Last updated on December 1st, 2025 at 09:46 pm
Hungry Hearts Diner – Entertainment Game Review
Hungry Hearts Diner is a Entertainment/Simulation/Adventure game from GAGEX Co.,Ltd., first launched in 17th November 2017.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 4,716+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Hungry Hearts Diner Stand Out
Hungry Hearts Diner is a game about a small shop at the edge of a
big city. Take on the role of the hard-working old lady struggling to
manage her family's little restaurant—and all by her lonesome, too!
Cook tasty meals for a variety of colorful characters, and learn more
about their triumphs and struggles as they chow down on your tasty,
home-cooked food. Rice balls, dumplings, tempura…you can make it all!
In fact, the more you cook, the more dishes you'll unlock.
And hey, you'll even get a chance to learn about good ol' fashioned
Japanese cuisine while you're at it! Did you know you can make
jelly out of seaweed? Because I didn't!
Of course, the people who visit your diner all have a story to tell.
And what makes people more talkative than a full belly?
Feed your customers until they feel like sitting back and spinning
you a yarn or two!
But not every story is a happy one, and not every ending
joyous. Stay tuned for some twists and turns!
Story
On a tiny side street in a nameless little neighborhood sits an
old Japanese diner. Things are quiet here; old-fashioned
you might say. But of course they are. It's Showa era Japan,
and the television is just starting to come into vogue.
Slide open the screen door and you'll see a kindly old lady
hard at work behind the counter. Her husband's been sick
for a while, and she's had to run the place on her own.
It's hard work, but she's a tough one, and she gets by.
Sit down at one of the worn wooden tables, and close your
eyes. Thunk thunk goes the steady beat of a knife chopping
veggies. Hisss; the sound of meat sizzling in a pan.
Swish swish; a whisk beating eggs.
The soothing sounds of a simple kitchen.
Sit here long enough, and all that tension will just flow
right out of you. So come on in, order a hot meal, and take
a load off. The peace'll do you good.
So, let me guess. The question you're asking yourself right now
is "is this game for me"? Well, maybe it is.
-Do you like casual/idle games?
-Do you like games where you run a shop?
-Are you looking for a nice, relaxing story?
-Ever played any of our other games, like Oden Cart or Showa Candy Shop? (If so, thanks a bunch!)
-Are you hungry?
Warning: This game is not edible. Please don't try to eat your phone.
If you answered "Yes!!!!" to any of the above, well,
maybe this game's for you. Give it a download and a shot.
It's free, so it won't cost you a dime!
We very much hope it brings you a smile! Or perhaps even some tears?
This Entertainment game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Hungry Hearts Diner is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 6th April 2023
Recent improvements include:
Fixed some bugs.
Download & Availability
Hungry Hearts Diner is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Hungry Hearts Diner on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love playing this game. It always makes us feel like calm and relax. All we have to do is just make the food and give it to the people hear their stories and we enjoy the artwork. We enjoy everything about the graphics of the game.
Not just another diner game. We cant believe Im only just discovering Hungry Hearts, but it really does have heart. If you like a charming tale about real people and the beautiful moments in life, look no further.
We have the most amazing time with on this app.
Fun game to play and not crazy where it is rare to win.
We didnt expect to love this game as much as we did or love the characters as much as we did. We grew so attached to all our customers! An amazing game with a beautiful and touching story.
The characters and storyline are so endearing that we couldnt help but come back every day. The gameplay is quaint and simple but still affords you choice and customization. Not a game that demands you stay on it so it fits politely into your life. Just so good.
Cute stories and the ads are optional. Easy to play for a few minutes of free time. Also, it introduced us to some food we want to try.
We loved this game and played the second game when we had an android so we decided to get it and the other games on apple and repurchase the add ons because we believe no ads and ease of play is always worth a few dollars towards the devs. We came across it after we had to get a stitch on our thumb and couldnt work for a bit and asked our sister for a recommendation.
Cant believe we downloaded this for free. Very happy to unlock the entire story and give it a play through. Fantastic.
Actually cried playing this game, its the sweetest experience but it really pulls at your heartstrings, pleaseee play this.
We played this game years ago and remembered it was amazing, short and sweet and will make you cry. Great game mechanics and takes a minute to strategize your dishes. Finally found it again and finished it in about 3 days. Was nice to play it again several years later since we didnt remember how the story went. We love the doctor lol.
We dont play mobile games often. We pick one up for a little while maybe once a year. We played this based off recommendations. It was way more than we could have imagined. It pulled us in with people sharing stories of their lives. It quickly turned into needing to know how their stories unfold. This game pulled at our heart strings. We wish it wasnt over already. Wonderful game.
The ending made us cry. We loved this game truly. It really speaks to you. Learning about the characters and their lore and how the grandma you play,plays as an important character in all of their lives. Its truly beautiful how many meaningful messages and lessons you get from this game. Thank you toThe creators of this game.
This is such a sweet, cozy little game! We loved unlocking the storylines for each character. They all tugged your heartstrings in different ways. We cant wait to try the other iterations.
We love this game for SO many reasons! NO ADS! Not fast paced at all! NO puzzle and an amazing story! PLUS EVERYTHING IS FREE! We wish the story continued on as great as this one! Thank you for such a great game. Our family & we always end up coming back to this game every couple of years.
We loved this game. Very nice stories. Obviously not a cash grab.
We needed a calming game for us to play before bed, and we were wowed by this one. The gameplay was simple and repetitive enough to lull us to sleep, but the storiesthey were so good!! And the ending of course was the best part. Definitely worth slowly working through, and enjoying the ride. We cant wait to play the sequel.
We have not cried over a game in YEARS! The story telling of each character, the art, the actual history, the game play, EVERYTHING IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! We hope we can find another game that can top this but we doubt it.
One of the best games Ive ever played. The stories and the plot twists are breath taking. We cried. And there are no ads??? This game is a blessing. So happy. Will download and play all of the games that come out from this creator.
We wish we didnt need to say goodbye to all the characters what a lovely story.
Wow, this game is just art, kudos to everyone involved.
Dang, this game is amazing! Id kind of lost hope that any mobile games would be fun and NOT try to con us out of all our money, and then we found this one. Hungry hearts diner is sweet, delightful, clever, and touching just give it a try.
Im trying to beat every Hungry Hearts game in a matter of days, and this is a great start! We played this the whole time on the airplane, its so good we had to! But anyways, the customers are really memorable and have their own different personalities! Ol Tokei doesnt eat anything but chilled tofu, and Dr. Mondo snarfs stuff down like theres no tomorrow its so interesting how the customers differ so much! And dont we forget about all the meals! They look so yummy AND! Their descriptions just blew us away. The Showa era, it all looks so interesting we never knew the spoon for curry and rice was in water! But more importantly, Tanabata is a big part of this game, and we love it! From the star-crossed wishes from Pigtails and Slick, to the ones from Ol Tokei and Officer Hiro it gives us a feeling of completion after Ive seen all of the wishes. The drawing for the ending blew us away! How much time did it take for you to draw that? Even better than the already great Showa Candy Shop 3 drawing! This music is great, we would NEVER get tired of it. Its so poignant, just like the conversations! You can find out the customers troubles and how they feel! Its really touching to see how the ending works out. Just one thing the level that fried rice needs to be for chicken and egg bowl is SIMPLY OUTRAGEOUS. You know Energy exists and Fried Rice takes up a lot? Well, Imagine making, we dont know, 40 of them. But thats just a small concern. Overall, this is a great game with lots of stuff to explore! You should totally try it out. Im halfway though Hungry Hearts 2, and we cant wait to see how Hungry Hearts Neo unfolds! Bye.
Was looking for a relaxing, cozy game and ended up with this heartwarming story. Highly recommend.
We downloaded this with no expectations and even then they surpassed them. The game delves deep into the lives of the customers and is more interesting than other restaurant games. We just wish there was more content or more customers because it ends so quickly (though thats on us for binging the game in two days).
The reviews are right. Very fun and addicting to play. This game's attention to detail in how the story unfolds caught us by surprise. The ending did a number on our heart strings, we'll say that. Oh, us? No we're not crying, there just a tree branch in our eye.
Beautiful little game. Had us crying at the end. Definitely worth a play.
We have to say, Hungry Hearts is our comfort game. So is the second one. Ive never loved a game as much as this one and all the stories in it will hold a special place in our heart. Everything was so captivating and really captured the essence of how family life is through food.
Ordinarily we steer clear of idle games. We get hypnotized watching timers tick down and lose a lot of time that way. This game is unique in that its a manageable size though. You can beat it in under a month, no money needed with little effort. So why play it? Because its genuinely got a beautiful story of a sweet old Japanese grandma talking to her diner customers and helping to change their lives with her cooking. If you like other games like va-11 hall-a or coffee talk, or if youre a fan of something like midnight diner, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
We played this around when it first came out and couldn't truly understand the message of the game like the restaurant owner's grandson. This game is encapsulates the longing for family and pains of growing up. Though it tackles such tough issues such as feeling like you can't go back, it still feels like a cozy blanket and now we can empathize with each customer that we get to follow along as we craft their favorite foods and leaves us rooting for all of them. It's a very simple game, but we enjoy it very much and leaves us wanting to try harder and making the most of the moments we have with our loved ones. Beautiful crafted, would recommend.
We played this game before, but didnt really finish it because we wanted to have more space so we install it but now we have a new phone. We reinstalled the game and played it and we think this game is really comforting to play to us it is we love the different dishes, description of the dishes, we love the aesthetic and we loved that everyone except for the working man and the blue color man had personal problems of their own and we wasnt really expecting the plot twist in the end and another thing we like is the heart system if youre good at saving your hearts and not doing too much you can play this game for two hours or just one and if you ran out of heart, you can just wait until 10 minutes or 30 minutes and you get some of your hearts back overall we think this game is really fun, comforting and had a pretty good story to us we think .Keep doing what youre doing we need more games like these.
Time to beat: around 7-8hrs for complete menu. Story completes at around 5-6hr mark. We like the narrative of this game which focuses on family. We wish more games are like this. The controls and mechanics are simple enough that you will master it within the hour of playing.You have certain customers that has certain food favorites. You progress by making food that they like or crave at the moment. Menu expands as you meet the number of required level of certain food by making x amount of times before getting a new item on the menu. What keeps you playing is completing each persons story which there is about 9. After 7-8hrs, you will fall in love with this game. Our question is, did it have an auto save feature? Cuz there is none on the menu. Because of this, we had it running in the background. Not a biggie since it is a short game. Relatability-wise, there isnt. But you will likely recommend this to a friend.
Lovely game ! There are ads but not too much and very fairly put. This game is so wholesome and very beautiful as well. We recommend it for anyone that needs a break from the harsh realities of life.
We absolutely adore this game. Its so cozy and fun. All of the characters have compelling backstories and personalities. We love this game so much that we have reset the app data to play it over and over again multiple times since we first played it in 2017.
We are not really a mobile game person but this one was so charming. The art is cute and the story is lovely and a little sad. Definitely recommend.
We used to play this game when we were little only focusing on making food and earning money, not the stories. But growing up, when we finally thought of this game again, we downloaded it and played it again, but this time we focused on the story instead, and oh our gosh its so depressing :( (we finished the game in 2 days by the way.).
We love playing this game is super fun and we love upgrading things.
We never thought a freakin cooking game could have us laughing, crying, and getting completely invested in each and every single one of these characters. Addicting yet relaxing game play, and with a fantastic and heartwarming story to boot. We were so sad that it was over, we wished we could stay in that world for just a little longer. We want to deeply thank the developers for creating this game. We were having an incredibly hard week and we think we needed the reminder that deep down, every human has their own hopes, dreams, fears and struggles. And that there are good and kind people like Granny in this world to help them through. <3 Wish we could rate this more than 5 stars! A masterpiece.
We are proud to announce this is only of the very few games we completely entirely and was satisfied (and too little emotional drawn) with the ending. Over all, this is a nice time-passing game , love how we helped out the characters with food and advice . Each story line was unique and engaging. Would recommend to anyone.
Im glad we played the game Through. Such a peaceful and nice game. The stories of everyone was so heartfelt that it made us cry! Though wished it showed a bit more of what happened after their tabata. We will definitely keep playing the other games. Loved it.
It took us a few downloads to finally actually play this game but once we actually got into it and understood how the game worked we couldnt stop playing The story element took us by surprise, our heart is full and our stomach is hungry from looking at all the pretty food illustrations.
We have soo much to say and respect about this little game. The end made us cry a lot, we had a hunch and was still blown away by the plot twist. This gives you a cozy family hug even if you dont have a cozy family or home to call home. Best part, you genuinely dont have to buy no ads to get through the game. We will forever remember this game and Im sad to even delete from our phone for storage space, but just know, this game gave us a family we wish we had, highs and lows. Thank you for creating this beautiful story, game, art, masterpiece. May you have happiness, prosperity, and peace. Best wishes <3.
Its such a beautiful game. We just finished playing it now. And Im sobbing.
This is a great little game. The characters are charming, the story is actually pretty deep, and at the end, we for real cried. We highly suggest this game to anyone who is looking for a fun, low stress game with an excellent storyline.
We love this game! Came back after a few years Last time we played this game was in 2019! And we suddenly just remembered this game and came back to give it a shot again, and Im very happy that we did! Im happy Toto know that theres also a hungry hearts diner 2 as well! We love this game with all its small moments and attention to detail and all the little stories packed into this heart warming game, its so sad when you completely make some satisfied and they stop coming by any more though.
We just came for a good time. Yall didnt have to do us like that.
So we bought this game just to spend some time and to take our mind off our work load from school. We got really invested and we didnt expect that this game had so much storys and really informational descriptions of japanese food. The storylines of individual characters get you really invested but what really got us was the story with grandpa in the end. GOD WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SAD it was all fine and then that ending dialogue love this game we love it WARNING YOU WILL CRY.
This is honestly and genuinely one of the best mobile games we've ever played in our life. Too many mobile games have intrusive ads or deliberately grindy gameplay, and afterwards make you feel as if you wasted your time. This game is not like that at all. It is sweet, relaxing, wholesome, and surprisingly deep. The customers' life stories are so incredibly rewarding when you finally make it through to the end of their chapters, and even Grandma (the main character) has an incredibly beautiful tale to tell. We went through many emotions playing this (both joyful and sorrowful) and now that we've reached the end, we're crying. This was a surprisingly moving and touching storyline, all bundled up in a cute little restaurant game that's relaxing to play and enjoy for a few minutes every day. You can play this game completely and totally free. No purchases are required, forced, or pushed relentlessly. You can choose to buy something to support the team, or watch extra ads for in-game benefits, but absolutely none of it is required. Which is incredibly refreshing to see in a mobile game, and genuinely made us want to buy something just to support the developers for crafting such a lovely game. Even though we've finished the game's story, we think we'll keep playing a little every day. Just to smile and enjoy to memories.
This is a sweet, slow paced game with adorable art. The story lines touched our heart and made us care about characters in just a handful of conversations each. Very well written and designed. We definitely recommend this nice little game. Thank you for making it.
The game is a bit addicting which we didnt expect. Gagex games always warms our heart and this game is no exception. The characters feel like real people trying to live through the struggles and joys of life. The food and the descriptions made us a bit hungry lol.Everytime we play this we would watch videos of Japanese diners owned by elderly people preparing food. Makes us wish there was a Showa style diner in our area.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.3.3
- Size: 250.78 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN, JA, KO, ZH, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
- Developer: GAGEX Co.,Ltd.
Last updated: 6th April 2023 | Genre: Entertainment, Simulation | Developer: GAGEX Co.,Ltd.