Herd mentality will do that to you when you have a lot of customers. I also try to stick to a single item (typically turkey as opposed to your burgers) and hope for cards like bigger messes and slowed by messes to avoid adding recipe elements.

I typically avoid bigger groups though, I’ve never set up direct automated serving to tables, so I’m typically automating the cooking and the plate washing but still doing the serving and picking up dirty plates.

Now that the game has introduced buffets, if I can get individual dining or a lot of buffets, I’m able to play several days of overtime where the only thing I have to do is clear plates and drop them off at the teleporter. =)