Restaurant managers and restaurateurs use a restaurant checklist to identify and address issues that may affect their business. This evaluation tool features all restaurant business activities and ensures the business is compliant with industry standards. Hence, a daily checklist helps improve employee training, day-to-day operations, food safety, store cleanliness, and customer satisfaction standards. Here are some elements of a daily procedure checklist for restaurants.
1. Front of House and Bar Opening Checklist
While the back-of-house team prepares the restaurant for the next day, the front of House team should ensure the restaurant is ready for customers when it opens its doors. The checklist involves setting tables, putting out fresh flowers, folding napkins, and placing table settings. The managers should also ensure the dispensers are full.
Additional tasks include cleaning the restrooms and emptying the trash bin. Also, you need to restock tabletop necessities like jam, butter, sugar packets, and ketchup. Furthermore, you should stock the bar with clean glassware and restock liquor at the bar.
2. Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
The daily checklist for restaurants should include a kitchen cleaning checklist. This helps ensure the restaurant kitchen is clean and the kitchen staff sanitizes all critical areas. Actually, restaurant managers should ensure employees wear hygienic clothing, use clean linens, and have excellent food service. The managers should also inspect food preparation procedures to ensure they are up to the required standards.
The managers should check the kitchen refrigerators, air conditioning, ovens, freezers, fryers, stoves, and all other accessories. Moreover, the managers should ensure the kitchen quarters are clean and properly sanitized after use. They should check how kitchen staff dispose of waste materials. Above all, a restaurant cleaning checklist should include recommendations so the kitchen staff members may adjust appropriately before clients start coming in.
3. Inventory Checklists
A restaurant opening checklist shouldn’t overlook inventory management. An inventory checklist enables you to monitor the ingredients and supplies you have and require for shifts in real-time. Consequently, your food and supply orders are more economical.
Your daily restaurant inventory checklist should include tasks like cleaning and organizing stock shelves and counting and recording stock items. In addition, label stock items and determine which items need restocking.
In your inventory checklist, make sure you dispose of the expired stock. Finally, you should use your POS system to integrate your inventory records with sales records.
4. Marketing Checklist
Since marketing is an essential part of restaurant operations, you should have a daily checklist for marketing officials. These officials should monitor the comments about your restaurant on social media. Most importantly, they should check the reviews customers leave on social media platforms and respond to them.
Your marketing officials should express gratitude for positive reviews and apologize to customers who expressed dissatisfaction. In fact, online presence is important for any business; therefore, your marketing officials should commit to posting photos and videos of your restaurant menus and specials on a daily basis.
5. Digital Signage Checklist
Restaurant owners shouldn’t forget a digital signage checklist in their daily checklist for restaurants. If your digital signage displays menu boards, make sure it’s updated. Also, if the signage displays daily specials, make sure it reflects the right information. Some restaurants use digital signage to allow customers to make reservations and orders. Make sure these systems are functioning when you open your shop.
6. Servers Checklist
Since your servers will be at the forefront of your kitchen, have a daily opening checklist for them. You should have different checklists for servers to improve their productivity.
The servers’ opening checklist is crucial for ensuring that everything is in place before you open the shop. Hence, the checklist should make sure the floor is dry and clean and the tables are clean with crisp napkins and tablecloths in place.
What’s more, have a server’s shift change checklist if your restaurant has several shifts. In this case, the checklist should include tasks that servers who are leaving should perform before the incoming servers report for their shift. The outgoing servers should also update incoming servers about important developments at the restaurant.
For example, the incoming server should know if the restaurant has run out of a specific menu item. This will help them respond to customers who order the missing item. Furthermore, the incoming server should check for anything missing at the restaurant’s front end before they begin their shift.
7. Prep Checklist
An important daily checklist for restaurants is a prep checklist. This checklist includes a list of the food items that the chefs will prepare on a particular day. It also indicates the required quantities.
Actually, a prep checklist is an efficient way of ensuring the kitchen staff doesn’t prepare too much or too little. This reduces food wastage due to overproduction. The prep checklist comes in the form of an excel spreadsheet. Consequently, many modern POS systems offer prep lists that interface with the restaurant’s inventory list.
In Closing
A restaurant’s daily procedure checklist leads to increased safety, cost savings, and staff accountability. It’s also a helpful reminder that ensures no task gets forgotten. As a restaurant manager, consider implementing the above checklists to improve the daily operations of your restaurant.
