While I’ve worked many jobs over the years, I’ve never rolled up my sleeves at a restaurant or diner.
Nonetheless, I’m ready to “wait” my buns off to please the clientele in Delicious Deluxe, the latest offering in the world of digital dining sims.
So, here’s the gist. Emily, a petite, freckled gal, has started a restaurant/cafe business and needs help. Your role is to assist her in earning not only enough to stay in business, but to expand her chain of restaurants.
While I’ve worked many jobs over the years, I’ve never rolled up my sleeves at a restaurant or diner.
Nonetheless, I’m ready to “wait” my buns off to please the clientele in Delicious Deluxe, the latest offering in the world of digital dining sims.
So, here’s the gist. Emily, a petite, freckled gal, has started a restaurant/cafe business and needs help. Your role is to assist her in earning not only enough to stay in business, but to expand her chain of restaurants.
First, you can’t get around the fact that Delicious Deluxe is influenced by Diner Dash, Diner Dash 2 and Cake Mania. The Diner Dash games charge you with seating customers, taking orders, serving food and bussing tables, while also upgrading the establishment’s appearance. With Cake Mania, you remain behind the counter and fill your customer’s specific baked-goods orders, adding new equipment to offer improved goods and services.
When it comes to Delicious Deluxe, the services you provide and the upgrades you make are similar. In fact, they’re a blend. Delicious Deluxe mixes elements from Cake Mania and the Diner Dash duo with an emphasis on serving your patrons the correct order and doing it in a timely fashion.
Getting started is a snap. In minutes, you’ll know everything necessary to keep patrons happy and make Emily’s business a success. Customers, whether standing at the take-out counter or seated at a table, make their culinary wishes known via thought balloons. All you do is click on the items desired, then on the customer and finally on the cash register. Simple.
What’s not so simple is getting everyone the correct order before they tire of waiting and storm out red-faced. You have a counter to man, tables to clean and food to prepare. Take too long and your less-than-satisfied patrons will take their business elsewhere, prematurely ending your restaurant career.
Thankfully, the learning curve is gradual. When you start, customer flow is manageable and menu selections limited. You begin with a simple food trio – tea, cream cheese bagel and Caesar salad – and just a few customers. After you get comfortable with the basics, your menu and customer base expand. Soon there’s a constant flow of patrons and you’re serving up cappuccinos, soups, fruity drinks, cookies, pies and truffles. You’ll also receive additional table space to serve more clients and bigger trays so there’s less running.
But take warning. By the time you reach your fifth restaurant, franticness can get intense. Keeping up with your patron’s requests will become difficult…and you’ll start losing them. When this happens, you’ll need to start the day fresh. It gets really bad when several customers order fruity drinks simultaneously or when a table of four orders the same dessert. Fruit drinks take time to prepare and you only have three of each dessert on hand until baking more. In these cases, there’s no way to prevent upset customers.
What play really comes down to is your ability to multitask – keeping food orders straight, tables clean and customers happy, as grouchy ones don’t tip well. Though, a chocolate truffle right before paying their bill will improve the mood of all but the most disgruntled.
Delicious Deluxe serves up eight restaurants, available via two game modes. Story-based City to City takes you through your dining empire one restaurant at a time, five days each. Complete all five days successfully and you move on to the next bistro. Day In, Day Out Mode allows consecutive daily play as you strive to earn as much money, and as high a score, as possible. Once three customers walk out dissatisfied, the game ends.
In all, Delicious Deluxe is a lot of fun. Anyone who likes easy-going sim-style games will enjoy the simplicity of play. It’s attractive and approachable for young and old, and worth going through several times.
Fortunately, the dirty dishes are few. On occasion, during an intense moment, a food item you click on won’t appear on your tray and you’ll end up short, making clientele mad. The imposed limit of three dessert items mentioned above is also an issue, as is the slowness associated with mixing multiple fruit drinks. There’s just no way to serve guests in a timely fashion who order them, so they’ll almost always leave irate.
Nonetheless, Delicious Deluxe is worthy of a fine dining award. If you’re easily frustrated and flustered, waiting tables and manning the counter may be more annoyance than enjoyment. Otherwise, this delectable diversion should make you as happy as the customers you serve.
