A clean restaurant goes beyond food safety. Cleanliness and sanitation policies prevent foodborne illness and keep your restaurant compliant with local health codes. Most restaurant owners and managers use a cleaning checklist to organize a cleaning schedule, indicating what items must be cleaned and when. The checklist shows you what was cleaned, when, and who cleaned it.
I’ve included a free, downloadable restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist for every area of your restaurant, from the dining room to the bar and kitchen. Download the checklist and read on for tips on using them and enforcing a cleaning schedule for restaurants.
Download Restaurant Cleaning Checklists
Front of House Cleaning Checklist
The guest-facing areas of a restaurant—the dining room, guest restrooms, and entrances—are all part of your front of house (FOH). It is important to clean and sanitize these high-traffic areas with the correct cleaning solutions and clean each section regularly.
Unsanitary dining rooms can lead to illness among customers and staff and distort the taste of your food and drinks. Your local health inspector will check that these areas are scrupulously clean and that your team regularly sanitizes high-touch surfaces like door handles and faucets.
FOH Cleaning Supplies Needed
- Sanitizing solution (Ecolab Sanitizing Solution is most common)
- Clean towels
- Red sanitizer solution buckets
- Broom
- Mop and bucket with access to hot, soapy water
- Bathroom cleaner and toilet brush
- Surface sanitizing cleaners
- Glass surface cleaners
- Sponges
- Vacuum
- Degreasing solution
- Scrub brushes
- Paper supplies: toilet paper, paper towels, hand towels, napkins
- Rubber or latex cleaning gloves
With your cleaning supplies in hand, these are the key FOH areas to clean and sanitize, organized into daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning tasks.
Bar Cleaning Checklist
The bar is another guest-facing area that needs extra diligence and care to keep it clean. Sticky simple syrups, small garnishes, and beer spillage can all make the bar area very dirty, very quickly. Using a solid cleaning checklist can alleviate the mess and keep your bar sanitary for staff and customers.
Below are the cleaning supplies and checklist you should apply to your bar area.
Cleaning Supplies Needed
- Sanitizer solution (Ecolab Sanitizing Solution is most common)
- Clean towels
- Red sanitizer buckets
- Broom
- Mop and bucket with access to hot, soapy water
- Bathroom cleaner and toilet brush
- Glass surface cleaners
- Sponges
- Vacuum
- Degreasing solution
- Scrub brushes
- Paper supplies: paper towels, hand towels, cocktail napkins
- Microfiber polishing cloths
Red sanitizer buckets should be a common sight throughout your bar or restaurant. Health inspectors look for these buckets of sanitizing solution when performing their inspections. Remember to test your sanitizing solution for the correct PH using test strips and always keep any bar towels completely submerged in the solution.
Many restaurant customers think the cleanliness of your restrooms reflects the cleanliness of your kitchen. Many Yelp and Tripadvisor reviews mention restrooms specifically. Assign regular restroom checks to at least two key staff members every shift to ensure this area gets proper attention.
Back of House Cleaning Checklist
The kitchen, otherwise known as the “back of the house” (BOH), gets dirty very quickly. Cooking messes and build-up can get out of hand if you don’t have a clear cleaning checklist. I cannot stress enough how important adhering to strict cleaning schedules is. A dirty kitchen not only affects food, cost, and performance but can also literally lead to your business being shut down.
These are the cleaning supplies you need to keep your restaurant kitchen spotless.
Cleaning Supplies Needed
- Surface wipes and glass cleaners
- Clean side towels
- Clean microfiber cleaning cloths
- Sponges, steel wool, green scrubbies, and other cleaning tools
- Sanitizing solution and bleach
- Commercial dishwashing detergent
- Degreaser
- Hand soap
- Food-safe gloves
- Broom, mop, and bucket with hot, soapy water
- Commercial floor cleaner
- Trash bags and containers
- Paper towels
- Deck brush
Hold onto your equipment manuals. They include detailed cleaning instructions for sensitive equipment like fryers, hoods, refrigerators, and cooktops. You paid a lot of money for your kitchen equipment; don’t ruin it by improper cleaning.
Restaurant Cleaning Tips & Best Practices
A clean restaurant ensures guest safety and legal compliance. When it comes to your cleanliness, there is no such thing as too much effort. The more strict and diligent your team is about cleanliness, the better your product will be and the more reputable your business will become. Below are some tips and best practices you should focus on for keeping your restaurant clean and well-maintained.
Ensure Proper Food Storage
Food storage is key to preventing waste and ensuring food safety. To keep your kitchen clean, you should also make sure that your staff is taught about FIFO, understands food temperature guidelines, and uses a clear way of labeling and organizing food in your storage areas. Lack of organization in the walk-in or similar food storage areas can lead to some pretty nasty conditions, so emphasizing the need for proper food storage in your restaurant is a high priority.
Require Frequent Hand Washing
I alluded to a handwashing cadence above, and I cannot stress enough how important it is to instill a culture of diligent handwashing in your restaurant. Proper handwashing and hygiene keep food, your employees, and your customers safe. Ensure that you have scheduled handwashing periods and keep handwashing stations stocked—these are even regulated by your local health inspector.
Assign Tasks Clearly
Everyone in a restaurant has a part to play in maintaining the cleanliness of the restaurant. Keeping a checklist and assigning specific staff members to these different tasks is the best way to break up and accomplish the various restaurant needs throughout the day. This ensures that all facets of your restaurant are cleaned in an organized manner. Pairing a checklist with a cleaning schedule also keeps your restaurant sanitary at all times.
Know Your Local Health Regulations
Knowing what your local health department requires of your business is your legal duty as a restaurant owner. Be aware of the health department guidelines and regulations, and ensure they are all followed at your business. When a health inspector walks in, you should not be scrambling to clean and do the right thing. You should be able to conduct business as usual, knowing the high level of cleaning your team does every day.
Learn more:
- Permits & Licenses for Restaurants: The Ultimate Guide
- 21 Restaurant Health Code Violations [+ How to Avoid Them]
Take Pests Seriously
Every restaurant needs pest prevention, as different pests are always at risk of entering your restaurant. Keeping your restaurant clean, addressing entrances for pests, and being diligent with exterminators and pest prevention agencies are crucial to avoiding infestations. The sight of a cockroach or a rat inside a restaurant can be a death sentence to a business. Pest prevention is a seriously important task for every food business.
Stick to Schedules
The reason cleaning schedules work is because, over time, restaurants get really dirty. Scheduled cleaning stops debris and dirt build-up and helps address key areas in your restaurant before they become dirty or contaminated. Being strict on your cleaning schedule when busy or behind is the most important. Being busy is not an excuse to avoid cleaning. There is always time to do the right thing.
Benefits of Having a Cleaning Checklist for Restaurants
There is simply too much to manage off of the top of your head in a restaurant. There are so many different areas in a restaurant that need cleaning and maintenance. A restaurant cleaning checklist takes out the need for thought and makes it an automatic task for your staff to accomplish. It helps manage blind spots and helps your management account for all of the different cleaning needs in your business.
Below are some of the benefits of a proper cleaning checklist:
- Cost savings due to less food waste
- More efficient employee work due to organized and clean spaces
- Safe products for your customers to enjoy.
- Safe working conditions for your staff.
- Being legally compliant with the health department
- Better reputation due to cleanliness and overall status of your restaurant
- Better quality of food
- Ability to assign different staff members to different tasks on the list, spreading out the workload for more efficient cleaning
FAQs
These are some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to restaurant cleanliness.
Last Bite
As you can see, a lot goes into cleaning a restaurant. The front of the house, back of the house, and bar all require their own checklists and schedules to be cleaned effectively. While it can be overwhelming and a lot to manage, a great cleaning checklist will help break down and ensure all areas are sanitized and safe to prepare food and drink in. Utilize the checklist, be diligent with schedules, and train your staff on proper cleaning. This is the way to manage and run a safe, popular, and trusted restaurant.
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