This app was mentioned in 1 comment, with an average of 1.00 upvote
There was an oldschool game that came out alongside Diner Dash back then called Miss Management, which I feel tried to be more than what it was. It had a story, logical use of the characters (which was necessary to the mechanics), and had ever-so-spiking difficulties without having to just be repetitive as fuck.
I don't know why it never caught on; maybe it has something to do with the fact that the theme is managing people in an office instead of something fun like cooking food, or that the genre was dying out in popularity at the time. But give this one a chance as it might tickle the oldschool bone in you.
EDIT: Also adding that the more recent incarnation of Diner Dash called Cooking Dash tries to spice it up with adding even more steps and ways to cook things. It is now possible to lose from the very first few levels because of the confusion it could bring, thus challenging you. Unfortunately, it is a mobile game and thus there are IAPs and Timers that serve only to piss you off. If I ever find a way to get around that and just maybe hack in some gold in it, I'd play it forever. But right now, it's totally insane. It IS better than Diner Dash though.