How to Answer: What will you do if a particular dish on the menu is not selling?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Restaurant Manager job interview.
11. What will you do if a particular dish on the menu is not selling?
How to Answer
Clear communication between a restaurant manager and a chef is a crucial component to the profitability of a restaurant. Feedback can be tough to give at times but remember that your role as a leader is to encourage open conversation.
Discuss how you would ask the chef if they have heard any feedback from the servers about why the dish is not being requested. It may be a situation where the plate is merely not being promoted enough, and you may put together a game plan for how to 'push' the dish in the dining room.
Perhaps you decide with the chef that you need to spruce up the dish and release it with new wording on the menu. Or, maybe yourself and the chef determine that you are going to pull the recipe and replace it. Sometimes, 'out with the old and in with the new' is the best decision to make.
Written by Rachelle Enns
Entry Level
"If a particular dish is not selling, I prefer to come into the situation not demanding change but, rather, asking the chef for suggestions. They are the experts after all. I believe that strong collaboration is best and I will create a collaborative environment as much as possible."
Written by Rachelle Enns
Experienced
"I am comfortable communicating directly with the chef on menu needs. I would approach them and share what we see in the dining room. If there is customer feedback that I can share, I will start with that. Otherwise, I would see if there is an opportunity for us to improve the dish or encourage our servers to romanticize the dish and increase sales."
Written by Rachelle Enns