A weekly review that takes thirty minutes

A weekly review is the one meeting a week that a restaurant cannot do without. It is where the owner or general manager and the people who run the kitchen and the floor look back at the week just ended, look ahead at the week to come, and agree a handful of actions. Done well, it takes thirty minutes and changes how the venue runs. Done badly, it takes two hours, covers everything and changes nothing.

The difference is preparation and discipline. A good review uses four numbers, prepared before anyone sits down, and an agenda that leaves no room for wandering. It does not try to solve every problem in the room. It finds the two or three things that matter most this week, gives each one an owner and a date, and checks them the following week.

This guide sets out who should come, when to hold it, the four numbers to bring and the ones to leave out, an agenda minute by minute, and how to keep the meeting to thirty minutes week after week. It ends with a worked example and the common mistakes that turn a useful review into a ritual.

A month is too long to wait in a restaurant. Food prices change weekly, rotas are written weekly, and a problem left for four weeks has cost four times as much by the time the monthly accounts reveal it. A weekly review catches problems while they are still small and the cause is still fresh in everyone's memory.

It also builds a habit. A meeting held at the same time every week becomes part of how the venue runs, and the managers start preparing for it without being asked. A monthly meeting is easier to postpone, and once postponed it tends to drift.

Thirty minutes is long enough to cover the numbers, the guests, the team and next week, and short enough that busy people will protect it. A meeting that regularly runs to ninety minutes gets skipped, cut short or held without the head chef, who has prep to do.

The time limit also forces focus. With thirty minutes, there is no time to discuss every number or every complaint, so the meeting naturally concentrates on what moved and what needs doing. Anything that needs longer gets its own conversation, with only the people who need to be in it.

Keep the group small: the owner or general manager, the head chef, the front of house manager, and the bar manager if drinks are a large part of sales. In a small venue, that may be two people. In a larger one, add an assistant manager who will run the review when the manager is away.

Each person comes because they own at least one of the numbers. Someone who owns nothing on the sheet does not need to be there every week, though it can be useful to invite a senior server or a sous chef now and then to hear the discussion.

Hold it early in the week, on the same day and at the same time, when the previous week's figures are ready and the next week can still be shaped. For most venues, that means a Monday or Tuesday morning, before the lunch team arrives, or the quiet hour after lunch.

Avoid holding it during service or just before it, when people are distracted. Avoid moving it around; a meeting that happens on a different day each week soon stops happening at all.

Bring four numbers and nothing else to the table:

The first three tell you how last week went; the fourth tells you how next week is shaping up. Together, they cover the guests, the two largest costs and the future. Every other number can wait for the report behind these four, if one of them moves.

Net sales for the week, after discounts and before tax, compared with the same week last year. Put covers and average spend per head beside it, because sales are the product of the two, and the first question when sales move is which of them moved.

If there is no last year, compare with the average of the last four weeks. Mark any week where a holiday, an event or a closure makes the comparison unfair, so nobody draws the wrong conclusion. Our guide to the covers report covers the covers side.

Food cost percentage for the week, from the food cost report: what the food used cost, as a share of food sales. It is an estimate rather than an exact figure, because the full stocktake happens monthly. Its value is speed. A rise of a point or two in a single week is worth a question while the cause is fresh.

The head chef owns it and explains it. Drinks can be added as a separate line where the bar is a large share of sales, owned by the bar manager.

Labour cost for the week, including taxes, benefits and agency staff, as a share of sales. It shows whether the rota matched the trade. It is the cost that moves fastest in response to decisions, because next week's rota is written within days of the review.

Whoever writes the rota owns it. When it is high, the question is which services carried the extra hours, and whether the trade justified them.

Covers already booked for each service next week, against the same point last year or last week. It is the only number of the four that looks forward, and it shapes the rota, the ordering and any promotion. A service running far behind may need a push; one running far ahead may need an extra cook.

Our guide to a covers forecast your kitchen will believe covers how to turn the booked figure into a forecast.

Food cost and labour cost together make up prime cost, the largest controllable cost in a restaurant. Some venues bring prime cost to the review as a single figure instead of the two separately. That works, but it hides which half moved, so keep the two lines and add the sum beneath them.

Our guide to prime cost, the one number to watch weekly covers the calculation.

Leave out everything that does not lead to a decision this week: social media followers, website visits, every line of the sales mix, the full payroll. These may matter in a monthly marketing review or to the accountant, but they turn a thirty-minute meeting into an hour of reading.

Leave out long reports too. If a manager needs to show something in detail, they bring the conclusion and keep the detail to hand in case someone asks.

The numbers should be ready before the meeting starts, on one page, in the same format every week. One person prepares them, usually the general manager or an assistant, the day before. Sales and covers come from the point of sale and the booking system; food cost from purchases and a quick count of the most valuable stock; labour cost from the rota and the hours actually worked.

If a number is not ready, say so and move on. Do not spend the meeting working it out.

A thirty-minute review follows the same agenda every week:

The timings are a guide, not a stopwatch. What matters is the order: actions first, numbers next, then causes, people, the future, and actions again at the end.

Start by reading last week's actions, one line each: done, not done, or in progress. Do not discuss them at length. An action that is done is noted; one that is not done gets a new date or is dropped deliberately.

Starting with actions sends a clear signal: what is agreed in this meeting gets done. A review that never checks its actions soon finds that nobody does them.

The person who prepared the sheet reads the four numbers aloud, with the comparison and whether each is in its target range. Nobody discusses them yet. The point is for everyone to hear the same facts before anyone starts explaining them.

Five minutes is enough. If the sheet is clear, it may take two.

Now the owners speak. For each number outside its range, or that moved sharply, the owner explains what they think caused it and what they propose: the chef on food cost, the rota writer on labour cost, the manager on sales and bookings.

Keep it to the numbers that moved. A number in the green band, moving as expected, needs no discussion. This is the heart of the review, and it is where the time goes when the numbers are not ready or the discussion wanders.

Numbers do not capture everything. Spend six minutes on guests and the team: themes from feedback and reviews, complaints that showed a pattern, a guest who deserves a call, a team member leaving or struggling, a training need. Pick one or two themes, not every comment.

Our guide to guest feedback you can actually act on covers how to turn comments into themes before the review.

Look at next week: covers booked by service, large parties, events nearby, holidays, deliveries, maintenance, staff holidays and new starters. Agree anything that changes the rota, the ordering or the menu.

This is where the fourth number earns its place. A busy Saturday or a quiet Tuesday known on Monday can still be planned for.

Finish by reading the actions agreed during the meeting: what, who, and by when. Each action should be small enough to be done before the next review, or have a clear first step that can. Write them on the record, and send it to everyone who attended.

Three to five actions a week is plenty. Ten actions a week means none of them is a priority.

The food cost report behind the second number is simple: food purchases for the week, adjusted for any big change in the stock of the most valuable items, divided by food sales. It is an estimate, and it will not match the monthly stocktake exactly. Its job is to move quickly when something changes.

When the estimate rises, the head chef looks at three things: supplier prices that went up, dishes whose sales rose or fell, and waste recorded during the week. Our guide to calculating food cost percentage covers the method.

Labour cost includes wages, overtime, employer taxes and benefits, and any agency staff. As a share of sales, it shows whether the rota matched the trade. Read it by service if you can: a week that looks fine overall can hide a lunch with far more people than the trade needed.

The rota writer explains it at the review, with one or two changes for next week. Our guide to labour cost percentage by service covers how.

The four numbers are not the only restaurant KPIs worth tracking. No-show rate, table turnover rate on busy services and ticket times all matter. But they do not need to be read in the meeting every week. Keep them on the KPI sheet, glance at them when preparing, and bring one into the room only when it has moved into the red.

Our guide to restaurant KPIs worth tracking every week sets out the fuller list.

Each of the four numbers has a report behind it: the sales report, the food cost report, the labour report and the bookings report. The review reads the numbers; the reports are there for when a number moves and the owner needs to find out why.

Our guide to restaurant reporting: six reports, no more sets out the reports that support a weekly meeting like this one.

The person running the review keeps time, keeps to the agenda, and stops discussions that belong elsewhere. A useful phrase is "let's take that offline": it acknowledges the issue without letting it take over. The chair also makes sure every owner speaks, not only the loudest person in the room.

Start on time, even if someone is late. Finish on time, even if something is unfinished. People protect a meeting that respects their time.

Keep a single running document: one page per week, with the four numbers, a line on what moved, and the actions with owners and dates. Write it during the meeting, not after. At the start of the next review, the actions from this page are the first thing read.

Over a year, the document becomes a record of what happened in the venue and what was tried. It is invaluable when a new manager joins, or when the same problem comes back.

If a number stays in the red for three or four weeks despite actions, the weekly meeting is not the place to solve it. Set up a separate, longer conversation with the people involved, look at the report behind the number in detail, and agree a plan with a longer horizon. Then return it to the weekly agenda to track progress.

Sometimes the answer is that the target is wrong. A labour cost target set before a minimum wage rise may simply be out of date.

In a small venue, the review may be the owner and the chef over a coffee. The agenda still works, and the four numbers still matter. Keep it to twenty minutes if that is all there is, but keep it weekly and keep the written record.

A small venue gains more from a weekly review than a large one, because there is no layer of managers to catch problems. The owner is the system.

In a group, each venue holds its own review, and the operations lead joins some of them or reads the written record. A short group meeting, held afterwards, compares the four numbers across venues and picks up common themes, such as a supplier price rise or a new rule.

Keep the venue reviews independent. A venue manager who waits for the group meeting to make decisions has lost a week.

In the busiest weeks of the year, such as December or Ramadan, the review is often the first meeting to be cancelled. Keep it, but shorten it: ten minutes on the four numbers and next week's bookings. Busy weeks are exactly when labour cost and food cost slip, and a short review catches it.

The quiet weeks that follow a busy season deserve the full thirty minutes, because they are when the venue has time to act on what the busy weeks revealed.

Most reviews grow over time, as each manager adds an item. Once a quarter, look at the agenda and remove anything that has not led to an action. Keep the four numbers; question everything else.

If the meeting runs long every week, the problem is usually one of three: numbers that were not ready, discussions that belonged elsewhere, or too many people in the room.

The weekly meeting sits inside a rhythm. Once a month, a longer meeting looks at the full accounts, the stocktake, the menu and the marketing plan. Once a quarter, the owner steps back to look at the year: targets, prices, opening hours, investment. The weekly review feeds both, because its written record shows what happened week by week.

Here is an illustrative review for a venue on a Tuesday morning. The figures are examples.

The meeting took 27 minutes.

In servearound, the dashboard and analytics give the sales side of the first number: revenue, covers and spend per cover against the previous period, on the venue's local clock. The reservations calendar has a week view, so next week's booked covers are in front of you, and reservation analytics shows no-show and cancellation rates by meal period for the weeks behind you. Guest feedback, with the average rating and who is happy to be contacted, is in one place for the guests part of the agenda, and the menu report shows gross margin once dish costs are set.

Food purchases and the wage bill come from supplier invoices and payroll, outside servearound, so the food cost report and labour cost are prepared from those. To see how the sales and bookings side would look for your venue, read about Analytics or get in touch.

Thirty minutes for most venues; twenty in a small one. If it regularly runs longer, the agenda or the preparation needs fixing.

Early in the week, when last week's figures are ready and next week can still be shaped. Monday or Tuesday morning suits most venues.

One person, usually the general manager or an assistant, the day before, in the same format every week.

Because four can be read and discussed in thirty minutes. Other numbers stay on the KPI sheet and come into the room only when they move.

No. The people who own the numbers attend; others can be invited now and then. The team hears the outcomes afterwards.

Then the meeting takes ten minutes. A short review is a good sign, not a wasted meeting.

Note it, give it an owner, and set up a separate conversation. The weekly meeting tracks progress; it does not solve everything in the room.

Keep a one-page record each week: the four numbers, what moved, and the actions with owners and dates.

A weekly review is the one meeting a week that matters: thirty minutes, the same time every week, with the people who own the numbers. Bring four numbers and nothing else: sales against last year with covers and spend per head, food cost percentage from the food cost report, labour cost percentage, and covers already booked for next week.

Follow the same agenda: last week's actions, the four numbers, what moved and why, guests and the team, next week, and new actions with owners and dates. Keep a one-page record, protect the meeting in busy weeks, and keep the other restaurant KPIs and the restaurant reporting behind them for when a number moves.