I like waffles. You probably like waffles too. Who doesn’t like waffles??? Let’s sit down and talk about Top Waffle, and figure out whether it’s as likeable as the breakfast delicacy it’s named after, or if you should pass on it and go for pancakes instead.

Game Name: Top Waffle (2023)
Designer:  Zac Loveless
Artist: Megan Galura
Publisher: Lovemore Games
Player Count: 2-6 Players
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Review Date: 7/3/2025
Reviewed By: Dan

Upfront Disclaimer: Lovemore Games generously provided me with a copy of “Top Waffle” for purposes of testing it out and writing a review. No compensation was provided and I am free to write whatever I want about the game. All opinions contained within are my own unbiased thoughts.

Game Overview

It’s not hard to want to pick up a board game box that looks like a giant waffle with maple syrup drizzled all over it. That’s the first thing you’ll see with Top Waffle, a recent (2023) card game release from the folks at Lovemore Games. If you’re hoping to crack open the lid to the box and find actual warm, tasty edible waffles inside, prepare to be disappointed. But if you were expecting to lift the lid and find 135 colorful standard sized playing cards, along with 6 oversized player guide cards, then this one might be more your speed.

Top Waffle is a card game for 2-6 players, and it’s a fairly lightweight game to setup and explain. Some of this varies by player count, but in a typical setup you will see a 3 x 3 grid of cards in the center of the table. The top row of this grid consists of “order” cards, which represent customer orders that need to be fulfilled by the players. These order cards show anywhere from 2 to 5 toppings required to complete the order, a picture of the delicious creation, and lastly a value for the number of dollars (essentially victory points) you will achieve for fulfilling the order. The next row of three cards are, you guessed it, “toppings” cards which show a picture of either one or two ingredients, and sometimes contain a bonus victory point value that unlocks when they are used to fulfill an order. And lastly, the bottom row contains “item” cards, which can contain one of six different items available to players in the game. These items allow special powers to the player, such as the ability to act as a wild card, or letting the player look through the next 3 toppings cards on top of the deck.

Much like the components themselves, gameplay is very simple as well. Each turn consists of two phases. The first phase, known as “Prepare” in the game, allows the player one of two options: draw two toppings cards (face up or off the draw pile at random), or draw one single item card. The second phase is known as “Execute”, where the player is allowed to play as many cards from their hands as they would like (or none at all). This is where players are either spending the necessary toppings to complete one of the face up orders, or else using their items cards to perform a variety of available actions. There are a few other nuances available during the Execute phase as well – certain items cards can be combined together to create upgraded actions, which amplify the effects of each item card (for example, the upgraded wild card goes from being worth 1 wild ingredient to 3 wild ingredients).

The standard-length game is played in three rounds, and at the end of each round, players must trash (and are penalized for) any remaining unused toppings cards in their hands, so it’s advantageous to avoid building up too many toppings unless you have a clear path to use them. After three rounds are finished, scoring is simple – players count up all the victory points scored on their completed orders, add in any bonuses from using special ingredients to make them, and then subtract out one point for every ingredient in their trash pile from throughout the game – the player with the highest score is the Top Waffle (Waffler? Wafflist? You’re the winner, call yourself whatever you want).

My Thoughts 

I don’t know if it makes sense to use the word “delicious” to describe a board game, and I don’t know if Lovemore games would be very happy with me taking a gigantic bite out of the game box they generously sent me to review, so I won’t do either of those things here, no matter how much I really want to.

There is a lot to love about Top Waffle, and I think if you take a look at the game setup and read the description of the game, you’re probably going to get exactly what you expected with this one. It teaches quickly, it sets up quickly, and it plays at almost any age – I think even children who aren’t yet able to read could easily figure this one out since basically everything is identified by pictures and icons on the cards. The box guidance of ages 7+ is probably about right, but if you just removed the item cards completely from the game, you could take that even lower. So, this game is really for…pretty much everyone at every age.

The component quality is fine, the box is nice enough without too much wasted space, the cards have a nice linen feel and very bright/colorful artwork, and the rulebook is well written, concise, and easy to follow.

Let’s talk about the game play itself though. Look, I think the game is fine. Again, I don’t think anyone buying this game is going to get anything wildly different than they expected, and it plays smoothly. It’s nice to have games like this on hand where they can really be played easily with any group, especially as a family game of very mixed ages of parents and younger children. That all being said, I don’t think this is going to blow anyone away either, and it certainly has a few issues worth pointing out. In a standard 4 player game, there are 36 orders on the table to be fulfilled before the game ends, which comes out to 12 orders in each phase. I played this with my family of four, and three of the four of us felt like the game drags on way too long when setup this way. Part of the problem is that when each round ends, all players have to discard/trash all of their remaining toppings cards, and start all over again for the next round. This just ends up making the start of each round feel very slow, as it just becomes a carousel of people loading up on toppings cards over and over until they can afford to start fulfilling orders again.

My other issue, which is more minor, is that this is a game that you need to commit to playing just to have fun and not overthink things. After a few rounds, it dawned on me that items cards seem a little too overpowered in the game, and often times there was almost no reason to grab any new toppings cards unless it would allow me to directly fulfill an order the very same turn. This is due to the negative points risk for unused toppings cards at the end of each round, but no such negative risk for items cards (which can also be carried through to the next round with no penalty). And one last gripe, minor gripe – there is one accessibility issue with the printing on the cards we noticed – I’m not sure why, but the decision to show a yellow coin icon on the “order” cards, with a plain white number value written in the middle makes the order values nearly impossible to see unless you lean in to look very closely. This held true for both the adults that played (including myself, with near 20:20 vision) and the kids as well. I wish they’d reprint the Order cards with black text instead of white text to make those numbers more easily visible.

So overall – I think Top Waffle has a place on many board game tables for sure, but my recommendation would be to either just play a two round game using 2/3rds of the recommended cards, or keep it at 3 rounds but cut the number of orders in each round down by a couple of cards (maybe 3 rounds of 8 orders, rather than 3 rounds of 12 orders). With just that simple change, I think Top Waffle becomes a very compelling family game night game, one that will certainly make you want to dust off that waffle maker immediately afterwards.

Verdict:

Bright, colorful artwork and a fun theme will make this a hit at family board game nights for people of all ages. Probably not the best choice for hardcore gamers who thrive on strategic decision-making or deep player interaction, but it delivers about exactly what you’d expect from a lightweight family game.

Likes:

• Bright, colorful artwork and a fun theme
• It makes me really, really want to eat waffles; that’s a plus no matter which way you slice it
• Simple to teach, simple to set up, a good choice for pretty much any combination of ages
• Turn length is typically very short, so players will stay constantly engaged

Dislikes:

• Standard ruleset makes the game drag on too long; needs to be played slightly modified to shorten the round lengths
• White numbers printed on yellow icons make order value cards hard to read from afar
• This is not a game for people looking for deep strategy; best to just go with the flow