This iPhone App review is a guest post by Jason Kaneshiro, who does lots of iPhone App reviews on his site, Webomatica, in addition to Switching To Mac.

In Diner Dash you help Flo wait tables at an increasingly busy restaurant. Seat customers, take orders, serve food, and bus tables as efficiently as possible. Taking too long at any task creates unhappy customers, who just might leave in frustration.

Diner Dash

click to enlarge

The Good

• Solid game play: tasks overlap in just the right amount to create tension, but never get so crazy so that you have no idea what’s going on.
• Some nice touches improve gameplay: small hearts beneath customers indicate their happiness, Flo can hold two items at once (orders, dishes to be served, bused plates), and customers arrive in a variety of party sizes and preferred seating which add to the challenge.
• Extras add variety: different customer types with varying patience, restaurant improvements based on the money you earn after each level, and various strategies to placate annoyed diners (drinks, entertainment).

The Bad

• The hand drawn, cartoony graphics are cute but feel cramped: there’s wasted space on the left side of the screen, the tables and service counter feel prohibitively small, and improvements made to the restaurants after each level don’t look terribly special.

Conclusion

Mediocre graphics hamper solid gameplay, but ultimately the game itself trumps the presentation. The original price of $10 was very steep, but it’s currently on sale for $4.99.