A Guide to Restaurant Take Out Orders

Have you ever gotten take out, or 'to go' food from a restaurant before? If so, are you one of those people who sort of 'chuckle' when you see the tip line on your credit card receipt, and then say something like, "Tip? For what...all you do is walk a bag out to my car." If that sounds like you or someone you know, please keep reading. This article is an introduction to take out. You will learn that simply taking a bag out to a car is not the case.

This article is geared toward your casual dining restaurants, and the person that brings your take out food to the car is going to be referred to as the 'to go specialist' throughout the article.

Let's go through the steps that your to go specialist has to do to get your order ready for you. We will start with answering the phone and writing down the order. Now keep in mind that your to go specialist may not always be answering every call, due to all the other things he or she needs to do, which you will learn more about in coming paragraphs. So if the to go specialist doesn't answer the phone, don't let this reflect on the tip...they are doing something important. When this happens one of the servers in the restaurant will answer the phone and write down your order. Hopefully they will be pleasant and helpful, but if for some reason they are not, just remember that the to go specialist did not have anything to do with that.

The next step is putting the order into the computer correctly. This is always done by the to go specialist themselves in most cases. Keep this step in mind before the chuckling starts!