Saturday, April 6 2024
The food service industry spans hospitality, entertainment, academia, and even more varied settings, but nowhere is quality valued more highly than in a restaurant. When guests enter a restaurant, they expect the best, and it’s the restaurateur’s job to provide, provide, provide. Satisfying guests means maintaining a top-quality restaurant 24/7, a task that challenges even the pros.
Thankfully, we at Culinary Staffing bring decades of experience to the forefront and are happy to lend a helping hand. We present a bevy of ways to bolster your restaurant business and leave your guests smiling from ear to ear. From managing chain restaurants on your own to delegating tasks to various staff, read on to learn about seven common traits found in the best restaurants.
From the ingredients you cook with to the wait staff uniforms you standardize, every part of your restaurant is a testament to its quality. Curating every facet of restaurant performance separates the best restaurants that customers return to time and time again from the mediocre spots that come and go with the wind.
Before diving into the components of the best restaurants, it’s important to ask yourself, “Why is it important for me to integrate these traits?” Your answer will always come back to quality. Cream always rises to the top, and if you prioritize high quality in every aspect of your establishment, your customer reviews will advertise for you! To become one of the best restaurants, striving for top quality always needs to be at the forefront of your mind.
Every restaurant is different. From space layout to menu offerings and everywhere in between, your restaurant should have enough personality to distinguish it from competitors and establish itself as an independent unit. However, even competitors share commonalities: your shared traits are centered on the foundational needs of a quality restaurant.
These seven common traits of the best restaurants cover the entire expanse of the restaurant industry. When you build a restaurant with these traits as your baseline, you’ll end up with a first-rate establishment that caters directly to customers.
Pay attention to details like the availability of condiments, and the consistent and polite attention of your wait staff. These are ways to show your guests that your restaurant warrants another visit. Customer service is the name of the restaurant game, and detail-oriented customer service is what separates the pros from the amateurs.
Bussing, check-ins, and water refills are just some of the small details that can help elevate a dining experience from good to great. When your customers are well taken care of and their needs are met on an individual level, they’ll come back time and time again.
When you establish a welcoming atmosphere, your guests will feel a warm glow before they even taste their meals. Little customizations like the lighting around your tables and touch-ups can go a long way in making an impression on guests, elevating their moods right off the bat.
From soft seating material to friendly front-of-house staff, your atmosphere drives guests to comfort, relaxation, and pleasure. Give your atmosphere the attention it deserves to create a welcoming space from the ground up.
Carefully consider all the people you’ll hire for your restaurant, but none more so than your chef(s). In the hiring process, search for experience in both skillful, precise cooking and creativity in the culinary space. Your selection of chef determines not only the quality of your meals, but your menu offerings and even sets the tone for your back-of-house and its hiring process.
A chef who can whip up any standard meal is a must, but a chef who can work with spare ingredients and make something unique for a guest with dietary restrictions will elevate your restaurant beyond the basics. Extra culinary innovations above the rest will give your dining experience a unique factor that makes guests want more.
Among the basic needs of a great restaurant are cleanliness and hygiene standards. As you construct plans for regular operations, it’s paramount to develop procedures for keeping everything safe and sanitized.
Your cleanliness and hygiene standards will shine through in your customer service. If you’ve ever walked into a restaurant and thought it felt dirty, you understand on an emotional level how important cleanliness is. Give your customers a clean, refreshing experience by maintaining proper safety standards.
Efficient management improves every other trait on this list. Begin with a management plan that leaves room for changes along the way: restaurant operations fluctuate throughout the year, with varying staff, fast and slow seasons, and unexpected complications. Efficient management both creates structure and leaves room for flexibility.
The best managers know how to build up guests in need of cheer and defuse guests who come in emotionally charged. They understand every position in the establishment and provide their staff with the support they need as they need it. With efficient management at the helm, your whole restaurant will operate smoothly.
How could we talk about a top-notch restaurant without talking about the food? The food you serve proves to customers your restaurant is one of the best. By the time they’re eating, they should be in the mood to relax. Top off their experience with fresh ingredients, beautiful plating techniques, and creative menu offerings.
Make sure your chefs have all the resources they need to create the best food possible. Maintain and upgrade your culinary equipment, including knives, ovens, storage, and more. Setting up a reliable order management system to give you control over your ingredients will mitigate food waste and ensure consistent high-quality food production.
Every restaurant benefits from a well-rounded, friendly, self-regulating staff. If the bar’s empty, encourage the bartender to bus tables; if orders are flying in, encourage a host to assist the expo. By creating a flexible teamwork-based environment where different workers are familiar with and adept at assisting with each other’s roles, your restaurant will embrace the challenges as they come and soar past expectations.
A crucial component of fluid teamwork is a personable staff environment. Make sure your employees are comfortable asking for and lending each other a helping hand. Remember you ultimately set the tone. Welcome friendly dialogue and bonding, to help your team communicate better and provide your guests with an all-star dining experience.
Understanding the most frequently asked questions in the restaurant industry will give you the key tools you need to excel. Internalizing these tips, tricks, and solutions will separate your restaurant from the crowd, strengthening your customer service and bolstering internal operations.
The factors that determine a good restaurant are:
Managing your restaurant with care will help positive reviews flow in on their own. When you curate your restaurant experience to provide excellent service at a great price, good reviews will launch a self-fulfilling cycle that will help you continue to reach new customers.
Some factors that can make a restaurant stand out include:
Overall, a restaurant’s unique quality comes from taking care of your customers and acting with intention in all your customer-facing techniques. A memorable experience is the most unique offering you can provide. Customers will remember their meals, but most of all they will remember how your staff made them feel.
The description of a five star restaurant is threefold, involving:
These facets come together to create the best possible restaurant experience. If you’re looking to grow your business, attending to these needs will help your restaurant flourish.
The key to success for any restaurant is a firm grasp of business management. The common traits of the best restaurants can only be understood and executed by someone with a firm grasp of business management skills and systems. When you manage your business with care at every step, you’ll find yourself on a natural path to success.
These seven common traits of the best restaurants are areas you can work on directly to build up your business. Many of them rely on having the right people working for you. We can help you there.
When you work with Culinary Staffing to fulfill all your restaurant employment needs you’re investing in the quality of your restaurant and customer experience. Our network of the best chefs, servers, and everyone in between is at your fingertips. Contact our staffing specialists today to get started.
