Glossary
Restaurant terms, explained simply
From food cost to KDS to 86 — a plain-English glossary of the terms that come up running a restaurant. Handy for new staff and anyone comparing systems.
32 terms in 4 groups
Costs & profit
8 terms- Food cost
- The cost of the ingredients used to make a dish, usually expressed as a percentage of the dish's sale price.
- Food cost percentage
- Ingredient cost divided by sales, times 100. A core measure of menu profitability.
- Labor cost percentage
- Staff wages as a share of sales over a period. A key lever on profit, best watched in real time.
- Prime cost
- Food cost plus labor cost combined — the two largest controllable expenses, often managed as one number.
- COGS
- Cost of goods sold — the direct cost of the food and drink you sold in a period.
- Gross margin
- The portion of a sale left after the cost of the goods sold, before other expenses.
- Theoretical vs actual
- A comparison of what your sales should have consumed (theoretical) against what was really used (actual). The gap reveals waste or loss.
- Break-even
- The level of sales at which total revenue equals total cost — you make neither a profit nor a loss.
Service & front of house
8 terms- Covers
- The number of guests served, usually counted per shift or day, used for staffing and prep planning.
- Table turnover
- How many times a table is used during a service period. Higher turnover means more revenue from the same seats.
- Average check
- The average amount spent per guest or table. Upsells and loyalty tend to raise it.
- Check (or tab)
- The running bill for a table or guest, held open until they're ready to pay.
- Split check
- Dividing a single table's bill among guests — by seat, by item, or evenly.
- Walk-in
- A guest who arrives without a reservation.
- Waitlist
- A managed queue of guests waiting for a table, ideally with accurate wait quotes.
- Comp
- An item or check made free of charge, often to resolve a problem or as hospitality.
Kitchen & operations
8 terms- 86
- Kitchen shorthandRestaurant shorthand meaning an item is sold out or unavailable — 'we're 86 on the salmon.'
- KDS
- Kitchen display system — screens that replace paper tickets, routing orders to stations and pacing service.
- Fire
- To send an order or course to the kitchen to begin cooking, on the server's cue.
- Coursing
- Pacing a meal so each course reaches the table at the right time, with the kitchen timed to match.
- Station
- A defined area of the kitchen responsible for certain items, such as the grill, fryer, or cold station.
- Mise en place
- Everything prepped and in place before service so the line can move quickly and consistently.
- Par level
- The target stock level for an ingredient — the amount you aim to have on hand to get through a period.
- Bump
- To clear a completed ticket or item from the kitchen display once it's done.
Technology & ordering
8 terms- POS
- Point of sale — the system staff use to take orders, send them to the kitchen, and process payment.
- QR menu
- A menu guests open by scanning a QR code, often allowing them to order and pay from their phone.
- Offline-first
- Software designed to keep working without an internet connection, syncing automatically when it returns.
- PWA
- Progressive web app — a website that installs and behaves like an app, useful for reliable POS terminals.
- RTL
- Right-to-left — the writing direction of Arabic and Kurdish, which a proper menu mirrors throughout its layout.
- Station routing
- Sending each item on an order to the specific kitchen or bar station responsible for making it.
- Loyalty / CRM
- Tools to recognise and reward repeat guests and to build a first-party database of customers you own.
- Order injection
- Bringing orders from delivery apps directly into your own order queue instead of a separate tablet.
Less jargon, more service
Menulisa brings ordering, POS, kitchen, and reporting into one platform your whole team can actually use.