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This ever-changing nature makes training your staff that much more important, as your success hinges on the performance of your team. For example, training employees to not waste food and other resources is a growing priority for restaurants seeking to minimize environmental impact while maximizing efficiency.
You can have a crowd-pleasing menu, loyal regulars, and a packed dining roomand still watch your margins disappear. Too many restaurant menus are built on intuition and aesthetics, not real numbers. What Is Menu Engineering and Why Should You Care? Because not every dish thats popular is profitable.
How each area contributes to the whole is a lesson learned in large properties like hotels, resorts, and clubs. [] MENU DIVERSITY A multi-outlet hotel, as an example, will likely have a breakfast restaurant, a family oriented mid-priced restaurant, and a fine-dining operation.
However, productivity is more easily trained than managed. Staff productivity plays the largest role in restaurant revenue, which is why it’s so important to invest in your recruiting and hiring strategies, finding like-minded individuals to move your restaurant forward while minimizing time waste.
Tracking it correctly will: Reveal accurate profit margins Help set profitable menu prices Flag operational problems Support better budgeting Help you stay competitive Yet, despite its importance and the advantages of using it, many operators don’t calculate it regularly or aren’t confident they’re doing it correctly.
Educating patrons on how bitterness can actually enhance enjoyment — just as salt sharpens sweetness — requires thoughtful menu language and trained front-of-house staff. Back-of-house training is just as crucial. It also means rethinking menu development processes.
Ballas shares his insights with Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine and discusses issues that must be on the radar for franchises and brands including AI, automation, sustainability, staffing, training, and more. We focus on responsible sourcing and operational efficiencies that minimize waste.
Bars that effectively manage their inventory and reduce waste tend to maintain higher margins. Regular training and spot-checks also help maintain consistency, leading to better control over pour costs and higher profitability for your bar. To avoid this, you must standardize the pour size for every drink on your menu.
Instead of constantly playing defence with menu updates, imagine a centralized system that allows you to make menu changes instantly across every delivery app and direct ordering platform. What is Menu Management Software? Think of menu management software as the control center for all your restaurants menus.
Even your most reliable menu items can lose their shine over time. All of these things are ok, so long as you’re menu is evolving with the changes. Menus aren’t meant to stay static, and not adjusting to the ebbs and flows of business could be damaging your bottom line, and many times, you might not ever realize it’s happening.
Real-time inventory systems help restaurants cut food waste , save money, and improve operations. Automate Orders : Automatically reorder items when stock runs low, minimizing waste and emergency purchases. Integrate with POS Systems : Sync with sales data to refine menu choices and track high-waste items.
Without a strong system in place, even the best restaurants in the world will struggle with unhappy customers, high turnover rates, wasted inventory, and razor-thin profit margins. The best-run restaurants dont leave things to chancethey rely on clear processes, well-trained teams, and smart decision-making to avoid costly mistakes.
Introduction to Food Waste in Restaurants Food waste is a significant challenge for the restaurant industry, impacting both the environment and profitability. Understanding how to reduce food waste in restaurants is the first step toward sustainable and cost-effective operations.
To really get the most out of your tablets, you need to be strategic about how you choose them, use them, and train your staff. That leads to a ton of wasted time constantly trying to create workarounds, and your staff will feel that frustration every shift. Lets discuss the most efficient way to get your team up to speed.
Food Costs (COGS) Your food costs, or cost of goods sold (COGS), include everything that goes into producing your menu items, including: Recipe ingredients Beverages Condiments Disposables, like to-go containers, straws, and napkins Tracking your food costs percentage helps you understand how much of your revenue is being spent on your menu.
That includes the ingredients and packaging for your menu items, but not things like rent and payroll. This gives you a sense of how effective your menu pricing is. You can have packed tables, long lines, and strong menu item sales, but if your operating expenses are out of control, you still might be losing money.
Think seasonal menu items, weekend-only bundles, or one-day-only discounts; the urgency motivates guests to take action soon. The best part is these promos don’t require big budgets or deep discounts, but they consistently boost restaurant sales while keeping your menu new and exciting.
Restaurants can optimize their menu by highlighting delivery-friendly items, improve kitchen workflows through better station organization, and track prep times to identify bottlenecks. For example, train kitchen staff to prepare orders in the order they were received. How well your menu is optimized for delivery. Portion size.
By accurately tracking ingredient costs and streamlining menu pricing, it helps restaurants minimize waste, maintain profit margins, and make data-driven decisions. Heres why recipe costing integration matters: Real-time tracking : Automatically updates ingredient costs and inventory levels to reduce waste and improve accuracy.
POS systems do more than just process payments they enable restaurants to personalize menus by analyzing customer data. Learn more in our latest post: How POS Systems Enable Menu Personalization. Real-Time Updates : Adjust menus instantly for accuracy and relevance. Improves Operations : Smarter inventory and menu management.
Can you provide an example of how you’ve improved employee performance through training? Can you provide an example of how you’ve improved employee performance through training? A restaurant manager should not only be able to manage day-to-day tasks but also invest in the growth of their team through effective training.
Here’s what you can achieve with these tools: Track Performance : Identify which menu items are popular and profitable. Streamline Operations : Reduce inventory waste by up to 75% and prevent overstocking. Managers usually need to wait until the end of a shift – or even longer – to review menu performance.
I think, even if these items weren’t on a menu, I would find a way to bring them into the fold. The smells of the kitchen are individually unique, yet somehow blend to make sense. I have always made sure that these smells are part of the grand design of how a kitchen must operate. These are my memories of cooking for the soul.
Other examples include: Software subscriptions with usage-based tiers Maintenance or repair work Overtime pay for hourly workers Semi-variable restaurant costs can sneak up on you if youre not watching closely, but theyre also an area where a little strategy can go a long way toward minimizing waste.
According to a study from Delierect , 43% of restaurant diners say they are willing to pay more for sustainable dishes, and 68% believe restaurants should take active steps to reduce food waste. Millennials and Gen Z consumers are likely to research food sourcing, question menu claims, and support restaurants that align with their values.
By accurately calculating food costs, restaurant owners can set the right menu prices, reduce waste, and maximize their profits. It helps restaurant owners and managers track expenses, set profitable menu prices, and improve overall profitability. With a target food cost of 30%, the menu price is set at: $5.15/0.30
For restaurants offering takeout, delivery, or pre-packaged goods, packaging can be a major contributor to waste and carbon emissions. Eco-friendly packaging allows you to align your business with the values of today’s conscious consumers, many of whom are actively looking for companies that reduce waste.
How would you recommend menu items to guests to enhance their dining experience? Have you ever handled a situation where a customer asked for a dish not on the menu? What techniques do you use to upsell menu items or drinks? How would you recommend menu items to guests to enhance their dining experience? What did you do?
Proper cost tracking helps you set profitable menu prices, cut expenses, and manage inventory efficiently. Steps to calculate costs : Determine unit costs, account for waste, and break down menu item costs. Improve profits : Analyze cost data to refine menu design, negotiate better supplier deals, and reduce waste.
Smart Cost-Cutting Strategies for Restaurants Effective inventory management requires a well-trained, organized team using consistent routines, streamlined processes, accurate par levels, menu cross-utilization, and reliable inventory software to minimize waste and maintain efficiency.
Although ambiance , narrative, and menu diversity drive choices just as much, convenience and quickness remain critical. Every sensory aspect in visual presentation, menu labeling, staff behavior, music, lighting, and aroma conveys a tale. Turnover compromises consistency, throws off the guest experience, and saps resources.
Want to make smarter menu decisions? Categorize Menu Items : Group dishes into Stars (popular & profitable), Plowhorses (popular but low profit), Puzzles (profitable but less popular), and Dogs (low demand & profit). Spot Seasonal Trends : Use data to adjust your menu based on customer preferences throughout the year.
That’s why having a solid restaurant management training program is so important for owners and operators looking to build a successful team. A well-structured management training program equips new leaders with essential skills while promoting ongoing development. This will help you avoid purchasing more than you need.
These small errors add up, leading to unhappy customers, negative reviews, and wasted food costs. This means: Training Staff: Employees need to understand how the system works, how orders will be received, and what changes (if any) they should expect in their workflow. Maybe a large salad is marked as a small.
For smoother adoption, choose a reliable POS system with integration compatibility, roll out in phases, and train your staff effectively. Once the rollout begins, training your team becomes essential to ensure everything runs smoothly. Train Your Team and Leverage Support Proper training is key for successful integrations.
Hire the Right People and Train Them Well Finding top talent is like casting a winning team. Training locks in that potential. Give them a week of shadowing seasoned staff, clear checklists like Greet tables in 2 minutes or Check orders before they leave the pass, and a full menu rundownspecials included. Staff Management 1.
Here’s what you need to know: Sales Reports : Track revenue, peak hours, product performance, and staff contributions to refine pricing, menu, and staffing. Product Mix Reports : Identify bestsellers and underperforming items to optimize your menu and reduce waste.
By closely monitoring and optimizing this percentage, restaurants can better manage their inventory, minimize waste, and lower their overall expenses, ultimately maximizing cost reduction. Yield Percentage: Calculate the yield percentage to account for any waste or shrinkage during cooking. Food cost control is crucial.
Security on the Menu A key challenge for fast food outlets is that there are multiple interfaces with customers, from the counter and screens in-store to drive-through terminals, in-app ordering, and third-party ordering and delivery services.
Wasted food, stock shortages, and manual tracking errors all lead to higher costs and lost profits. Key Ways POS Systems Save Restaurants Money: Real-Time Tracking : Automatically updates stock levels as orders are placed, reducing waste and preventing stockouts. That’s where POS inventory tools step in to help.
Real-time inventory tracking helps restaurants save money by cutting food waste, improving stock management, and streamlining operations. Heres what it does: Reduces Waste : Tracks expiration dates and prioritizes older stock (FIFO method). Start using real-time tracking to save time, reduce waste, and improve profitability.
The key to achieving this is proper staff training, adopting and leveraging technology to enhance the dining experience and manage operations, as well as cultivating a personalized experience and welcoming environment for all solo diners. Cultivating a Personalized Experience and Welcoming Environment Casual dining or fine dining?
Proper inventory tracking helps reduce waste, control costs, and boost profits. Imagine knowing exactly what’s in your pantry at any given momentno more unexpected 86’d menu items or last-minute supplier scrambles. Waste reduction directly increases profit margins. Train staff on accurate inventory recording.
percent menu-price inflation rate. With households increasingly treating dining out as a luxury, every menu item and service interaction becomes a potential make-or-break moment. Red Robin climbs 3 percent to 78 thanks in large part to its focus on menu and food. At the same time, U.S. chain sales grew just 3.1
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