Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Restaurant Owner
For anyone interviewing for a job at an independently owned restaurant, sitting across from the owner rather than a recruiter. Twenty questions about the role itself, the schedule, how pay and tips work, and whether the business underneath it is steady.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How long have you been open, and what has changed most since you started?
Why ask it
Whatever they name as the biggest change is what currently occupies them, whether that is costs, staffing, or a menu that shifted under them. A place open less than two years is still inventing the systems you would be working inside.
Walk me through what this role actually does on a Friday night.
Why ask it
Job titles in restaurants cover very different work depending on the size of the team. The hour-by-hour version reveals whether you are expected to run a section, expedite, close out, or cover three jobs because the staffing is thin.
Why is this position open?
Why ask it
Growth, someone leaving, or someone being let go all point in different directions. If it is a departure, ask how long they were in the role, because a job that turns over every four months is a job with a problem in it.
How long have the people on the team been here?
Why ask it
Tenure is the most reliable single indicator of what a restaurant is like to work in, and it is hard to fake in front of you. One or two long-serving cooks or servers usually means the place is bearable; a room where everyone started this season rarely does.
Who is in charge when you are not in the building?
Why ask it
In owner-operated restaurants this is where the real management structure appears. Ask how many nights a week the owner is present, since a place that runs well only when the owner is there will run badly on the nights you work.
How does the schedule get made, and how much notice do people get?
Why ask it
A schedule posted two days out makes any life outside work difficult, and it is a habit rather than a necessity. Ask who writes it, whether requests are honoured, and whether shifts get changed after posting.
How is pay structured here, and who shares in tips or the service charge?
Why ask it
Tip pooling, tip-outs to kitchen and bar, and service charges retained by the house produce very different take-home figures from the same headline wage. Ask for the actual average for your role over a recent slow week, not a good one.
What happens on a night when someone does not show up?
Why ask it
The answer describes your real workload, because short-staffed nights are frequent in this industry. Look for whether there is a call list and a plan, or whether the shift simply gets absorbed by whoever turned up.
How often does the menu change, and who decides?
Why ask it
This sets both the pace of the kitchen and how much creative say anyone other than the owner has. Frequent changes mean constant retraining for the floor and more prep pressure; a menu untouched in years can signal an owner who no longer engages with the food.
What is the busiest stretch of your year, and what does the schedule look like then?
Why ask it
Every restaurant has a season, a festival, a holiday run that dominates the calendar. Ask directly whether time off is possible during it, because assuming so and finding out later is a common source of resentment.
How do you handle it when a guest is abusive to a member of staff?
Why ask it
The answer tells you where you stand when it happens to you, and it will happen. An owner who can describe a specific occasion, and what they said to the guest, is telling you something a policy statement cannot.
What happens when someone makes a mistake in service or on the line?
Why ask it
Kitchens vary enormously here, from a correction and a reset to shouting that everyone has normalised. Ask for a recent example, and note whether the story ends with the person learning something or with them leaving.
Where are your food and labour costs sitting at the moment?
Why ask it
Save this for a management or head chef interview, where those figures will be held against you. An owner who knows the percentages and will say them out loud is far easier to work for than one who runs the place off the bank balance each week and calls a bad month your fault.
What would you want fixed in my first month?
Why ask it
This turns the interview into a conversation about actual problems, and it flushes out expectations nobody put in the posting. Be alert if the list would require authority or budget you are not being offered.
What does someone have to do here to earn more money or more responsibility?
Why ask it
Small restaurants often have no formal progression, which is fine if stated plainly. A vague answer about proving yourself, with no mention of timing or amounts, usually means raises happen when someone threatens to quit.
How do you get through a slow month?
Why ask it
You are asking, politely, whether the business has reserves. Owners who cut hours across the team, delay supplier payments, or lean on the same three people will describe it if you ask this way, and those months will affect your income.
Do you have plans to open another site, change the concept, or sell?
Why ask it
Each of those changes your job significantly, and the second location is usually staffed by pulling people from the first. If a sale is under consideration, your standing after it depends entirely on who buys.
What is the hardest part of running this place?
Why ask it
Most owners answer this one honestly because it invites them to talk about their own experience rather than sell you a job. Whether they name costs, staffing, their landlord, or their own hours tells you what pressure gets passed downward.
Could I work a paid trial shift before we both commit?
Why ask it
One service on the floor or the line tells you more than any interview: the noise, the pace, how the team speaks to each other under pressure. Note whether they offer to pay for it without being pushed, because that answer is informative on its own.
What do people usually find out about working here after they start?
Why ask it
This gives an honest owner room to name the awkward part: the closing time that is really an hour later than posted, the one difficult regular, the shift nobody wants. An owner who says there is nothing has either not thought about it or is not telling you.
Interviewing With a Restaurant Owner
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before You Go In
Eat There First, on a Busy Night
One meal during a full service answers questions you would otherwise have to ask: how long tickets take, whether the floor is stretched, whether staff speak to each other civilly in the pass. Sit where you can see the kitchen door. It is the cheapest research available and it makes your questions specific.
Read the Reviews for Staffing Signals, Not Food Opinions
Ignore whether strangers liked the risotto. Look instead for repeated mentions of slow service, new faces, or a named person who no longer appears in recent reviews. Patterns over the last six months tell you about turnover, which is the thing you most want to know and the thing least likely to be volunteered.
Know Your Own Numbers Before You Arrive
Decide the minimum weekly take-home you need, the latest finish you can manage, and how many weekend nights you are willing to give. Restaurant interviews move quickly and often end with an offer on the spot, and it is much harder to work these out while someone is waiting for an answer.
How to Read the Answers
- Notice how the owner talks about the people who left. Contempt for former staff is the clearest predictor available of how you will be described once you leave.
- Family language is worth listening to carefully. In practice it often introduces requests that would be unreasonable in an ordinary job, particularly around unpaid extra hours.
- An owner who cannot state a tip-out structure clearly either has not formalised it or does not want to. Both are worth resolving before you accept.
- Watch what happens when a staff member interrupts the interview with a question. That thirty seconds shows you the actual working relationship more accurately than anything said about culture.
- Take seriously any answer that assumes you will be flexible about finishing times without extra pay. That expectation rarely softens after you start.
- Enthusiasm about a second location, from an owner who cannot currently staff the first, usually means your shifts are about to get harder.
Which Questions Fit Which Role
Front of House
- 1How is the tip pool split, and who else takes a share?
- 2How many covers does one server take on a full night?
- 3What is the policy when a table walks out or disputes a bill?
- 4Who closes, and what time does closing actually finish?
Kitchen
- 1How many are on the line on a Saturday, and how many prep hours exist before service?
- 2Who orders and who takes deliveries?
- 3How much of the menu is made in house?
- 4What are the shift lengths, and are breaks scheduled or theoretical?
Management or Head Chef
- 1What authority do I have over hiring, scheduling, and ordering?
- 2Where are food and labour costs currently sitting, and what is the target?
- 3Which decisions still come back to you, and how quickly do you answer?
- 4What is the bonus structure, and what were the last two payouts?
Common Pitfalls
Working an Unpaid Trial
A trial shift is a good idea and should be paid. Working a full service for nothing, particularly where you are on the schedule and covering a station, is not a test, it is free labour. Ask about payment when the trial is offered and treat reluctance as information about how hours are handled generally.
Accepting a Wage Without the Tip Detail
The same hourly rate can produce very different pay depending on tip pooling, tip-outs, and whether a service charge reaches staff at all. Ask for a typical week and a slow week, in figures. Owners who quote only good weeks are describing your best case as your normal.
Mistaking a Good Interview for a Good Restaurant
Owners are often warm, persuasive people; it is part of how they fill a room. The reliable signals are staff tenure, how the schedule is made, and what happens when someone is short-handed. Weigh those above how much you enjoyed the conversation.
Not Asking About the Season
In tourist towns, campus towns, and holiday-heavy areas, income can halve outside peak months. Ask what a February looks like on the schedule and what hours were actually available last year, before you commit to a wage that only works at full volume.