At 11:40 the kitchen announces the grilled ribs are gone. At 2 p.m. half a pot of sour soup has to be thrown away. At the end of the day the report shows decent revenue and every dish selling, so nobody can explain why the kitchen keeps swinging between too little and too much. Usually the reason is that the restaurant only looks at whole-day sales, while the kitchen needs to know which dish sells at which hour. This article shows how to read best-selling dishes by time slot and turn that into a prep list for each shift.
Daily totals do not answer the kitchen's questions
| What the kitchen needs to know | Daily total report | Report by time slot |
|---|---|---|
| How many portions of dish A to prep for lunch today | Only how many sold over the whole day | How many the lunch slot usually sells on its own |
| Which dishes only sell well in the evening | Hidden in the total, not visible | Lunch dishes and dinner dishes clearly separated |
| When the kitchen needs extra hands | Unknown | Which hours orders pile up, and on which dishes |
| Which dishes are wasted if cooked in the morning | Unknown | Dishes that only trickle out, better cooked in small batches |
A dish that sells evenly all day and a dish that sells entirely at lunch can end up with the same total. For the kitchen, those two dishes need completely different preparation.
Split the day into a few time slots that follow your rhythm
Do not split by every single hour; the numbers get fragmented and hard to read. Split by the real service rhythm of the restaurant, usually four to five slots:
- Morning — breakfast service or just after opening.
- Lunch peak — the most important slot for office-lunch spots and eateries near workplaces.
- Quiet afternoon — when the kitchen has time to prep for dinner.
- Evening — families, groups, drinking snacks.
- Late night — if the restaurant stays open late.
Look at weekdays and weekends separately. Both are lunch, but on Tuesday the restaurant sells rice plates to office workers, while on Sunday it sells hotpot to families. Use the last few weeks and compare the same weekday; do not rely on a single day.
From the report to a prep list for each shift
If the kitchen still works by feel after reading the report, the report has not helped. Four steps to turn numbers into concrete work:
- Step 1 — Pick the key dishes of each slot. For each time slot take roughly the ten best-selling dishes. Dishes outside that list do not need much prep in advance.
- Step 2 — Use the usual level, not the peak day. Take the average of the same weekday over the last few weeks, plus a small buffer for dishes that often run out.
- Step 3 — Convert portions into ingredients. For dishes with a recipe set up, multiply portions by the recipe to get how much meat and vegetables to prep, no guessing.
- Step 4 — Split batches by slot. Dishes that pile up at lunch are prepped before lunch service opens; dinner dishes are left for the quiet afternoon. Dishes that trickle out all day are made in small batches, with the next batch started when one is nearly gone.
Pin this list up in the kitchen and review it once a week, especially right after changing the menu or prices.
Watch out for dishes that run out early
The report only records what was sold, not what guests wanted to order after the kitchen ran out. A dish that runs out in the middle of lunch will show low sales for the end of the lunch slot; a quick read makes it look unpopular and leads to prepping less — exactly the opposite of what is needed.
- Note the time each dish runs out every day, at least in the first few weeks of reading the hourly report.
- If a dish runs out before the slot ends, prep more next time instead of keeping the same amount.
- Once a dish is gone, temporarily hide it on the ordering menu so guests and staff do not keep ordering it and then have to cancel.
On the other hand, a dish with plenty left at the end of a slot for many days in a row is a sign to cut the batch, or to rethink its place on the menu.
How Ordersys helps
In the Ordersys ordering software, reports include revenue charts, best-selling dishes and shift reports, let you see best-selling dishes by time slot, and export to Excel to print for the kitchen. Dishes with a recipe set up deduct ingredients from stock by recipe when sold, so stock follows actual sales. Restaurants can try it free for 7 days. How to set up recipes so every dish sold deducts its ingredients: see recipe quantities: sell a dish and stock is deducted automatically. Hiding sold-out dishes on the QR menu during busy hours: see changing prices and hiding sold-out dishes on the digital menu.
Staff take orders on their phones, the kitchen gets them instantly, guests order and pay by QR, owners see revenue remotely.
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