Goodfit

How to hire a Restaurant Manager

Restaurant managers run the whole F&B operation. They control food costs, manage table turnover and roster staff across shifts. They keep the kitchen within food safety rules and make sure every guest gets the same good meal. The job looks the same in fine dining, QSR chains, cloud kitchens and hotel restaurants. A strong manager keeps the restaurant profitable. A weak one loses money on waste and walk-ins.

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Restaurant Manager

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What is a Restaurant Manager?

A Restaurant Manager runs one restaurant as a business. That covers the service, the team, the costs, the rules and the guest experience. At peak hours the job is to be on the floor and make quick calls. The rest of the day goes to rosters, ordering, stock counts, hiring, training and reading the numbers. Food cost and labor cost decide whether the restaurant makes money. Good managers check both every day.

Also called
General Manager (restaurant), Store Manager (quick service), Front of House Manager
Function
Food and beverage operations
Level
First-line to middle management, typically 10-50 staff
Reports to
Area Manager, F&B Manager, or owner
Measured on
Sales vs target, food and labor cost percentage, covers, guest ratings, hygiene audits, attrition
Next step
Multi-unit or District Manager, F&B Manager, or Director of Operations

The hiring challenge

Many restaurant manager candidates have years of F&B experience but little P&L ownership. A senior captain who got promoted is different from a real restaurant operator. You can see the gap in three places. Can they work out and control food cost percentage, or do they only order ingredients? Can they manage vendors and negotiate rates, or do they accept whatever the supplier sends? Can they run a full house on a Saturday night without the kitchen and floor falling apart? AI voice interviews show this gap. They test how candidates run the restaurant, and hospitality words alone do not score well.

What to look for in a Restaurant Manager

Four traits matter. Food cost control. Do they know their current food cost percentage? Can they explain what pushes it up and how they bring it down? The best managers track food cost every week. They act on a change within days. Staff rostering and management. F&B teams are young, change often and work in shifts. Can they roster well for busy and quiet hours? Can they handle no-shows? Do their pre-shift briefings make service better? Guest experience ownership. Do they walk the floor, read guest feedback and fix problems that keep coming back? Or do they sit in the back office and leave it to the captain? Food safety and hygiene. This is not optional. Do they know the food safety paperwork, kitchen hygiene audits, pest control schedules and staff health checks? Or do they only think about it when the inspector arrives?

Also test for vendor management skills. Fresh produce means dealing with vendors every day. That includes checking quality on delivery and negotiating rates, and both change food cost. Test for POS systems and delivery apps, including managing the app dashboard and checking commissions. If the role covers catering or private dining, ask about banquet and event experience.

Strong candidates talk about their restaurant with specific numbers. They know their average food cost percentage, covers per shift, table turnover time, staff attrition rate and guest satisfaction scores. Weak candidates talk about "ensuring smooth operations" and give no numbers.

Common mistakes when hiring Restaurant Managers

Promoting the best server. Serving well and managing well are different skills. A great captain may not be able to read a P&L, manage food cost or negotiate with a vendor. That person will struggle as a restaurant manager. Test how they think about running the business and making money. Good manners with guests are only one part of it.

Not testing food cost knowledge in practice. Ask what their restaurant's food cost percentage was. Then ask what they did to control it. Some say "around 30-35%" and cannot give the exact number or the steps they took. They were watching the cost. They were not managing it.

Not checking how deep their food safety knowledge goes. Ask about their last food safety audit. What was flagged? What did they fix? How do they stay compliant week to week? Candidates who treat it as a box to tick will put your business at risk.

Key skills for a Restaurant Manager

  • Food cost control and menu engineering
  • Staff rostering and shift management
  • Food safety compliance and kitchen hygiene
  • Guest experience and table management
  • Vendor management and procurement
  • POS systems and aggregator platform management
  • Banquet and event execution
  • P&L awareness and revenue optimization

What a great interview looks like

Voice

"Your food cost went up from 28% to 34% over the last two months. How would you find the cause and fix it?"

Roleplay

"It is a busy Saturday night and the kitchen is behind. A guest calls you over. They say the food took 45 minutes and arrived cold. What do you say to them?"

Scenario

"It is Friday evening and every table is booked. Two of your six servers call in sick. What do you do in the next 30 minutes?"

MCQ

"Your restaurant served 120 covers last night. The average ticket was $40. Food cost for the day was $1,600. What is your food cost percentage, and is it in an acceptable range?"

Voice

"How do you manage your vendors? What do you do when a supplier keeps sending produce of uneven quality?"

You can use these questions in Goodfit as they are, or edit the questions and the scoring for your team.

Recommended interview process

  1. 1

    Round 1: AI Voice Interview15 to 20 min

    A food cost problem, a staff situation and a guest complaint. Scored on business thinking and how well they know daily operations.

  2. 2

    Round 2: P&L and Menu Exercise30 min

    The candidate reviews a sample restaurant P&L and menu. They find the cost problems and suggest changes, with reasons.

  3. 3

    Round 3: F&B Director Interview30 min

    How they manage vendors, their banquet experience, and how well they know food safety rules.

In Goodfit, the AI interview runs the first round for every applicant. Skill tests, coding tests and roleplays can run in Goodfit too. Your team reads the scorecards and joins for the later conversations.

FAQ

Restaurant Manager hiring questions

What does a restaurant manager do?
They run service at peak hours and manage the front and back of house teams. They roster staff against the covers they expect. They order stock, run inventory counts and manage waste. They handle guest complaints and keep food safety and hygiene standards. They hire and train staff, which never stops because people leave often. They keep costs within the restaurant targets. They read daily sales and cost numbers to decide what to change. In smaller places they also handle local marketing and suppliers.
What are food cost and labor cost percentages?
Food cost percentage is the cost of ingredients as a share of the sales they bring in. Labor cost percentage does the same for wages. These are usually the two biggest costs a restaurant can control. Margins are thin, so small changes matter. On the food side, managers control portions, recipes, purchase prices, waste and theft. On the labor side, they control forecasts and rosters. Managers who check both every day catch problems weeks before a monthly P&L would show them.
What is the difference between a restaurant manager and an F&B manager?
A restaurant manager runs one restaurant. A food and beverage manager is a hotel role. They oversee all F&B on a property: restaurants, bar, room service and banquets. Restaurant managers report to them. The F&B role is more planning, budgets and coordination. The restaurant manager spends more time on the floor during service. Moving up means trading time on the floor for a wider view.
What KPIs does a restaurant manager own?
Sales against target and like-for-like growth. Average spend per head. Covers and table turns at peak. Food cost and labor cost percentages, and waste. Guest satisfaction and online review ratings. Hygiene and food safety audit scores. Staff attrition. Watch online ratings closely. In most markets they now bring in more guests than any local marketing the restaurant can do.
What skills does a restaurant manager need?
They need to be present during service. That means seeing the room and stepping in before a problem reaches the guest. They need to understand food and labor costs. They should roster based on expected demand, and habit is not enough. They must hire and train all the time, because hospitality staff leave often. Their food safety habits should not slip when the kitchen is busy. They need to handle complaints in front of other guests. And they need the energy for evenings, weekends and holidays.
Why is staff attrition so high in restaurants and what can a manager do?
The work is physically hard and the hours are long and late. Pay is often close to the market minimum. Many workers only plan to stay a short time. A manager can still control a few things. Are rosters fair and predictable? Is there any training at all? How are staff spoken to during a bad service? Does shift handover leave people ready, or rushing? Restaurants with the same pay and very different attrition usually differ on these points.
What qualifications do you need to become a restaurant manager?
A hotel management or hospitality degree is common. It is often waived for people promoted from inside, which is the most common path. The person in charge of a restaurant usually needs a food safety certificate. Employers look for past responsibility for a P&L, or at least for food and labor costs. They want proof the person has led a team through peak service. They also want a clean record on hygiene audits.
What interview questions should I ask a restaurant manager?
Ask what they would do if food cost rose three points with no change in menu or supplier. Listen for portions, waste and theft. Ask how they roster for a Saturday when they are not sure how busy it will be. Ask how they handle a guest complaint in a full restaurant with a line at the door. Ask about a hygiene audit finding and what changed after it. Ask what they did about attrition at their last restaurant. Most candidates have never been asked this.
How do restaurant groups hire managers?
The role needs cost control and people leadership at the same time. Most interviews ask about service and assume the candidate can manage cost. Test both directly. Use one cost scenario and one team or service scenario. Score them on the same rubric across all restaurants. When you hire for many sites, using the same scenarios lets you compare a fine-dining candidate with a quick-service one.

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