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101 battle-tested tips to reclaim your margins without sacrificing your brand’s guest experience.
7 min read
May 15, 2025
Cleanliness is essential in the restaurant industry. If you don't clean and sanitize your location on a regular basis, you could face fines, temporary closure, and a bad reputation in your community. Or even worse, you'll put your guests' health at risk.
Of course, knowing you need to clean your restaurant and doing it effectively are different things. Good news: a restaurant cleaning checklist will help.
In this guide we share restaurant cleaning tips you can implement immediately. Even better, we separate each tip by shift, area, and team responsibility—so nothing slips through the cracks.
A restaurant cleaning checklist will help you maintain compliance, protect guest health, improve efficiency, and create better dining experiences. That’s why it’s so important for all types of eateries.
Regularly cleaning kitchen equipment, food prep areas, and dining rooms will help your establishment avoid foodborne illnesses that destroy the guest experience.
You'll also stay compliant with laws and regulations, which is a big deal in the food service industry. By following health department guidelines, you'll make sure your restaurant earns a high score from health inspectors. Even if you weren't expecting them to show up for an inspection.
A restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist is good for employees as well. When employees know exactly what and how to clean, they become significantly more efficient.
Checklists also simplify the employee training process. New hires won't have to memorize sanitizing techniques and cleaning schedules. They'll simply follow your checklist. The result? Faster training, greater consistency across shifts, and a cleaner restaurant.
Imagine you walk into a new restaurant, and there's trash on the floor, stains on the upholstered seats, and crumbs on the tabletops. Are you still going to eat there? Probably not.
Your guests feel the same way. If your restaurant isn't clean and sanitized, they won't stick around. After all, they might get sick. Clean dining rooms and restrooms build trust with guests and encourage repeat visits. In other words, they're vital to the success of your restaurant.
Tackle these daily cleaning tasks before your restaurant opens. To make things easier, we've separated them into two categories: front of house (FOH) and back of house (BOH) tasks.
Follow this front of house cleaning checklist to ensure your dining room is sanitized on a regular basis. Doing so will improve the guest experience and encourage repeat visits.
Follow this back of house cleaning checklist to sanitize your kitchen every day. This will eliminate foodborne illness and help your restaurant maintain compliance.
You'll need to clean your restaurant throughout the day. These two checklists—one for FOH tasks and another for BOH tasks—will help you develop an efficient mid-shift cleaning process.
The following cleaning procedures will keep your FOH areas clean between shifts:
This commercial kitchen cleaning checklist will keep your BOH areas clean between shifts:
The workday is done. Now it's time to grab the cleaning supplies and do a kitchen deep clean, FOH closeout, and tidy up the restrooms. Here's an easy-to-follow checklist.
Deep clean your kitchen at the end of the day. Doing so will help you remove potentially hazardous food residue and ensure the ongoing health of your employees and guests.
Restaurant deep cleaning doesn't end in the kitchen. You need to sanitize FOH areas too, so that your establishment is ready to receive guests the next day.
Finally, sanitize bathrooms, clean various wash areas, and restock missing items. That way opening shift employees don't have to scramble to do it before guests arrive.
We've covered daily cleaning tasks. Now make time for weekly cleaning tasks and monthly maintenance measures to ensure your restaurant hits peak performance.
Use this weekly cleaning checklist to tackle "heavy-duty" tasks and make sure your restaurant is both sanitary and inviting for guests.
These monthly tasks will keep your restaurant clean and your commercial kitchen equipment in working order. As such, they're important to the success of your business.
You've developed a comprehensive cleaning schedule. Now you need to delegate cleaning tasks to the most logical employees. These two tips will help:
First, assign tasks based on employee roles and schedules. For example, ask FOH employees to complete FOH cleaning tasks, while BOH employees complete BOH cleaning tasks. We also recommend using printed or digital cleaning checklists. This will increase accountability and make sure your restaurant is thoroughly cleaned each day.
Let your employees know: regular cleaning is part of the job, not an extra task. Once you've made that clear, align cleaning tasks with prep list, opening duties, and line checks. Then take things a step further and add signature boxes to your restaurant cleaning checklists. This will keep your employees accountable and make sure your restaurant is sanitized regularly.
Software can help you develop an effective restaurant cleaning checklist—and make sure your employees actually use it. Here are eight tools we recommend.
Task management software will help your team track completed tasks in real time. So, they'll never have to ask each other, "Did you sanitize the toilets?" They'll just look at the app.
Just as important, you can use these tools to create recurring cleaning checklists tied to shifts. In other words, a BOH employee who works the closing shift won't have to sift through tasks that are only assigned to FOH employees who work the opening shift, and vice versa.
There are plenty of task management apps for restaurants. Some of the more popular ones include 7shifts, Jolt, Connecteam, Trail, and GoAudits.
Digital tools can help develop robust employee training and onboarding programs that reinforce cleaning protocols. Popular options include Docebo, TalentLMS, and Litmos.
Some employee training apps feature task management features that can be accessed via a mobile device. This means your team will be able to train and complete tasks on the same app. And they'll access the tool on the device they already have in their pocket.
Still have questions about restaurant cleaning checklists? Here are the five we see most often.
Different people will tell you different things. But generally speaking, the number one rule of cleaning is, "Clean from top to bottom." In practice, this means that you clean walls before tables, tables before floors, and so on. This ensures dust and debris dislodged near the top of your restaurant don't fall on areas you've already cleaned, creating a sanitary environment.
First, clean your restaurant from top to bottom. This will physically remove most dirt and germs from the premises. Second, sanitize high-touch areas, such as doorknobs, tabletops, and menus. This will further reduce germs on items that are often used by guests. Third, disinfect specific locations that attract the most impurities, like raw food prep areas and bathrooms.
These methods will ensure personal and food safety for all. Be aware, you'll need different cleaning chemicals for each sequence above: clean, sanitize, disinfect. Cleaning is often done with soap and water, while a sanitizing solution or purpose-made disinfectant will be required for the other two.
The five points of cleaning are:
The 3 S's stand for sort, set in order, and shine. In the "sort" phase, decide which items and/or tools your team uses on a regular basis. Remove the ones that aren't used. In the "set in order" phase, place all items and/or tools in their proper location. In the "shine" phase, clean the items and/or tools you keep, as well as the general areas around them.
A strong cleaning checklist builds efficiency, safety, and guest trust. Fortunately, all you have to do to develop a cleaning checklist for your restaurant is follow the tips in this article.
Remember: cleaning should be done on a regular basis. As such, it should become part of the culture of your restaurant, not only a task list. This will ensure it's done well.
Looking for additional ways to improve your restaurant? Paytronix will help you streamline operations and empower your team with tools that boost accountability. Book a demo today.
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