Comparison

Penguin Diner vs Cooking Dash™

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Penguin Diner

Manage a bustling restaurant and serve hungry penguin customers in this addictive idle game. Slide fast, take orders, and earn money to help Penny the penguin return home. Upgrade your skills and diners to become a dining legend.

Highlights
  • Penguin slide serving
  • Multiple diners to unlock
  • Restaurant upgrades
  • Challenging restaurant dash levels
  • Comic-style storyline
  • Auto-save progress
Features
Read full description

Penguin Diner is an engaging and addictive idle restaurant game where you are running a restaurant and serving food and drinks to customers. Penny the penguin got lost, and she found herself on the icy mountain. She need money and she found a job as a waitress. Her goal is to get back to Antarctica as soon as possible. Help her to along better in the restaurant dash - Slide fast & become a dining legend! Learn with Penny, earn and upgrade skills & facilities. Manage the restaurant - Slide and serve the penguin customers! The #1 ORIGINAL SMASH HIT web game - Penguin Diner is finally here - on MOBILE and it's 100% FREE! Main features of Penguin Diner - Restaurant Dash: - Penguin slide adventure - Slide through tables fast while taking orders and serving customers. - 3 exciting diners - As Penny grows as a waitress and upgrades her skills, she will move to another restaurant where she can earn more money. There are 3 diners, 3 restaurant stories, that she has to master before she achieves the ultimate goal. - Penguin shop - Get a cool upgrade with the money that you earn. Any available help on the way to becoming the dining legend! - Comic-style storyline - Gives you an additional feeling of enjoyment! - Restaurant dash - As you progress the levels, the rush becomes more challenging and you will have to use all available resources and upgrades to achieve goals. - AutoSave - You don`t have to worry about your progress being deleted. It is autosaved, and each time you enter the game, you will be asked if you want to continue where you left off. ***KEEP CUSTOMERS HAPPY*** Take the order and serve on time - Keep customers happy! It will help you to earn more money, upgrade your restaurant, and move forward to Penny's goal - Return to Antarctica! Make it more comfortable for your penguin customers and take your idle restaurant business to the next level. Hill Top Cafe - The place where your dream restaurant story starts! Get to the Ice Rink and Iceberg Cafe in the polar journey full of excitement! Download the Penguin Diner Restaurant Dash and help Penny earn enough money to get her home to her family! Enjoy one of the best penguin slide games. Build a successful idle restaurant story and become a dining legend!

About

Cooking Dash™

Experience fast-paced time management as you prepare, cook, and serve dishes in exotic restaurants. Earn profits, upgrade your kitchen, and become a celebrity chef. Compete in challenges and customize your character with outfits and pets.

Highlights
  • Fast-paced kitchen action
  • Prepare, cook, and serve dishes
  • Upgrade food and appliances
  • Collect outfits and pets
  • Compete in Series Finales and Trial of Style
  • Spin daily prize wheels
Read full description

This game includes optional in-game purchases of virtual currency that can be used to acquire virtual in-game items, including a random selection of virtual in-game items. Flo cooks her way to TV fame as a celebrity chef in this fast-paced time management game – COOKING DASH! Sharpen your skill as you prepare, cook, and serve delicious menu items in each exotic restaurant… in front of a live studio audience! Hear them gasp and cheer as you earn profits in each exciting episode! Quirky customers, superstar VIPs, fast-paced kitchen action, and TV fame await! Excel as a chef to beat Series Finales and compete in the Trial of Style, where you can earn adorable Pets & Outfits! COOK YOUR WAY TO STARDOM! Control the fast-paced chaos as you dash your way around the kitchen, preparing meals for crazy customers! Collect tons of tips for excellent service and make those profits! YOU ARE DESTINED FOR FABULOUS TV CHEF MEGA-FAME! HUNDREDS OF EPISODES TO COMPLETE! Tons of fun cooking play across unique restaurant shows like the Vegas-themed Table Steaks, crazy Taco Train, and trendy Hip Stir Cafe with many more on the way! COLLECT AND UPGRADE! Wanna get more successful and famous? Spend your profits on upgrades for food and appliances for your restaurant! Upgrade to shiny stoves, fancy food prep stations, and more to ensure all customers get three-star service! PRIZE WHEELS! Introducing Weldon Brownie’s brand new game show - Spin to Win! Spin a free Prize Wheel every day to win prizes like Gold, Prep Recipes, VIP Tickets, Auto Chefs, Outfits, Pets, and more! OUTFITS & PETS! Dress up Flo in fun outfits themed for each Show, and equip Pets to help you out in the kitchen by auto-serving Prep Recipes! SERIES FINALES! Want to test your skill? Face a gauntlet of challenging levels in a Venue’s Series Finale - experts only! Beat every episode in a Venue with 4 or more Stars to unlock! TRIAL OF STYLE! Try your luck in the Trial of Style! This multiplayer event features different Venues each time - do you have what it takes to be the best? PREP AWESOME RECIPES FOR MORE CUSTOMERS! Make special Recipes in the Prep Kitchen and attract customers with their favorite dishes! They’ll get you more and more famous, drop cool items, and give you special powers to blast your coffers with mega-profits and keep your star on the rise! BECOME SUPER-FAMOUS! Fan the flames of your fame as you start your OWN SHOW full of the most elite VIPs coming to see YOU and your amazing cheffing skills! It’s FOOD and FAME for you as you host the hippest dinner parties in the WORLD in front of MILLIONS of VIEWERS! It’s a TV Chef dream come true! PLAY WITH FRIENDS! Exchange gifts and compete with friends on your never-ending quest to be the best! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!? Show your stuff and feed the hungry stomachs -- and fragile egos -- of the guests and VIPs! Download the FREE Cooking Dash® today! THIS IS THE MOST INSANELY FUN DASH GAME EVER! COOKING DASH now supports iPhone X in true wide-screen! See your favorite Venues in all their glory! PLEASE NOTE: - This game is free to play, but you can choose to pay real money for some extra items, which will charge your iTunes account. You can disable in-app purchasing by adjusting your device settings. - Please buy carefully. - Advertising appears in this game. - This game permits users to interact with one another (eg. chat rooms, player to player chat, messaging). Linking to social networking sites are not intended for persons under age 13. - A network connection is required to play. - A network connection is required to enable certain features/access certain content. - For information about how Glu collects and uses your data, please read our privacy policy at: www.Glu.com/privacy - If you have a problem with this game, please contact us at: www.Glu.com/support

Screenshots

Penguin Diner4 screens
Cooking Dash™4 screens

Verdict

The call

Penguin Diner and Cooking Dash™ both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 72% of Penguin Diner's written reviews are positive against 33% of Cooking Dash™'s. Cooking Dash™'s advantage is ratings volume (112K vs 2.1K) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Penguin Diner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Cooking Dash™ sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Penguin Diner against 4.7 for Cooking Dash™. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cooking Dash™ has 112K ratings behind it against 2.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 72% of Penguin Diner's written reviews are positive against 33% of Cooking Dash™'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Penguin Diner ships an update every 3 months, Cooking Dash™ every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Penguin Diner versus Cooking Dash™: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPenguin DinerCooking Dash™
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (2.1K ratings)4.7 (112K ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.6% of reviews — better32.6% of reviews
Number of ratings2.1K112K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#160 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size48 MB206 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBigwig MediaGlu Games LLC

Customer experience

Penguin Diner

All ratings2,144 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews785 reviews
Positive71.6%
Neutral10.8%
Negative17.6%

Cooking Dash™

All ratings111,690 ratings
Positive91.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews959 reviews
Positive32.6%
Neutral18.0%
Negative49.3%

User reviews

Penguin Diner

From 2.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Nostalgic and fun
  • 🚀 Engaging gameplay
  • 💕 Cute penguin theme
  • 🕰️ Relaxing time-killer

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitches and crashes
  • 💰 Too many ads
  • 🔍 Limited upgrade options
  • 🕰️ Repetitive gameplay

Cooking Dash™

From 112K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fun and addictive gameplay
  • 👍 Variety of restaurants and recipes
  • 🚀 Challenging levels and time management

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive to progress without spending money
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Difficult to earn enough gold/currency
  • 📥 Issues with video ads and rewards not working

Bugs and requests

Penguin Diner

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Game freezes after completing a level
  • Inability to pick up food from counter
  • Progress getting reset after updates

Requested features

4 requests
  • More levels and challenges
  • Ability to customize the diner
  • Bring back original background music
  • Reduce frequency of ads

Cooking Dash™

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Game crashes when trying to play certain levels
  • Rewards and progress not saving properly
  • Inability to connect to Facebook to save progress

Requested features

3 requests
  • Bring back free gold from watching ads
  • Reduce cost of upgrades and new restaurants
  • Improve customer service and bug fixes

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Penguin Diner

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$4.99
10 purchases

Cooking Dash™

One-time10
  • Handful of Gold$0.99
  • Handful of Coins$0.99
  • Ticket Bundle Low$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Handful of Gold$2.99
  • Handful of Coins$2.99
  • Starbucks Promo!$4.99
  • Stack of Coins$4.99
  • Bucket of Gold$9.99
  • Bucket of Coins$9.99
  • Case of Gold$19.99

Questions

Is Penguin Diner free?
Penguin Diner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cooking Dash™ free?
Cooking Dash™ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Penguin Diner or Cooking Dash™?
Cooking Dash™ is rated higher. Penguin Diner averages 4.6 out of 5 from 2.1K ratings, while Cooking Dash™ averages 4.7 from 112K ratings.
Do Penguin Diner or Cooking Dash™ have ads?
Both Penguin Diner and Cooking Dash™ show ads.
Which is updated more often, Penguin Diner or Cooking Dash™?
Penguin Diner ships an update every 3 months, and Cooking Dash™ every 5 weeks. Most recently, Penguin Diner was updated on November 7, 2026 and Cooking Dash™ on November 9, 2026.

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