Restaurant operations glossary

Plain-English definitions of the POS and restaurant-ops terms operators actually use — from 86 and coursing to prime cost and recipe costing.

86 (Out of Stock)

Restaurant shorthand for an item that is sold out or unavailable.

The kitchen and operational side guests don't see.

Timing the kitchen so dishes from a table arrive in the intended order.

The number of guests served, counted per person rather than per table.

The person who coordinates the pass between kitchen and dining room.

The share of revenue spent on the ingredients in what you sell.

The guest-facing side of the restaurant — dining room, host stand, bar.

A kitchen screen that replaces paper tickets and routes orders to the right station.

Total labor spend as a share of sales over a given period.

Analyzing each item's profitability and popularity to optimize the menu.

An add-on or change to a menu item, like 'no onions' or 'extra cheese.'

Operating more than one restaurant under shared management and systems.

The target on-hand quantity of an ingredient to keep service running.

A short code used at the register to quickly ring up a menu item.

The system where orders are entered, sent to the kitchen, and paid for.

Cost of goods sold plus total labor — the two biggest controllable expenses.

Guests scan a code at the table to order and pay from their own phone.

Calculating the exact ingredient cost of a dish from its recipe.

A customer-facing tablet where guests browse the menu and order themselves.

A unique code identifying a purchasable inventory item.

How many times a table is seated with new guests during a service period.

A void removes an item before it's made; a comp gives away an item already prepared.