September 2019
Really hope developers can make customers to sit down and didn't stand up the entire time. I have an issue where Lily Feng (City Living) didn't sit down, chat with his husband the entire time and the food never comes (maybe they didn't order it). The rating stay the same when this happen, but it's really annoying to see them come to restaurant just to chat.
September 2019
I'm having the same problem but it's happening to sims that are dining with my sims as well. It's happened in every restaurant I send them to. Hopefully, someone is able to find the reason soon!
September 2019
I've been having the same issue. I keep my sims' motives high, but that has never stopped them from eating before at a restaurant. It's an especially annoying issue when they're on dates and are unable to fulfill the "Discuss Meal" goal. It's impossible to discuss a meal one hasn't eaten.
September 2019
I've been playing in restaurants a lot tonight and I've been seeing other households eating their meals just fine. Staying seated, however, is not very consistent.. Just like with the market stalls, Sims are suddenly very uninterested in sitting while they're eating. I've been seeing a lot of Sims getting up with their plates and wandering the room, usually to talk to a random person or view art or something.
For the most part NPCs will finish their meals, though I have noticed that sometimes my SIm and their date will stop eating their food once they've finished their drink.
September 2019
I'm also having the issue where npc sims will drink their drinks and then be done and pay for their meal, and if an npc sim is eating out with the sim household I'm playing then they'll drink their drink and then just stop without eating their food.
September 2019
npcs are not finishing meal in restaurants and both active sims and npcs clean when they enter any restaurant lot
September 2019
Same thing happens in my game. I've noticed that everyone, including my played Sims, stop eating once they finish their drinks. If you don't order a drink, they'll finish. NPC Sims in the restaurant do eat so this issue seems to only affect those you're playing and dining with. I always have to click my Sims to get them to continue their meal and I stopped ordering drinks for my group/dates if I they aren't in my household. This is definitely annoying but at least no one steals the food anymore!
September 2019
So I recently encountered a similar issue after Anniversary patch (September 5, 2019).
My sims own a restaurant and the customer does drink their drink, but won't eat the foods. They sit there, didn't talk to anyone, literally doing nothing. Since they didn't eat the foods, the stars stuck at 3 stars (Picture 1). After around 1 hour in-game, the customer still won't eat their foods (Picture 2), as you can see, they just sitting and didn't do anything. The third picture show the Santa Claus and the woman beside him left the restaurant (with 3 stars rating) after sitting around 5-6 hours in-game. And it's clearly the foods still there.
Because of this, the restaurant earning reduced a lot and Dine Out become totally unplayable. Please fix @SimGuruNick
Sorry, there's no interface showing in the screenshot even I've marked "Capture Interface" option.
September 2019 - last edited September 2019
I know no one asks for the save file, but for the sake of quicker fix. Here is the save files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gRrKHaWBrgEfHp2Q1HuBZmBYHlbuGBAd along with 3 videos to show various issues I encountered when opening the restaurant.
Restaurant bug 1 video
Restaurant bug 2 video
Restaurant bug 3 video
Hope the save file will help TS4 Team to find the solution quickly.
October 2019
I'm having this problem too. Especially with dates. My sim asks another sim out. They have their drinks but NPC date only has drink and does not eat meat. My playing sim drinks their drink but I have to click on their plate again to get them to eat because it drops out of queue.