High Efficiency Dish Room Presentation


Below is a crude sketch of an efficient dish room layout.



Components of an efficient dish room:

  • Hands Free Hand Sink Placed at Landing Station
  • Soiled Dish Table/Landing Station
  • Double Sided Dish Sorting Shelf
  • Salvajor ScrapMaster
  • High Temp Dish Machine with Condensate Hood
  • Clean Dish Table
  • Dish Rack Dolly
  • Floor Trough Drain
  • 9) Three Compartment Power Soak

Operation:

Wait staff will pre-bus their tables during service. Wait staff will bring dirty dishes to the Landing Table, placing the dishes in a Decoy System. A Decoy System at the Landing Station is designed to help employees efficiently sort dishes so they can be loaded into the dishwasher without confusion or delay.

A Decoy System is set up by locating an available portion of your landing station on which the dish washer can lay out one piece of each dinnerware type in a line, arranging dishes from smallest to largest diameter. Since our operation involves wait staff handling soiled dishes, a touch free hand sink must be placed near the Landing Table. The Landing Table must be at least 6 feet in length.

A dish room that does not sort the dishes in a decoy system cannot run efficiently.

I dish room can efficiently sort and organize their dishes when implementing the decoy system.



The next step in an efficient dish room is the scrapping of the soiled dishes. An important thing to remember is that you can only wash dishes as fast as you can scrap dishes. Picture a high temp dish machine capable of washing 3,000 dishes per hour. An employee operating a pre-rinse can only scrap 800 dishes per hour. This creates a bottle neck between the labor and the equipment capability. One effective remedy to this bottle neck is the ScrapMaster by Salvajor.

In a ScrapMaster, scrapping speed is more than doubled while overall labor costs are reduced. A ScrapMaster recirculates 30 gallons of water per minute saving thousands of dollars annually in water and sewer costs. The ScrapMaster allows the operator to use both hands to scrap soiled dishes. This increased efficiency will allow the operation to use fewer dish room employees. Employees cost around $50,000 when to hire and train. The ScrapMaster will have paid for itself in around 4 months. An important note is that there must be at least 24” between the ScrapMaster and a dish machine. This additional room allows you to place a full sized dish rack and move it into the dishwasher.

Which brings us to the next part of the process - the high temp dish machine. High temp machines come in door type, undercounter, conveyor, and flight machines. Which ever dish machine you use, the water must be at least 180F so that the machine can sanitize without the use of chemicals. Chemicals affect the flavor of food and drinks. When serving draft beer, the chemicals react to the draft beer causing the beer to foam. This foam overflow goes right down the drain causing you to lose 40% of your product yield. High temp dish machines require a Type 2 condensate hood for the steam and heat they produce. Some manufactures have also created ventless high temp dishwasher models. These types of commercial dishwashers do not require and additional vent hood.

When the dishes come out of the dish machine, they will need to be placed on a clean dish table. Underneath this clean dish table, a dish rack dolly will be used to stack and transport clean racks for reuse. Dishwashing is a wet process and water will inevitably go on the floor. We recommend a floor trough drain be placed in front of the dish machine to keep water from accumulating and creating a slip hazard.

To the left of the clean dish table on the adjacent wall will sit a Power Soak three compartment sink. Power Soak uses jets to circulate warm soapy water which causes sufficient agitation allowing pots, pans, and utensils to be cleaned. The Power Soak’s ease of use means more labor savings. Imagine a dish room operation running at maximum efficiency, allowing the end user to eliminate bottle necks while using less labor.

Waitstaff

Your waitstaff will now be taking care of your guest’s needs. They all need to present themselves in a professional manner and be respectful even to difficult customers. Your waitstaff needs to treat all customers like they are a notoriously difficult food critic, because in a way they kind of are. All it takes is one snippy comment from a waiter to trigger a guest into making a detrimental online review which can lead to a loss of customers. Waitstaff needs to be knowledgeable on everything being served and must be prepared to answer any question a customer may have with a kind and welcoming tone.

Before each shift starts, your general manager or front of house manager might want to have a quick meeting with staff. That way they can provide information to waitstaff about anything that may arise that shift. For example, maybe there is a reservation for a large party and everyone needs to be prepared to help out or maybe there is a problem that needs to be addressed before the shift starts. The more prepared your staff is, the better things will flow.

Bathrooms

So, not only does your entryway and dining room need to be clean but your customer bathroom does too.  Your dinning room can be spotless and cleaned to perfection, but if your bathroom is gross, your guests will probably not want to come by again. After all, if your bathroom is a mess then maybe your kitchen is nasty too? That is the kind of assumption that you don’t want your guests to make.

Your general manager or front of house manager should schedule regular bathroom checks to make sure everything is stocked and cleaned.

Clean Up

Once your customer has finished their meal and left their table, it’s up to the busser to clean up. Even though bussers don’t always interact directly with customers it is important to have them trained in service just in case extra assistance is needed. It is also important for them to keep their aprons clean and appear professional when cleaning up the tables for the next guests.