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Templates / Industry and operations

Restaurant staff meeting

Restaurant meeting agenda template

A restaurant needs two kinds of staff meeting. The pre-shift lineup takes about 10 minutes before service and covers tonight's covers and large parties, 86'd items, specials, allergies and one focus for the shift. The monthly staff meeting takes 45 minutes and covers last month's numbers, guest feedback, menu changes, food safety, scheduling and what staff want fixed, with action items that have one owner and a date.

Best forRestaurants, cafes, bars and hotel food and beverage teams, front and back of house

Meeting lengthPre-shift: 10 minutes. Monthly: 45 minutes.

SectionsPre-shift: covers, 86'd, specials, allergies, sections, focus. Monthly: numbers, guest feedback, menu, food safety, scheduling, staff input, recognition, action items.

FormatsPrintable, Google Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

Word Markdown

Restaurant meeting agendas: pre-shift and monthly.docx

Restaurant meeting agendas: pre-shift and monthly

Pre-shift lineup (10 minutes, before every service)

Item	Owner	Time	What we need to leave with
Tonight's covers, reservations and large parties	Manager on duty	2 min	Everyone knows the pace and the big tables
86'd and running-low items	Chef or sous chef	1 min	Servers can steer guests before they order
Specials and features, with a taste if possible	Chef	3 min	Servers can describe and price each one, allergens included
Allergies, VIPs and special requests on the book	Manager on duty	1 min	Names, tables and times noted
Sections, side work and breaks	Manager on duty	1 min	No confusion once doors open
One focus for tonight	Manager on duty	2 min	One thing everyone is working on, like table checks within two bites

Monthly staff meeting (45 minutes)

Item	Owner	Time	What we need to leave with
Last month's action items	General manager	5 min	Each one done, rescheduled or dropped
Last month's numbers	General manager	5 min	Staff know what moved and why
Guest feedback and reviews	Front of house manager	7 min	What to keep doing and what to fix
Menu and kitchen	Chef	8 min	Launch and tasting dates, new allergens
Food safety and cleanliness	Chef or kitchen manager	5 min	An owner for every log gap or equipment issue
Scheduling and policy	General manager	5 min	Dates for time-off requests, holiday coverage
Staff input	Everyone	7 min	Each request has someone who will answer it
Recognition and action item read-back	General manager	3 min	Every action has one owner and a date

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Word Markdown

[Restaurant] monthly staff meeting notes.docx

[Restaurant] monthly staff meeting notes

Date and time Run by Front of house present Back of house present Notes by

Last month's action items

Item	Owner	Status
		Done / Rescheduled / Dropped

Last month's numbers

Measure	Last month	Target or prior month	Note
Sales, covers, labor %, ticket times

Guest feedback

Keep doing:
Fix:
Allergy or food safety complaints and the process change

Menu and kitchen

Changes, launch date, tasting date, new allergens

Food safety and cleanliness

Log gaps, equipment problems, inspection prep, with an owner

Scheduling and policy

Time-off deadlines, holiday coverage, policy changes

Staff input

Request or problem	Raised by	Who will answer	Answer or status
	FOH / BOH

Recognition

Name and what they did, specifically

Action items

Action	Owner	Due	Done looks like

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Word Markdown

Pre-shift card: [day and date], [lunch or dinner].docx

Pre-shift card: [day and date], [lunch or dinner]

Manager on duty Chef Expected covers Large partiesSize, time, table

86'd and running low

Item	86'd or low	Suggest instead

Specials

Dish	Price	Allergens	How to describe it

Allergies, VIPs and requests on the book

Name	Table and time	Note

Sections and breaks

Server	Section	Side work	Break

One focus tonight

One thing everyone works on, like table checks within two bites

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Marigold Kitchen monthly staff meeting, November

Filled-in example

Marigold Kitchen monthly staff meeting, November

Date and timeMonday, November 2, 2026, 2:00 to 2:45 pm (restaurant closed Mondays, paid time)Run byRachel Moore, general managerFront of house presentJada Brooks (FOH manager) and 11 servers, bartenders and hostsBack of house presentTomas Vega (chef), Kenji Ito (sous chef) and 8 cooks and dishwashers. Absent: 5, notes posted for them.Notes byJada Brooks

Last month's action items

Item	Owner	Status
Fix the patio heater that trips the breaker	Rachel Moore	Done Oct 9, electrician replaced the outlet
New server wine notes for the fall list	Jada Brooks	Rescheduled to Nov 8 tasting
Second ice machine quote	Kenji Ito	Dropped, current machine keeping up after cleaning

Last month's numbers

Measure	Last month	Target or prior month	Note
Sales	$142,300	Target $150,000	Two slow Tuesdays during road work on Elm Street
Covers	4,210	September 4,380
Labor	31%	Target 29%	Overlap on Friday close, see staff input
Friday ticket times, 7 to 8:30 pm	Average 22 min	Goal under 15 min	Grill station backs up when the patio fills

Guest feedback

Keep doing: squash risotto mentioned by name in 6 reviews. Hosts greeting by name for regulars.
Fix: three reviews about slow Friday entrees. Two about the restrooms running out of paper towels late at night.
Allergy: on Oct 23 a guest with a sesame allergy was served the tahini dressing. The guest noticed before eating it. Meal comped, Rachel called the next day. From now on every allergy is entered as a modifier on the ticket and the server tells the expo out loud.

Menu and kitchen

Fall menu launches Tuesday, November 10. Three items come off: the summer salad, fish tacos, peach crisp.
Staff tasting Sunday, November 8 at 4:00 pm. Servers get allergen sheets for all new dishes there.
New braised short rib contains dairy and gluten. Spiced pecan tart contains tree nuts.

Food safety and cleanliness

Cooling log has gaps on October 17 and 24. Kenji will retrain closing cooks on the log.
Walk-in cooler door gasket is torn at the bottom. Repair not booked yet.
Last county inspection was in May, so the next could come any time. Tomas will do a walk-through using the county checklist.

Scheduling and policy

Closed Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26. Open Friday the 27th with a full staff.
December time-off requests due to Jada by November 15. Requests after that are first come, first served on what is left.

Staff input

Request or problem	Raised by	Who will answer	Answer or status
Add a second expo on Friday nights	Servers (FOH)	Rachel Moore	Not decided. Rachel will check it against the labor target and answer by Nov 13.
Anti-fatigue mats at the dish station are worn through	Dishwashers (BOH)	Kenji Ito	Approved, ordering this week
Friday closers overlap by an hour with nothing to do	Bartenders (FOH)	Jada Brooks	Jada will adjust the Friday schedule starting Nov 13

Recognition

Ana Delgado (line cook) covered three doubles in October when two cooks were out sick.
Marcus Reid (host) handled the 40-minute wait on October 17 so well that two guests mentioned him in reviews.

Action items

Action	Owner	Due	Done looks like
Set up the allergy modifier on the POS and brief all servers	Jada Brooks	Nov 5	Modifier live, every server briefed at pre-shift
Retrain closing cooks on the cooling log	Kenji Ito	Nov 7	No gaps in the log for the week of Nov 9
Book the walk-in gasket repair	Tomas Vega	Nov 6	Repair date confirmed with the refrigeration company
County checklist walk-through	Tomas Vega	Nov 12	Checklist done, fixes listed with owners
Decide on Friday second expo	Rachel Moore	Nov 13	Yes or no posted by the time clock
Order dish station mats	Kenji Ito	Nov 6	Mats on the floor

Marigold Kitchen and its staff are a fictional sample.

Best forRestaurants, cafes, bars and hotel food and beverage teams, front and back of house

Meeting lengthPre-shift: 10 minutes. Monthly: 45 minutes.

SectionsPre-shift: covers, 86'd, specials, allergies, sections, focus. Monthly: numbers, guest feedback, menu, food safety, scheduling, staff input, recognition, action items.

FormatsPrintable, Google Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

What to write in each section

Pre-shift lineup

Same order every shift so it takes 10 minutes: covers and big parties, 86'd and low items, specials with a taste if possible, allergy and VIP notes, sections and side work, and one thing to focus on tonight. Keep it standing, at the pass or in the dining room. The Pre-shift card tab has the same order as a sheet the manager on duty fills in before lineup. For the monthly meeting, see how to write a meeting agenda.

Last month's numbers

Three or four numbers the staff can affect: sales against target, covers, labor and food cost if you share them, and average check or ticket times. Say what moved and why, briefly.

"Friday ticket times averaged 22 minutes from 7 to 8:30" gives the kitchen something to work on. "We were slow" does not.

Guest feedback

Group reviews and comments into what to keep doing and what to fix. Read one or two specifics out loud. Any allergy or food safety complaint gets its own line and a process change.

Menu and kitchen

Menu changes, launch dates, tasting dates, and anything servers need to describe or upsell. Note allergens on new dishes.

Food safety and cleanliness

Gaps in temperature or cooling logs, equipment problems, and anything that would come up in a health inspection. Each item needs an owner, because these are the ones that cannot wait for next month.

Staff input

Give front and back of house a turn to raise problems. Write each one down with who will look at it, even if the answer is no. Staff stop speaking up when requests vanish.

Action items

Owner, date and what done looks like, as in an action items tracker. Read them back before people leave and post them by the time clock.

When to use this template

Servers find out an item is 86'd when a guest orders it.
The same complaint about ticket times shows up in reviews every month and nothing changes.
Your monthly meeting turns into the manager talking for an hour while the kitchen stays in the back.

Questions people ask

How long should a pre-shift meeting be?: About 10 minutes, and no more than 15. Run it at the same time before every service, standing up, in the same order. If something needs a longer conversation, write it down for the monthly meeting instead of holding up setup.
Do restaurant staff need to be paid for attending meetings?: Yes, when you require them. Under federal wage rules, meeting time can go unpaid only if it is outside regular hours, truly voluntary, not directly related to the job and involves no productive work, and a meeting the employer requires isn't voluntary. That includes the 10-minute pre-shift lineup: if staff have to be there, it's paid work time. State and local laws can set higher standards than federal law, so schedule the monthly meeting as a paid shift and check your state's rules. This is not legal advice.
How do I get the kitchen to participate in staff meetings?: Hold the monthly meeting when both front and back of house can attend, give the chef a real slot with menu and food safety items, and make staff input cover both sides. Read back what changed since last month because of a kitchen request. Cooks show up when they see their issues get fixed.

Sources

29 CFR 785.27, Lectures, meetings and training programs: General (eCFR)Meeting time is unpaid only if it is outside regular hours, voluntary, not directly related to the job and involves no productive work.
29 CFR 785.28, Involuntary attendance (eCFR)Attendance is not voluntary if the employer requires it.
Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the FLSA (U.S. Department of Labor)Meetings and training count as work time unless all four conditions are met.
29 U.S.C. 218, Relation to other laws (govinfo)Federal wage law doesn't excuse compliance with a state or local law that sets a higher standard.

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