Three Reasons Why I Always Repeat The Order Back

I am a great believer in writing everything down when I take the order. First of all I don't like to rely on my memory. If I do , by the time I run to punch in the order I may have lost my train of thought because someone interrupted me. It happens like when someone stops you to ask something or you have to wait for a terminal to free up to punch the order you have just taken mentally. Especially with special requests and allergy alerts. Always I write it down.

Another thing that I do that few don't is actually repeat what the guest has ordered back to them. This eliminates the mistake that occurs when you know someone ordered something and you write it down and then they get their dinner exactly as they ordered it and it needs to be cooked more or maybe it is overcooked. Then you have to bring it back to the kitchen to get it fixed up. Then the blame game starts and the customer is an idiot.

Now maybe I am the only one who this happens to but let's say the guy orders his steak medium rare , when I repeat back to him Medium rare his partner says no you want yours' cooked to medium well. He then says , do I like mine medium well and then the partner well go on to say that is the way he had it last time and liked it very much. At home he has the same thing.

So then he says okay I will have it medium well and he gets his steak and it is cooked the way he likes it. No worries.

Here is my point , when you repeat back to the person as you are writing down their request on your pad , what happens is first of all everyone else at the table knows what that person has ordered so if it comes back as they ordered and they complain , everyone knows at the table that is exactly what they had ordered. So you are not an idiot.

The second reason is when you repeat the order back to them it serves to trigger a memory at the table either by someone else who knows what that person really wants , or maybe that person has now heard back what they have just ordered and says no I meant this instead.

Also of course it serves as a check that I have heard them properly.

Repeat the order back to the guest for these 3 reasons and you will find that you have less dealings with the kitchen as to plates coming back than your co-workers.

It is all about attention to detail.