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Server Interview Questions

Restaurants count on servers to provide exceptional customer service regardless of the situation. Interviewers will be looking for candidates who are skilled in communicating, multitasking, and maintaining a friendly attitude under pressure. Make sure to be familiar with the restaurant's menu items, understand standard restaurant operations, and know how to respond to an unsatisfied customer.

Top Server Interview Questions & How To Answer

Question 1

Question #1: How would you handle an irate customer?

How to answer
How to answer: This question, or variations of it, are popular in server interviews. Talk about how you would try to calm the customer down in a polite and respectful manner before asking management for assistance. Try to avoid any response that might involve you showing aggression toward the irate customer. Focus on effective conflict resolution, an important skill for servers to develop.
Question 2

Question #2: How do you handle high-intensity dinner rushes?

How to answer
How to answer: Questions like these are designed to measure your skills in task and time management. Highlight your ability to quickly decide which tasks need priority over others. You might touch on your ability to stay calm in high-stress situations such as having to serve multiple tables at once.
Question 3

Question #3: What do you know about our business?

How to answer
How to answer: Before you go into a server interview, be sure to research the company you're applying to so that you'll be prepared to answer questions like these. This question is designed to see if you're truly interested in working for this company or simply interested in having a server position anywhere.

29,649 server interview questions shared by candidates

She flipped through my resume, and sneered at my most recent job, at a wilderness camp, saying it wasn't much of a job at all. You know how jobs are - the title doesn't give the story. This was a job with enormous responsibility - for giving people a good time, for keeping the area maintained, for performing a nightly monologue, and for literally keeping the guests alive. One of my duties was manning a first aid station that frequently handles life threatening emergencies. And she called it a fluff job. What do you say after that? She said they'd be in touch within 2 days I phoned on the third and was told, very abruptly that I didn't get the job. My mom has owned a business and said the comments and questions were unprofesiional and hostile. And she said that the correct thing to do when you tell someone you aren't hiring them, is to give them some constructive reason - something they can work on improving ( for example, get some wine experience and try again in a year) rather than speak to them as if they were garbage. She always tried to think of other places that might be a better fit, too. I think Olive Garden would be a good fit for me, but I'm very glad not to be working under such an unhappy, insecure woman.
avatar

Food Server

Interviewed at Darden

3.7★
Dec 1, 2012

She flipped through my resume, and sneered at my most recent job, at a wilderness camp, saying it wasn't much of a job at all. You know how jobs are - the title doesn't give the story. This was a job with enormous responsibility - for giving people a good time, for keeping the area maintained, for performing a nightly monologue, and for literally keeping the guests alive. One of my duties was manning a first aid station that frequently handles life threatening emergencies. And she called it a fluff job. What do you say after that? She said they'd be in touch within 2 days I phoned on the third and was told, very abruptly that I didn't get the job. My mom has owned a business and said the comments and questions were unprofesiional and hostile. And she said that the correct thing to do when you tell someone you aren't hiring them, is to give them some constructive reason - something they can work on improving ( for example, get some wine experience and try again in a year) rather than speak to them as if they were garbage. She always tried to think of other places that might be a better fit, too. I think Olive Garden would be a good fit for me, but I'm very glad not to be working under such an unhappy, insecure woman.

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