Questions to Ask in a Server Interview
Questions to ask in a server interview when you are the one applying, for the moment the manager asks whether you have any. Many of them suit a host, busser or runner just as well, so they also work as questions to ask during an interview at a restaurant for any front-of-house job. They are grouped: five to start with, then tips and pay, the floor, the schedule, training and standards, and what to settle before you say yes. Between them they cover section size and covers, tip pooling and tip-out, the hourly rate, sidework, how shifts are handed out, the menu, the kitchen, the trail shift and the restaurant itself: how long it has been open and how staff get home after a close. The guide shows how to turn the answers into a take-home estimate, and lists the questions you are likely to be asked yourself.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Start here
What does a typical shift look like for a server here, start to finish?
Why ask it
Listen for the times: when you arrive, when the first tables are sat, when the rush ends and when people actually leave. A manager who can walk you through it hour by hour is on the floor often enough to know. If the answer is that every night is different, ask about last Friday.
How many tables are in a section, and how many covers on a busy night?
Why ask it
Section size and cover count together tell you how hard the shift is and roughly what it pays. A five-table section that turns three times is a different night from eight tables turning once. Check whether a new server gets the full section or a smaller one for the first weeks.
How are tips handled: do servers keep their own, or is there a pool?
Why ask it
In a pool the whole room's tips are shared out by hours or points. Keeping your own usually still means tipping out the bar, bussers, runners or hosts. Get the percentages and who they go to, because two restaurants with the same prices can pay very differently once those come off.
Which shifts are you hiring for, and how many hours a week would that be?
Why ask it
New servers often start on lunches and weeknights while the busier shifts go to people who have been there longer. Find out which shifts are open now and how long the last hire waited for a Friday or Saturday. If you need a set number of hours to pay rent, say the number here.
How long is training, and what does it pay?
Why ask it
Three details matter: how many shifts you follow another server, whether there is a menu test before you take tables alone, and the hourly rate while you train. Trainees often earn no tips, so that rate may be the whole paycheck for those days. If any part is unpaid, check what the rules where you live say about it.
Tips and pay
What is the hourly wage for servers, and is it a tipped rate?
Why ask it
Base pay for tipped staff is set by law and differs a great deal between states and countries, so let the manager tell you how it works at this restaurant. Then ask what happens on a dead shift when tips come in low. Someone who knows the rule can answer in one sentence.
What does a server usually take home on a weeknight, and on a Saturday?
Why ask it
You want a range, because an average hides the slow shifts you will also be working. Name the shift you would actually be given, since the figure that comes to mind first is often a good Saturday. If nobody will give a number, a server on your way out probably will.
Is tip-out worked out on your sales or on your tips?
Why ask it
The two sound alike and pay very differently. Tip-out on sales is owed even when a table leaves nothing, so a bad table costs you twice. Get an example with real numbers: on a thousand in sales, what does a server hand over?
Do servers walk with cash each night, or do tips come on the paycheck?
Why ask it
Cash in hand each night helps when money is tight from week to week. Tips on the paycheck arrive later but have a pay stub behind them, which matters when you need proof of income for a lease or a loan. Either way, ask how you can see what you earned on each shift.
Is a card processing fee taken out of tips left on credit cards?
Why ask it
Some restaurants pass the card company's fee on to the server's share of the tip. Whether that is allowed depends on where you are, so ask what this restaurant does and look for it on your first checkout slip. It is a small percentage that adds up when nearly every table pays by card.
Is gratuity added automatically for large parties, and does all of it go to the server?
Why ask it
A twelve-top can take over your section for two hours. You need the party size where the automatic charge starts, the percentage, and whether the house counts it as a tip or as a service charge it shares out differently. Who usually gets the big parties is the natural next question.
What is the average check per person at lunch and at dinner?
Why ask it
Tips follow the check, so this is the number that turns covers into income. Multiply it by the covers you were quoted and a realistic tip percentage, then take off the tip-out. If your sum lands far from the take-home figure you were given, ask which part you got wrong.
What happens if a table leaves without paying, or my cash is short at checkout?
Why ask it
The answer you hope for is that the restaurant absorbs it and looks at what went wrong. Rules on charging staff for walkouts and shortages differ from place to place, so do not assume either way. If the server pays, take it as a preview of how other costs are handled.
Do servers take phone and takeout orders, and how are those tipped?
Why ask it
Bagging to-go orders during a rush pulls you off your tables for money that rarely matches a dine-in tip. Where takeout is a big part of the business, ask whether one person is assigned to it each shift and whether those tips stay with that person or go into a pool.
Are there benefits for servers, such as health insurance, paid sick days or a staff discount?
Why ask it
Benefits are far from standard in restaurants, so a real answer here can separate two otherwise similar jobs. Ask how many hours a week you need to qualify and how long the wait is. Paid sick time matters more than usual in work where coming in ill means handling other people's food.
Do servers get a shift meal and a break, and when do they take them?
Why ask it
Free or half-price food on every shift is worth real money over a month. A break that exists on paper and never happens on a double is something else, so find out when servers actually sit down. Break rules come from local law in many places, and the manager should be able to say what applies here.
The floor
How are sections assigned: seniority, a rotation, or the manager's call?
Why ask it
The three systems make for very different working lives. Seniority means waiting your turn for the patio or the booths, and a rotation means everyone gets the slow corner sometimes. If it is the manager's call, ask plainly what earns someone the good section.
How many servers are on for a busy dinner, and how do you decide who gets cut first?
Why ask it
Too many servers on the floor means small sections and thin tips for everyone. The cut order matters as much: sent home first every night, you lose half your shift, and kept last, you close alone. A rotation is fair. 'Whoever I pick' deserves a follow-up.
Who runs food and who buses tables?
Why ask it
If servers do both, your section size means something different than it first sounded. This is also where your tip-out money is going.
Is there a host, and how are tables rotated between sections?
Why ask it
Seating decides whether your night is steady or arrives in one wave. Find out whether hosts follow a rotation and what happens when a guest requests a particular server or booth. Getting three tables in five minutes is hard on anyone new, so ask how often it happens.
How much of the business is reservations and how much is walk-ins?
Why ask it
A room that runs on reservations can staff to the book, and you can see how tomorrow looks before you come in. Walk-in places swing more: some nights you stand around, some nights you are buried. Ask how they decide staffing on a day they cannot predict.
Who eats here: regulars, families, tourists, a business lunch crowd?
Why ask it
Each crowd wants something different from a server, and you probably know which one you are best with. Regulars reward being remembered, and a business lunch wants speed over charm. A manager who can describe a few regulars by name is telling you something good about the room.
Is there a service bartender, or do servers make their own drinks?
Why ask it
Pouring your own wine and sodas is manageable. Building cocktails for a six-top while your food sits in the window is a different job. If the bar makes them, ask how long drink tickets run on a busy night, since slow drinks are a complaint the server ends up apologizing for.
What does sidework look like, opening and closing?
Why ask it
Rolling silverware, restocking and breaking down stations happen after your tables have gone, when no more tips are coming in. Find out how long a close usually runs past the last guest, whether you stay clocked in for it, and whether the jobs are split by a chart or left to whoever is still there.
Is there a pre-shift meeting, and what gets covered in it?
Why ask it
A short lineup before service is where you hear the specials, what the kitchen has run out of and who is in the big party. A restaurant with no lineup leaves you to learn those at the table. Check whether you are clocked in for it.
Which point of sale system do you use, and do servers carry handhelds?
Why ask it
If you have used the system before, say so, because it shortens your training. Handhelds send the order from the table and save trips to a terminal, which changes how many tables one person can carry. With a system that is new to you, ask for an hour on it before a live shift.
When a dish comes out wrong, who do I go to: the expo, the chef or a manager?
Why ask it
Plates come back in every restaurant, so the thing to learn is how the fix goes. A clear route, such as telling the expo and getting a refire, keeps it short. If the honest answer involves somebody shouting, you have found out how the kitchen and the floor get along.
How are comps and voids handled when something goes wrong at a table?
Why ask it
What you need to know is how much you can put right on your own. Taking a wrong drink off a check yourself is quick, while hunting for a manager's card in the middle of a rush leaves an unhappy table waiting. See whether a comped item still counts toward the sales your tip-out is figured on.
How do you handle allergies and dietary requests?
Why ask it
Look for a defined process: who gets told, how it is marked on the ticket, who confirms it before the plate leaves. With no process, the whole responsibility sits with you at the table, on a menu you are still learning.
Schedule
How is the schedule set, and how far ahead do I see it?
Why ask it
Two days of notice is hard to fit a second job, a class or childcare around. The details that matter are which day the schedule goes up, whether it lives in an app or on a wall in the back, and how often it changes after posting.
How do people request time off, and how often is it granted?
Why ask it
The first half is procedure: how much notice, and whether it goes through an app, a book or a text to the manager. The second half is the real question. If the answer is 'usually, unless we are short', ask how often they are short.
How do shift swaps work when someone needs a night covered?
Why ask it
You will need a shift covered at some point, and so will everyone else. Swaps may go through a manager, an app or a group chat, and the person picking it up may need approval. A place where you must find your own cover while sick is telling you how it treats illness.
Are there on-call shifts or doubles, and how often do they come up?
Why ask it
On-call means keeping an evening free with no promise of being paid for it. A double can be good money or a fourteen-hour day with a dead stretch in the middle. Ask whether either is voluntary and how many a typical server worked last month.
Which days and times are busiest here, and which are slow?
Why ask it
The busy shifts are where the money is, and also where a new server gets tested. Compare the answer with the shifts you were just offered: if Friday and Saturday dinner carry the week and you are down for Monday lunch, you know what the first months pay. A patio, a stadium nearby or a brunch crowd can move the answer in ways the menu does not show.
Which months are slow here, and what happens to hours when they come?
Why ask it
Most restaurants have a dip, whether it is January, midsummer or the weeks when the students leave town. Some cut shifts evenly, some cut the newest people first, and some lay off and rehire. Knowing the pattern now lets you save for it or line up other work.
Which holidays are you open, and how are those shifts shared out?
Why ask it
Days like Mother's Day and New Year's Eve tend to be busy, well tipped and close to impossible to get off. Hear how they are assigned before you promise your family anything. If everyone works every holiday, that is at least a rule you can plan around.
How late does a closing shift usually end, and how do staff get to their cars or the bus afterwards?
Why ask it
A close that ends after midnight is a harder job when the last bus has gone or the parking lot is unlit. Some restaurants have closers leave in pairs, or a manager walks the last people out. If nobody has thought about it, plan your own way home before you take a closing shift.
Training and standards
Would I start as a server right away, or as a host, busser or runner first?
Why ask it
Plenty of restaurants put people with no serving experience into a support role first, and it can be a fair way in. The timeline is what matters: how long the last person waited to move up, and what decided it. Support roles are often paid differently and get a smaller share of tips, so get that figure too.
What do you expect a new server to manage by the end of the first month?
Why ask it
This shows how fast they want you carrying a full section and what they will be watching in the meantime. 'Know the menu cold and take four tables' is a target you can hit. With no answer at all, expect to be judged on impressions.
How big is the menu, and how often does it change?
Why ask it
A long menu that changes with the seasons means regular study, on your own time unless they say otherwise. Good signs are a staff tasting when dishes change and a sheet listing ingredients and allergens. If there is a menu test, find out what score lets you take tables.
How much do servers need to know about wine, beer and cocktails?
Why ask it
A list of two hundred bottles is a study project, and six beers with a house red is not. If drinks drive the check here, ask whether there are staff tastings or a class. Be honest about what you know now, because it shows at the first table that asks for a pairing.
Do I need a food handler card or an alcohol server permit before I start, and who pays for it?
Why ask it
Requirements depend on the state, the county and sometimes the city, so have the manager tell you what applies here and by what date. Some restaurants cover the course or run it in-house. If you already hold one from another job, ask whether it carries over.
Is there a minimum age for serving alcohol here, and what does a younger server do until then?
Why ask it
Carrying a drink to a table, pouring it and ringing it up may each have their own age limit, depending on where the restaurant is, so ask what applies at this one. If you are under a limit, find out who brings drinks to your tables and whether that changes your section or your tip-out.
What is the uniform, and who pays for it?
Why ask it
All black with your own non-slip shoes is cheap. A branded shirt, a particular apron and a wine key bought through the restaurant is not, and some places take the cost out of a first paycheck. Get the total before your first shift, including how many sets a five-day week needs.
Are there set steps of service, or does each server run a table their own way?
Why ask it
Scripted steps, such as a greeting within a minute or a check-back after two bites, make training faster and give managers something to grade you on. A looser house trusts your judgment and leaves you less to lean on in the first weeks. Work out which suits you, then ask how the steps are checked.
How much upselling is expected, and are sales tracked by server?
Why ask it
Per-person averages, appetizer counts and bottle sales are watched in a lot of restaurants, and some post them by name. That can be useful coaching or steady pressure, depending on who reads the report. The question that settles it is what happens to the server at the bottom of the list.
Before you decide
Is there a path from server to trainer, bartender or shift lead?
Why ask it
A trainer role or a bar shift can mean better money, so the route matters even if management does not interest you. Ask who made that move most recently and how long it took. A name and a date is an answer. 'We promote from within' with no example is a slogan.
Who runs the floor on a normal night, and would that person be my manager?
Why ask it
The person interviewing you may be an owner or a general manager you rarely see during service. The one who counts day to day is whoever cuts the floor, approves your voids and writes the schedule. Try to meet them before you accept.
What happens when a customer is rude to staff?
Why ask it
A recent example tells you more than a policy does. You are listening for a manager who went to the table, took it over or asked a guest to leave, told with enough detail that it clearly happened. 'The guest is always right' with nothing after it means you would be handling those tables alone.
Why is this position open?
Why ask it
A new patio, a summer rush and a server who walked out mid-shift are three different answers. The follow-up is how many servers have left in the last few months. One or two is ordinary in restaurant work, and if it is half the floor, ask what happened.
How long has the restaurant been open, and has the owner or the concept changed recently?
Why ask it
A place in its first year is still settling its hours, its menu and its regulars, which can mean shifting schedules and uneven money. New owners often bring their own rules on tips and scheduling. Neither is a reason to walk away, only a reason to ask what is planned for the next six months.
Is this restaurant part of a group, and can staff pick up shifts at the other locations?
Why ask it
A second location can fill out a thin week or keep you working when this one is slow. Check whether the tip arrangement is the same in each building before you count on it. In a group it also helps to learn which decisions are made here and which come from an office somewhere else.
How long have most of the servers been here?
Why ask it
Restaurant staff move around a lot, so a few servers who have stayed for years suggest that the money and the management are both livable. Ask which shifts those people work. If the long-timers hold every weekend dinner, you have also learned how long the wait for one is.
What separates the servers who do well here from the ones who do not?
Why ask it
This is a polite way of asking what gets rewarded, and it is not the same everywhere: high check averages in one place, speed in another, regulars who ask for you by name in a third. Notice whether the answer is about guests or about never calling out. Then be honest with yourself about whether that is how you work.
What has kept you working here?
Why ask it
Put it to the interviewer as a person, not as the restaurant's spokesperson. The useful answers are specific: an owner who works the floor, a crew that has stayed together, money that holds up in winter. If all you get is 'the people', ask what the people did last week that proves it.
Is there anything that would make you hesitate to put me on the floor?
Why ask it
Better to hear the doubt now than to lose the job to it after you have left. If the worry is that you have never carried a full section or sold wine, answer with what you have done and offer the trail shift as proof. First-time servers get the most from this one.
Can I do a trail shift before we both decide?
Why ask it
A few hours following a server shows you the kitchen, the pace and how people speak to each other, which no interview answer can. Some restaurants call it a stage or a working interview. Settle how long it runs and whether it is paid, since rules on unpaid trial work differ from place to place.
What happens next, and when should I expect to hear from you?
Why ask it
Restaurants often hire fast, and they also forget to call people back. Leave with a day, a name and the best way to follow up, whether that is a text, a call or stopping by before service. If they need someone this weekend, this is where you find out.
Judging a Restaurant From the Interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Choosing From a Long List
Pick your few before you walk in
Job interviews for servers tend to be short, and many happen at a table in the quiet hours between lunch and dinner. You will not get through a list this long. Take the Start here group, add the two or three from the other groups that would change your decision, and leave the rest for the trail shift.
Save some for the servers
Real take-home, the cut order and how the schedule works in practice are answered best by the people on the floor. A trail shift, or two minutes with a server on your way out, is the place for those. Where the manager's version and a server's differ, give more weight to the person who works the shifts.
Ask about tips plainly
In a tipped job, how tips are split is what the job pays, and a manager who has worked a floor knows that. Ask once you have shown interest in the work itself, and write the percentages down while you are still at the table.
Working Out What It Actually Pays
Run the sum yourself
Sales on a shift come down to covers and the average check, so ask for both. Here is the sum with made-up numbers: 30 covers at 40 a head is 1,200 in sales. If guests there tip around 18 percent, that is 216. A tip-out of 5 percent of sales takes 60 of it, which leaves 156 before tax. Put the restaurant's own figures through the same sum, once for a slow shift and once for a busy one.
Add up the tip-out before you compare
Before you weigh two restaurants against each other, total everything a server hands over: bar, bussers, runners, hosts and, in some places, the kitchen. On the same night's sales, a house that takes seven percent in all leaves you with clearly less than one that takes three. Then set that beside the hourly rate, which counts for more where tipped staff are paid the full minimum wage.
Count the unpaid edges
Pre-shift meetings, closing sidework and menu tastings can end up outside paid hours. Ask what time servers actually clock in and out compared with when service starts and ends. Whether time like that may go unpaid is a matter for local law and not for house custom.
Check the rules for where you are
Tipped wages, tip pools, deductions and unpaid trial shifts are covered by employment law that changes from one state or country to the next. The questions here find out what the restaurant does. Your local labor office or its website says what a restaurant is required to do, and it is worth ten minutes before you accept.
What You Will Be Asked
Questions a server candidate usually gets
This page is the candidate's list, but most of the interview runs the other way. Expect some version of these, and have a short true story ready for each.
- Why do you want to work here, and have you eaten here?
- What serving or customer service experience do you have?
- What does good service mean to you?
- How would you handle a guest who is unhappy with their food?
- A table is upset about the wait and the kitchen is behind. What do you tell them?
- What do you do when you are sat three tables at once?
- Your section is quiet and the server next to you is buried. What do you do?
- Pick something on our menu and recommend it to me.
- How would you handle a guest who has had too much to drink?
- How do you check an ID, and what do you do when you are not sure about one?
- Which days and hours can you work, including weekends and holidays?
- Why did you leave your last job?
- Tell me about a mistake you made on a shift and what you did about it.
If you have never served before
Say so early, then answer from the nearest thing you have done: a register during a rush, a catering shift, a volunteer event where you carried plates and kept track of who ordered what. Read the menu before you go in, because being asked to recommend a dish is common and an answer shows you prepared. Asking whether new servers start as a host or runner lets the manager see that you expect to earn the section.
Use their questions to set up yours
The easiest time to ask is straight after you answer. Once you have described how you handle a rush, ask how many tables a section holds here. Once you have given your availability, ask which shifts are open. The last five minutes then feel like a conversation and not a list read off a phone.
What to Notice While You Are There
- Whether staff greet each other, and how the manager speaks to the kitchen
- How full the room is at the hour you are there, and whether that hour is meant to be busy
- Whether the server station and the corridor to the restrooms are as clean as the dining room
- How many servers are on the floor compared with the number of tables
- Whether the person interviewing you keeps being called away, which can mean the place runs short-staffed
- Whether the schedule is posted where you can see it, and how many names have been crossed out and rewritten
Common Pitfalls
Taking the earnings estimate at face value
The figure that gets quoted is often a good Saturday. Ask what a slow weeknight in the quietest month looks like, because you will work those too.
Not asking about the schedule until after you accept
How shifts are handed out and how much notice you get decide whether the rest of your life is workable. Both are ordinary questions, and a manager who bristles at them has told you something as well.
Skipping the trail shift
A conversation at a table with a manager cannot show you the kitchen, the pace or how people talk to each other under pressure. One shift can.
Treating turnover as something not worth asking about
People come and go in restaurant work, and it is still worth asking how many. When nobody on the floor has been there six months, the servers can usually tell you why, and a trail shift is your chance to ask.