Defining Excellence: What Does Great Service Look Like in Your Restaurant?

One of the biggest mistakes I see in restaurants isn’t the food, the menu, or even the staffing shortage everyone talks about.

It’s the lack of clear standards.

Before you hire anyone, before you train anyone, before you worry about culture — you have to know exactly what the standard is.

What does great service look like in your restaurant?

What does accountability look like?

What does ownership look like when something goes wrong during service?

If you’re running your own concept, those standards start with you.

If you’re operating a franchise, those standards already exist — your job is to learn them, understand them, and live them.

Either way, culture doesn’t start with your team.

It starts with the leader.

I’ve worked in kitchens and hospitality operations for more than 30 years, and one lesson keeps showing up: when leaders don’t embody the standards, the team won’t either.

But once the standards are clear, the next question becomes who you bring into that environment.

And this is where a lot of operators get it wrong.

They hire for skill.

But skill without the right mindset rarely works long term.

I’ll take the person with the will to learn over the person with perfect skills almost every time.

Because skills can be taught.

But curiosity, accountability, and pride in the work — those things are much harder to train.

A great employee doesn’t just do the job.

They elevate the room.

They support teammates.

They connect with guests.

They notice problems before they become crises.

And from a business perspective, that matters.

A bad employee costs far more than their wage.

But a great employee?

They improve service, increase guest loyalty, and quietly grow the profitability of the restaurant through upselling, consistency, and better experiences.

So when you're building a team, don’t just ask:

“Can this person do the job?”

Ask something deeper:

“Do they have the will to grow into the standard we’re building here?”

Because the strongest restaurants aren’t built on perfect resumes.

They’re built on people who believe in the standard and want to rise to meet it.

Steven Holly

30+ Years in Kitchens, Resorts & Multi-Unit Operations | Honest Rebuilding