The idea is simple: you need to match five or more colored discs at once to eliminate them from the grid, which continues to crowd with more discs in a random distribution as you keep playing.
You do a lot of tapping, moving in different orders from location to location on the screen based on the demands of your customers, and get extra points for doing it quickly plus-if possible-simultaneously, picking up multiple similar items from tables before moving on to the next task. Customers indicate their happiness with little bubbles of hearts or facial expressions, and you need to keep turning tables, seating new customers, and supplying people with drinks while they eat. The gameplay seems simple enough, but becomes more frenetic as you keep playing: you tap to move your character from picking up an order, to dropping it off at the counter, to serving it to customers, then picking up the check and dishes, with an increasing number of simultaneous orders and tasks to balance.
There are fifty stages in the game, spread across five different restaurant venues, and you graduate from serving a couple of people at one of two tables to a room full of tables, people, and different types of items to serve.
It’s a comical simulation of restaurant management, as presented from the perspective of an owner-slash-waitress who has to quickly manage everything from seating to serving, clearing plates, and building up to bigger and better restaurants. As one of several “casual entertainment” games we’re reviewing today, Diner Dash ($5) by PlayFirst isn’t bad.