As a restaurant manager, interviewing new employees can be a stressful situation. You can find a lot of common restaurant interview questions online, so people can get ready ahead of time to give the best answer. There’s nothing wrong with that. But do those answers necessarily translate into real-life skills and abilities? It’s hard to say.
To help you really get to know the candidate you’re interviewing, you’ve got to go deeper. Here is a list of some of the most important restaurant interview questions to help you prepare for your interview.
These questions will help you avoid the canned answers that look good in an interview but don’t really show what the candidate can do.
Opening a restaurant can be an incredibly rewarding endeavor. However, it also comes with many challenges and responsibilities. As a restaurant owner, you need strong business acumen, culinary skills, customer service expertise, and leadership abilities to run a successful establishment.
When interviewing potential new restaurant owners, hiring managers want to understand all aspects of your experience They want to gauge your vision, business skills, management style, and ability to handle the inevitable pressures that come with running a restaurant
To help you prepare for your restaurant owner interview, I’ve compiled the top 30 commonly asked questions, along with advice on how to answer them effectively.
1. Why Do You Want to Own a Restaurant?
This question aims to understand your motivations and passion for the restaurant industry Interviewers want to know what drives you to take on the demands of ownership
Focus your answer on your genuine interest in the food and hospitality sector, your entrepreneurial spirit, and any relevant background experience that equips you for this path. Convey your commitment to delivering an exceptional dining experience for customers.
2. What Experience Do You Have in Restaurant Operations?
Since managing day-to-day restaurant operations is a core duty, interviewers want to gauge your hands-on experience.
Highlight your operational knowledge in areas like:
- Menu planning
- Inventory and cost control
- Staff training and management
- Customer service
- Regulatory compliance
Provide specific examples that demonstrate your ability to handle the variable demands of running a restaurant.
3. How Would You Handle an Underperforming Employee?
Staff management is an indispensable part of the job. This question tests your approach to addressing employee performance issues.
Emphasize the importance of clear communication and providing constructive feedback. Discuss strategies like setting clear expectations, providing additional training/mentorship, and regular check-ins on progress. If underperformance continues, disciplinary action may be required. Reiterate your aim is to help the employee succeed.
4. How Do You Ensure Consistency in Food Quality and Service?
Maintaining high standards is crucial for success. Share tactics you’ve used to deliver consistent quality, such as:
- Stringent supplier selection
- Tested recipes and presentation guidelines
- Rigorous training programs
- Compliance monitoring through audits and inspections
- Instilling a culture of excellence in staff
5. What Are Some Ways You Monitor Customer Satisfaction?
Understanding customer satisfaction levels allows you to make improvements. Discuss methods like:
- Gathering feedback through surveys, online reviews, and suggestion boxes
- Maintaining visibility on premise to interact directly with patrons
- Tracking metrics like customer retention rates and repeat visits
- Empowering staff to proactively address any customer concerns
Highlight your commitment to actively soliciting and acting upon customer input.
6. How Would You Handle a Situation Where a Customer Was Dissatisfied with Their Experience?
Managing upset customers is inevitable in hospitality. Share your approach:
- Listen patiently and apologize sincerely
- Quickly resolve the issue whether it’s a meal remake, complimentary offering, or refund
- Follow up to ensure their satisfaction with how it was handled
- Learn from the feedback to improve experiences moving forward
Convey your focus on providing exceptional service recovery and rebuilding customer trust.
7. What Are Some Methods You Use to Control Costs and Manage Expenses?
Financial expertise is critical as a restaurant owner. Discuss strategies such as:
- Renegotiating supplier and vendor contracts
- Monitoring labor costs and optimizing staff scheduling
- Reducing waste through portion control and inventory management
- Tracking sales data and metrics to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements
Demonstrate how you make decisions that balance profitability and costs.
8. How Do You Optimize Profits and Increase Revenue?
While cost control is crucial, driving profits is equally important. Share tactics like:
- Analyzing sales patterns to identify and grow high-margin offerings
- Crafting promotions to boost traffic during slower periods
- Establishing customer loyalty programs to drive repeat visits
- Exploring additional revenue streams like catering, merchandising, or food trucks
Emphasize your ability to identify and seize opportunities for revenue growth.
9. How Do You Feel About Working Long or Irregular Hours?
The restaurant industry often demands untraditional schedules. Express your willingness to work evenings, weekends, and holidays. Highlight any experience you have working long or irregular hours and managing fluctuating schedules. Convey that you’re fully committed to being present during the restaurant’s key business hours.
10. What Strategies Do You Use for Restaurant Marketing and Promotion?
Discuss imaginative tactics for marketing and promotions:
- Leveraging social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to highlight your offerings
- Optimizing your website for search engines and customer engagement
- Partnering with local businesses and the community on events or sponsorships
- Offering promotions like happy hours, prix fixe menus, or meal deals to drive traffic
Showcase how you stay ahead of trends and utilize cost-effective tactics to boost visibility.
11. How Do You Develop New Recipes and Menu Items?
Menu innovation is imperative for success. Share your process for ideation and testing new offerings. Highlight sources of inspiration like customer feedback, food trends, seasonal ingredients, and reimagining classic dishes. Outline your approach to ensuring new items align with your restaurant’s theme and appeal to target customers.
12. How Do You Optimize the Restaurant Layout and Floor Plan?
An efficient dining room layout enhances customer experience and operations. Discuss factors you consider such as:
- Table placement to allow efficient server movement
- Acoustics and noise control through sound-absorbing materials
- Lighting design to create desired ambiance
- Bar placement for visibility and ease of access
- Queue management to smoothly handle peak periods
Convey your aim of crafting a welcoming and operationally optimized space.
13. What Challenges Do You Anticipate or Fear the Most in Owning a Restaurant?
This shows self-awareness of the realities of the role. Share legitimate challenges like:
- Maintaining work-life balance
- Staffing difficulties and turnover
- Handling finicky customers or online complaints
- Staying current with evolving trends and competition
- Administering strict health and safety protocols
Follow up by outlining how you plan to tackle these obstacles. Your ability to identify and prepare for challenges demonstrates maturity as an owner.
14. How Do You Build Strong Teams in Your Restaurants?
Staff is the backbone of any restaurant. Share tips for building a strong team:
- Hiring based on cultural fit, passion, and hospitality mindset in addition to skills
- Establishing clear expectations and setting unifying goals
- Encouraging open communication and staff input
- Fostering friendships and team bonding opportunities
- Cross-training and developing staff to grow within your restaurants
Convey your people-first mindset as a leader.
15. How Do You Maintain Awareness of Day-to-Day Operations As an Owner?
Oversight is needed despite delegating tasks. Highlight methods like:
- Regular walk-throughs to interact with staff and observe operations first-hand
- Reviewing sales reports, inventory levels, customer feedback
- Touching base frequently with your managers
- Maintaining visibility and accessibility to staff during key hours
Discuss how you remain actively engaged in daily operations without micromanaging.
16. What Are Your Tips for Successful Restaurant Service?
Share best practices for delivering exceptional service:
- Friendly, prompt greeting of guests
- Attentive, knowledgeable and timely server interaction
- Careful explanation of menu items, including ingredients and preparation
- Efficient coordination between front and back-of-house team
- Intuitive handling of any issues with apologies and prompt resolution
- Genuine thank you and invitation to return upon departure
This demonstrates your deep understanding of creating an excellent guest experience.
17. What Steps Do You Take to Comply with All Legal and Regulatory Requirements?
Highlight priorities like:
- Maintaining current knowledge of food safety policies and liquor licensing laws
- Regular staff training on responsible alcohol service and allergen awareness
- Conducting self-audits or inspections to proactively identify and resolve any issues
- Maintaining diligent record-keeping and documentation
- Building rapport with health inspectors and authorities
Convey your unwavering commitment to legal and ethical obligations.
18. How Do You Ensure Proper Staff Training and Development?
Thorough training develops top-notch staff. Discuss techniques like:
- Conducting extensive new hire orientation programs covering all critical knowledge
- Ongoing training through workshops, peer coaching, and refreshers
- Frequent evaluation of staff skills and addressing any gaps through training
- Cross-training to build well-rounded team members
- Providing advancement opportunities through mentorships and other learning initiatives
Demonstrate your investment in your team’s growth.
19. What Are Your Tips for Success for Aspiring Restaurant Owners?
This shows
2 How do you feel about tip sharing?
In some restaurants, tip sharing (or tip pooling) is an integral part of the pay structure.
But for some, it can be a point of contention that could lead to problems if it’s not fixed right away.
This question should be asked right away to find out how the person wants to share their tips with the whole team.
2 Why are you looking for a new job?
If you want to know if someone would be a good fit for your restaurant, you could find out why they are looking for a new job.
If someone says something that makes you think they are leaving or losing their job because of things that happen in every business, be careful.
This may indicate that they’re not the right addition to your team.
RESTAURANT MANAGER Interview Questions And Answers (Become A Restaurant Manager)
What should you expect from a restaurant owner interview?
When running a restaurant, you should be more focused on customer satisfaction than increasing your profits. Once customers know that they can get quality food from you, then profits will follow. These recommendations sum up some of the commonest restaurant owner interview questions that you should expect. Your answers should be brief and concise.
How do you answer a question about being a restaurant owner?
When answering, be honest about how much time you’re able to commit to working each day and make sure to emphasize that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to ensure success. Example: “Absolutely. I understand that being a restaurant owner requires long hours and plenty of time on my feet. In fact, it’s something I’m used to and enjoy doing.
How do you answer a restaurant interview question?
This question gives your interviewer a clue about your motivations for choosing their restaurant and your attitude about the job. For example, you might want to advance your career by becoming a manager or develop your skills by learning from their experienced servers. Emphasize why their restaurant can give you the training or experience you want.
How do I prepare for a restaurant owner interview?
To prepare for the Restaurant Owner interview process, research the specific establishment, understand industry trends, showcase your leadership skills, and knowledge of business operations, and demonstrate your genuine passion for the restaurant industry and providing exceptional dining experiences.
