Hey Waiter!

About this board game

Hey Waiter! is a card-driven race for 2–4 players that takes about 30 minutes, as each player tries to deliver their stack of dishes before anyone else.

Each player’s dishes are represented by colored chips placed on a face-down card. Your hand contains mostly cards divided into two narrow rectangles, along with a few possible special action cards. To play a divided card, choose two cards and combine the right half of one with the left half of the other.

This unusual card-play system gives each card half multiple possible uses. With only a handful of cards, you can create several combinations and choose actions that fit the changing stacks on the table. Actions include moving a token from one stack to another, while the central action is delivering food.

Delivery has an important shared consequence: whenever a dish is delivered, everyone with that type of dish on top of their stack gets to deliver it as well. You may therefore want to place a token of that type onto an opponent’s stack first, locking down the dish and changing who benefits when it is delivered.

• Stack management: Move colored dish tokens between stacks.
• Flexible card play: Pair card halves to create different actions.
• Risk and opportunity: Split your stack to create more chances to deliver.

Splitting a stack into two or more stacks can give you additional delivery opportunities, but it also reduces your hand size and limits your chances of performing the actions you want. In Hey Waiter!, every combination and stack decision can affect the race to clear your dishes first.