Flo is a hard worker at a big stock market company in Dinertown. She's tired of doing all the work and feeling unfulfilled. Flo quits her job, wishing she could work someplace else. She spots a run down old diner, which she buys. Gameplay involves seating customers and guiding Flo around the restaurant to serve customers. If enough money is earned after each level, play progresses to the next. As the game progresses Flo updates the dilapidated restaurant she begins with and builds three further restaurants, which provide new settings.
Gameplay centers around catering to customers within a time limit to gather as much money as possible. Flo can be moved around the restaurant to complete tasks. As customers arrive in the restaurant, the player must drag and drop them onto a table, where they sit down and read menus. Then the player must guide Flo to the table to take their order, which must be taken to the service hatch. After the chef has prepared the meal, Flo must deliver the food. When the customers are finished eating they must be taken a check, at which point the customers leave a tip and their dishes on the table, departing the restaurant. The dishes must be cleared by Flo before the next set of customers can use the table. Each successful action earns the player points, performing the same action multiple times in a row earns the player a chain bonus, which is broken once a different action is performed.
Customers have a series of hearts over their heads that indicate their mood. The longer the customer is forced to wait, the more hearts he or she loses. Each type of customer has different degrees of patience and tipping habits. Flo can perform various actions, such as talking to customers or serving them drinks, to revive these hearts. When customers lose all their hearts, they leave the restaurant, costing the player points. The goal of a level is earn a certain number of points. There are also expert point totals for advanced players to achieve.
The game has two modes: Career mode, which follows the story of Flo, and Endless Shift, a survival mode in which the player must last as long as possible in a single level.
In the Cooking Dash variation, the player actually prepares the food as opposed to bringing the order to the chef for him to prepare it.
Source: Wikipedia, "Diner Dash", available under the CC-BY-SA License.