Standard Operating
Procedures
A TEMPLATE FOR RESTAURANTS
Thank you for downloading the Restaurant Standards and
Procedures Guide!
Every restaurant is unique. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) provide
your staff with all the information they need to do their jobs exactly how you
want them to be done at your restaurant.
You and your staff are already executing SOPs daily, every minute. Each time
your staff greets a table, they follow a script that ensures every guest feels
welcome, and that shows off your specific brand of hospitality. Every time
you build a burger in the kitchen with bun, burger, cheese, lettuce, tomato,
three pickles, and aioli on the top bun, that’s an SOP at work too — it’s your
restaurant’s specific way of building a burger so it tastes just like you want it
to.
There’s a lot of broken telephone that can happen in a fast-paced restaurant,
especially if you’ve been dealing with the incredibly high turnover in the
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SOPs Template
restaurant industry right now. Well-documented SOPs, built into your
employee manual and/or available for reference elsewhere, give a solid
backbone to your training program.
With documented and communicated SOPs, you’ll enjoy greater
consistency in every area of your restaurant, lower your food waste, create
happier customers, and best of all, it’ll be easier than ever to thoroughly
train new employees.
What’s the difference between your employee handbook and your
SOPs? Specificity and step-by-step instructions. Your employee handbook
should contain all the general information any new employee would need to
get started, but your SOPs should be very specific and thorough, and should
guide any employee through any task — even something that seems obvious
to you should be written out, step-by-step.
SOPs help your restaurant run like a well-oiled machine and ensure that your
specific standards and expectations are met across all areas of your
business.
Instructions for Building Your
Restaurant SOPs
Start with the cover page [below]. Insert your company logo as well as your
name, address, phone number, and email address. Then, continue to the
SOPs. As you’re filling out each section, there are prompts and directions in
blue italics below each section header. Your writing starts in the regular text
below the prompts. Simply delete “[Start Here].” and begin writing.
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SOPs Template
Finally, when you’re ready to use your SOPs, delete everything in blue italics
as well, plus pages 1-3 and the last page. Then, to print, click File > Print.
Ready? Let’s get started!
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SOPs Template
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES
Owner’s Name
Address
555-555-5555
[email protected]
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SOPs Template
Table of Contents
Below are all the sections of this template. Add or remove subsections
as needed. We strongly suggest adding page numbers as well because these docs
get long!
INTRODUCTION
Company Overview
SOPs Overview
SECTION 1: ALL STAFF SOPS
Vacation
Sick Days
No Call, No Shows
Staff Conflicts
Workplace Injury
Reporting Harassment or Discrimination
SECTION 2: FRONT OF HOUSE SOPS
Opening
Closing
Cleaning Procedure
Steps of Service
Reservations
Wait list
Accommodating Families
Accommodating Guests with Disabilities
Accommodating Guests with Allergies
Dealing with Rude Customers
Dealing with Drunk Customers
Dealing with a Guest Emergency
SECTION 3: BACK OF HOUSE SOPS
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SOPs Template
Opening
Closing
Cleaning Procedure
Receiving Deliveries
Storage Organization
Handling Raw Meat or Seafood
Defrosting Raw Meat or Seafood
Allergy Procedure
SECTION 4: MANAGEMENT SOPS
Hiring
Interviewing
Onboarding
Scheduling
Pre-Shift Meetings
Payroll
Comping/Voiding Checks
Theft/Robbery
SECTION 5: CONCLUSION: REQUEST FOR SUGGESTIONS
Introduction
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Give a brief overview on the history of the company and your values. It’s best to
start things off on a positive, welcoming note.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
SOPS OVERVIEW
Give a quick explanation of what SOPs are — basically, how things are done around
here, but documented and available for reference. Explain that SOPs aren’t
hard and fast unchangeable rules, and that you’re always open to
suggestions for improving and changing them as the team sees fit. Explain
that there are General SOPs, FOH SOPs, BOH SOPs, and Management SOPs. There’s
no need to be repetitive of the Table of Contents, but hit some of the key points
that you’ll want to serve as the major takeaways.
[Start Here]
SECTION 1
[Restaurant Name]
All Staff SOPs
Introduce this section by stating that these are the SOPs that apply to every staff
member, regardless of their role.
[Start Here]
Vacation
Explain your policy for PTO if you provide it, or for requesting vacation days.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
Sick Days
Explain your policy on calling in sick, paid sick days, and the procedure for getting
someone to cover your shift.
[Start Here]
No-Call, No-Shows
Go over your policy on no-call, no-shows. Does a no-call, no-show mean a warning?
Suspension? Termination? What constitutes an extenuating circumstance? Outline
your policy so it’s clear to all employees from the start.
[Start Here]
Staff Conflicts
Explain your policy on staff conflicts, from the small arguments in the heat of
service to larger clashes. Ensure your staff know that respect and empathy are the
most important things on your team.
[Start Here]
Workplace Injury
Thoroughly explain what to do if a staff member is injured on the job in terms of
treating the injury, reporting it, etc.
[Start Here]
Reporting Harassment or Discrimination
Thoroughly explain your policy for harassment and discrimination. Explain the
different types of harassment that exist, and your policy with dealing with each
kind. Make it clear that neither harassment nor discrimination will be tolerated.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
SECTION 2
[Restaurant Name]
FOH SOPs
Opening
Attach your FOH opening checklist.
[Start Here]
Closing
Attach your FOH closing checklist.
[Start Here]
Cleaning Procedure
Explain your procedure for cleaning all the different customer-facing areas of the
restaurant. You can attach a cleaning checklist here if you use one.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
Steps of Service
Attach (or outline) the steps of service in your restaurant, including how long you
want each step to take for every table.
[Start Here]
Reservations
Go over your reservations policy, who’s in charge of manning the phone and any
online reservation systems, what to do if a reservation doesn’t show up, and what
to do if people show up and their reservation is not found.
[Start Here]
Wait List
Explain your wait list policy. Do you have a designated waiting area? Do you send
guests to the bar? Do you have a buzzer or text system?
[Start Here]
Accommodating Families
What’s your policy if a child is misbehaving and disturbing other guests? How do
you suggest servers accommodate stressed-out parents?
[Start Here]
Accommodating Guests with Disabilities
Explain the ways that your restaurant accommodates guests with various
disabilities. Do you have a menu with larger font? Is there an area of the restaurant
that’s quieter and better for people with hearing impairment? Where’s the
bathroom large enough for a person in a wheelchair to enter and close the door
behind them?
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
Accommodating Guests with Allergies
Explain the ways that your servers accommodate guests with allergies of different
severities. Do you have all servers ask if there are any allergies at the table? Do you
have a recipe bible that you can have servers share with someone asking to see if
an allergen is present in a dish?
[Start Here]
Dealing with Rude Customers
Every restaurateur has their opinion on this issue – how do you think your staff
should deal with rude customers? What are the different levels of rudeness that are
permitted before escorting someone from the restaurant?
[Start Here]
Dealing with Drunk Customers
This is a big one. Thoroughly explain how you want your servers or bartenders to
cut off customers that have had too much to drink, how to deal with a rowdy or
inappropriate guest, and when and how to kick them out. Explain that you will
support the decision of a server or bartender to cut off (or kick out) any customer
that’s making them feel unsafe.
[Start Here]
Dealing with a Guest Emergency
Explain what to do if a guest is having a medical emergency. Where’s the first aid
kit, who calls 911, is there a path for ambulance workers to walk through — make
sure all of this is crystal-clear.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
SECTION 3
[Restaurant Name]
BOH SOPs
Opening
Attach your BOH opening checklist.
[Start Here]
Closing
Attach your BOH closing checklist.
[Start Here]
Cleaning Procedure
Outline specifically how you want cooks to keep their areas clean while working.
Attach your cleaning checklists here.
[Start Here]
Receiving Deliveries
Outline who’s in charge of signing for deliveries, who should put them away, what
to do if a delivery arrives during a rush, as well as what gets stored where.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
Storage Organization
Speaking of storage, attach basic diagrams of how you want your walk-in fridge, dry
storage, and freezers organized.
[Start Here]
Handling Raw Meat or Seafood
Go over which cutting boards should be used for what type of food, which cleaner
should be used to sanitize surfaces, and explain that you want your staff to wash
their hands after handling raw meat or seafood every time.
[Start Here]
Defrosting Raw Meat or Seafood
Outline how you want your cooks to defrost raw meat or seafood. Outline the
recommended amount of time for different frozen foods, and safe temperatures for
foods to stand at. Is there a specific sink they should use to defrost? A procedure for
cleaning an area after defrosting something in it? Explain it all here.
[Start Here]
Allergy Procedure
Every restaurant handles allergies differently, so outline exactly how you want
cooks to clean an area before starting on a dish for a guest with an allergy. Explain
how they should grab new tools before starting preparation, and any other
precautions you take depending on the severity of an allergy.
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
SECTION 4
[Restaurant Name]
Management SOPs
Hiring
How do you find candidates? Do you have a referral program in place? Where do
you post job listings? Do you prefer email or phone calls for scheduling interviews?
Go over the hiring procedure that you want your managers to follow.
[Start Here]
Interviewing
What kinds of questions do you always ask? Do you start with a phone interview or
go straight to an in-person interview? Where in the restaurant do you interview
candidates? How do you make the candidates feel welcome?
[Start Here]
Onboarding
What goes into your onboarding/new hire training process? If it involves shadowing,
who do you assign a new hire to shadow? Do you ask the staff member that the
new hire will shadow if they want to mentor the new hire, or do you simply assign
the task to them? If there’s a day of formal training, how do you run it?
[Start Here]
Scheduling
Outline how scheduling works at your restaurant, what scheduling software you
use, how shifts are assigned, who’s in charge of making the schedule each week,
and if you have a seniority system.
[Start Here]
Pre-Shift Meetings
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SOPs Template
Who runs them? What kind of content do you discuss in them? Does it overlap with
staff meal? How do you make the most of your staff’s time?
[Start Here]
Payroll
Who runs payroll? What systems do you use? How do you make sure people always
get paid on time?
[Start Here]
Comping/Voiding Checks
Who’s allowed to comp or void checks? What steps need to be taken in your POS to
comp or void a check?
[Start Here]
Theft/Robbery
How do you deal with suspected theft or robbery?
[Start Here]
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SOPs Template
SECTION 5
Conclusion: Request for Suggestions
FEEDBACK AND SUGGESTIONS
Make sure to relay that your staff’s ideas, concerns, and recommendations are
always welcome, and that you want to use their expertise in making your
restaurant the best it can be.
[Start Here]
Optimize Every Area of
Your Business
We hope this template helps you create all the SOPs you need to keep your restaurant
running smoothly. Our goal is for your restaurant to run as efficiently and profitably as
possible, and a well-informed staff is one of the best ways to accomplish this.
That’s why we’d like to offer you a free demo of Toast POS and restaurant
management system. Its ease of use and rich reporting functionality make it simple for
new hires to start taking orders immediately. Beneficial for both employees and
owners, Toast’s interface has helped some restaurants increase tips by 3x and boost
sales by 20%.
Whether you’re creating these SOPs for a new restaurant or an existing one, Toast is
ready to partner with you and help you maximize the success of your business.
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SOPs Template
Talk to one of our product specialists and learn how Toast can help your restaurant
achieve success.
