Mahjong Street Cafe

Food is the theme of Mahjong Street Cafe and threes are the rule: three identical dishes destroy one another, and the pieces you have lifted wait on a tray that holds exactly seven. How that works is written out in How to Win at Mahjong Solitaire.

Seven slots is where the whole tension of this board lives. Each tile you pick up takes one, and it stays taken until two more of the same dish appear to complete the set, so a tray carrying six lonely singles is a board about to end. bestphysics adds three kinds of bonus to relieve that, and they are worth holding until the tray is genuinely crowded rather than spending on the first awkward moment. The Candy board asks the same question of a taller pile.

The cafe is drawn wide enough that the food artwork stays legible with the tray sitting beneath it, and clicks and taps both register. A second stacked layout here is Mahjong.

1. Scan the pile for a dish you can see more than one of.
2. Take it, and watch it occupy one of the seven tray slots.
3. Gather three of that dish and the set is destroyed, freeing the slots again.
4. Call on a bonus before the tray fills, since a full tray with no set is the end.

• Never lift a lone dish — a tile in Mahjong Street Cafe with no visible twin costs a tray slot for nothing at all.
• Keep two slots spare — five occupied of seven is the point where the board starts making decisions for you.
• Finish a pair first — a dish sitting on the tray twice should decide what you take next.
• Time the bonuses — all three exist to make the pile easier, and they are worth most when the tray is nearly full.