Wok Star is a cooperative real-time game in which players take on different roles to help grow a Chinese restaurant in a tycoon style game. The clientele of customers is represented by a deck of cards with various Chinese dishes on them. Customers are served one at a time while a 30-second sand timer is running.

Each order requires a combination of ingredients to make. The board is used for tracking the levels of ten prepared ingredients in the kitchen. To prepare more ingredients, players spend dice in different combinations. All players are in charge of different tasks and all must work simultaneously because the timer is running!

At the end of each round, players pool their money and invest in different options to grow their business: acquire new recipes, upgrade preparation cards, or send out coupons to get more customers. The players must have a certain level of profit by the last round to keep the restaurant open and win!

The third edition of Wok Star contains new gameplay wrinkles: You can re-roll dice by "washing dishes" and modify dice by using "hustle". Fortune cubes limit how often you can share dice, and you now have daily goals that you must reach each round or else you lose immediately.