What numbers should a restaurant manager know for an interview?

Your weekly sales, labor percentage, food cost if you managed it, average check, and any review or survey scores. Know the time period for each.

How do I answer if I've only been a shift lead?

Use shift-lead examples: closing, cutting staff, handling complaints, counting the till. Say plainly what you decided and what you passed to the manager. The assistant manager questions page covers that step up.

What questions should I ask them?

Ask what is working and what isn't, the labor and food cost targets, how much authority you would have to comp and to hire, and who you report to.

Should I talk about how I'd change their restaurant?

Gently. Show you've eaten there and noticed things, then ask about the reasons before suggesting fixes.

Restaurant manager interview questions and how to answer them

What owners and area managers want to hear

A restaurant manager is the person who decides, at 7:45 on a Saturday, whether to comp a meal, cut a server or call someone in. Interviewers want proof that you make those calls well and can explain them afterwards. They usually listen for:

Numbers you owned: sales, labor percentage, comps, reviews, turnover.
Calm under escalation: what you say to a furious guest.
Staffing judgment: fair, firm and able to cover a gap without burning out the team.
Compliance habits: inspections, alcohol service, safety logs.

Vague answers like "I'm very hands-on" are everywhere. "I cut labor from 32 to 28 percent by changing when we cut servers" is rare.

Labor cost

"What labor percentage did you run?" Know your real figure and the period. Then show one decision that changed it.

Example answer: "At my last location, labor ran about 31 percent of sales when I started. I looked at the hourly sales report and saw we had four servers on until close on weeknights when the room emptied by 8:30. I moved to staggered cuts based on covers, not the clock, and cross-trained two hosts to bus. Within a quarter we were at about 28 percent, and our service scores held steady."

If you were an assistant manager and didn't own the number, say which part you did own, like writing the server schedule.

A guest complaint that reaches you

"A guest asks for the manager and is furious." The interviewer is listening for your words at the table, then your decision. A useful order:

Go quickly. A guest kept waiting for a manager gets angrier.
Listen without defending. Don't explain the kitchen's problems.
Say what you'll do, specifically. Remake, remove from the bill, or a return visit, depending on what went wrong.
Follow through and debrief. Talk to the server and the kitchen after, without blame.

Example answer: "A table of six had waited 50 minutes for mains on a Saturday, and the host was getting the brunt of it. I went over, crouched to their eye level and said, 'I'm sorry. That's far too long, and it's on us.' I told them exactly when the food was coming, because I'd checked with the pass first, and took the mains off the bill. After service, the chef and I found the ticket had printed at the wrong station, and we fixed the printer routing that week."

For more lines, see how to handle an angry customer.

Staff no-shows

"Two servers don't show up for Friday dinner." There is no perfect answer; they want to hear a sequence and your priorities.

Step	What you say you'd do
First 10 minutes	Call the no-shows, then your on-call list, then anyone who has asked for extra hours
If nobody comes	Resize sections, close a section of the room, slow seating with the host
During service	Jump on the floor yourself; run food, bus, cover the bar
After	Document it, talk to each no-show privately, apply the attendance policy evenly

Add how you prevent it: posting schedules early, a fair swap system, and following up on the first no-show rather than the third.

Health inspections

"How do you prepare for an inspection?" A good answer shows you run the restaurant so inspections are never a scramble.

Example answer: "I treat every day as inspection day. Fridge and hot-hold temperatures are logged twice a shift, every item is labeled and dated, and I do a walk-through with the kitchen manager every Monday using the same checklist the inspector uses. At my last inspection we had one minor finding, a hand sink blocked by a stock delivery, and we changed where deliveries are put down that afternoon."

Don't claim a perfect record unless it is true. Rules differ by city and country, so talk about the system you used and know the local code before the interview.

Mistakes to avoid

Talking only about guests, never about cost. Owners hire managers to protect both.
Blaming the kitchen in a complaint story. They will wonder how you'll describe their chef.
Inventing figures. An area manager can tell a made-up labor percentage from a lived one.
Saying you "do everything yourself". It sounds like you don't develop your team.

How to practice

Say the complaint story and the no-show answer out loud, under 90 seconds each. Then practice with someone who asks "What did it cost you?" after every answer. In Speaking Coach you can add the job post, and the interviewer asks about your real experience and follows up on what you said.