Are you counting your coins from the top-left or are you waiting for the coin animating when the customer pays for the food? Other customers can't use the chairs because I'm guessing there's an invisible customer currently using it. It could be a slow connection that results in images loading very slowly, or it's possible there's data corruption, which I recommend you reinstall the app to fix. Continue to keep us up to date with the actions you try and the results you get.
I honestly have no idea if there are coins being collected or not, or if the food is just a left-over from when I last left the game. I've only caught it when first entering the game, and with the "You've earned xxx" it's hard to tell. I don't see it everytime I log in, usually just the first time in the AM, as I'm on the look-out for tips to clear them quickly and then move onto my appliances. It's usually only a few plates, so I'm not too worried about it yet. I did actually uninstall/reinstall just last night because I keep having issues with the game booting me when visiting neighbors and that usually resolves it for a little while at least.
I'll try to keep an eye out and see if this continues, or when we move back to regular BS I'll see if it continues there, and let you guys know.
To kooky, hahaha. I like to think of them as gremlins coming in and eating after midnight when they KNOW they aren't supposed to!
Do they flip the tables before they leave?
You know what, I haven't had 1 flipped table or chairs cut in half since I made the move to the iPad, I think it's because I'm only using my WiFi for it and I don't have the 3g/4g fight going on anymore. I just wish I could figure out how to turn the 3g/4g off on my phone and only use WiFi, but I haven't found out how to do that yet, and if I try to use WiFi on it works about half the time, the other half is 3g/WiFi fighting. I've given up on the thing and am just waiting out the 1 1/2 years on my contract and will NEVER purchase another Motorola phone again!
I have gotten a plus sign for the money above the food once it disappears before (it disappears in the whole stage, not the crumb leftovers) but it doesn't happen every time. I don't see it happening everyday and when it does happen, it's only a few plates. I'm not sure if the quantities of the food on my counters goes down when it happens either. It doesn't concern me, I just think it's weird and don't know what causes it!