A restaurant glossary for new managers

A restaurant glossary is the quickest way through a new manager's first week. Restaurants have their own language, and it arrives all at once: the chef asks for the covers, a server says table twelve wants to split, someone shouts that the fish is eighty-six, the owner asks about prime cost, and the bar manager mentions a par. Most of it is simple once explained, but nobody has time to explain it during service.

This glossary gathers sixty of the terms a new manager is most likely to hear in the first week, grouped by where they come up: guests and bookings, the floor, the kitchen, menus, stock, the numbers, and people and operations. Each is explained in one sentence. Where a longer explanation exists, the term links to it.

Read it once before the first shift, keep it to hand for the first month, and share it with new team members. Some terms vary a little between venues and countries; where they do, the venue's own meaning is the one that counts.

Each entry gives the term and a one-sentence meaning. The groups follow the order a manager meets them: guests arrive, the floor serves them, the kitchen cooks, the menu decides what is sold, stock supplies it, the numbers record it, and the team and routines hold it together.

When a term is used differently in your venue, write the local meaning in the margin. A shared language is one of the simplest ways to reduce mistakes.

Our guides to what is a cover and what is a no-show explain the two most argued-over terms.

Our guide to table turnover rate covers turns in detail.

The idea of mise en place is one of the oldest in professional kitchens. Our guide to what is a KDS explains kitchen screens in plain language.

Our guides to what is menu engineering and allergen rules and the conversation at the table go further.

Our guides to what is a par level and what is a stocktake explain the two most used.

Our guides to what is food cost, what is gross profit on a dish and what is average spend explain the numbers new managers are asked about first.

Our guide to restaurant operations: the week as a system shows how the routines fit together.

Three terms come up more than any others in a new manager's first week. They deserve a little more than one sentence.

A cover is one guest. It is the unit behind almost every number in the venue, from bookings and the rota to spend per head. The confusion comes from counting it in different places: covers booked in the diary, covers on checks at the till, and the guests the kitchen expected. Agree one definition and one official count.

To 86 a dish means it has run out and must not be sold. The term is old and its origins are disputed, as the history of 86 shows, but its meaning in a kitchen is clear. When a dish is 86, the floor must stop selling it at once, and any digital menu should stop showing it. Our guide to 86 an item so nobody orders it at five past covers how to do it everywhere at once.

Prime cost is the cost of food and drink plus the full cost of labour, usually as a percentage of sales. It is the largest group of controllable costs in a restaurant, which is why owners watch it closely. Our guide to what is prime cost explains how it is calculated and the range operators aim for.

It helps to know when each group of terms appears. In the first hour of a shift, the language is about preparation: the prep list, mise en place, par levels, deliveries and the pre-service briefing. During service, it is about flow: covers, walk-ins, the waitlist, sections, tickets, fire and hold, 86, the pass and ticket times. At the close, it is about the day's record: checks, comps, voids, the cash-up and the waste sheet.

The numbers come later in the week: net sales, spend per head, food cost, labour cost and prime cost, read at the weekly review.

Some words tell a manager that something is going wrong. A cook who says they are behind, or in the weeds, is overwhelmed and needs help now. A server who mentions a remake means a dish came back. A host who says the waitlist is building may need tables turned faster. A chef who calls an 86 at the start of service may have a supplier problem.

Learn to hear these words and act on them quickly. They are often the first warning of a difficult night.

The weekly review has its own vocabulary: covers against last year, spend per head by service, food cost percentage, labour cost percentage, prime cost, no-show rate, and the actions agreed with owners and dates. A new manager who can follow that conversation from the first week earns the team's confidence quickly.

Our guide to a weekly review that takes thirty minutes sets out the agenda and the four numbers to bring.

Every venue has words of its own: the names of rooms and areas, dishes known by nicknames, internal codes on the till, the name of the regulars' table. Start a venue glossary from this one, and add those local terms as you learn them. Ask the longest-serving team members for the ones that newcomers always get wrong.

Keep it short and current, and store it with the staff handbook and the opening and closing checklists.

Allergy terms must be used precisely, because a misunderstanding can harm a guest. An allergy is a reaction that can be severe even from a trace; an intolerance usually causes discomfort rather than danger; a preference is a matter of taste. Cross-contact means an allergen reaching food that should not contain it, through shared equipment or hands.

Treat every stated allergy as serious, and never guess. The allergen matrix and the conversation at the table are where the language becomes a safe meal.

Reports bring their own words. Median is the middle value, less affected by a few unusual results than the average. Previous period means the same length of time just before the one you are looking at. Year on year means the same period last year. Share is a part of the whole as a percentage. Range is the period the report covers.

When a report uses a term you do not know, ask before acting on it. A number misunderstood is worse than a number unread.

Some terms are used differently from one venue to the next. A section may mean a server's tables in one place and an area of the dining room in another. Expo may be a job title or simply the pass. Some venues count bar guests as covers; others do not. Some call the check the bill, the docket or the tab.

When you start, ask how the venue uses its key terms, and write the answers down.

Terms also vary between countries. A rota in the UK is a schedule in the US; the bill is the check; VAT is sales tax; a till is a register. In the Gulf, some venues use terms from several traditions at once, because their teams come from many countries.

A shared glossary is especially useful in an international team, where people may know the same thing by different names.

Not every term should be used in front of guests. "We're 86 on the sea bass" means nothing to a guest; "I'm sorry, the sea bass has sold out tonight" does. "Your table's been comped" sounds odd; "This one is on us" sounds kind. Keep the kitchen's language in the kitchen.

New managers learn the language fastest by listening during service, asking during quiet moments, and reading the venue's own procedures. Keep a note of every unfamiliar term in the first week, and ask about the ones that are not here. Within a fortnight, most of it will be second nature.

Our guide to onboarding staff so night one is not chaos covers the first shift and the first two weeks.

Share the glossary with every new starter, not just managers. A server who knows what fire, hold and 86 mean on the first night makes fewer mistakes; a cook who knows what a cover is understands the forecast. Add the venue's own terms, and keep it with the staff handbook.

Here is an illustrative first week for a new assistant manager, and the terms that caused trouble. The details are examples.

By the second week, the manager had written the venue's own glossary, and the team used the same words for the same things.

In servearound, much of this vocabulary is built into the screens. Checks open on the floor plan; courses can be sent, held and fired; tickets reach each station with allergies, seats and removed ingredients shown; and an 86 takes a dish off everywhere at once, coming back the next day or staying off until you say. Checks can be split by moving items onto a new one, merged or moved, and items can be comped or voided.

The same terms appear in the reports: covers, spend per cover, no-show rate, ticket times. See Order Fulfillment, and if you would like to work with us on the tools themselves, our careers page lists our open roles.

To give new managers and team members a shared language quickly, so fewer mistakes happen in the first weeks.

One guest. A table of four is four covers.

That a dish has run out and must not be sold.

Food and drink cost plus labour cost, usually as a share of sales.

The counter where finished dishes are checked and handed to the floor.

Send a course to be cooked now.

Everything prepared and in place before service starts.

Yes. Start from a general one and add the venue's own terms and meanings.

That a cook or server is overwhelmed and falling behind. It is a call for help, and a manager who hears it should respond at once.

A comp gives an item free, usually to put something right; a void removes an item from the check, usually because it was entered by mistake. Both should be recorded with a reason.

A shift broken into two parts with a gap between, such as lunch and dinner. It suits venues with a quiet afternoon, but long gaps can be hard on staff, so use it with care.

This restaurant glossary covers sixty terms a new manager hears in the first week, from cover and walk-in to pass, fire, 86, par level, stocktake, spend per head and prime cost. Each has a one-sentence meaning and, where useful, a link to a longer answer, such as what is a cover, what does 86 mean and what is prime cost.

Learn the terms by listening and asking, write down how your own venue uses them, keep kitchen jargon away from guests, and share the glossary with every new starter. A shared language is one of the simplest foundations of good restaurant operations.