When you ask the dishwashers to come up with a new recipe for your kitchen, you’d better be prepared for what you are going to get. In Pot-YUCK!, players will compete to come up with the most disgusting food combinations they can. In each round the current Manager will blindly judge the proposals they are presented with and the winning player will be promoted. It’s not business as usual, but then again those who’ve worked in restaurants know that it rarely is. We here at The Cardboard Cantina have had our fair share of working in the food industry and couldn’t get enough of this kooky take on the realities of restaurant life. Designed by Alani Mason-Callaway after being inspired by her childhood food antics and love of cooking shows, this 3-5 player card game is coming to Kickstarter on June 1, 2021!

Before anyone can begin cooking, one must first set up the kitchen! All Food, Spice, Method, Kitchen Item, and Recipe decks should be shuffled. Each respective deck is then placed face down in the middle of the play area along with the Staff Rules card. All players receive a Dishwasher Rank card as well as two Food, Spice, and Method cards. These cards will form their opening hand. The remaining Rank cards are placed nearby for use later in the game. The player who ate the weirdest food combination in the last week will be the first “Manager” for the game.

At the beginning of the shift, the acting Manager draws a Recipe card, reads it, and then closes their eyes while the rest of the employees create their most disgusting concoctions. Once everyone has chosen their combos, they are placed face down in the play area and the Manager reads through them before choosing the winning combo. The winner gets promoted to the next rank (for example, from Dishwasher to Prep Cook or Prep Cook to Line Cook) and gets to keep the Recipe. The Manager then chooses from the remaining employees who will get to be the acting Manager for the next shift. At the beginning of the new round, the newly-promoted employee (winner of the previous round) draws the top card from the Kitchen Item deck and resolves it per the instructions on the card. The new Manager draws a Recipe card and the new round officially begins. Play mostly continues in this manner until a player successfully makes it to the end of a round as Head Chef. There are a few minor changes for further rounds listed in the rules. It is important to note that as of the second round of the game, players can be demoted in rank if they are caught breaking rank restrictions or using a different rank’s perks.

Pot-YUCK! is a game we have played with both our usual game group and as an introduction to the hobby with our friends in the industry. It’s fun, easy to learn, and quick enough to play while in the break room while waiting for the dinner rush! In all of our years in both the front of the house and the back of the house, neither of us has ever come up with some of the food combinations we have created while playing this game and I’m not sure if I should be proud of that fact or disturbed by that fact! While Pot-YUCK! was certainly designed with food lovers in mind, we feel that it is a game that could be enjoyed by anyone and at any age. Though younger players may need help reading the cards, they’ll have no trouble creating recipes once they know what they have in their hands. Whether it’s “refried liver cake with pumpkin spice” or “melted canned pork cobbler” you will be hard-pressed to see anything from Pot-YUCK! show up on a menu any time soon. It should, however, make its way onto your table for a fun round of dining gags. For this review, we used a prototype and I’m looking forward to seeing the final results after the forthcoming Kickstarter campaign – and I will be backing it!

All images of Pot-YUCK!: The Card Game were taken and edited by Krista unless otherwise stated.