Everyone loves to eat-out at restaurants. Good food, good conversation, and someone else is doing the cooking. Now, how about the people that are serving you at these restaurants? They hear complaints about the food, they're on their feet all day, and they spill food on themselves. All the unpleasantries that go along with working in the food industry somehow turn themselves into goals, strategic moves, and fun-filled hours of play time in Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue.

Ambitious waitress Flo needs to help her friends defeat the evil restaurant corporation before their own restaurants are bought out. One restaurant at a time, Flo helps improve the restaurants by offering good service, and buying new decor upgrades. For first-time players, an easy-to-follow tutorial is provided, offering tips on how to keep customers happy. The first few levels are great at introducing you to the types of customers and slowly increasing the level of difficulty. One aspect that frustrated me was the sudden curve of difficulty. I had passed several levels with one shot, and all of a sudden I had to spend thirty minutes just on one level.

With the successful completion of each level, there are items that can be bought to upgrade the appearance and features of the restaurant such as a new paint job, new tables, or new items to serve your customers. Better performance in each level unlocks even more items for Flo to use. This adds to the addictive affect this game had on me. I wanted to try levels over and over to try and reach expert status to unlock new items.

The sequencing is fun because a lot of strategy is required to earn the maximum amount of cash. Learning how to sequence tasks properly is crucial for passing later levels. The more times you can do an individual task in a row, the more bonus cash you receive. For example, if you bus three tables in a row, then you get bonus points. When you repeat a level, the customers arrive in the same order, so if a goal is continuously not reached, then it quickly becomes a game of trial and error as you test out different permutations of seating arrangements and service strategies. When things get too busy the strategic element gets dropped, and you just have to mindlessly click to keep up, however. Multitasking while playing is not an option. If you're going to play you're going to have to devote all your attention, although you can pause.

As you progress, several types of customers are introduced, all of which have varying amounts of patience, and can tolerate varying levels of noise. For example, one of the customer types is a cell phone addict. Cell phone addicts are very impatient and are very noisy. You cannot place a group of cell phone addicts next to a group of book worms who are quiet and get irritated by loud customers, which creates an additional layer of strategy.

One issue is that if you do not want or cannot have the sound on, then it can quickly become detrimental to your waitressing abilities. A bell is sounded when an order is up, a baby cries and signals that other customers are most likely getting annoyed, and other sound effects make it easier to recognize what customers need. Not only will the sound effects help you play, the music is enjoyable anyway.

Difficult levels can get hectic, but the gameplay is still relaxing and very entertaining. The number of levels and the unlockable features make Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue well worth the $19.95. For fans of the original Diner Dash, there are new customer types, challenges, and restaurant features that will keep you exercising your strategic abilities. For first timers, it is easy to catch on and learn strategies, but beware, it may consume a whole afternoon of your day before you know it. Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue is available for download at PlayFirst.