Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
In the cooking-themed card game Raid the Pantry, for 2-4 individuals or two teams of two, players are dealt ingredient and dish cards at the start of play; over the course of the game, players need to collect the ingredients needed to make the dishes in hand.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Auction/Bidding
Bid against other players to determine who receives an item, action, or priority.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Set Collection
Gather related items that become more valuable when scored together.
Rock-Paper-Scissors
Resolve choices through a circular set of strengths and weaknesses.
Team-Based Game
Players compete in fixed teams and coordinate toward a shared team result.
Read the full game description
In the cooking-themed card game Raid the Pantry, for 2-4 individuals or two teams of two, players are dealt ingredient and dish cards at the start of play; over the course of the game, players need to collect the ingredients needed to make the dishes in hand. Each completed dish scores you 1-3 points, locks in its ingredients for reuse in other dishes, and allows you to take a new dish card. Action cards, drawn at the beginning of a turn, provide ways to add, lose, trade and retrieve ingredient cards. The eight "Instant Dishes" among the action cards allow players to lock in a common ingredient and score 1 point. Players can score a "cuisine bonus" for making multiple dishes from one of the five primary cuisines featured on dish cards (American, Continental, French, Italian and Mexican). The first player to reach a point threshold, which depends on the number of players, wins. In the team version, players end the round and total their points when the Action card deck has been exhausted. Raid the Pantry is the winner of the New Zealand New Game of the Year 2013 award from the New Zealand Games Association. It also won a Game of the Year 2013 award from Creative Child Magazine and one of first ever "Recommended by American Mensa" commendations. Originally published by SchilMil Games in May 2012, Cheeky Parrot Games acquired the title in 2014 and released a second edition, with some graphical and gameplay tweaks, in June 2015.