What is front of house in a restaurant?

A guest's evening at a restaurant involves perhaps a dozen people. The one who answered the phone, the host who greeted them, the server who took the order, the runner who brought the food, the bartender who made the drinks, the manager who stopped by the table and the person who brought the bill. The guest never sees the kitchen, but they see all of these people, and they judge the whole evening by them.

What is front of house? In a restaurant, front of house is every part of the venue the guest sees, and every person who works there: the entrance, the host stand, the dining room, the bar, the terrace and the team who welcome, seat, serve and look after the guests. It is the half of the restaurant that turns the kitchen's food into an experience.

This guide covers what front of house includes, the roles within it, how it differs from back of house, the service standards that hold it together, the handovers to the kitchen that define the job and how to organise a front of house team well. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

Front of house is the guest-facing side of a restaurant. It covers the physical spaces guests use, from the door to the toilets, and the people who work in them. Its job is to welcome guests, look after them throughout their visit and send them away wanting to return.

The term comes from the theatre, where it means the parts of the building the audience uses, as opposed to the stage and the areas behind it. In a restaurant, the stage is the dining room, and the front of house team are its performers.

Front of house and back of house are the two halves of a restaurant. Back of house is the kitchen, the stores, the dish wash and the people who prepare and cook the food. Front of house is everything and everyone the guest sees.

Neither works without the other. The kitchen can cook perfectly and the evening still fail if the front of house is slow or careless; the floor can be warm and attentive and the evening still fail if the food is late or wrong. Our guide to front of house and back of house on the same side covers how to make them work as one team.

The spaces include the entrance and the waiting area, the host stand, the dining room, the bar, any terrace or private dining room, the toilets and the route between them. Each space shapes the guest's experience: a cramped entrance, a dark corner table or a toilet that needs cleaning all leave an impression.

Walk the front of house as a guest would, regularly, at the start of service. Small problems, a flickering light, a draught, a wobbly table, are easy to fix before guests arrive and hard to fix in front of them.

The host runs the door: greeting guests, checking bookings, managing the waiting list, deciding who sits where and pacing the arrivals so the kitchen is not overwhelmed. The host is the first person most guests meet and often the last they see as they leave.

The role is harder than it looks, because the host is balancing the guests at the door, the tables in the room and the kitchen's capacity all at once. Our guide to running the door on a full Friday night covers the busiest version of the job.

The host stand is the host's workstation: the bookings, the floor plan, the waiting list, the phone and the menus within reach, positioned where the host can see both the door and the room. A host stand that is cluttered, out of sight of the room or missing the information the host needs makes the job harder.

Set the host stand up for the busiest night: the day's bookings visible, the floor plan showing which tables are free, a way to record unbooked guests and the waiting list, and nothing that does not belong there.

Servers look after the guests at their tables: presenting the menu, taking orders, answering questions, recommending dishes and drinks, checking that everything is right and presenting the bill. In many venues, each server has a section of tables for the service.

A good server reads each table: the couple who want to be left alone, the family who want quick service, the group celebrating who want to be noticed. Our guide to upselling that does not sound like selling covers one of its quieter skills.

Runners carry food from the pass to the tables, so servers can stay with their guests. Bussers, or clearers, clear and reset tables, refill water and keep the room tidy. In smaller venues, servers do both; in larger ones, these roles keep the service moving.

A runner who knows which seat each dish goes to, and a clearer who resets a table the moment it is free, can add covers to a busy night without anyone working faster.

The bar team makes the drinks for the dining room and serves guests at the bar itself. In many venues, the bar is also the waiting area, the place for a drink before dinner and the guests' last stop on the way out.

The bar is front of house, but it works like a small kitchen, with its own preparation, stock and pace. It needs the same clear communication with the floor as the kitchen does.

The front of house manager, or the supervisor on shift, runs the floor: deciding the sections, briefing the team, watching the tables, solving problems, handling complaints and speaking to the kitchen when something goes wrong. In fine dining, the maître d' often plays this role.

A good manager is visible on the floor during service, not hidden in the office. Guests notice when someone is clearly in charge, and so does the team.

Each front of house role has its own responsibilities and limits: what the server may comp, what the host may promise, what the bartender may give away. Writing them down makes the service fairer and the team more confident.

Our guide to staff roles and the permissions that follow covers how to set them. Clear roles prevent both the server who will not decide anything and the one who decides everything.

Service standards are the rules that make every guest's experience consistent: how guests are greeted, how quickly they are seated, how menus are presented, how orders are taken, how dishes are served and cleared, how the bill is presented and how guests are seen out.

Write the standards as actions, not values. "Greet every table within two minutes of seating" is a standard; "be welcoming" is a hope. Our guide to service standards written as actions, not values covers how.

Most front of house teams follow a sequence of steps for each table: the welcome, the drinks, the menu and the specials, the order, the delivery of each course, the check-back, the clearing, the dessert offer, the bill and the farewell. The steps make sure nothing is missed, even on the busiest night.

Train the steps, but let the team adapt them to each table. A business lunch in a hurry and a celebration that wants to linger need the same steps at very different paces.

The front of house job is defined by its handovers to the kitchen. The order, with every change and allergy, must reach the right station clearly. The table's readiness for the next course must reach the pass. A problem with a dish must reach the chef quickly and calmly.

Each handover is a place where information can be lost. A front of house team that hands over clearly, every time, makes the kitchen's job possible; one that does not makes even a good kitchen look bad.

The handovers go the other way too. The kitchen tells the floor what has run out, which dishes are delayed and when a course is ready. The front of house must listen and act: stop selling the dish that has gone, warn the table whose main is late and collect the plates when they are called.

A pass where food waits because no runner came, or an 86 that never reached the floor, is a breakdown in front of house as much as in the kitchen.

Allergies are the most important handover of all. The guest tells the server; the server must tell the kitchen, clearly and on the order, every time. The kitchen must confirm it can make the dish safely, and the runner must deliver the right plate to the right guest.

A single missed step can harm a guest. Make the allergy process the same for every table, train it to every new member of the team and check it regularly.

Front of house communication during service is constant: the host telling servers who has been seated, servers telling the bar what drinks are needed, the manager telling the host when a table will be free. Short, clear words and a few agreed signals keep it flowing.

Brief the team before every service: the bookings, the large parties, the guests with allergies or special occasions, the dishes that are running low and anything unusual about the night.

The pre-service briefing is ten minutes that shape the whole service. The manager runs through the bookings and the sections, the kitchen describes the specials and anything running low, and the team asks questions. Everyone starts the service knowing the same things.

Keep it short and regular. A briefing every day, at the same time, becomes a habit the team relies on.

Sections divide the dining room between servers, so each knows which tables are theirs. The size of each section depends on the server's experience, the type of service and the tables' positions.

Draw the sections on the floor plan before each service, and adjust them when the bookings change. A section with too many large tables, or tables spread across the room, overloads one server while another stands idle.

Front of house covers the guest's whole visit, not only the meal: the booking, the phone call, the welcome, the wait, the toilets, the bill and the farewell. A guest who had a wonderful meal and a difficult time paying remembers both.

Think about the moments at either end of the meal as carefully as the meal itself. The first impression and the last are the ones guests describe to their friends.

Train every new member of the front of house team on the venue's standards, the menu, the allergens, the till, the steps of service and how to hand over to the kitchen. Pair them with an experienced colleague for their first shifts.

Keep training the whole team, not only the new starters: menu tastings before changes, refreshers on allergens and service standards, and practice for the difficult conversations, such as a complaint or a guest who has had too much to drink.

Measure front of house by what guests experience: how long they wait to be greeted and seated, how long between courses, how quickly the bill arrives, the feedback and reviews they leave and how often they return.

Watch the numbers alongside the guests' comments. A front of house team that knows its guests notice the wait between courses will work to shorten it.

Front of house begins before the guest arrives. The person who answers the phone, the confirmation email and the booking page are all part of the guest's first impression, and they deserve the same care as the welcome at the door.

Answer the phone promptly and warmly, with the information to hand: the availability, the menu, the opening hours. A guest who struggled to book arrives already doubtful.

Guests judge a venue by its toilets more than many owners realise. A clean, well-stocked toilet suggests a clean kitchen; a neglected one suggests the opposite. Checking them is a front of house job.

Put the toilets on a checklist for each service, with someone responsible for checking and restocking them at set times.

Complaints are part of front of house. A guest who is unhappy and tells the team gives the venue a chance to put it right; one who says nothing and writes a review does not. Train the team to listen, apologise sincerely and act.

Give the team the authority to fix small problems at once, and a clear way to call the manager for larger ones. A complaint handled well can leave a guest more loyal than before.

In a small venue, one or two people may do every front of house job: host, server, bartender and cashier. The roles are the same, but they are shared, and the same standards apply.

Plan the small team's evening carefully: who greets new arrivals while another serves, who makes the drinks, who takes payment. A small team with a clear plan feels calm to guests; one without feels chaotic.

The end of the evening is the last impression. Present the bill promptly when asked, take payment smoothly, thank the guests and, where it is natural, see them to the door.

A guest who is thanked warmly as they leave remembers the evening well. One who has to wave for the bill and find their own coat does not.

Using a guest's name, when the team knows it, is one of the simplest ways front of house makes a guest feel welcome. The booking gives the host the name; the host can pass it to the server.

Use it naturally and not too often. "Welcome back, Mrs Patel" at the door is warm; repeating the name in every sentence is not.

The quiet hours are when front of house prepares for the busy ones: polishing glasses, folding napkins, checking the menus, restocking the service stations, reviewing the bookings and training.

A front of house team that uses the quiet hours well starts every busy service ready. One that waits for the guests to arrive starts every service behind.

An invented brasserie's reviews keep mentioning long waits for the bill and dishes arriving at the wrong seat. The manager watches a busy service and sees servers leaving their sections to carry food, the bill brought only after guests ask twice and runners guessing which guest ordered what.

The brasserie adds a runner on busy nights, introduces seat numbers on every order so runners know where each dish goes, and adds a standard: the bill within three minutes of being asked for. The pre-service briefing covers each night's large tables and allergies. Within a month, the reviews mention the service as warm and quick, and the comps for mistakes fall by half.

In servearound, each person on the team has a role, and a new network starts with Manager, Server and Host roles, with Kitchen for the cooks and the Owner fixed above them; each role sets what its holders can view, create, edit and delete, module by module. The host stand and the point of sale run on shared screens, where each person signs in with their own name and four-digit PIN, so every booking change and order is recorded as theirs.

The host works from the reservations screen, with bookings, the waiting list and walk-ins, and seats parties on the floor plan, where each table can show its responsible server. Orders reach each station's kitchen screen with the guest's allergies at the head of the ticket. See point of sale and kitchen.

Every part of the venue the guest sees, and every person who works there.

Back of house is the kitchen, stores and prep; front of house is everything guest-facing.

Hosts, servers, runners, clearers, bartenders and the managers and supervisors who run the floor.

Runs the door: greeting, seating, the waiting list and the pace of arrivals.

The written rules, as actions, that make every guest's experience consistent.

The order, with changes and allergies, table readiness and problems, all passed clearly.

On the standards, the menu, allergens, the till, the steps of service and the handovers.

By waits, timings, feedback, reviews and how often guests return.

What is front of house? It is everything and everyone the guest sees: the spaces from the door to the dining room and the team who welcome, seat and serve. Front of house and back of house are two halves of one restaurant, and the evening depends on both.

Define the staff roles clearly, set up the host stand for the busiest night, write service standards as actions and train the steps of service. Make every handover to and from the kitchen clear, especially allergies, brief the team before each service and measure front of house by what guests experience.