"DinerDash" news and stories

Curry and naan. Photo: jumbledpile, Flickr

This is a case of the ultimate guilty conscience -- or stomach.

Flash back to 1996, as a customer walks out of the Seaview Palace Tandoori in Swansea, a coastal city in Wales, without paying for his £10 late-night curry meal -- about a $17 bill, for those stateside.

Now, nearly 13 years later, the Daily Telegraph reports the customer is finally footing the unpaid tab plus some.

The police received an anonymous apology in March from the dine-and-dash customer, along with £60 (approximately $100) cash to be passed on to the Seaview Palace Tandoori restaurant owner.

It seems the customer finally wanted to settle his debt, with extra money added to take inflation into account.

Little did the customer know, the restaurant had since been torn down. The police spent the last five months tracking down former Seaview Palace Tandoori owner, 48-year-old Samsul Bari.

Diner Dash 2 is the follow-up to the popular online computer game Diner Dash, set in San Francisco. In the original game, you control the character Flo as she opens and runs her diner business, doing everything from waiting tables to checking the books at night. In the new Diner Dash 2, Flo branches out and helps her friends save their restaurants from an evil corporation. The brightly colored game, put out by the company PlayFirst, is relatively simple when compared to some of the fantastically complicated, graphic-heavy role playing games that are released for systems like X-box and, aside from the occasionally irate customer, the game is violence free. It is realistic, though, and all the functions of running and operating real diners can happen at any time - from placating impatient customers to getting good tips. Diner Dash 1 and 2 are marketed slightly more towards women than the average computer game and, perhaps not surprisingly, the strategy is working and more women are playing. Some of the biggest growth can be seen in the 35 women's demographic, who don't talk about their gaming habits much, but still turn to the 'net for a 20 minute break from work.

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