How to provide excellent service in Diner Dash Rush - hints, tips, and tricks

Diner Dash Rush will knock you off your proverbial feet if you're not careful.

You see, it's all too easy to be overwhelmed by the number of customers looking to eat hot meals from your incredibly popular diner.

Luckily for you, I've compiled some sure-fire strategies to help you cope with the stress of eatery management.

In one part of this guide, I deal with the fundamentals. In another section, I handle the best way to use Boosts. In the final segment, I list some ultra-devious tips you won't want to miss.

Without further ado, then...

The fundamental ebb and flow of the game is straightforward, and it's something you'll need to keep in mind at all times.

Customers are waiting for you, so you select where they should be sat. They read the menu, you take their order, and you give their order to the chef in the kitchen. The meals are created and you take them over to the customers to eat.

Once they've chowed down, you take payment, pick up the dirty plates, and put them in the washing tray. This process is then repeated for the next set of customers until the time runs out.

You'll need to complete this entire sequence of actions to scoot the customer out the door with a grin on its face and pick up some points for your total score.

As in real life, though, things are never as straightforward as you'd like them to be.

Occasionally, you see, customers that are already unhappy will patronise your restaurant. In this situation, you'll need to grab some coffee from the bottom right of the play area and take it to the perturbed patron. This will ensure he stays happier for longer.

If things get really out of hand, though, use a Clean Sweep to clear everyone out of the restaurant with a smile. Since Clean Sweeps cost in-game currency, I'd recommend your only doing this when under extreme pressure and when the queue is unwieldy. For maximum effectiveness an' all that.

Boosts cost valuable currency, and it can feel a little like cheating when you use them. The fact of the matter is, though, that you'll need to use them to post some truly gigantic scores.

As you can imagine, each Boost has its own advantages and minor disadvantages.

Four Hands Flo enables you to carry four items at one time. This may throw you off your pattern of serving two tables at a time. But if you can get your head around it, you'll reap the rewards, as it effectively doubles the number of points you can acquire.

Fast Flo speeds up your character's movement. You can fair zip about from table to table. When Fast Flo is combined with Four Hands Flo, your scores can really go through the roof. Of course you'll have to ensure your brain is working overtime to keep up and make the most of this Boost, mind.

Charming Flo fills customer's hearts. And though it's good for new players, you'll find that you rarely use it after a while, for you'll be serving your punters quickly enough at that stage.

You now know the basics. You now know the best ways of using Boosts. You'll want some expert tips to improve your score even more, then, eh.

- The way in which you hold the device when you're playing Diner Dash Rush can make a lot of difference to your final score. I found that holding my iPhone in such a way that my thumb was hovering over the customers queuing up meant I didn't have to move my dominant hand away from guiding Flo for valuable fractions of seconds. I saved seconds this way, because I could simply tap the visitor with my spare hand.

- You should be very precise with Flo, though. Definitely do NOT make her walk around the restaurant if she's not performing a specific action for you. Getting to a table far from the kitchen only to see that your hands are full of dirty plates is a gigantic waste of time, so be definitive with your movements and think before executing them.

- It's possible to queue up actions given to Flo, so don't wait for one to finish before moving onto the next. If Flo is picking up plates, queue up her move to the dish receptacle so she immediately walks there next.

- Sneaky, I know, but you can pause the game at any point. Though the action is masked while the game is paused, you're given a 3-second countdown timer after you press the 'resume' option. You can then view the complete floor plan and the customers' positions before you perform any other actions. Three seconds of 'free time' can go a helluva long way in this game.

Got any tips to share? Let us and the rest of the PG community know them by leaving them in a comment below.