Restaurant SOPs: How to Digitize Them + Free Templates to Get Started

Running a restaurant isn’t always easy, especially when it comes to maintaining consistent service across different locations or with new staff. Restaurant SOPs can help you ensure tasks are performed consistently. According to the 2024 State of the Restaurant Industry report, 47% of restaurant owners expect tougher competition compared to previous years. It means retaining customers will depend on delivering a reliable, high-quality experience at all times. While great food and inviting decor are important, it’s the consistent delivery of these elements that keep guests coming back. Without clear guidelines, maintaining high standards becomes difficult. 

This article explores how to effectively create and implement restaurant SOPs to ensure exceptional standards and enhance customer satisfaction.

What are Restaurant Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)?

Restaurant standard operating procedures are guidelines and instructions for performing everyday tasks in an eatery. These rules extend beyond how food is prepared and handled. Restaurant SOPs cover all aspects of restaurant operations and customer service, ranging from food safety and quality practices to financial operations, staff dressing or personal hygiene, and premise cleanliness. 

Key Components of Restaurant SOPs

Here are the key components that should be an SOP for restaurant services.

• Food Safety and Hygiene Standards: Establish protocols for proper food storage, handling, and preparation to prevent contamination and ensure compliance with health regulations.
• Food Preparation, Cooking, and Handling Standards: Define standardized recipes, cooking methods, and portion sizes to maintain consistency in taste and presentation.
• Customer Interaction and Service Protocol: Outline procedures for greeting guests, taking orders, serving food, and handling customer complaints to ensure a positive dining experience.
• Employee Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly delineate duties for each position, from kitchen staff to front-of-house employees, to ensure accountability and efficient workflow.
• Cleaning and Sanitation Procedures: Detail daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning and sanitation tasks to maintain a hygienic environment, including the proper use of cleaning agents and equipment.
• Protocols for Equipment Use: Provide instructions for the correct operation and maintenance of kitchen appliances and other equipment to ensure safety and longevity.
• Procedures for Workplace Safety: Implement guidelines to prevent accidents and injuries, including fire safety measures and emergency response plans.
• Inventory Management (Stock Monitoring and Waste Management): Establish systems for tracking inventory levels, ordering supplies, and minimizing waste to control costs and ensure ingredient availability.

Watch this 1-minute video for a quick summary on Restaurant SOPs:

How to Create and Implement Restaurant SOPs for Improved Customer Satisfaction

Restaurant standard operating procedures are critical for businesses that desire to enjoy a high rating among customers. However, the specific details of each restaurant SOP will vary from one establishment to another. Despite this, there are well-established steps that all restaurants must follow when drafting their standard operating procedures. 

• Define Objectives

Start by clearly outlining the goals of your SOPs. Identify what you want to achieve—whether it’s improving customer service, maintaining food safety, or ensuring operational consistency. Establishing clear objectives ensures everyone in the restaurant understands the purpose of the SOPs and how they contribute to overall success.

• Review Routine Activities

Conduct a thorough review of daily operations to identify key tasks that need standardization. Assess areas such as food storage, staff hygiene, kitchen operations, and customer service. This helps pinpoint any inefficiencies or potential areas of improvement that need to be addressed in the restaurant SOPs.

• Research Industry Best Practices

Benchmark your operations against industry best practices. Use checklists and standards from reputable organizations like ISO and LQA to ensure your procedures meet recognized quality and safety standards. Tools like ISO 9001 Audit Checklists can highlight gaps and opportunities for improvement.

• Consult with Employees for Feedback

Involve staff from all departments in the SOP creation process. Their insights are valuable for identifying challenges and potential improvements. By consulting employees, you’ll gain practical feedback that ensures the SOPs are realistic, efficient, and tailored to daily operations.

• Choose a Format & Draft the SOP

Select a clear and organized format for your restaurant SOPs—whether it’s a digital document, checklist, or manual. Ensure it’s easy to follow, with clear steps and guidelines. Consistency is key, so make sure the format is suitable for all team members to access and understand.

• Create a Checklist with a Digital Tool

Use digital tools or templates to create detailed checklists. These tools help streamline the implementation of restaurant SOPs, making it easier to track compliance. A well-structured checklist ensures consistency and reduces the risk of errors or missed steps.

• Train Employees

Train your staff on the newly created restaurant SOPs. Regular training sessions ensure employees understand and follow the procedures. Training helps ensure everyone stays aligned with the expectations, especially as new team members join.

• Monitor Compliance

Continuously monitor how SOPs are being implemented. Track compliance regularly and address any inconsistencies or issues promptly. Use audits, performance reviews, and feedback loops to ensure your team adheres to the SOPs consistently.

• Update Regularly

The restaurant industry is constantly evolving, so restaurant SOPs must be reviewed and updated regularly. Stay current with changing industry standards and customer expectations to ensure your procedures remain relevant and effective.

Turn Your Restaurant SOPs Into User-Friendly Checklists with GoAudits

Simplifying the way you implement SOPs in your restaurant starts with digital checklists. GoAudits makes this process more efficient by transforming traditional paper-based SOPs into user-friendly checklists that your staff can access anytime, even offline. The GoAudits restaurant inspection app supports real-time data collection, helping you monitor compliance and identify issues quickly. By automating inspections, you can reduce administrative tasks, improve business standards, and ensure your team remains aligned with brand standards.

Here’s how:

• Transform your paper-based SOPs into digital checklists tailored to your restaurant’s specific needs. GoAudits offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface for creating these checklists. Alternatively, you can provide your existing checklists, and we’ll digitize them for you at no extra cost.
• Conduct audits and inspections up to 5 times faster anywhere, anytime, using the GoAudits mobile app. It works both online and offline on smartphones and tablets, allowing your team to access and complete inspections on the go.
• Instantly generate professional reports upon completing inspections. These reports are customizable to reflect your brand and can be automatically shared with relevant team members. 
• With GoAudits’ smart dashboards, gain insights into your operations and audit performance, helping you identify trends and areas for improvement.
• Assign corrective actions during inspections to specific team members, ensuring accountability and timely resolution of issues. 
• Set up custom workflows to share reports, send reminders, and monitor task completion, facilitating seamless collaboration among your staff.

We are now able to submit reports immediately after the visit, and the Operations team is able to respond to 90% of the action plans within 1-2 days. – Eliane E., Quality & Hygiene Manager at The Independent Food Company

Top 10 Free Restaurant SOP Templates

Checklists are one of the best formats for implementing SOPs in restaurants. For decades, the leading businesses in this industry have used this tool to manage their numerous branches and enforce quality control. If you want to start incorporating standard operating procedures, here are the top 10 restaurant SOP template checklists you can download for free.  

1. Restaurant Operations Checklist

Review and optimize restaurant operations with efficiency, from purchasing, receiving, storing, service standards, and more.​ This checklist is an example of a simple way of outlining SOPs in an accessible format. Rather than a bulky document to be stored in a drawer, all SOPs can be included in one or several digital checklists accessible from any device, including mobile phones.

2. Food Safety Hygiene Checklist 

This checklist is helpful for restaurants seeking to comply with global best practices in safety and hygiene. The Food Safety Hygiene Checklist is comprehensive, comprising up to 179 questions addressing food and environmental safety. It is split into 30 sections, including maintenance, food storage and preparation, staff hygiene, and cooking and reheating. 

3. Personal Hygiene Checklist

Restaurants can use the Personal Hygiene Checklist to ensure that every staff is well-groomed and maintains the pre-defined standards for cleanliness. You can use this list to ascertain that your employees are appropriately dressed and healthy. 

4. Bar Cleaning Checklist 

This checklist can be used to conduct frequent inspections and ensure quality assurance for restaurants with a bar or drinking area. It covers the cleanliness of the small fridge and cold rooms, dishwasher, and refuse bins.  

5. Bathroom Cleaning SOP Checks

The Bathroom Cleaning SOP Checklist is a short and straightforward inspection guide that can be used to implement standard operating procedures in your restaurant. Cleaning staff in your eatery can incorporate this SOP to ensure that the floor tiles, mirrors, and drainages are always tidy. 

6. Food Contact Surfaces Cleaning Log

Neatness is a vital requirement for restaurants that want to have high ratings. This checklist helps your staff sanitize all utensils, cooking equipment, sinks, and dishwashers, to comply with acceptable health standards.  

7. Restaurant Opening and Closing Checklist

A Restaurant Opening checklist can be used before each morning shift to ensure all necessary tasks are carried out before your restaurant opens for business. It encompasses various responsibilities such as switching on the POS system, refilling receipt papers, or filing water pitchers. 

Similarly, the Restaurant Closing Checklist is valuable for ensuring compliance with standard operating procedures for the end of each workday. It can help staff remember tasks such as refilling condiments, restocking essential materials, or sanitizing surfaces. 

With this specific kitchen closing checklist, employees can guarantee that all kitchen equipment is unplugged and in good condition before closing for the day. It also ensures that kitchen staff sanitize the fridges, empty the fryers, and sanitize the cooking area at the end of their shifts.

8. Restaurant Manager Checklist

Restaurant managers have an endless list of tasks to keep up with. In addition to unexpected issues to resolve as they arise, there are recurrent tasks and SOPs that a checklist can help remember. It can include a wide range of items such as opening/closing the premises, reviewing payroll, managing the emails and calendar, menu updates, promotion rollouts, adherence to SOPs by specific staff members, etc.

9. Employee Dress Code Inspection 

Appearance is critical, particularly for employees working in the front desk or as servers. You can download this checklist to enforce your SOPs for employee attire and appearance across all departments.

10. Food Receiving Checklist 

Restaurants can use the Food Receiving Checklist to log all food items obtained from suppliers and determine if they are in optimal condition. It is comprehensive and addresses issues such as pest infestation, preservation, and expiration of food items. 

Additional Restaurant SOP Templates

You can also explore some of the other restaurant checklists GoAudits offers. 

• Restaurant Visit Report
• Restaurant Inspection Checklist
• Restaurant Employee Training Checklist
• Restaurant Mystery Shopper Checklist
• Restaurant Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
• Restaurant Safety Checklist
• Restaurant Audit Checklist
• Restaurant Employee Performance Review Template

Importance of SOPs in Restaurants

Implementing restaurant SOPs is essential for maintaining high standards and ensuring smooth operations. Here’s how they can benefit your food establishment:

• Ensure Compliance with Food Safety Standards

Adhering to food safety regulations is crucial. SOPs provide clear guidelines for food handling, storage, and preparation, helping you meet health department requirements and reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses. 

• Guarantee Consistent Brand Standards

Consistency is key to building customer trust. SOPs ensure that every aspect of your restaurant, from food quality to service, aligns with your brand’s standards, regardless of who is on duty. 

• Reduce Adaptation Time for New Staff

Training new employees becomes more efficient with SOPs. Clear, documented procedures help new hires understand their roles quickly, leading to faster integration and reduced training costs. 

• Discover Areas of Poor Service

SOPs serve as a benchmark for performance. By regularly reviewing adherence to these procedures, you can identify areas where service may be lacking and implement corrective actions promptly. 

• Improve Guest Satisfaction Ratings

Consistent and high-quality service enhances customer satisfaction. When your staff follows established procedures, guests receive a reliable and enjoyable dining experience, increasing the likelihood of repeat visits and positive reviews. 

• Increase Staff Productivity

SOPs streamline operations by providing clear instructions, reducing confusion, and minimizing errors. This leads to more efficient workflows and allows staff to focus on delivering excellent service.

Types of SOPs for Restaurant Services

The table below lists the different types of SOPs for restaurant services and what they essentially cover.

SOP for restaurant operation	Provides a comprehensive overview of daily operations, integrating all individual SOPs to ensure cohesive functioning
SOP for restaurant kitchen	Covers all back-of-house operations, including food prep, cooking procedures, and kitchen safety protocols
SOP for restaurant staff	Encompasses guidelines for both front-of-house and back-of-house employees, detailing expected behaviors and responsibilities
SOP for restaurant waiter	Specifies steps for order taking, serving, and customer service to ensure a consistent guest experience
SOP for restaurant manager	Outlines managerial duties such as staff supervision, inventory control, and handling customer feedback
Restaurant cleaning SOP	Cleaning SOPs detail cleaning schedules and methods for all areas of the restaurant to maintain cleanliness and compliance with health standards
Restaurant opening and closing SOP	Lists procedures for opening and closing daily restaurant operations, including equipment checks and security measures

What are the Most Common Mistakes When Creating Restaurant SOPs & How to Avoid Them

Creating effective Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is crucial for maintaining consistency and efficiency in your restaurant operations. However, several common mistakes can undermine their effectiveness. Here’s how to avoid them:

• Not Involving Relevant Stakeholders

When developing SOPs, excluding key team members can lead to procedures that are impractical or overlooked. Engage chefs, servers, and other staff in the creation process to ensure the SOPs are realistic and comprehensive. Their insights can help identify potential issues and enhance the practicality of the procedures.

• Inadequate and Insufficient Training

Introducing SOPs without proper training leaves staff unprepared, resulting in inconsistent application. Incorporate SOP training into both onboarding and ongoing education to ensure all employees understand and adhere to the procedures. Regular training sessions can reinforce the importance of SOPs and keep staff updated on any changes. 

• Overcomplicating Procedures

Overly detailed SOPs can confuse staff and hinder compliance. Keep procedures clear and concise, using straightforward language and bullet points to facilitate easy understanding and execution. This approach helps employees quickly grasp and follow the procedures without unnecessary complexity. 

• Not Updating Them Regularly

Outdated SOPs can lead to inefficiencies and non-compliance with current regulations. Establish a routine review schedule to update procedures, reflecting changes in operations, technology, or health and safety guidelines. Regular reviews ensure that SOPs remain relevant and effective in guiding staff.

• Neglecting User Feedback

Ignoring feedback from those who use SOPs daily can result in impractical procedures. Encourage staff to provide input and make adjustments based on their experiences to improve the effectiveness and acceptance of SOPs. This collaborative approach fosters a sense of ownership and increases adherence to procedures.

• Lack of Clarity and Accessibility

If SOPs are hard to understand or access, staff may disregard them. Ensure procedures are written clearly and stored in easily accessible locations, such as a centralized digital platform, to promote consistent use. Providing digital access allows for quick reference and ensures that all staff can easily find the information they need.