Waiter interview questions
Table service is a memory game played at speed in front of an audience. These questions ask about the parts that are hard: the section, the allergen, the table that is not happy and the Friday night nobody wants.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| How many tables have you run in a section, and how was it laid out? | A number and a layout. Six tables in one room is different work from six spread across two levels. |
| Walk us through the first two minutes at a new table. | Water, the specials, allergies and timings. Somebody who starts with the drinks order and nothing else has not been trained. |
| A guest tells you they have a severe allergy. What do you do? | Tell the kitchen before the order goes in, check the dish rather than guess, and carry the plate themselves. Never "I think that one is fine". |
| How do you keep track of four tables at different stages at once? | A system: docket order, a glance pattern, checking back at set moments. Not memory alone. |
| A main comes out wrong and the table has already waited. What do you say? | Own it, no excuses, fix it fast and tell the manager. Listen for the apology being about the guest rather than about the kitchen. |
| How do you take an order so the kitchen does not have to ask twice? | Seat numbers, modifiers, course order, and repeating it back. This is the answer that saves a whole service. |
| Tell us about a table that was unhappy and what you did. | A real example with an outcome. What they escalated and when is more useful than how charming they were. |
| What do you do in the quiet half hour before a booking lands? | Setting up: polishing, checking the station, reading the bookings. Somebody who says they take a breather is being honest but is not the answer. |
| How do you hand your section over at the end of a shift? | Tables, dockets and anything outstanding, said out loud to a named person rather than left on the pass. |
| What do you need from the kitchen to run your section well? | Timings and a heads up on anything that is going to run long. A waiter who expects nothing from the kitchen has not worked a good one. |
| How do you handle a guest who has had too much to drink? | Stops service, tells the duty manager, and does not argue with the guest. Anything that sounds like confrontation is a flag. |
| This role is mostly Thursday to Sunday nights. Which of those can you work? | Specific nights. Weekend nights are the shifts this role exists for, and it is better to know now. |
| What would you want to know about the menu before your first service? | Allergens, the specials, and what is likely to run out. Curiosity about the food is a good sign. |
| What would you like to ask us? | Questions about the sections, the team or the roster. |
What is in the file
- Template, blank, with each section down the side and room for the answer.
- Example, the same sheet filled in for Wharf Road Kitchen.
- How to use, with the steps and the mistakes below.
How to fill it in
- Read the waiter job description first, and cut any question the job does not actually need answered.
- Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order, so the answers can be compared rather than remembered.
- Print the blank sheet and write what each person said beside the question, during the interview rather than after it.
- Score at the end against the job description, not against who you liked talking to.
Common mistakes
- Questions about age, health, pregnancy, family responsibilities, religion, race or union membership, which are not about the job and carry real risk
- A different set of questions for each candidate, which makes the decision impossible to explain later
- Asking about availability and then rostering outside it in the first fortnight
Sources
The official pages this wording was read against, on 21 October 2026.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Hiring employees
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Protection from discrimination at work
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Job ads
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Find my award
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
In Roster Flow the weekend shifts this role is built around can be rotated fairly rather than landing on whoever says yes most, and each person can see their own pattern ahead.
Questions
What is on the waiter interview questions?
14 sections down the side, running from how many tables have you run in a section, and how was it laid out? to what would you like to ask us?. The example beside them is filled in for Wharf Road Kitchen: fourteen questions about sections, service, allergens and the difficult table.
Does the waiter interview questions work anything out for you?
No. It is a document with 14 sections to answer in your own words, not a calculator. Nothing on it is a formula.
Can I use the waiter interview questions in Google Sheets?
Yes. Open waiter-interview-questions.xlsx from Google Drive, or use File, then Import, then Upload with waiter-interview-questions.csv. The document and its example come across either way.
Is the wording in the waiter interview questions ready to use as it is?
The waiter interview questions is a starting point for Wharf Road Kitchen or any business like it, to adapt rather than sign. The wording was checked against the official sources on 21 October 2026, it is not legal advice, and it has not been through a workplace relations professional.