History YMMV / CookServeDelicious

*** The Medium Cup w/ Ice is, by far, the most difficult stage in the Iron Cook Speedway barring the [[FinalBoss Champion Cup]]. Each race is a whopping [[MarathonLevel 8 laps]], each lap alternates between a Sprint and a Super Sprint (meaning minimal prep time between stops), every race has a 30-point minimum, and every odd-numbered lap has a food truck attack coming your way[[labelnote:*]]though thankfully the second race only has Firekickers attacks, which are [[GoddamnedBats more of a minor annoyance]] than anything[[/labelnote]]. If you can get through this stage, most of the rest of the ICS will pose little trouble for you.

*** Route C of Newer Orleans is titled "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Endless Screaming]]". You'll quickly learn it's called this for good reason, as ''every single stop'' is absolutely ''loaded'' with orders, giving you zero time to catch your breath. There are five shifts of this, three of which also come with reduced order patience. By the time you're done, you'll probably be joining in with the screaming yourself.

** Speaking of the Iron Cook Speedway, the Sippy Cup is this: each race is relatively short at a mere 4 laps, none of the races have a point minimum, and, most importantly, it's the only stage that has just a single food truck attack per race (as opposed to the others having at least two).

** Speaking of the Iron Cook Speedway, the Sippy Cup is this, as not only is each race relatively short at only 4 laps, but it's the only stage that has just a single food truck attack per race (as opposed to the others having at least two).

** The UEIYAV attack disables Today's Menu, meaning you can no longer see what customers are going to order at the next stop and plan ahead accordingly. Once this attack hits, you're basically forced to cram all of your Holding Stations with whatever food you can muster and pray to the culinary gods that you don't run out mid-stop. What's more, the Iron Cook Speedway absolutely ''loves'' throwing this one at you

** Mobile, Alabama is incredibly easy for being the third-to-last city in ''[=CSD3=]''. Most of the shifts have the "Autoserved" theme, which, as the name suggests, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin limits your menu choices to foods that can be auto-served]]. Because of this, these shifts tend to be an absolute breeze - the only way to fail is either to screw up a Special Order or to have an order's patience expire, something which you'd have to go out of your way to have happen due to how auto-serve foods work. Even the few shifts that ''don't'' use this theme tend to be a great deal easier than similar shifts which come before or after Mobile. It's a nice opportunity to easily breeze through an entire city and catch your breath before the [[NintendoHard fiendishly difficult]] Nashville and Iron Cook Speedway.

** Soups have the most ingredients out of any dish, and certain ingredients have to be chopped as opposed to just dropping them in the pot. Fortunately, the number of recipes is limited, so a little memorization goes a long way.
** Shish Kabobs have a special requirement that no two of any ingredient can touch one another. It requires a surprising amount of planning ahead, in a game that places a heavy emphasis on speed. That being said, because the number of recipes is limited as with nearly every other dish in the game, skilled players can figure out and memorize working combinations for each one, thus significantly cutting down on the difficulty factor.
** Nachos cook like burgers (cook meat first, then put the ingredients together and serve). When fully upgraded, however, they have more ingredients than burgers[[labelnote:*]]Burgers have 9, while nachos have 13[[/labelnote]], yet they sell for less than half of the price[[labelnote:*]]A fully upgraded burger sells for $25, while a fully upgraded nacho goes for only $12[[/labelnote]]. Because of this, there would normally be no reason to put nachos on the menu if you already have burgers, but certain events (like [=Cook4Luv=] dates and VIP visits) require that you have them. You can expect those days to be [[NintendoHard a living nightmare]], especially with high Buzz.
** The Robbery chore, besides being GuideDangIt, is also frustrating because unlike most other chores which have linear straightforward keypresses (press once to do a thing once, press again to do it again) the Robbery just cycles through a bunch of options with no pattern, meaning besides checking the 'order' section on the bottom to see what you have to do you also need to look at the options on the right to see what you've selected. If you play with the keyboard there's an added layer of difficulty since the keys try to be mnemonic but only work halfway (in particular, 'Y' for "e'''y'''es" and 'F' for "'''f'''acial hair"), so you end up hitting 'E' and accidentally change the ear or 'H' and accidentally change the hair. It's probably wise to remap the keys to QWEASD and forget about the mnemonic, or switch to the mouse.
** ''[=CSD2=]'' has the dreaded burritos, a dish which just ''screams'' FakeDifficulty. Not only does it have ''dozens'' of recipes and have several ingredients with unintuitive default key bindings (one example: corn chips are assigned to ''H'' for some reason), but it is absolutely ''loaded'' with "gotcha" ingredients whose sole purpose is to trip you up. Have fun spotting the difference between trick ingredient pairings like "chicken fajitas" and "breaded chicken", "white rice" and "black rice", and "pinto beans" and "black beans", and remembering which key goes with which ingredient, all in the span of mere seconds you'll have to serve it up. And just to add insult to injury, burritos are one of the ''worst'' contributors to trash, with it taking no more than four orders before a trash chore is coming your way. The inclusion of this dish is the single biggest contributing factor to the off-the-charts difficulty of the final few shifts of Esteban's and ''especially'' Burrito Time; not only do burritos tend to be served alongside other tough items, but the ungodly amounts of trash piling up mean you could very easily be staring down upwards of ''three'' trash chores in your queue ''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck at the same time]]''.
** In the sequel, Biggs Burger Shift 9. 11 prep stations, 8 holding stations, 90% Buzz, and an extremely short patience level with no side dishes to boost it mean you're in for quite the ride.[[note]]However, prior to a patch that increased the patience level, it was ten times worse; patience during rush hours was only ''one second'', putting players into a level of hell even worse than [[HarderThanHard Extreme Difficulty]] from the first game as orders and chores flew in and decayed faster than players could service them. This made earning the Burger Times achievement (which required a [[NoDamageRun Perfect Day]] on that particular shift) near impossible, whereas it's now still extremely difficult, but doable with some skill and proper planning.[[/note]]
** The third game has the "Burgers and Patties" theme, which limits your menu choices to burgers, chicken sandwiches, and breakfast sandwiches. It requires a ton of ingredients properly placed, and missing even one will lock you out of a perfect score, making any level with it significantly tougher than most others. Quite notably, if a gold medal is obtained on the first shift to use this theme exclusively, it unlocks a decoration screaming "no more burgers!"
** There's also the "Fiesta!" theme, which, as you might guess, limits your menu choices to Mexican foods. If you want to earn a decent amount of money/experience, you'll have to put tacos and the aforementioned burritos on your menu. Fortunately, the gameplay overhauls in ''3'' make these ''much'' more manageable than in the previous game; not only is the amount of each dish you'll have to make drastically reduced due to them only appearing in between stops, but the chore problems these dishes presented in ''2'' are gone entirely. Even with all of this, you'll still have an uphill battle on your hands, since it does nothing to alleviate how insanely difficult prepping these foods is.
** Any level in ''3'' with the "Angry Customers" modifier, which sends order patience into the red zone as soon as they come in. Cramming your Holding Stations with foods that have complex prep stages is flat-out ''suicidal'' on these shifts, since you'll end up spending so much time prepping that orders will start slipping away faster than you can serve them. Your only hope is to pack your Holding Stations with as many "instant serve" foods as humanly possible, filling any remaining slots with dishes that have minimal prep involved. Got a menu theme that doesn't allow for this strategy? Prepare to lose copious amounts of hair.
** Route C of Newer Orleans is titled "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Endless Screaming]]". You'll quickly learn it's called this for good reason, as ''every single stop'' is absolutely ''loaded'' with orders, giving you zero time to catch your breath. There are five shifts of this, three of which also come with reduced order patience. By the time you're done, you'll probably be joining in with the screaming yourself.