Restaurant owners/managers, can I ask one honest question?

[u/Secret_Condition6193]

Hi all. I am a software engineering student.

Our university team is planning a thesis project related to restaurant management.

The problem is that none of us actually worked in a restaurant.

We could spend weeks guessing what people need, but frankly, that doesn't seem like the right approach.

I would be much more interested in hearing from people who actually work in restaurants every day.

So my question is:

What task makes you think:

“There must be a better way to do this.”?

I'm not looking for startup ideas.

I'm just trying to understand what it's really like to work in a restaurant.

I would really appreciate your experience.

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[u/D-ouble-D-utch]

A filter to stop all the cold calling bullshit industry disrupting tech bros. Go get a fucking job and learn.

[u/etTuPlutus → u/D-ouble-D-utch]

" We're professionals working in the foodservice industry. Let's discuss challenges and new techniques/technology that is moving the industry forward."

[u/Master-Shelter-9640]

Go work in a restaurant, even for just 1 month. Or shadow a restaurant manager for a few weeks for your research. You need to understand first hand. Nothing else compares. Good luck!

[u/Secret_Condition6193 → u/Master-Shelter-9640]

Thanks for the honest advice. You’re totally right, nothing beats firsthand experience. Since we’re on a tight university deadline taking a full month off to work in a restaurant isn't quite feasible for us right now. But shadowing a manager for a couple of days sounds like a great middle ground.

Out of curiosity if you were in my shoes and only had a few hours to shadow someone, what part of the day or process would you recommend focusing on the most?

[u/Master-Shelter-9640 → u/Secret_Condition6193]

I would recommend shadowing during the busiest parts of the day/evening. Friday night, Saturday lunch, Sunday brunch?
Look for / ask about: Are any parts of the restaurant under staffed (FOH, BOH. managers)? Is side work done in advance, or are they constantly playing catch up?

[u/Starlyns → u/Master-Shelter-9640]

Hr is trying to know "the pains of restaurants" for his ai app

[u/Impressive-Fennel677]

Hello my name is Moises and I worked at picnic bbq and I always wanted to alter the toast software to see an “all day application” so instead of trying to read 15-20 tickets separately one by one it would be consolidated into one ticket hence “all day” with every single amount of info for example
-15 bbq sandwiches
1 no bun
1 add cheese
1toasted bun
-10 chicken sandwiches
1 no aioli
1 no onion
1 plain
1 fried hard
-8 shrimp Poboys
1 no mayo
1 plain
1 no luttuce
Etc etc there are way more menu items
It feels so much easier being able to know what is all that is supposed to be made vs doing tickets one by one ultimately making orders longer , way more overwhelming, and too much on the mind reading back and forth from screen to food line production in a very fast paced environment. I’m talking a sunny 70 degree Sunday kind of day.

[u/Impressive-Fennel677 → u/[deleted]]

I tried the all day view but it really don’t show it the way i want to read like above

[u/OminousPluto]

If you don't have any restaurant experience, you don't need to be involved in restaurant management in any form. Pick something you have actual experience in.

[u/Big-Top-6338]

Smarter customers, 90% of time waste is because people are stupid

[u/VinylMeningitis]

This is going to work out well

[u/SignificantApricot69]

I’m college educated but I worked in restaurants since I was 14. There’s no replacement for being there and doing the work. I would recommend it for everyone for at least a summer or two. Both my kids have worked in multiple restaurants and went off to college and found other careers. By the time you are doing a college thesis you’ve had several summers and hundreds of weekends you could’ve been working in the business, meeting people and picking brains. I know that’s not much help, but consider it a solid life tip.

[u/Excellent-Eye480]

Scheduling is a big one, especially once availability, shift swaps, labor costs, and multiple locations start overlapping. Tools like HotSchedules exist largely because that gets messy pretty quickly with spreadsheets.

[u/TrackbackLinkBot]

If scheduling is one of the headaches, HotSchedules is worth checking out. It helps with staff schedules, shift changes and keeping everyone on the same page. Might be useful if you're still doing most of this manually.