Dining room

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

A dining room is a zone where dwarves will go to eat. The assigned zone may be either assigned to a specific dwarf (usually a noble) or designated as a dining hall. A valuable communal dining hall is an excellent way to reduce stress. Dwarves can still eat at a table and chair without designating it or the room they are in as a dining room, however.

Constructing a dining hall

In order to construct a dining hall, use the z (zone) menu, choose "Dining Hall", and select an area of the fortress. The "Multi" option can be used to designate multiple rooms as dining halls as long as each one already contains a table. To be useful, a dining hall should also contain a (single) chair next to each table. Some players place food stockpiles nearby in hopes that this will lessen the time it takes dwarves to grab a bite to eat.

Once a dining hall has been designated, you may assign the zone to a specific dwarf.

Two examples of a dining room are shown below. The left one (in ASCII mode) includes a dining hall (east), kitchen (north), storage area (west), fishery, butcher's workshop, and tanner's workshop (south). The right one (in the premium version) is the same, but includes a still to the south.

Stress considerations

Four citizens enjoying their meal.

• A good general rule of thumb is to have enough tables and chairs to serve one fifth (1/5) of your fortress population at any given time. Plan ahead for immigrants. More never hurts, but may never be necessary.

• While it might be common sense to put a chair on either side of a table, or even 4 chairs around a single table, in DF one table is only enough for one dwarf. While a dining room of any size is designated from a single table, dwarves will receive negative thoughts from eating at a dining room (or anywhere else) without both a chair and orthogonally adjacent table to themselves. To prevent this, build multiple tables and add a chair or throne next to each table, and make sure any chair will not be paired with the wrong table, and vice versa.

• Since the room quality is determined solely by the total value of all items and furniture, it is possible to make a legendary room simply by having a great many more chairs and tables than you actually need, which will give your stone carver something to do and give your fort room to grow in the future. Artifacts that can be used in animal and weapon traps, like mechanisms, will add immensely to room value and impress any dwarf that looks at them, even if they are useless where they are placed. Artifacts you can build are a huge boon for this reason.

• The total value of a dining room will affect how happy dwarves get about eating there. Because dining rooms tend to be large and have lots of potentially valuable furniture, it is fairly simple to get incredibly valuable dining rooms that help offset the depression of a dwarf's best friend being torn apart by goblins. Building furniture from valuable materials such as flux, obsidian, or various metals helps. Decorating the walls and floors is also an easy way to make a dining hall more valuable. Try to use an experienced engraver for this important task to maximize room value.

• Dwarves with a table or chair in their quarters may opt to eat their meals there instead of using your magnificent dining hall (forgoing the positive thought and possibly generating negative thoughts as well). To avoid this, do not install tables or chairs in your non-noble dwarves' quarters.

Where goblin-slaying stories and slamming mead come together.
Art by Tomas Honz

"Dining room" in other Languages Dwarven: ub mosus Elven: esi imira Goblin: ngubung xustxu Human: izrol coni

V · T · E Zones
Civilian	Meeting area • Bedroom • Dormitory • Dining hall • Pit/Pond • Garbage dump • Water source • Tomb
Industry	Pen/Pasture • Fishing • Gather fruit • Sand collection • Clay collection
Government	Office • Dungeon
Military	Barracks • Archery range • Animal training