Standard operating procedures nobody has to read

Every restaurant has standard operating procedures, whether or not it has written them down. There is a way the bar is opened, a way the coffee machine is cleaned, a way a table is set and a way an allergy order is taken. In most venues, those procedures live in the heads of the longest-serving staff, and they change a little every time someone new learns them from someone who learned them from someone else.

The usual fix is an operations manual: a thick document, written once, describing everything. It sits in the office, nobody reads it, and the procedures carry on changing. The better fix is procedures nobody has to read at all, because they are short, visual and placed exactly where the work happens: a laminated card above the coffee machine, a list inside the bar fridge door, a photo of a correctly set table by the cutlery station.

This guide covers how to write standard operating procedures a team will follow, where to put them, how to keep them current and two examples written the way they should be. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

Standard operating procedures are written instructions for doing a routine task the same way every time. In a restaurant, they cover everything from opening and closing to cleaning equipment, handling allergies, taking payments and setting tables.

Their purpose is consistency. A guest should get the same coffee, the same clean table and the same careful handling of their allergy whoever is on shift, and a new member of staff should be able to learn the right way quickly.

The manual stays in the drawer because it is written for the wrong reader. It is long, it is written in full sentences, it covers everything at the same length and it lives somewhere the work does not happen. Nobody making a coffee at the peak of service walks to the office to check page forty.

A procedure is only useful at the moment the task is being done. If it is not there, at that moment, in a form that can be read at a glance, it might as well not exist.

Put each procedure where its task is done. The coffee machine's cleaning steps on a card beside the machine. The bar's opening list inside the bar. The table setting as a photo by the cutlery. The allergy steps by the till and on the pass.

A procedure in the right place gets used because it is there when it is needed. It also reminds experienced staff, who no longer think they need it, of the steps they have started to skip.

Write each procedure as a short list of numbered steps, in the order they are done, with one action per step. "Wipe the steam wand after every drink" rather than "the steam wand should be kept clean at all times".

Keep each procedure to one card: usually five to ten steps. A task that needs thirty steps is probably several tasks, each deserving its own card.

For many tasks, a photograph does better than any description. A correctly set table, a properly plated dish, a well-stocked bar station or the right way to label a container is understood in a second from a photo and in a minute from a paragraph.

Use photos of your own venue, your own plates and your own equipment, taken in good light. A generic image from somewhere else is less clear and less trusted.

Write in the words the team uses, not management language. "Turn the oven off" rather than "ensure equipment is powered down". Short words, short sentences and no jargon make a procedure readable for everyone, including staff whose first language is not yours.

Read each procedure aloud before printing it. If any step sounds like a policy rather than an instruction, rewrite it.

Add the reason for any step that might be skipped, in a few words. "Separate board for allergy orders, so nothing carries over." "Date every container, so nothing is used past its life." People follow steps they understand far more reliably than steps that seem arbitrary.

Keep the reasons brief, on the same card. The procedure is still a list of steps; the reason is a short note beside the step that needs it.

A procedure for closing the coffee machine, written as it would appear on a card beside the machine:

Eight steps, each one an action, in the order they are done. A new starter can follow it on their first night; an experienced barista uses it as a check.

A procedure for taking an allergy order, written for a card by the till and the pass:

Seven steps that protect a guest's health. This card belongs in every venue, at every till, and every member of the floor team should be able to follow it without looking.

The bar has its own procedures: opening and closing the bar, cleaning the lines and the ice machine, checking the age of guests where the law requires it, handling cash and tabs and making the house drinks the same way every time. Each belongs on a card behind the bar.

Drink recipes are procedures too. A card with the house cocktails' measures, glass and garnish, or a photo of each, keeps them consistent whoever is mixing.

Front of house procedures cover the guest's visit: greeting and seating, taking orders, the allergy steps, serving and clearing, handling complaints and taking payment. Many are best taught in training and reminded by a short card at the server station.

Keep the front of house cards especially short. Servers glance at them in passing during service, and a card that takes more than a few seconds to read will not be read.

Do not try to write every procedure at once. Start with the tasks where mistakes matter most or happen most often: allergens, food safety, opening and closing, cash handling and the equipment that breaks when it is not cleaned properly.

Then add procedures as problems appear. If the same mistake happens twice, it probably needs a card. Over a few months, the venue builds a set of procedures that covers the tasks that matter, written by people who know where things go wrong.

Procedures are best written by the people who do the task well, with a manager checking them. A head bartender writes the bar's opening list; the sous chef writes the cooling procedure; a senior server writes the table setting.

People follow procedures they helped write, and the procedures are more accurate because the writers know the real steps, including the ones nobody thinks to mention.

Many procedures become daily checklists: the opening list, the closing list, the temperature checks, the cleaning tasks. A checklist is a procedure with a box to tick and a name beside it, done every day.

The trick is keeping checklists honest, so ticks reflect what was actually done. Our guide to daily checklists that get ticked honestly covers the design choices that make that possible.

Procedures make staff training faster and more consistent. A new starter learns each task from the card as well as from the trainer, so they learn the same way whoever trains them, and they can check the card later when they forget.

Build the procedures into the training checklist: each item on the checklist points to the card that describes it. Our guide to a training checklist for the first four weeks covers how to set one up.

An operations manual still has a place, as the collection of all the cards in one folder or document, for the manager to keep, update and use when training. It is the master copy, not the thing staff read during service.

Keep it simple: one page per procedure, the same card that sits by the task, filed by area. When a procedure changes, the card and the manual change together.

Procedures in a kitchen or bar get splashed, stained and torn. Laminate them, or put them in wipeable sleeves, and fix them firmly where they belong. A card that falls behind the machine is a card nobody reads.

Make them easy to see: large type, high contrast, a clear title. A procedure that can be read from a step away, in a busy kitchen, is one that gets used.

Many hospitality teams include people whose first language is different. Where a large part of the team shares another language, consider cards in both, especially for safety procedures such as allergens and cleaning chemicals.

Photos help here too. A picture of the correct setting, the right chemical or the finished plate is understood by everyone, whatever language they read best.

When something goes wrong, such as an allergy mistake, an injury or a near-miss, check whether a procedure covered it. If it did, was it followed, and if not, why? If it did not, does it need one?

Update or write the procedure within days, while the lesson is fresh, and tell the team what changed. Procedures that improve after each incident become stronger over time.

Procedures go out of date whenever something changes: new equipment, a new supplier, a new menu, a new till. A card that describes the old coffee machine is worse than no card, because it teaches the team that the cards cannot be trusted.

Review the cards whenever something changes, and check all of them twice a year. Put the date on each card, so anyone can see how current it is.

Procedures are only useful if they are followed. Watch the team do the task now and then, check the closing lists, look at the results: is the coffee machine clean in the morning, are the containers dated, are allergy orders recorded properly?

When a procedure is not being followed, ask why before insisting. Often the procedure is wrong, slow or impractical, and the team has found a better way that should become the new card.

In a group, procedures are a way to keep standards consistent across venues. The allergy card, the food safety procedures and the cash handling steps should be identical everywhere; other procedures can be adapted to each venue's equipment and layout.

Share the cards between venues, and let good local procedures travel. A closing list that works well at one venue can save the others weeks of trial and error.

Procedures are one part of restaurant operations run as a system: the routines, checklists, briefings, reports and reviews that make each week run smoothly. Each part supports the others.

Our guide to restaurant operations: the week as a system covers how the parts fit together, and our guide to a kitchen operations checklist for every service covers the kitchen's daily routine.

Some tasks happen rarely: changing a gas bottle, handling a power cut, dealing with a flood, responding to a guest who collapses. Nobody remembers the steps for a task they do once a year, which is exactly why these procedures matter.

Write them, keep them where they will be found, such as by the fuse board or on the back of the office door, and walk the team through them now and then. A rare emergency handled calmly is usually one someone prepared for.

Some procedures are best built into the systems the team uses. A till that records an allergy on the kitchen ticket, a booking system that holds a guest's allergies, a kitchen screen that shows tickets in order: each makes a step happen without anyone having to remember it.

Use the systems to carry the steps they can, and keep cards for the rest. The fewer steps that depend on memory, the more reliably the procedure is followed.

New equipment is the moment procedures most often fail. A new oven, dishwasher or coffee machine works differently from the old one, and the old card, still on the wall, now describes the wrong steps.

Write the new card before the equipment goes into service, ideally with the supplier's engineer on the day it is installed. Remove the old card the same day.

Test each new procedure before printing it: ask someone who has never done the task to follow the card while the writer watches without helping. Every hesitation shows a step that is unclear or missing.

A procedure that a newcomer can follow without help is ready. One that needs the writer to explain it is not finished yet.

Some cards can be removed: a task that is no longer done, a step that became part of the equipment, a card that repeats another. Fewer cards, each one useful, are easier to keep current and more likely to be read.

Ask the team once a year which cards they never look at, and why. Some will be cards that are no longer needed; others will be cards in the wrong place.

The closing team often works alone or in pairs, late, tired and without a manager watching. Their procedures, for the kitchen, the bar and the building, need to be the clearest in the venue, in the order the work is done.

Ask the closing team what slows them down. A procedure that matches the way they actually close is followed; one that fights it is skipped.

An invented brasserie has a sixty-page operations manual written when it opened, which nobody has read in years. Coffee quality varies by shift, two allergy near-misses have happened in a month and the closing routine depends on who closes.

The manager asks the team's best people to write cards: the head barista writes the coffee machine card, the head chef the allergy card and the cooling card, a senior server the closing list. Each card goes where its task is done, with photos where they help. Within a month, the coffee is consistent, allergy orders are recorded properly and the closing list is completed every night. The old manual is replaced by a folder of the same cards.

servearound holds no procedures, checklists or operations manual, so the cards stay on the wall and the master copies in your own folder; a photo or document of each card can be shared as a file in the venue's team chat, where channel permissions decide who may post. What it does is carry some steps of the procedures itself, so nobody has to remember them.

An allergy recorded on an order appears at the head of the kitchen ticket, and each dish's allergens show in red when this guest is allergic to one. Tickets reach each station's board oldest first, a void or comp can carry a reason and the till will not void or comp a check once a payment has been recorded against it. See point of sale and kitchen.

Written instructions for doing routine tasks the same way every time.

Because they are long and kept away from where the work happens.

Beside the task: on the machine, inside the bar, by the till, on the pass.

Usually five to ten numbered steps on one card.

The people who do the task well, checked by a manager.

Allergens, food safety, opening and closing, cash and the equipment that breaks when it is not cleaned.

Whenever something changes, and all of them twice a year.

As the master copy of all the cards, for the manager, not for staff to read during service.

Standard operating procedures nobody has to read are short, numbered, visual and placed exactly where the task is done: a card by the coffee machine, a list inside the bar, an allergy card at every till. Written by the people who do the task well, in the words the team uses, with a brief reason beside the steps most likely to be skipped, they get followed because they are there when they are needed.

Start with the tasks where mistakes matter most, turn the daily ones into honest daily checklists, build them into staff training and keep the operations manual as the master copy rather than the thing staff read. Review them when anything changes, let good ones travel between venues and let the systems carry what they can, so restaurant operations depend less on memory and more on the way things are simply done.