1. Sit the customers down at their table, give them a choice of where to suit if you wish. Hand them the menus drinks section, explain any specials or soup of the day for example.
Having a specials board is not ideal because inevitably it cannot be seen from every seat, some people can have bad eyesight and if they have to remember the choice they will not remember the details and not be able to sell it to their fellow diners for you.
2. Come back within five minutes and take their drinks order. Offer table water to all diners. You should have a basic knowledge of sommelier skills and have tried some of the wines on a staff training night. Remove any wine glasses that are not going to be used (if they didn’t order wine) and place these on a side table within the dining area. (minimise time it takes to reset a table).
3. When you return with the drinks, be prepared to take their food order. Write down the order with the starters first. Up sell any side orders such as potatoes, vegetables or salads. If the portions are too big, than food will go to waste with no up selling. It should be a question of quality over quantity, agreed with the Chef and restaurant owner.
Take the order on an electronic device similar to a PDQ machine, this will save you having to go back to the kitchen to drop an order check off, with your messy handwriting. This also means your bill is made up correctly on the computer ahead of time.
After taking the food order, take the menus with you, so that your colleagues do not ask to take the food order again. If you take a note of which dish was ordered for which table place on a seating plan, this will allow you to deliver the food faster, hotter and more professionally, with no dithering of who ordered what!
Fancy restaurants or corporate functions with silver service have a team of waiters that deliver an entire tables food in one go. They stand behind the diners, look at each other, 3-2-1 then place the food on the table at exactly the same time.
4. When the food is ready at the hot plate, deliver it efficiently as possible, keeping tally of dishes still left to be served, because you will be asked. Have a colleague help you serve up as described above, this way no single diners are left with an empty place setting. Offer to take any more drinks order at this stage, wish your diners a enjoyable meal “Enjoy”.
5. Within a few minutes, ask the diners if everything is OK with their meal. This is instant feedback and gives you a chance to fix something that is not right for the customer, before they complain or not pay you a tip. Top up their wine if this is the sort of restaurant that warrants it, you maybe able to sell them another bottle where normally they would have had just one.
Keep an eye on the diners, make it easy for them to ask for something because it will invariably add to the bill and therefore your tip. When you move from the kitchen to table you hands will be taking food out, likewise when returning to the kitchen clean away glasses or empty plates – look busy and efficient. Its the small details that add value to a dining-out experience and make you look even better at your job.
6. Return when all the diners look like they have finished, ask if they are finished and start to remove plates and clear the table. Ask them again if everything was OK with their meal. Return with the desserts menu/hot drinks or leave it with them before clearing.
7. Come back to take any dessert or hot drinks orders. If they don't want anything, ask if they would like the bill as your table is not going to earn anymore money tonight, and could be filled with new paying customers.
8. Return with the bill and deliver to the top of the table, or the one who looks like they are most likely to pay (to give this person the satisfaction of the buying/ treating of other diners experience). Come back quickly with the PDQ machine to take credit card payments.
The tip...
An increasing trend is for Restaurants, typically chains to add a service charge by default. This can be around 10%+ and more often applies to table of six or more. Not being America, it is not always customary for English diners to tip their servers, and hence it is discretionary. If a company adds a service charge as standard, the staff see it as part of their wages (even though this is legally not the case, and the restaurant does not benefit). The problem with this is complacency by the staff, who continually provide poor service. This is unfortunate for the catering industry in this country, which employs a majority of students, without any aspirations to make the work into a career where you can master the art of service, such as in France. The flip side where no discretionary service charge is added to the bill and, and the diners do not add a percentage themselves, can cause some good staff can lose out. The bottom line is through your dining experience and skills as a cook/host in your own home you will decide yourself what is good and what is not so good, and tip accordingly.
Different credit card machines vary, some allow the server to add the bill, hand the machine over to the paying customer, who has the option of a gratuity. Other machines just allow the input of one figure and it is deemed impolite to ask for a tip. One method of getting round this maybe to ask “how much the diner would like to pay for on the card”, in the hope they would round the bill up by 10% and excusable in that the server may believe the bill is being split or paid in part by cash.
