What does a dining room manager do?
Dining Room Managers are responsible for supervising the operations of a dining establishment or restaurant. Their duties include ensuring workers adhere to operational and service standards, implement training and recruitment processes, addressing customer concerns, achieving customer satisfaction, and overseeing a restaurant's inventory and budget. Dining Room Managers compile daily reports, greet customers, introduce menus, and ensure the dining area is healthy and clean. They also assist in the orientation of workers.
Dining room manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real dining room manager resumes:
- Interview, hire, train, and manage take-out and in-room delivery staff.
- Control operational costs by managing bar and wine inventory.
- Manage payroll and timekeeping, and effectively complete proper paperwork for new hires and terminations.
- Manage daily FOH staff line-up, covering necessary instruction and education concerning fine-dining service and beverage, menu and company knowledge.
- Team with culinary product development to integrate customer data into new products that increase revenue and customer satisfaction.
- Entrust with the care of VIP guests like Thomas Keller, Michael Mina and Alain Passard.
- Help to set up and be the administrator to their new POS system, and training the staff.
- Schedule employees for daily and weekly shifts making sure both, FOH and BOH, are adequately staff.
- Train servers in how to switch from hand-writing all tickets to efficiently using the POS system to save time.
- Maintain a corporate standard of efficiency and cleanliness.
- Coordinate and oversee special catering events hold in the culinary department.
- Demonstrate responsibility by processing payroll, coordinating and scheduling shifts, and maintaining inventory.
- Develop and maintain OpenTable to ensure full utilization of restaurant booking system by maximizing table space and reservations.
- Demonstrate ability to show initiative and maintain professional demeanor in addressing executives with regards to classical wine and food pairing.
- Manage daily FOH staff line-up, covering necessary instruction and education concerning fine-dining service and beverage, menu and company knowledge.
Dining room manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 27% of Dining Room Managers are proficient in Fine Dining, Food Service, and Good Judgment. They’re also known for soft skills such as Business skills, Detail oriented, and Leadership skills.
We break down the percentage of Dining Room Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Fine Dining, 27%
Provide customer service including bartender and fine dining/banquet waiter.
- Food Service, 12%
Supervised dining room operation and coordinated food service activities.
- Good Judgment, 12%
Use good judgment and flexible, adaptable and self-motivated with minimal supervision.
- Cleanliness, 12%
Maintained a corporate standard of efficiency and cleanliness.
- Customer Service, 5%
Maintained a high level of customer service at this exclusive retirement community in order maximize resident satisfaction and retention.
- Food Handling, 4%
Followed all safe food handling processes that ensured inventory was maintained to the highest possible standards during delivery and meal preparation.
Most dining room managers use their skills in "fine dining," "food service," and "good judgment" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential dining room manager responsibilities here:
Business skills. The most essential soft skill for a dining room manager to carry out their responsibilities is business skills. This skill is important for the role because "food service managers must understand all aspects of the restaurant business, including how to budget for supplies, comply with regulations, and manage workers." Additionally, a dining room manager resume shows how their duties depend on business skills: "planned and executed all-staff training sessions in fine dining service and business etiquette. "
Leadership skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of dining room managers is leadership skills. This skill is critical to many everyday dining room manager duties, as "managers must establish good relationships with staff to maintain a productive work environment." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "provided leadership and expertise for a fine dining establishment. "
Organizational skills. dining room manager responsibilities often require "organizational skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "managers have many different responsibilities, including scheduling and overseeing staff, budgeting, and maintaining financial records." This resume example shows what dining room managers do with organizational skills on a typical day: "exceeded expectations, exceptional organizational and bartending skills. "
Problem-solving skills. Another crucial skill for a dining room manager to carry out their responsibilities is "problem-solving skills." A big part of what dining room managers relies on this skill, since "managers need to be able to resolve personnel issues and customer-related problems." How this skill relates to dining room manager duties can be seen in an example from a dining room manager resume snippet: "resolved customer complaints regarding sales food,and service. "
Communication skills. While "communication skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to dining room manager responsibilities. Much of what a dining room manager does relies on this skill, seeing as "food service managers must give clear orders to staff and be able to convey information effectively to employees and customers." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of dining room managers: "excelled at managing labor costs, customer complaints, and communication with the entire restaurant team. "
The three companies that hire the most dining room managers are:
- Sunrise Senior Living Management Inc283 dining room managers jobs
- Fooda30 dining room managers jobs
- Brookdale Senior Living22 dining room managers jobs
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Compare different dining room managers
Dining room manager vs. Food and beverage manager
A food and beverage manager is an individual responsible for ensuring that quality food and drinks are being served at a restaurant or hotel. Food and beverage managers are required to be excellent with customers and should have great management skills to meet the organization's labor and financial goals. They create food and drink menus and guarantee customers that they comply with their food and safety regulations. They are also required to negotiate with suppliers to arrange the delivery of food and beverage products.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, dining room manager responsibilities require skills like "good judgment," "taking care," "reservations," and "food safety." Meanwhile a typical food and beverage manager has skills in areas such as "excellent time management," "professional work," "beverage operations," and "beverage outlets." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Food and beverage managers really shine in the government industry with an average salary of $56,929. Comparatively, dining room managers tend to make the most money in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $46,045.The education levels that food and beverage managers earn slightly differ from dining room managers. In particular, food and beverage managers are 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a dining room manager. Additionally, they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Dining room manager vs. Restaurant manager
A restaurant manager is responsible for handling the overall restaurant operations. These include monitoring revenues and daily restaurant sales, checking inventories and supplies, negotiating with third-party vendors, and managing customers' inquiries and complaints. Other duties include creating promotional offers, developing and improving sales strategies, organizing staff duties, maintaining the highest sanitary standards for everyone's strict compliance, and controlling operational expenses. A restaurant manager must have excellent communication and leadership skills and exceptional knowledge of food industry management.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real dining room manager resumes. While dining room manager responsibilities can utilize skills like "reservations," "beverage service," "payroll," and "food safety," restaurant managers use skills like "restaurant management," "safety standards," "develop team," and "basic math."
On average, restaurant managers earn a higher salary than dining room managers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, restaurant managers earn the most pay in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $51,432. Whereas dining room managers have higher pay in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $46,045.restaurant managers earn similar levels of education than dining room managers in general. They're 0.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Dining room manager vs. Restaurant/bar manager
An assistant restaurant manager's role is to perform managerial support tasks and oversee restaurant operations, ensuring efficiency in workflow and customer satisfaction. Their responsibilities revolve around maintaining records of all invoices and contracts, delegating tasks, monitoring the inventory of supplies, liaising with suppliers and vendors, and addressing issues and concerns. There are also instances when one must attend to customers' needs, prepare schedules, perform regular workforce inspection, and report to the manager. Furthermore, it is essential to implement all the company's health regulations and policies, all to maintain a safe and healthy environment for everyone.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a dining room manager is likely to be skilled in "good judgment," "taking care," "reservations," and "beverage service," while a typical restaurant/bar manager is skilled in "bars," "bartenders," "safety standards," and "beverage inventory."
Restaurant/bar managers make a very good living in the media industry with an average annual salary of $52,593. On the other hand, dining room managers are paid the highest salary in the hospitality industry, with average annual pay of $46,045.Most restaurant/bar managers achieve a similar degree level compared to dining room managers. For example, they're 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Dining room manager vs. Assistant restaurant manager
Types of dining room manager
Updated January 8, 2025
