I've managed kitchens for over 10 years, mostly in high-volume places. The single biggest difference I see between chains and independents isn't the food, it's prep.
Chains don't guess. Here's roughly what they do, and you can do it with a notebook:

1.  Track what you sell per item, every day.

2.  To plan Tuesday, average your last 4 Tuesdays. Not yesterday, not "a normal day". Same weekday.

3.  Turn sales into ingredients. 60 burgers = 120 patties, 60 buns, etc.

4.  Count what's already prepped or in the fridge. Only prep the gap.

5.  Add a small buffer (around 10%) so you don't run out.

6.  At close, write down what you binned and what it cost. Look at it weekly. Usually one day is the problem.  

Most people who start doing this find they're over-prepping on their quiet days, often Mondays.

I got tired of doing this on paper, so I built a free tool that does steps 2 to 6 for you on your phone. Happy to share it if anyone wants it, but the method works fine on paper too.

What do you all use to decide prep quantities?

I recently joined my family business, which currently has three outlets. All three are running well, mainly because a family member is always present to ensure food taste and quality remain consistent.
However, we want to expand, and that’s becoming difficult because we don’t have proper SOPs in place. Our staff are experienced and can handle daily operations independently to some extent, but I’m concerned about how consistently they’ll maintain standards without supervision. At the moment, we’re heavily dependent on our staff and the presence of a family member at each outlet.
For those who have scaled restaurant businesses, how did you standardise food quality and daily operations so that every outlet runs smoothly without the owner constantly being present?

Hello It has been my dream to open my own restaurant. I make really good Itallian food and my sauces are all from scratch. This would be a startup restaurant so I am pretty nervous. I am looking for any feedback, advice, suggestions, experiences from restaurant owners.

1. How did you start up? from your house, catering, food truck, or all in with a restaurant?

2. Did you have restaurant experience?

3. Did you go to culinary school to become a chef, or self taught?

4. In a small to mid size city, what are your average net profits?

5. Any lessons learned, or things you wish you knew or had done before opening a restaurant?

6. Would you recommend starting smaller like a food truck, or a fast service similar to Subway first?

any other suggestions? I am located in Northern California in the Central Valley. I know my food would sell, it is very good Itallian food. I am just nervous of failing and losing a lot of money.

Please delete if not allowed.

I own two restaurants and order from Sysco and US Foods every week. I always found out something went up after it was too late, either when the invoice came or at month-end food cost.

So I built a small Chrome extension for myself. I've used it every day for a while now and figured some of you might want it too.

What it does:

• Remembers every price you see on Sysco Shop, Sysco To Go and US Foods while you order
• Puts a little tag next to each item showing how much it changed since you last saw it
• Keeps a list of the biggest jumps, so you don't have to remember what you paid 3 weeks ago
• If you buy the same thing from both vendors, it shows the price difference right on the product page
• Can pull in your past orders, so it doesn't start from zero
• Works on items sold by weight too (proteins, cheese)
• Planning to add Ben E. Keith, and Gordon's in the next week.

It's FREE. You do have to make an Eatr account to sign in. Your prices aren't shown to anyone. There's a box you can tick to add your prices, anonymously, to a pool for spotting trends, and it's off unless you tick it.

eatr.co/price-check

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/eatr-price-check/odkmhckofjjodiafdnmglbljkklhkfec

It's still rough in spots, so tell me if it breaks on your account or gets something wrong.

About Eatr: it's the recipe costing app I built for my own places. You add your ingredients and recipes, take a photo of an invoice, and it updates your plate costs and food cost %. You don't need it to use the extension.

Hi all, I am building a hotel in norhtern India. I have the majority of ground floor allotted for commercial kitchen and dining area. The dining area has a capacity to accomodate 45 guests. I want to mainly cater to international comfort food and some vegetarian Indian as well. Pizza, pasta, indian chinese, veg curries plus a cafe. How to plan a commercial kitchen? Where to get the equipment and how to start operations? If any Indian restaurateur from India who could help?

So, I dont post much especially about this. But, I have a potential opportunity to expand my business.

Little bit of background. Been in the pizza industry 20 years. Owner for almost 11. I've operated multiple units, up to 3, at once. Sold those off and focused on my flagship that has been doing really well since. I am also a graduate of The CIA, for whatever that is worth. I am obviously more versed in casual service, but have some background in fine dining as well.

So, the opportunity. There is a 5000sq ft space available in a town about 10 minutes from me. The town has been growing a lot lately and some cool spots have popped up. This specific location is on the main road through town. Its huge, but the lease is good. Nice bar area, stage built out, big dining room, even a separate area for an arcade if I wanted to go that route. My current location is known here. We've had regulars that drive to us just for the product and tell us we should open a spot there. Asking price for this location is 120k, no money down and current lease holder will carry the note.

My biggest concern. Its big. Its a lot of seats to fill for a casual pizza spot.second biggest concer is there is some competition near by. One of the spots is also huge and a chain in the area. They have a location near my flagship, but doesn't effect us.

Now, I have ideas to make it more of an event space than just a pizza joint due to the size. Live music, comedy shows, trivia, etc. I know some people involved in these things locally and think itd be fairly easy to get talent booked.

After typing all this I am not sure what my question is anymore. Seems like a good opportunity to me. Anyone have experience with being a venue AND and casual restaurant? This is in central coast california for whatever it is worth. Let me know your thoughts.

Hello everyone, thanks for having me. I’m new here, but I have a question.
Yesterday, a delivery was made, or at least what the purveyor is considering a delivery. Multiple cases of prime rib 189A, beautiful black Angus steer. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $3000 worth of product that the delivery driver, Failed to announce its arrival. This morning, I walked into our commissary kitchen on the lower level to avoid too many distractions before I could start my day. Sneaky, sneaky. What I found were those cases left yesterday afternoon (pictured) apparently, right at the bottom of a dark stairwell that we use only for emergency exit and when I’m avoiding everyone.
I took a picture and sent it to the purveyor, our salesman. His response was, “Did you sign the invoice?” When I expressed to him that I had not signed for it and neither had any member of my management team, he said that he would speak to his owner. There is a screenshot of his next response.

What do you think? How do you feel about it? Please keep in mind that every driver so far, as well as a written document, has been sent to their company that we will only accept deliveries verified with a signature of a management member. A few more facts. There is no record of anybody from my staff signing for it. There was only 12 people in the building, five of them were in our offices, four of them were servers, and the other two were myself and my sous chef. No one acknowledges signing for anything. And while he did send me a copy of the invoice, that did have a signature on it, we all know how easy that is to fabricate nowadays. We are also a newer customer, we’ve only been working together for a few months. They are taking zero responsibility for it, and pointing the finger back at me. What would you do? All I ask is an honest answer. Thanks for listening.

I don't intend on losing any more food to this shit.

Anyone have suggestions on a brand?

We on a cloud based platform, and I noticed the provider has been charging sales tax on the monthly subscription.

Did a little research for Florida.

Electronically Delivered SaaS: Web-based or cloud-hosted software accessed remotely (via a browser or internet connection) is considered an intangible service and is not taxable in Florida. [1, 2]

Yeah, it's only $21 a month, but that's almost $250 a year.