By Dr. Sheri Hernandez | 06/30/2025
As a college undergraduate, I started my senior year perusing job listings, meeting with career services, and talking with whoever would listen. I didn’t really have a “grownup” career in mind to pursue after earning my bachelor’s degree.
I had a part-time bartending job. One day, my manager asked if I would consider staying with the company as a restaurant manager after graduation. The company was planning to open several new restaurants, so I had a great opportunity to grow my career and demonstrate my leadership skills.
I also knew I was not cut out to sit at a computer all day, and I appreciated the company’s values and culture. Naturally, I accepted the offer.
After my graduation, I began an exciting career in restaurant management. I loved it because when you’re a restaurant manager, no two days are ever the same.
The Responsibilities of a Good Restaurant Manager
A restaurant manager’s role involves more than just making employee schedules and handling complaints from customers. The restaurant manager acts as a supervisor, strategist, financial analyst, forecaster, problem-solver, and leader.
A guest experience in a restaurant is about more than just the meal. A dining establishment provides a combination of ambiance, service, and delicious food and beverages.
Behind that entire experience is the restaurant manager, whose job is to bring all the working parts in the restaurant together seamlessly. From food preparation to beverage service, a restaurant manager is the backbone of every aspect of the guest experience.
A manager’s goal is to deliver exceptional customer service while maximizing profitability. A restaurant manager is also responsible for providing a safe and enjoyable environment for both guests and restaurant staff.
It does not matter if the eatery is a mom-and-pop coffee shop, a fast-food restaurant, or a Michelin®-starred restaurant: The goal remains the same.
Restaurant managers must orchestrate all aspects of restaurant operations effectively and efficiently. They must not only optimize the guest experience but also maintain a positive work environment for employees.
A restaurant manager’s goal is to deliver exceptional customer service while maximizing profitability. Overall, the restaurant manager job description generally involves:
- Overseeing daily restaurant operations
- Supervising staff
- Ensuring customer satisfaction
- Forecasting demand and manage inventory
- Assisting with financial management
- Complying with health and safety regulations
- Implementing effective marketing strategies
Overseeing Daily Restaurant Operations
Depending on a restaurant’s structure and size, there may be varying levels of management, which may be further divided into operational departments.
Often, a team of restaurant managers will coordinate all aspects of service. That team may include a restaurant general manager, one or more food service managers, and other types of managers.
The restaurant managers assign job duties, train staff, and direct both the front-of-the-house and back-of-the house teams. The “front of the house” team typically consists of servers, bartenders, and hosts who directly serve customers, while the “back of the house” team includes cooks, prep cooks, and dishwashers.
A good restaurant manager has a finger on the pulse of all operations in the restaurant environment. Monitoring food quality and managing customer feedback are just some of a restaurant manager’s duties.
Ensuring smooth operations requires careful planning and strong problem-solving skills. Restaurant owners depend on managers to forecast customer demand and order inventory accordingly, so that the restaurant does not run out of necessary ingredients for dishes and drinks.
Keeping up with maintenance schedules for equipment and analyzing sales and expense data are also essential components of a restaurant manager’s responsibilities.
Supervising Staff
A restaurant is nothing without its employees. It is crucial for a restaurant manager to know how to recruit and hire talented, dedicated employees who can work together as a team. A restaurant’s owners will look to management to nurture a company culture that inspires workers to provide the best customer service possible.
In addition, leadership skills are non-negotiable for restaurant management. Managers must train and mentor employees so they can do their jobs well. Because happy employees create happy guests, restaurant managers also need to make sure employees feel valued.
Ensuring Customer Satisfaction
Have you ever had a less-than-stellar restaurant experience and asked to speak with a manager? If so, you have witnessed firsthand another important part of a restaurant manager’s duties.
Restaurant managers need to have excellent customer service skills. Restaurant employees are human beings, and accidental mistakes will happen occasionally. Experienced restaurant managers must own their employees’ mistakes and attend to unhappy guests.
Problem-solving in hospitality calls for strong communication skills and an unwavering commitment to customer service. Managers must do their absolute best to rectify errors and reconcile situations with dissatisfied customers.
As a result, being visible and available to guests in the front of the house is a must. When guests see the general manager lend a hand on the floor, there’s no room to question the restaurant’s devotion to its clientele.
Being on the floor also enables restaurant managers to mentor and coach employees in real time as challenges arise. If an employee makes a mistake, the restaurant manager is there to offer a resolution. Then, guests can still leave with a positive impression of their experience.
Forecasting Demand and Managing Inventory
If you’ve ever been in a restaurant at 2 p.m. on a Thursday, you probably noticed that customers were sparse and not many servers were working. The hours between lunch and dinner rushes are not typically a busy time. In other words, restaurant managers usually know in advance when they’ll see the most foot traffic.
Forecasting and managing this demand – and budgeting for labor accordingly – is an essential part of restaurant management. Like all businesses, restaurants have limited staff and supplies at their disposal. Managers must therefore know how to leverage these finite resources efficiently to maintain profitable operations.
The restaurant industry is diverse and ever-changing, depending upon customers’ whims, disruptions in the supply chain, the competition from other local restaurants, and the economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, many restaurants implemented more takeout and delivery services to please their customers and keep their restaurants open.
Assisting with Financial Management
Restaurant managers also need to understand how to prepare and analyze financial statements. They should be aware of sales goals and levels. They should also be cognizant of cost controls.
Moreover, financial management skills apply directly to running day-to-day operations. Restaurant managers need to consider their sales projections when ordering inventory and scheduling staff members’ shifts. Understanding projections is also a must for negotiating prices with suppliers and determining how to best manage perishable supplies from the supply chain.
Complying with Health and Safety Regulations
The food service industry has a legal and moral responsibility to serve safe food to guests and provide safe working conditions for employees. Naturally, local health department regulations should be at the forefront of all operations.
Restaurant managers play a vital role in making sure their eateries adhere to these standards. They enforce cleanliness practices and food safety protocols in compliance with all applicable health department food safety and employment laws.
Many restaurant managers hold food safety certifications, such as the ServSafe® Manager certification or a state food handler card.
Guests put a lot of trust into the dining establishments they visit. They expect restaurants to serve wholesome, safe food. From wait staff to management, restaurant employees must take their responsibilities seriously and prioritize food safety to meet customer expectations.
Implementing Effective Marketing Strategies
A good knowledge of marketing strategies and social media is also part of the restaurant manager job description. Many restaurants now have websites where customers can see menus and book a room in the restaurant for a special event.
In addition, some restaurants use social media sites such as Facebook® to advertise special events and to draw in additional customers, especially on holidays. Restaurant managers should be familiar with these social media sites and with sites such as Yelp!®, which customers use to express their opinions of a restaurant’s food service, servers, or the customer experience.
The Essential Skills Necessary for Successful Restaurant Managers
Every day is different in a restaurant. The guests, the employees’ lives, the weather, and even the latest news stories can impact operations and the guest experience.
Restaurant managers must develop a mix of both soft and hard management skills to succeed professionally. These essential skills include:
Task management and operational knowledge – There are always multiple moving parts in a restaurant. Countless factors are at play that can easily impact the guest experience. Managers must be able to juggle multiple responsibilities, and they should also understand every role well enough to jump in and provide extra coverage if necessary.
Communication – A restaurant manager’s role is to coordinate operations within a dining establishment, and that requires impeccable communication skills. Knowing how to effectively communicate with employees, suppliers and vendors, stakeholders, and customers is crucial for helping a restaurant to thrive.
Leadership – There are many employees in a restaurant, and not all of them will work well together. A good leader is one who can unite workers as a team, improve their customer service skills, and create a culture focused on providing quality service to guests.
Financial literacy – Forecasting, budgeting, scheduling, and analyzing sales figures are all part of a restaurant manager’s duties. In order for a restaurant to reach its profit goals, managers must know how to plan and make informed decisions based on financial data.
Flexibility – Restaurant managers must not only wear many hats on any given day but also be able to pivot and adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Keeping a cool head at all times – especially in emergency situations involving sick employees, supply chain disruptions, power outages, fires, or equipment failure – demonstrates leadership and competence. In turn, restaurant managers gain the confidence of employees, guests, and restaurant owners.
The Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Management at APU
For students who want to gain the knowledge to become a restaurant manager or pursue other roles in the restaurant industry, American Public University (APU) offers an online Bachelor of Arts in Hospitality Management. Taught by instructors with a deep knowledge of the restaurant industry, courses in this program include foodservice sanitation, hospitality law, and managerial accounting for the hospitality industry. Other courses include quality service management, human resource fundamentals, and management ethics.
This academic program has received specialty accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP®). This specialty accreditation demonstrates that this program has been examined by higher educational professionals for high quality.
For more information on these degree programs, visit APU's business and management degree program page.
Michelin is a registered trademark of Compagnie Générale des Etablissements Michelin.
ServSafe is a registered trademark of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.
Yelp! is a registered trademark of Yelp, Inc.
ACBSP is a registered trademark of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.
Dr. Sheri Hernandez is a full-time faculty member in the Dr. Wallace E. Boston School of Business. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Lehigh University, and a doctoral degree in education from Capella University.
Dr. Hernandez primarily teaches courses in the hospitality management program. She has extensive knowledge of restaurant operations, food safety, commodity price risk management, strategic sourcing, curriculum development, and instruction. Dr. Hernandez combines her skills in the hospitality industry with her career experience in financial commodity price risk management, consulting, and purchasing to provide students with a customer-centric, yet financially sound approach to hospitality management and food safety initiatives.
