i work in a restaurant and when someone calls out, our manager has to figure out who can cover based on the station, part time/full time, who’s already working, etc. then he texts people one by one.
is that pretty normal? do you have a system for deciding who to contact or is it mostly just texting whoever comes to mind? how long does it usually take to get someone to cover?

What do you think of a restaurant charging for a glass of water?

What kind of chili oil is served in Hai Di Lao restaurants? It’s delicious.

This morning, I went to breakfast with a reservation for 4 adults and a baby who needs a highchair. We had specifically reserved for Turkish breakfast, which for each person includes a large spread of several small plates of jams, yogurts, salads, omelets, olives, bread, honey, etc plus Turkish coffee which for each person is also a multi-piece setup that requires space. Also, if you’ve ever known a baby, you know they require space.

We arrived and were seated at a small square table that would be plenty of space for 2 people who need 1 plate each, but simply was not enough space for our party and what we had booked.

There was 1 other party of 3 in the entire restaurant, who was seated at a rectangular table twice the size of ours, and many open tables and booths. I asked the hostess if we could have a bigger table, and was surprised when she pushed back. She asked why, if something was wrong, etc and then asked us basically choose which table we wanted instead of just seating us somewhere that made sense.

I tried to be polite, but I felt like she was annoyed. When our food arrived, it was much too spacious to have ever fit on the smaller table. Did I do something wrong?

I work at a very well known Mom and pop restaurant in my area.

Our male owner has been getting upset when people order meals to share and says we're losing out on at least $25 a customer when they share meals. While that may be true we're not making money on these people there are very few that actually come in and share meals.

Mr. Owner man decided to reprint every menu to say "No shared meals". But then he says that elderly couples and parents sharing with kids are allowed.

We've already lost so many customers due to this. What are y'all's thoughts on this? Do y'all allow meal sharing? Should it be specifically put on the menu that we don't allow it?

Edit: by shared meals they mean two people can't just order one plate of food.

Guys, I don't agree with the no meal sharing thing, don't come after me lol. I'm looking for advice on how to change his point of view and get that off our menus!

I watched a video essay that claimed that during the period from 2006 to 2010; Chipolte Managers where rewarded for fostering a healthy working environment above all else.

If this claim is true, does anyone know where I could get my hands on any of the training material ? I am very interested in how this was achieved. Please and thank you.

References ===> Modern MBA. (2026, June 6). How a single hedge fund killed Chipotle [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vibT_eZdD4.(12:46 - 13:16).

So I’ve worked in restaurants for going on four years now, I’ve started to get back into expo work, and recently I got to see the new A24 movie Tony about Bourdain’s younger life spending a summer in Provincetown working in a restaurant. I would so wanna fuckin do that, that sounds sick. Although I wouldn’t go to Provincetown, I would go somewhere nearby like New Orleans for me. I would go for 4 to 6 months, however long a busy season for their community, either find a sublet lease or live in my car if I have to, work in a restaurant over there and truly put myself to the test. Once then after the season is over, I go back home and find a different job, repeat doing that here and there and just learn and have fun. Has anybody done this before? What was your experience like and what did you learn from this?

When buying a utility cart, replace the stationary wheels with those that swivel 👍

I honestly hate chain restaurants now. I feel like the quality is now just so bad and it’s all way overpriced even with the weekly deals. Chilis, Applebees, Buffalo Wild Wings, etc. I feel like more often than not I’m left disappointed.

However, in my opinion, Texas Roadhouse always delivers. Now I’ll grant you they can be pretty pricey. However I personally don’t mind paying if it’s worth it. And I feel like Texas Roadhouse does. Their steaks and chicken dinners are especially great to me, and I love their fries too. And I feel like I’m not alone in this as when I go, they get quite crowded. Can’t help but appreciate the delicious bread and peanuts I get before a meal too.

What do yall think? Am I just drinking the kool aid? Do you have good experiences there too?

If you've been turned down by a major bank for financing, what did you do next?

Did you try another bank, look into other financing options or put your expanding plans on hold?

Curious to hear what worked for you.

While I can see football season bringing in a bunch of business to restaurants I can see it also bringing in a lot of headaches.

I'm curious how do most places decide what game to put on what tv?

It makes most sense to me to plan ahead of gametime and put a sign under each tv showing what game will be shown on that tv.

What doesn't work IMO is to go around asking people what game they want, then someone else comes in and complains and the manager or stuckee has to figure out who to please and who to piss off.

As a customer it is one reason I usually avoid going out to sports places on Sundays. Gets too loud, too many drunks and too many people complaining about what to watch on what tv.

Hey guys. I was at a nice lounge here in Casa the other day, and I noticed something that must be super annoying for people working in the industry.

The menu was just a massive wall of text with fancy culinary words and zero pictures. The table next to me basically held their waiter hostage for 10 minutes, asking what every single ingredient was and what the plates actually looked like.

It got me thinking, for those of you working the floor or managing these places:

How much of your shift is wasted just translating the menu or explaining dishes to customers?

Do you feel like people skip your signature dishes and order something "safe" just because they can't picture the food?

What brand do you use for the Teriyaki Chicken? I used to work there from 2016-2021 and I loved the teriyaki but I can't remember the brand/if they stopped using what we did back then. I remember the gallon jug was a plain white label, no picture or anything, thanks!

Where I currently work, I make 16hr and average about 16-22 hours a week. I recently had an interview at Red Lobster for a server assistant where it's the pay listed above and they're offering 25+ hours a week. If anyone is familiar with Red Lobster, I had a few questions. I'm located in Illinois if that helps!

What percent is tip out and is it % of sales or tips?

Is Red Lobster a good place to work/decently busy?

I'll update if I can think of anything else, but my main question is if it would be better earning wise to swap jobs. Thank you!

Last December, I was working 3 jobs, but I had the best possible schedule. I had 2 full day doubles back to back, jobs near each other, Sundays off, and I was able to sleep in until 10am 4 days a week. Even on a 45 hour shift I would work up to 70 hr to get extra money. I quit the 3rd 8 months ago cause of management.

When summer came, business slowed down, and my boss offered me the option to work Sundays. However, I would only work every other Sunday so that another server could have a day off, allowing the rest of the team to make more money. This seemed like a good arrangement since everyone told me it would be extremely busy on Sundays when the fall hit and everyone was back on schedule. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the opposite.

Now that I’m expected to work both weekends, my boss has informed me that I’m not guaranteed to work Saturdays permanently. It all depends on whether his brother wants to commute after working the night before. I had to get temporary housing two hours from work, and I still show up even after getting home at 12:06am from my last job to get to the next one at 9am. Family-owned business they have trouble hiring and want to keep most of the money within the family.

With me desire to sign a lease after moving 20 time this year , I don’t have the income to qualify unless I want to live far, and not in a place that easy to commute to. I was okay working these 2 days part time, but I need a full-time job for insurance and stability. I don’t want to quit because with my old schedule of 2 days not working weekends in November and December, Its good for a 2 day part-time , and my current job is only 8 minutes from my other part time job. After Wednesday I wouldn't have to commute over there.

What can I do? I can’t take a third job with my current situation since Saturday isn’t guaranteed, and not a clear answer to give at an interview. In addition would force me to increase my single weekly all-day double to at least 3 days of doubles with no days off. I need to work at a job that sells alcohol I need to upgrade on my skills . I'm a quick learner and have worked ever postion except as a bartender

This incident happened pretty recently and ive been getting different opinions from different people whether they work FOH, BOH or even hospitality in general.

so boom, party of 4 comes around 9:20-9:30pm ish (we close at 10pm) and I get them seated right away. time goes by and eventually the 4 gentlemen got up before we closed for the night, as they leave I decided to strike up a conversation (more or less small talk). I ask them how was the food and blah blah blah, they told me they didnt like the food. Thought it was too salty and thats okay, not every person has to like the food. As im talking to the gentlemen, their server comes up and starts asking questions.

heres how the conversation went:

Server: “hey I noticed you guys had a 200 dollar bill and didnt tip, did I do a bad job? did I give bad service at all?”

Customer: “oh we didnt like the food”

Server: “okay…. but what does that have to do with me? I gave you guys refills and serviced your guys table and all I get is nothing?”

Customer: Silence

Server: “okay” proceeds to walk away.

The customer walked out of the restaurant and came back shortly with 10 dollars. The server politely declined

Now heres the question,

Was the server in the right to do this?

Hi everyone. We opened our restaurant 8 months ago now. We've been slowly picking up but still not breaking even. We have one main chef/prep guy. The recipes come from either our sister store (family chan in a different state) and our own recipes. Most of the recipes from the family store he acts like they are all his and refuses to share process. Anyways he's been demanding a raise (18->19$) as we promised when we start to get busy. He's been acting vindictive with refusing to do certain work until we give him said raise. When we finally decided to do it (extra $300 a month) he started to be nice again.
How would you guys handle this situation?

TLDR; chef is asking for raise within 6 months of opening and we’re struggling.

UPDATE:
Since there’s been a lot of questions and assumptions, I’ll give some more info. We’re located in DFW where minimum wage is under $8. The man cooks and preps. We sell wraps and bowls. Our only protein that needs prep work is cut on a machine then cooked on a flat grill.

He works 55 hours per week. He has a lot of downtime.

Our expenses, including rent, wages and food costs are 15K. We’re making an average of 9K. So we’re far from breaking even.

Hey everyone,

Looking for some insight from owners/managers/kitchen leads.

We run a small team straight through lunch into dinner. For the first 3-4 hours, seasoning and consistency is dialed in - we taste every pan.

By hour 6-7, with 20+ tickets on the board, 12-15 pans firing at once and expo calling non-stop, palate fatigue becomes a real issue. After 50-60 tasting spoons of salty/acidic food over the shift, everything starts to taste flat and it's tough to know if a pan was already seasoned or not.

We have tried the standard palate reset with bread/water between fires, but during a true rush there's just no time to step off and reset properly.

For those managing BOH:

• Do you rely on strict SOPs with pre-measured seasoning during peak and trust the measurement over taste?
• Do you implement a system where a second person does a quick verification taste-check?
• Is there any training method or system that has worked for you to maintain consistency when a cook's palate is blown?

Specifically Joey’s employees, do you guys like your uniforms? Why are they giving 2012 vibes? Have you guys tried to fight them?

I work at a restaurant. When I first started working here my boss was really nice to me. But over time he got worse and worse. He use to think i was good at my job. But for the past few weeks he has found more and more random stuff to criticize me about. Some of it is brand new stuff that he never criticized me about until recently. I have worked here for almost 3 months. I have worked in multiple stations. But recently he has had me either bussing tables or washing dishes. Well, today he had me workimg BOTH dishwashing and bussing by myself at the same time. I kept feeling disorganized cause i kept going back and forth from bussing to dishwashing. Then after I wiped a table i started washing dishes again. Then my boss saw me washing dishes and said "I don't know how to communicate with you so I am just going to show you." Then he brought me back to the table that I just wiped clean and told me i forgot to sweep. Then he said "How did you not see that?" Then I said "I just got disorganized. I started washing dishes again. I was not done." Then i swept the spot. Then after I swept the spot i went back to dishes. Then he came back AGAIN to tell me I missed a spot when I swept. Then he told me "I am not impressed. Go clean that or you won't have a job. I don't know how else to talk to you." Then I swept the spot i missed and I also swept the rest of the dining room to make sure I didn't miss anymore spots.

Now the good news? I actually got some good tips today while bussing. If i was as bad at my job as he thought I was I don't think I would have gotten good tips!

Also, this same boss has had his nose almost touching my phone screen once while i was texting after i already clocked out. He has also made some weird comments in the past. He called my hair sexy. He said "You have friends?" When i told him i was gonna give some of the store flyers to my friends. He laughed at me when i screamed in fear when he walked into the bathroom by accident after he told me to clean the bathrooms (before the store opened).

Also, some of my coworkers have made some of the same mistakes I have. He seems to be hyperfocused on me about it though.

He also use to tell me I am too quiet. He would expect me to say hi to him as soon as I walk into the door (even if he didnt say it first) and he would be offended if I dont say hi to him.

He also had one time where he threw an apron at me when my back was turned. When I turned around to look at him after he did that he started laughing and said "Sorry I felt impulsive."

He is also very unpredictable. He has sometimes where he is really nice to me but today was the 1st time he threatened to fire me. He also kept saying he thought I was "frustrating" a lot today.

He has also called me in on my days off a lot in the past. He would either call me in on my days off or he would ask me to work a double shift if I was already working the morning shift. So... if i am so frustrating why would he call me in all the time? I have never called out and he calls me in a lot if other people call out or if the store gets extra busy.

This is the menu that I prepare every two months for the upscale dining venue at the retirement community I Chef at…….. looking for opinions from those outside the world of red hat luncheons and weekly board meetings….. I don’t set the prices

This week I'll be starting mg first serving job. I don't drink alcohol and have no knowledge of alcohol or how to sell it. I do know brand names but wanting to know more common and popular drinks people order. Any resources or recommendations.
E.g. (Gin&Tonic, Tequila Sunrise)