How to run a restaurant: the daily operations guide

What does running a restaurant involve day to day?

It is a loop you repeat every day: open, prep, serve, close, count. The restaurants that do well are not the ones with the cleverest ideas. They are the ones where that loop runs the same way whoever is on shift.

A typical day breaks down like this:

The rest of this guide takes each part in turn.

What goes on a restaurant opening checklist?

Everything that must be true before the first guest walks in. Keep it to one page, put it where staff can see it, and have the opener sign it.

Kitchen

• Fridge and freezer temperatures checked and written down.
• Deliveries checked against the order, by weight and count, and put away oldest first.
• Prep list worked through to par levels.
• Stations set: tools, scales, portion scoops, labels, clean cloths.
• Specials and anything sold out on the board.

Front of house

• Tables set, menus and QR cards clean and in place.
• Float counted into the till and recorded.
• Card machines charged and tested.
• Booking list checked; large tables and allergies flagged to the kitchen.
• A short briefing: covers expected, specials, sold-out items, who is on which section.

Your food safety rules depend on where you trade, so build the temperature and cleaning checks from what your local authority requires.

How do you plan prep without waste?

Prep to par, not by habit. A par level is the amount of each prepared item you want ready at the start of service, based on what you usually sell that day.

To set a par:

1. Look at how much of the item you used on the same weekday for the last four weeks.
2. Take the average and add a small buffer, say 10%.
3. Subtract what is already prepared and still good.
4. Prep the difference.

Worked example for chopped onions on a Friday:

Without a par, a cook who "always does a full tub" might prep 9 kg and throw away the rest on Sunday. Small items add up; the food cost guide shows how much.

How should you manage stock and suppliers?

Count, then order. Ordering from memory is how restaurants end up with three cases of something nobody uses and no cream on a Saturday night.

A simple routine:

• Keep an order sheet per supplier with each item, its par stock level and the usual order day.
• Count before you order. Order = par stock − what you have.
• Check every delivery against the order before the driver leaves. Short or damaged goods get noted on the delivery note.
• Record what came in, so stock and costs stay right.
• Count weekly for proteins, dairy and alcohol; monthly for the rest. Same time, same order of shelves.
• Review suppliers every few months: price, reliability, quality, and how they handle mistakes.

Keep at least a backup supplier for your most important ingredients. A single missed delivery should not take a dish off the menu for a weekend. Our stock control guide goes deeper on counts and reorder levels.

How many staff do you need, and how do you schedule them?

Staff to your covers, not to a fixed rota. Look at how many guests you served in each hour on each day last month, and put people where the busy hours are.

A rough way to plan a rota:

1. List your covers by hour for each day of the week.
2. Decide how many covers one server, one cook and one kitchen porter can handle per hour in your place.
3. Divide, round up, and add cover for breaks.
4. Compare the plan with sales. If labour is climbing faster than sales, find out why.

Give every role a short written spec: what a good shift looks like, what to do before leaving, who to ask when something goes wrong. New staff learn faster from a page and a buddy than from being thrown in.

What is menu engineering?

It is sorting your dishes by two things: how many you sell, and how much cash each one earns after food cost. Then you decide what to do with each group.

Worked example for four mains over a month:

A common way to draw the lines: a dish counts as popular if it sells at least 70% of an even share (960 mains ÷ 4 dishes × 0.7 = 168), and as high margin if it earns more than the average margin across everything sold (10,993 ÷ 960 = 11.45). On that basis the burger is a workhorse, the steak is a star, the risotto is a puzzle, and the fish stew is weak. Raising the burger by 0.50 is worth 310 a month at the same volume. Moving the risotto up the menu might be worth more. The full costing method is in food cost percentage.

How do kitchen tickets and a kitchen display screen help?

They make sure the kitchen cooks exactly what was ordered, in the right order, and that nothing is forgotten. Handwritten tickets get lost, misread or cooked twice.

Whether you use paper or a screen, a good ticket shows:

• Table or order number, and how the guest is eating: dine in, takeaway or delivery.
• Each item, the quantity, and any change or allergy in plain words.
• The time the order came in, so the oldest gets cooked first.
• Course timing, so starters and mains are not fired together.

A kitchen display screen adds timers and moves tickets on as they are cooked, so the pass can see what is late. Whatever you use, keep one rule: if it is not on a ticket, it does not get cooked. That one rule closes a lot of food cost leaks.

Should you take orders by QR code?

It helps where guests are happy to order from their phone and staff are stretched. Guests scan a code at the table, see the menu, and send the order straight to the kitchen.

What it does well: no waiting to order, no misheard orders, and easy add-on rounds of drinks or dessert. What to watch: some guests prefer a person, so keep staff on the floor and keep a printed menu for anyone who asks. Check that sold-out items disappear from the QR menu straight away, or you will spend your evening apologising.

How do you close and cash up at the end of the day?

Count the cash, match it to the till's totals, explain any difference, then lock the day so its numbers cannot change. Do it every night, not at the end of the week.

A simple close:

Write down the reason for any difference, even if it is "unknown". Card totals should match the card machine's end-of-day report. Then set tomorrow's float aside, bank the rest, and lock the day. The full routine is in our end-of-day cash-up guide.

Closing checklist

• Kitchen cleaned, food covered, labelled and dated.
• Fridge temperatures recorded.
• Waste sheet completed.
• Tomorrow's orders placed.
• Cash-up done and the day locked.
• Gas, equipment, lights and doors checked.

What should you review every week?

Five numbers, at the same time each week: sales, food cost, labour cost, waste, and cash differences. Look at the trend over several weeks, not one week alone.

If food cost rises, check portions and waste first. If labour rises, compare the rota with covers by hour. If cash differences repeat on the same shift, look at that shift's process before you look at people.