When most of us imagine a restaurant, we picture a relaxing place to order and eat delicious food — we’re not thinking about what goes on behind the scenes. But if you work in the restaurant industry, you’ll know there’s more to organizing your standard operating procedures (or restaurant SOPS) than it might seem.
Restaurant SOPs are part of all areas of a restaurant business — from cooking to cleaning and serving to organizing shifts. If you run a restaurant, it’s worth optimizing and formalizing your SOPs to improve your restaurant standards.
But what exactly are restaurant SOPs and why are they important? This complete guide to restaurant operational procedures will teach you everything you need to know.
A restaurant’s standard operating procedures, known more often as restaurant SOPs, are the way in which day-to-day tasks in your restaurant are carried out.
Restaurant SOPs can include anything — from health and safety measures to inventory management instructions and food storage regulations to order-taking checklists and scripts.
A restaurant’s operational procedures cover every aspect of your restaurant’s operations. By standardizing those procedures (i.e., setting up SOPs), you can ensure consistency of service for your customers.
Providing a comprehensive set of restaurant SOP guidelines for food handling is a legal requirement in the United States. Restaurant managers must provide their staff members with a written handbook of food safety measures.
The FDA has even published a detailed Food Code to provide food establishments with guidelines to follow to ensure safe and hygienic food service. It’s a good starting point when writing your restaurant SOP guidelines.
But it’s not just for legal reasons that you should create an SOP manual. There are several other ways that a dedicated booklet of restaurant SOPs can benefit your food business.
It’s your job as a restaurant owner to ensure that all employees know what they should be doing, when, and where. Setting out a clear, step-by-step guide to your restaurant procedures means your staff will be more likely to stay on top of their workloads.
A well-defined SOP manual will also show you where processes can be improved and streamlined. You’ll be able to see precisely where you have overlap or unnecessary extra steps in otherwise simple tasks. Once you’ve identified this kind of issue, you can eliminate it.
Restaurant SOPs can provide easily understood step-by-step guides for your staff to follow when interacting with customers or preparing their food. If every element of your restaurant’s operations has a standard procedure, you can ensure your customers receive the same service every time — and that the service is good!
A well-written operational manual will ensure that your team works efficiently, improving the overall customer experience.
A clear set of guidelines on how each of your restaurant processes works can give both existing staff and new hires a clear understanding of how they should carry out every task in their workload.
It can be a big benefit for new staff members too, who may have worked in other workplaces with different restaurant SOPs. By setting out the processes, you can ensure they don’t carry over any bad habits from their previous workplace. They’ll also have a reference to check whenever they aren’t sure of something.
Every aspect of your restaurant probably already has an SOP — even if you don’t realize it. Even the way your chef prepares a particular meal on your menu will follow an SOP; they’ll do it the same way every time.
If you don’t have any written restaurant SOPs yet, use this list as a jumping-off point to help you know what you should include in your SOP manual.
A written list of food safety procedures is a legal requirement in the United States. The specifics you need to include can vary from state to state, so check local regulations to determine what applies to your business. Follow best practices and include instructions for food preparation, food handling, and personal hygiene of your staff members.
For example, your front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) staff should know how often to wash hands and the appropriate handwashing procedure. It may sound obvious, but it’s worth including detailed handwashing instructions to ensure your employees uphold high hygiene standards.
You should also include clear procedures for cleaning in your restaurant. It should go without saying that dishes, cutlery, and other kitchenware should be cleaned after each use. However, setting out clear procedures for cleaning larger kitchen equipment that might not be used during every service will ensure your restaurant’s BOH is sparkling clean.
You should also include instructions for your food service within your restaurant's SOP guidelines, such as:
The food flow (which chef does what aspect of preparing a dish)
How particular menu items should be cooked
Food presentation
What to do with food waste
Food delivery standards if you run a food delivery service (including how to keep food hot while it’s out for delivery)
By setting out clear food preparation instructions, you can ensure that each dish is cooked to a high standard and taken out to customer tables as quickly as possible.
Organizing customer-facing procedures, such as order taking and payment processing, will ensure smooth customer service for your restaurant guests.
Ensure you have a step-by-step order system in place so that every team member knows how to take orders from the customer to the kitchen and ring them up on your point-of-sale (POS) software.
As you standardize your order-taking process, you may wish to simplify it by setting up a self-ordering system for customers. Apps like KioskBuddy let you turn a tablet into an easy-to-use self-ordering device. Customers simply tap through the screen to place their order and pay for it using a contactless payment or credit card.
Just don’t forget to include your new self-ordering system in your restaurant SOPs so that all employees know how it works!
You should also include customer service standards in your SOP manual to ensure your staff knows how to interact with customers.
Set out a process for FOH staff to greet and seat customers as quickly as possible. You could also set up a customer waitlist procedure to use when your restaurant is full.
It’s also a good idea to write a rough script for staff to refer to when telling customers about specials, taking orders, or bringing over the check. This is a great way to ensure that best practices are met and that your staff provides friendly, professional service.
Don’t forget to include customer complaint management procedures if things go wrong. Write down exactly what your employees should do if a customer isn’t happy — who should talk to the customer, what they should say, and how to make amends.
Whether you’re an established restaurateur or you want to open up a new restaurant, ensuring you have a clear set of restaurant SOPs will help you keep your standards high — promoting customer loyalty and encouraging repeat visits.
Simplify your order-taking SOP by setting up a self-service kiosk with KioskBuddy. It’s easy for both customers and staff to use and can speed up your order-taking processes by allowing customers to place orders themselves.
Sign up for KioskBuddy today and enjoy a 30-day free trial.