The 90-Minute Turnaround
You are the duty supervisor of a 120-seat bistro. At 6:40 pm a party of eight is seated for a 7:00 pm reservation. They order three courses and tell you they must leave by 8:10 pm for a show. The kitchen's current ticket time for mains is 22 minutes. At 7:05 pm the party's entrées are cleared, but one guest has a nut allergy and the kitchen has just discovered the dessert they pre-ordered contains praline. Two of the eight guests are still deciding on wine. The restaurant is fully booked, and the next reservation for this table is 8:15 pm. The floor has one other server on section and a runner who is also restocking the bar.
1. Sequence your actions from 7:05 pm to 8:10 pm. Justify the order of your priorities and state what you would communicate to the kitchen, the guests and the front-of-house team.
Read the worked answer
Priority order is safety, then time, then service polish.
- Allergy first (immediate). Before anything else, confirm with the kitchen in person that the praline dessert is excluded and identify a safe alternative. Never let a server 'guess' - the allergen guest must be told the original dessert is unavailable and offered a checked substitute. This is non-negotiable and outranks the schedule.
- Set the timeline with the kitchen. Tell the chef the party must be out by 8:10 pm, so mains must land by about 7:25 pm and desserts by 7:50 pm. Ask the chef to fire the eight mains now as a single push and to hold the allergy dessert separately.
- Close the wine gap. Send the runner (briefly pulled from restocking) to take the two wine orders while you speak to the kitchen, so drinks arrive with or before mains.
- Tell the guests the plan. At the table, confirm the allergy substitution, state the timing plainly ('mains in about 20 minutes, dessert by 7:50, you'll be walking out by 8:05') and ask them to choose desserts now rather than after mains.
- Protect the next booking. Brief the other server that the table must be reset by 8:15 pm; pre-set the reset items nearby so clearing is fast.
Reasoning: allergy risk is a legal and ethical absolute; the clock is the guest's stated constraint; wine and dessert decisions are the controllable delays. Communicating a concrete timeline converts an anxious table into a cooperative one and protects the 8:15 pm booking.
2. At 7:50 pm the mains are cleared but desserts have not left the pass, and it is now clear the party will not make 8:10 pm. What do you do, and what would you say?
Read the worked answer
Acknowledge the failure early rather than letting it surface at 8:10 pm.
Actions:
- Check the pass immediately to see whether desserts are plated or still in production; if plated, run them yourself.
- If desserts will take more than 5 minutes, offer the party the choice: take desserts as a takeaway box, or skip dessert and have the dessert charge removed from the bill.
- Pre-empt the bill: have it printed and ready so payment does not add delay.
- Notify the 8:15 pm booking if the table will not be reset in time, and offer them a drink at the bar while the table is turned.
What to say: 'I'm sorry - we promised you'd be out by 8:10 and we've missed that. Your desserts are [ready / five minutes away]. I can box them for you right now, or take them off the bill so you can leave immediately. Your account is ready at the register.'
Reasoning: The guest's real need is catching the show, not the dessert. Offering a fast, cost-bearing remedy (box or refund) plus a ready bill respects that need, and an honest apology with a concrete fix preserves goodwill better than silence. Pre-warning the next booking prevents the delay cascading to another table.