Restaurant SOPs: How to Write Them, With Examples

By Rob Bruni, founder of OpsEdge Hospitality, twenty years running restaurants, bars, clubs and resorts. Updated November 2026.

Every restaurant already has standard operating procedures. In most of them they live in the head of the one person who has been there longest, and they leave when that person does. Writing them down is how a good shift becomes a repeatable one. This guide covers which SOPs a restaurant or bar needs, the eight parts of an SOP people will follow, a free template builder, three worked examples and a 30 day plan to write and roll out your own.

What a restaurant SOP is, and what it is not

A standard operating procedure is a written instruction for one task: who does it, when, the steps in order, the standard it must meet and what to do if it goes wrong. The USDA's food safety guidance describes SOPs as written instructions for a food service task that reduce food safety hazards (USDA). In a restaurant the same idea applies to cash, service and the bar as much as to food.

Four documents get confused with each other. They do different jobs.

Policies belong in the employee handbook. Checklists verify the shift, and the restaurant checklists guide covers those. Recipes belong on recipe cost cards. The SOP manual is the how.

Why written procedures pay for themselves

• Consistency. Guests come back for the same experience. A written standard is the only way two cooks on two different nights plate the same dish and two bartenders pour the same drink.
• Faster training. A new hire trained from one page per task is useful in days. A new hire trained by shadowing learns that trainer's habits, good and bad. The hiring and training guide shows how SOPs fit into a first week.
• Food safety and inspections. The FDA Food Code describes active managerial control, meaning the operator builds specific procedures into the operation to prevent foodborne illness, and lists standard operating procedures for critical steps as one of its elements (FDA Food Code, Annex 4). An inspector who sees written procedures and filled in logs sees a manager in control.
• It may be required. Rules vary by state and county. Michigan, for example, requires new fixed food establishments to have written SOPs in place before opening (Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development). Ask your local health department what it expects.
• Cost control. Receiving, portioning, waste logging, comps and cash handling are procedures. When they are loose, food cost and cash shortages show it first.
• The business runs without you. Written procedures are what let an owner take a day off, promote a manager or open a second location.

The SOPs every restaurant needs

You do not need hundreds. Most independent restaurants and bars run well on 30 to 60, grouped by who uses them.

Write them in this order: first anything that can make a guest sick or hurt an employee, then anything that touches cash, then the tasks done every shift, then everything else. If the bar is a big part of the business, the bar opening and closing guide and the bar inventory guide give you the content for those procedures. For allergens, use the allergen management guide.

The eight parts of a good SOP

Use the same layout for every procedure so people know where to look.

1. Title and number. Name the task the way the team says it: "Receiving a delivery", not "Inbound goods protocol".
2. Purpose. One sentence on why it matters. People follow steps they understand.
3. Who and when. The position responsible and the trigger: every delivery, every close, every time a guest states an allergy.
4. What you need. Tools and supplies, such as a probe thermometer, sanitizer test strips or the drop safe key.
5. Steps. Five to nine numbered steps, each starting with a verb. One action per step.
6. The standard. The number that defines done right: a temperature, a time limit, a par, a dollar tolerance.
7. If something is wrong. The corrective action, and who to tell. This is the part most SOPs leave out and the part people need most.
8. Record, owner and date. Which log gets filled in, who owns the SOP and when it was last reviewed.

Free SOP template builder

Fill in the fields and the formatted procedure appears below, ready to copy into a document or print. An example is loaded. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Three worked examples

These show the level of detail to aim for. Temperatures and times are from the FDA Food Code. Confirm them against the version your state or county has adopted.

How to write your SOPs in 30 days

• Days 1 to 3: make the listList every task by area using the table above. Mark each one for risk, cash or daily use. Pick the top 15.
• Days 4 to 14: write the first 15Watch your best person do the task and write down what they do, in their words. Do not write from your desk. Two a day is a realistic pace.
• Days 15 to 18: test themHand each page to your newest employee and ask them to do the task from the page alone. Every question they ask is a missing step.
• Days 19 to 26: write the restHave each department lead draft the procedures for their area in the same layout. You edit for length and standards.
• Days 27 to 30: publish and trainNumber them, put them in one binder and one shared folder, and schedule training. Print the ones that belong at a station.

Rolling them out so people follow them

• Train two or three at a time. Use pre-shift. Show the task, have someone do it, then sign them off. A binder handed over on day one gets read by no one.
• Post them where the work happens. The cooling steps go by the walk-in, the sanitizer setup above the three compartment sink, the cash-out steps in the office.
• Track who is trained on what. A simple grid of names against SOPs shows the gaps and gives you a record if anything is ever questioned.
• Verify with checklists and logs. The checklist line confirms the procedure happened and the log shows the number. Managers spot check both, and the health inspection readiness guide shows what a weekly self check looks like.
• Hold the standard yourself. The first time a manager skips a step in front of the team, the SOP becomes optional.
• Translate where you need to. If part of the team reads Spanish first, the procedure should be in Spanish too.

Keeping them current

An out of date SOP is worse than none, because people stop trusting the whole binder. Give every SOP an owner and a last reviewed date. Review the full set once a year, and review the affected pages any time you change the menu, a piece of equipment, the POS or the staffing model, or when the local code changes. When a mistake happens, ask first whether the SOP was wrong, missing or not trained, and fix that before you blame the person.

Mistakes that kill an SOP manual

• Too long. If it does not fit on a page it will not be read on a Friday night.
• No standard. "Cool the soup quickly" is a wish. "To 70 F within two hours" is a procedure.
• No corrective action. People follow the steps until something goes wrong, then guess.
• Written from the office. Procedures that do not match how the work is really done get ignored.
• Written once and never trained. The manual is the start of the work, not the end of it.
• Copied without editing. A template is a head start. Your temperatures, tolerances, equipment and local rules still have to go in.

Sources and further reading: FDA Food Code; FDA retail and food service HACCP; USDA guidance on food safety programs and SOPs; Michigan fixed food establishment SOP manual. Food safety rules vary by state and county, so confirm with your local health department.

FAQ

What is an SOP in a restaurant?

A standard operating procedure is a short written instruction for one task: who does it, when, the steps in order, the standard it has to meet and what to do when something goes wrong. Receiving a delivery, cooling a batch of soup and closing out a cash drawer are all SOPs.

What SOPs does a restaurant need?

Start with the tasks where a mistake costs money, makes a guest sick or gets you in trouble: receiving, cooling and reheating, handwashing, allergen orders, sanitizer setup, opening and closing, cash handling, comps and voids, inventory counts, alcohol service and guest complaints. Most independent restaurants run well on 30 to 60 SOPs.

What is the difference between an SOP and a checklist?

An SOP explains how to do one task and the standard it must meet. A checklist confirms that a set of tasks was done on a given shift. You train from the SOP and you verify with the checklist. Most operations need both.

How long should a restaurant SOP be?

One page. Five to nine numbered steps is the range people follow. If a procedure needs more, it is usually two procedures. Put photos or the standard, such as a temperature or a time limit, right next to the step it belongs to.

Are restaurants required to have written SOPs?

It depends on where you are. The FDA Food Code is a model that states and counties adopt in their own versions, and some require written procedures for specific things. Michigan, for example, requires new food establishments to have written SOPs before they open. Check with your local health department.

How often should SOPs be updated?

Review every SOP once a year and any time the menu, equipment, POS, staffing model or local code changes. Put the last reviewed date and the owner on each page so anyone can see whether it is current.

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