[erinreid]

OK, I did just beat the game, "Diner Dash"! The whole process took about four hours. Here's the crucial things that I learned from beating the game:

* Chaining is EVERYTHING. Everything relies on you getting the longest chains possible. Chain the orders, chain the food serving, chain the checks, and chain the dirty dishes. By the last few levels of the fifth restaurant, you should be seating and serving *twelve* tables at a time, and doing everything to all twelve tables at once. I know that's hard to imagine, but it's how to win; the last level has a requirement of $45,000, and I made over $60,000. Don't ever break a chain, and make every chain the maxiumum that your restaurant can hold.

* Ignore snacks. Forget snacks. Don't serve a snack, ever. Trust me.

* Ignore drinks. Forget drinks. Don't serve a drink, ever. Yes, trust me.

* Don't seat anyone until you're ready to seat the maximum number of tables you can hold. Stand at the podium and keep increasing everyone's love.

* While everyone is eating, stand at the podium to increase the love of the people in line. Don't leave the podium to give the checks until *everyone* is done eating and has stopped asking for checks. If they're full of love when they sit down (which they will be, because you've stood at the podium) they'll easily withstand you ignoring the snack requests and ignoring the people who are done early.

* While you only see eight parties in line, there are additional parties that come in out of sight. These parties don't have their love decrease by standing in line. That's why, when seating the initial set of 12 tables on the final level, you should wait until you hear the "Welcome!" sound effect 12 times and know there are that many people out there. Trust me.

Anyway, that was my strategy. Good luck!