Interview questionsRead at source, 24 September 2026

Restaurant Manager Interview Questions: What Owners and Operators Should Ask

This page is for the owner, operator or area manager hiring a restaurant general manager, assistant manager or kitchen manager. A good restaurant manager interview tests four things in order: can they hire and keep a crew, can they run the numbers (labor, food cost, sales), can they be the person in charge of food safety, and will they handle tips, pay and scheduling within the law. Charm in the interview is common in this industry. Ask for numbers, stories with names and dates, and a real shift if you can.

What to settle before the interview

Exempt or hourly

Under federal rules, a manager is exempt from overtime as an executive only if paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week (29 CFR 541.600), whose primary duty is management, who customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more employees, and who has the authority to hire or fire, or whose recommendations on hiring, firing and promotion are given particular weight (541.100). Restaurant managers often cook, bus and run food. The rules allow that: 541.106 says an assistant manager in a retail establishment “may perform work such as serving customers, cooking food, stocking shelves and cleaning the establishment” without losing the exemption if the primary duty is management. But the regulation also says an employee whose primary duty is routine, recurrent work cannot qualify. If your “manager” spends the whole shift on the line, decide before the interview whether the job is really hourly. Many states set a higher salary floor; see exempt vs non-exempt and overtime laws by state.

Food safety certification

The 2026 FDA Food Code says: “The PERSON IN CHARGE shall be a certified FOOD protection manager who has shown proficiency of required information through passing a test that is part of an ACCREDITED PROGRAM” (section 2-102.12), with an exception for establishments the regulator deems minimal risk. The Food Code is a model; your state or local health department decides which edition and which version of this rule applies. BLS puts it the same way: “Some states and localities require that food service managers have food safety certification.” Ask candidates which certificate they hold and when it expires, and put the requirement in the job ad.

Tips

Federal law says an employer “may not allow managers and supervisors to keep any portion of an employee's tips, regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit” (29 CFR 531.52(b)(2)). A manager may keep tips received directly from customers for service they directly and solely provide. Your manager will run the tip pool and the tip-out, so their understanding of this rule is an interview topic, not just a policy.

If the post is not written yet, start from the restaurant manager job description.

Ten restaurant manager interview questions worth asking

BLS lists the job's core duties as hiring, training and disciplining staff; ordering food and supplies; overseeing food preparation; checking health and safety compliance; resolving complaints; scheduling; and managing budgets and payroll. The ten questions below cover each. Ask all ten of every finalist.

“Tell me about your last restaurant: sales, covers, headcount, labor percentage and food cost. Which did you move, and how?”

A strong candidate knows their numbers without looking them up and can explain one change they made and what happened. Weak candidates speak in generalities (“I kept costs down”). If they cannot name their labor percentage, they probably were not the one managing it.

“Build me next Saturday's schedule. What do you start from?”

Listen for sales forecast or last year's covers, then positions by hour, then people. Strong answers mention availability, overtime and local scheduling rules. Weak answers start from who wants hours. See predictive scheduling laws by state if your city has one.

“Tell me about the last three people you hired. Are they still there?”

Restaurant managers are also the recruiting department. Strong candidates describe where they found people, how quickly they made offers, how they trained them and who stayed. A manager who says “nobody wants to work” will say it about your restaurant too. See restaurant turnover rate for the scale of the problem.

“Tell me about the last person you let go.”

You want documentation, warnings, a conversation with HR or the owner, and a clear reason tied to performance or conduct. Firing on the spot in anger, or never having let anyone go, both tell you something.

“The health inspector walks in at noon on a Friday. What do they find, and what do you do?”

Strong answers are routine, not heroic: temperature logs up to date, sanitizer buckets at the right concentration, handwashing sinks stocked, date labels on everything. Then they welcome the inspector and walk with them. The Food Code makes the person in charge responsible for monitoring handwashing, cooking and cooling temperatures, sanitizing and allergy training (section 2-103.11). Ask what their last inspection score was and what the violations were.

“A server tells you a cook came in with vomiting and diarrhea last night. What do you do?”

Under the Food Code, food employees must report symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice and sore throat with fever, and illnesses including norovirus, hepatitis A and Shigella, to the person in charge (section 2-201.11). The strong answer talks to the cook privately, excludes or restricts them according to the local code, covers the shift, and knows when the health department must be notified. The weak answer keeps them working because the kitchen is short.

“How did tip pooling work at your last restaurant, and who was in the pool?”

A strong candidate explains the pool clearly, knows that managers and supervisors cannot take a share of employees' tips, and knows the tip credit rules for your state. Any answer that includes the manager taking a cut from the pool is a compliance problem walking in the door.

“A guest is shouting at a 17-year-old host about the wait. What do you do?”

Tests guest recovery and staff protection at once. Strong answers step in, take over the conversation, offer what they can, and check on the host afterward. Weak answers apologize to the guest by blaming the host.

“Food cost jumped two points last month. Where do you look first?”

Listen for a method: invoices and price changes, inventory counts, waste logs, portioning, comps and voids, theft. The candidate who has only one idea has probably never had to find the answer.

“What does a normal week look like for you: how many days, how many hours, how many closes?”

BLS notes that food service managers often work more than 40 hours a week, including early mornings, nights, weekends and holidays. Say what your week is and let the candidate respond. Agree on the schedule before the offer, not after.

Kitchen manager interview questions

A kitchen manager (or back-of-house manager) runs the line, ordering, food cost and the cooks. Ask the questions above about hiring, food safety and food cost, then add these.

“Walk me through your order for the week. How do you decide quantities?”

Strong answers use par levels, sales forecasts and inventory counts, and adjust for events and holidays. Weak answers order by feel.

“How do you cool a large batch of chili, and how do you prove it cooled in time?”

Cooling is one of the risk factors the Food Code makes the person in charge monitor. Listen for shallow pans, ice wands or blast chilling, temperature checks at set times and a written log. A kitchen manager who has never logged cooling has never been asked to.

“How do you train a new line cook on your station in the first week?”

Strong answers include recipe cards or build sheets, shadow shifts, checking plates, and the knife and burn safety talk. See the cook interview questions for what they should be asking cooks in turn.

“What would you change on our menu to make the line faster?”

Hand them your menu. A strong candidate spots items that share prep, items that bottleneck one station, and dishes that do not sell. It is also a fair test of whether they studied your restaurant before walking in.

Red flags, and answers that only sound like problems

• No numbers: sales, labor, food cost or inspection scores all vague.
• Taking a share of the tip pool, or describing it as normal.
• Letting sick employees work because the kitchen is short.
• Blaming every past owner, and every staff departure on “kids these days.”

Not red flags: a career spent in one brand, several short stints during a period when many restaurants closed, no degree, or a candidate who asks hard questions about your labor budget and turnover. BLS lists a high school diploma as the typical entry-level education and describes several years of food service work, such as cook or server, as the usual route in; the interview matters more than the resume.

Questions not to ask

Restaurant manager interviews drift into late-night availability questions that become questions about children, marriage, pregnancy or religion. Ask about the schedule directly instead, and avoid questions about age, national origin, health or disability. See illegal interview questions.

How to score it

Score each answer 1 to 4, and weight hiring, numbers and food safety most heavily. For finalists, add a paid working interview shift, or a short exercise with one of your real weekly P&Ls and a schedule to build. Call a reference who was their boss, not their peer. The interview scorecard template works for all of it, and second interview questions covers the follow-up.

Pay, and what it means for your offer

BLS reports that the median annual wage for food service managers was $69,390 in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $45,960 and the highest 10 percent more than $107,640.

BLS projects employment to grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 38,800 openings a year. Hotels and school or institutional kitchens are recruiting from the same pool, sometimes with more regular hours. If you cannot match their pay, compete on schedule, bonus structure tied to numbers the manager controls, and a clear path to general manager or multi-unit roles.

Related: assistant manager interview questions, fast food interview questions, server interview questions, restaurant labor costs and cost per hire in restaurants.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, food service managers (May 2025 wages); FDA Food Code 2026, sections 2-102.12, 2-103.11 and 2-201.11; 29 CFR 531.52, 541.100, 541.106 and 541.600 (eCFR); Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. General information, not legal advice. Read at source 24 September 2026.