Restaurant Glossary

Restaurant space is full of words that one might not be familiar with, and the restaurant glossary is here to simplify it all for you. It will help you keep up with updated restaurant industry lingo.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

C

Catch Weight

Catch weight is the exact weight of an individual food item. It is also called the variable weight.
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Cloud Kitchen 

A cloud kitchen is a commercial kitchen for the purpose of preparing food for delivery or takeout only, with no dine-in customers.
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Cloud POS

A Cloud POS is a system where you can store your data on remote servers and access it from anywhere as long as you're connected to the internet.
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Contactless Dining

Contactless dining is a dine-in experience that allows guests to view the menu, place orders, and make payments without interacting closely with a server or touching shared public surfaces.
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F

Fast Casual

The term fast casual is a relatively new concept of restaurant dining that has a hybrid nature. It's a blend of fast-food dining and casual dining.
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FIFO

FIFO stands for 'first-in, first-out'. The technique assumes that the goods you purchase are the goods you use or sell first.
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Fine Dining Restaurant

When compared to a restaurant experience at a casual eating establishment, fine dining is a better quality and more formal encounter.
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Food Cost Percentage

Food cost percentage is the difference between what it costs to produce an item and its price on the menu.
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Front of house (FOH)

The front of house of a restaurant is everything that your customers can see. This includes the dining room and bar.
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I

Inventory Turnover Ratio

Inventory turnover ratio refers to the number of times your restaurant has sold out of its total inventory during a period of time.
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K

Kitchen Display System

A kitchen display system is installed in kitchens to display orders on a screen for the chef, it can be integrated with the POS and restaurant reservation systems.
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O

Online Delivery

Online food delivery refers to ordering food from a restaurant online. It could be from a restaurant website or a restaurant aggregator app.
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Operational Efficiency

Operational efficiency is a managerial term for making sure that everything runs as per the set standards at your establishment, from your FOH to your BOH.
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Overhead Restaurant Rate

Overhead refers to any additional factors that go into calculating food cost at your restaurant. This includes the electricity that is required to prepare a dish, the cost of labor,...
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P

Par Level

The PAR level is the optimal amount of an inventory item that should be in your restaurant at all times to ensure that you both do not run out of...
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Pay At Table

Pay-at-table technology allows restaurant guests to order items or pay their tab by scanning a QR code with their smartphone or via a handheld point of sale device used by...
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Payment Methods

The different methods that are used for the payment of a bill.
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Point of Sale

A point of sale (POS) is a system in which the staff enters in the order and each sale is recorded.
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Q

QSR

A quick service restaurant (QSR) offers select food items requiring minimal preparation time and are delivered through quick services. Typically, quick service restaurants or QSRs cater to fast food items...
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R

Recipe Management

Recipe management is the act of managing the relationship between a restaurant’s production processes, recipes, and other variables.
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S

Split Shift

A split shift is when a staff member works two or more separate shifts during a day.
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T

Table Reservation

A table reservation refers to when a customer calls or makes a booking online in advance to ensure that a table will be available to them when they arrive.
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Table Service

Table service is when a restaurant serves food right to the customer's table rather than having them pick up it up from the counter such as with fast food restaurants.
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Table Turnover Rate

Turn over rate refers to how fast tables fill in and turn empty during a shift. A high turnover rate means more people have eaten and gone, while a slow...
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W

Who is a Chef

A chef is a chief cook, especially in a restaurant or hotel. Usually they're responsible for planning menus, ordering foodstuffs, overseeing food preparation, and supervising the kitchen staff.
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