a solid two hours to finish. And even with all that in mind, Julie and I managed to rack up 20 hours of playtime in just a handful of play sessions in the game's first week post-launch, with play sessions that all but disrupted any other plans we had that day... because we just had to get a Sizzle Medal and unlock a new pantry pack before we logged off. We had to.

Just the Facts

Developer: Arvis Games

Publisher: Arvis Games

Platform: PC

Price: $9.99

Release Date: August 5, 2025

Sizzle & Stack is the latest from Arvis Games, a self-described platform-agnostic game studio that has found unique ways to blend video and tabletop gaming sensibilities into something brand new. They plan to offer their works on as many platforms as possible and to make works for everyone, with "easy to understand" approachability for newcomers and "easy to obsess over" depth for the more hardcore audience.

This restaurant simulating card game offers both, as Sizzle & Stack's simple concept of "place card on card to make thing happen" is easy to grasp... but the late-game card juggling where you're handling dozens of card stacks to satisfy the four customers visiting your restaurant can make even the most seasoned gamer sweaty with stress.

Sizzle & Stack is a game that keeps tugging us back in.

In Sizzle & Stack, you run a restaurant populated by cards. Kitchen tools and ingredients alike are represented by cards, and tossing them at each other is how you'll cook. Need to make a fried egg? Toss an egg card on top of a pan card and listen to it sizzle. How about some French fries? Potato card meets knife card to become a diced potato card, which is then placed on the deep fryer card. You get the picture.

Customers come in, place their orders, and you start shuffling things around to make the meals they ask for. You take their money and reviews and pay rent at the end of the week. You also need to keep the number of cards on your table under a certain limit each day or expand your kitchen to be able to hold more stuff. Then, get back to work for another dinner rush. Easy peasy.

What I really appreciate about Sizzle & Stack's cooking systems is how simple and clear it all is. A meal is almost always made exactly how you'd expect it to be — there's a logic to it. Recipe cards are dealt out from randomized card packs that give you the ingredients you need for the multiple types of cuisine you make in the game, from burger and fries "Food Truck" fare to "Asian Delicacy" packs on the other end of the board. But if you think you know how to make a pancake, you can just toss the proper ingredients into the proper tools and make it happen.

There are of course still limitations in place that require creative thinking to parse some of the more complex dishes, but it presents a fun puzzle to figure out what goes into a Sizzle & Stack veggie pizza compared to one you might order from Domino's.

The slow, exponential growth in complexity of a Sizzle & Stack run makes for engaging play sessions every time. When you first open your restaurant, you're serving up omelettes and pancakes left and right. Then burgers get introduced. Then pasta dishes. Then burritos and tacos and chilaquiles.

Suddenly, you find yourself making from-scratch pizza dough while flipping up some fried eggs and mincing meat for burger patties. What starts as a simple card game becomes as hectic as any episode of The Bear, and you find yourself cursing at your computer screen as you buy card pack after card pack frantically hoping to get yourself some sugar for the order of pancakes that's suddenly come in. (You come in and order pancakes? In what I have by now elevated to a fine Italian eatery? What is this, child's play?)

Like any can't-put-down game, Sizzle & Stack offers a robust set of upgrades for you to work toward to make your kitchen run better over time. Pans can become woks; supply boxes duplicate ingredient cards so that your rarest ingredients remain stocked; and waiters can be hired to auto-serve meals as soon as they're finished, freeing you up to focus on the cooking. Each run is uniquely defined by the customers' orders, the upgrades you unlock, and what you add to your restaurant.

It's an endless fascinating loop that transcends the simple card game framing that it presents with at the start.

Sizzle & Stack may not have impressive particle effects or a deep narrative that has us rethinking our lives, but it does have the right ingredients to keep us coming back day after day.

Whether it's the charming way each customer shows their thanks for their meal — the pleased "mmhmm" vocalization that some of them do is a new earworm for me — or the upgrades and Sizzle Medals that come with long-term success that I've not quite been able to unlock, Sizzle & Stack is a game that keeps tugging us back into the chaos of the kitchen.