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Ah, a cooking sim. Nothing brings people together like rolling an eyeball in a pan for a monster

Key Takeaways

Good Aspects

• Wildly satisfying cooking sim with physics-based cooking.
• Great blend of horror atmosphere and dark humor (yes, the monster burps).
• Multiple game modes (Story, Hardcore, Survival) keep things interesting.
• Hardcore mode brings a different story and ending.

Bad Aspects

• Story mode is super short, about an hour.
• Minor bug can fling food off the pan like a frisbee (dev has responded and addressed this).

Introduction

Well, “Kitchen Gore” is a tiny, messed-up horror cooking sim game where you serve human meat to a monster who gets real cranky if you screw up her order.

It’s developed by xoblins and launched in July 2025 on Steam and itch.io. You flip organs, time your dishes, and try to keep her satisfied while everything falls apart. It’s short, chaotic, and surprisingly addicting.

Itching for more obscure indie horror? Checkout my gameplay and review of the horror bureaucracy of Paper Pusher here!

Overview

The setup is simple but creepy. You’re trapped in a situation where you go to your basement kitchen, cooking increasingly grotesque meals for a contained monster.

Flip the food right, or she loses patience and lunges at you. There’s no handholding in this game. All you have in this cooking sim is you, a frying pan, and a beast who wants her tongue steak cooked rare.

There are three main game modes:

• Story Mode: a short campaign with cryptic text, hinting about why you’re doing this.
• Hardcore Mode: a remix of the story with harder levels and another ending.
• Survival Mode: test how long you can keep cooking under pressure.

The Story

There’s not a ton of exposition, but what is there is super effective. Before each level, you get a short line of eerie text, clues about your backstory and why you’re chained to this weird cooking gig. It’s enough to keep you curious.

Hardcore Mode changes things up by giving you story bits and an alternate ending. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say your character might not be entirely innocent.

Spoilers

It appears you have been doing this for a while and that the monster is your daughter. You slowly try to push through, satiating her but steadily go insane.

Eventually, you reach the point of no return and must make a choice on what to do.

This is the initial campaign, and hardcore mode will give you a new ending that explains a lot.

Spoilers End

The Gameplay

Here’s where the game shines. It’s a physics-based cooking sim where every mistake is your fault, and you feel it.

You have to flip meat chunks (eyeballs, tongues, meat cures (the measure of a real challenge), etc.) on a hot pan and make sure each side gets cooked – seriously.

The controls take some getting used to, but once you nail the rhythm, it’s super satisfying.

Meanwhile, the monster’s sitting a few feet away. She’s watching you cook, waiting.

She gets bored easily, and if you don’t check your phone and let her scroll on it or play her favorite music box in time, she leaps across the screen. Yes, you’re multitasking cooking organs while babysitting a hungry nightmare.

Game Guide

• Step 1: Grab the ingredients and toss them in the pan.
• Step 2: Flip each item so every side cooks evenly. (Hint: I found slight jiggling the mouse side-to-side or in a small circle helps cook things or flip them easier)
• Step 3: Watch the monster, she has a “patience timer” based on how entertained she is. (Hint: if you see a Meat Cure, cook it first as wrestling with flipping it around on all SIX sides takes a lot of time away)
• Step 4: Distract her by checking your phone or playing music.
• Step 5: Don’t drop food often. Seriously. She hates that.

The pressure builds fast, and even a small mistake can snowball into a panic-inducing frenzy. It’s chaotic in the best way.

Graphics and Audio

This game looks… well, indie. The textures are basic, the animations are a little janky, and the monster’s design is creepy but minimal.

Still, it works. This cooking sim’s gritty visuals match the vibe. You’re in a damp murder-kitchen, not a Michelin-star restaurant.

Audio is where it gets fun. The monster groans, burps, and occasionally snarls when she’s hungry.

The meat makes gross squishy sounds as it cooks, and the frying pan sizzles like something alive. It’s a limited soundscape that fits perfectly.

Performance and Technical Aspects

Technically, it runs fine for a horror cooking sim. You won’t need a powerhouse PC to play “Kitchen Gore.” It works on Steam Deck, Windows 7 and up, and doesn’t take up much space.

That said, the physics can be a little buggy. Sometimes food flies off the pan with slight jerks of the mouse or joystick.

It’s not game-breaking, but it is frustrating when you’re mid-level and a patty ricochets out the pan. Fortunately, the devs are responsive and are seen to have addressed these few bugs.

Length and Replayability

Story Mode is short, roughly an hour, maybe a little longer if you struggle with the physics. But it’s meant to be tight and intense.

Hardcore Mode gives the game some serious replay value.

It reuses the same general structure but remixes the levels, cranks up the difficulty, and gives you new story elements and an alternate ending. It’s “harder” and the story is recontextualized.

Survival Mode is where things get wild. It’s pure adrenaline. You just cook until you can’t anymore, with the monster growing more impatient as time goes on.

Closing Thoughts

So, “Kitchen Gore” is a strange little beast of a cooking sim game, and I mean that in the best way. It’s short, rough around the edges, and totally worth it if you love weird, stress-fueled horror games with a splash of dark humor.

The cooking is chaotic and rewarding, the monster is equal parts creepy and hilarious, and the whole ambiance is something you won’t find in any other game this year. It’s an experience.

One minute you’re rolling an eyeball, the next you’re jamming a music box to keep from being eating you alive.

If you’ve got at least $5 and an hour to spare, I can’t recommend this game enough. And if you’re into replaying things for challenge or story depth, Hardcore and Survival Mode bring way more value than you’d expect from a game this size.

Final Verdict:
Deliciously disturbing cooking sim. Flip the food, feed the monster, and don’t screw up.

Gravenox out.