… With 5 very strategic players running on the basic mode (since we were all new and wanted to learn the game), we ended up running out of cards before anyone was able to complete the requirements to win. Several of us had two of one color and two or three singles of the other colors. We ran out of guest cards with them pretty evenly distributed and nobody had a chance to win.

A: You didn’t do anything wrong. Unfortunately it just happens that way occasionally. That’s our bad, we thought it would be more unlikely than it is turning out to be. But we have a rule now for this case:

Keep playing until all Guests have been served. Then, if no one has achieved victory, everyone gets a score: 1 point for each Guest, plus a 1 point bonus for each matching pair. High score wins. If scores are tied, the player who has the most leftover dessert cards in their hand is the winner.