Top 15 Free Restaurant Management Courses

1. Opening and Closing Our Restaurant

While often overlooked, setting clear guidelines is very much important when it comes to opening and closing your restaurant. It keeps your crews on top of all the vital tasks that must be done at the start and end of their shifts, streamlining your restaurant's operations throughout the day. EdApp’s Opening and Closing Our Restaurant course presents essential steps and procedures that you and your team must follow to ensure that the establishment remains neat and orderly throughout the day, from the moment the door opens until the last customer leaves. This restaurant training course details the proper procedure for arranging chairs and tables, setting up the lighting and music, and getting ready for service. It also talks about a whole slew of tasks to work on when it’s about time to close the restaurant.

Scope: Proper opening procedures including setting up of furniture, light, and cash register; closing tasks like cleaning tables and restocking of stations

Price: Free (up to 10 users)

Created By EdApp

3. Food & Beverage Management

This Coursera course is designed with two primary goals in mind: first, to prepare managers and entrepreneurs for the most common challenges in the industry; and second, to assist them in developing a positive consumer image and gain a competitive advantage. Expect a total of four modules paired with evaluated quizzes, introduction topic, plus a set of video discussions featuring guest speakers. A shareable certificate will be provided upon successful completion of this course. 

Scope: Generating value for customers through products, how customers value product quality, business tradition vs innovation, leveraging businesses in food and beverage markets, great insights from the field. 

Price: Free

Created by Coursera

5. The Bar World of Tomorrow

EdApp’s The Bar World of Tomorrow is developed in collaboration with industry experts - Pernod Ricard, Trash Tiki, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association. This sponsored course consists of 13 interactive microlessons that the bartender community can use to become part of a greener, more responsible, and inclusive industry. It emphasizes the sustainable sourcing of fresh ingredients, responsible serving of alcoholic beverages, and reliable handling of waste in adherence to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Timely and very unique, it also addresses the challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and how you can reopen the right way. This course is accessible via desktop and mobile phones and is made readily available in seven different languages including English, Chinese, and Spanish. 

Scope: Importance of brand knowledge and product curation, responsible alcohol service, sourcing of ingredients, sustainable bar setup solutions, waste management

Price: Free (up to 10 users)

Created by EdApp

6. Dealing with difficult customers

Another key to business success is whether the restaurant's decoration and signage are attractive enough to attract customers. If you want to get people's attention with vibrant, eye-catching business signs, then custom neon signs may be able to be your first choice, which not only allows you to design a billboard and space that reflects your personality. It also provides high visibility. Not only do they stand out because they glow, but they allow potential customers to spot their location even at night.

Part of business success is ensuring that your customers leave their table with smiles on their faces. But what happens if you’ve come across naturally impatient, indecisive, and raving customers? Another useful course prepared by EdApp, Dealing with Difficult Customers guides your crews to the best practices and strategies on how they can successfully handle difficult guests and resolve complaints. It also contains a quick overview of the most common types of customers, some unfavorable scenarios that they are likely to face, and how they can turn a bad situation into an opportunity to improve business. To drive better learning results, the course lessons are divided into bite-sized chunks that anyone can take in just a few minutes. Short gamified quizzes are also provided in between courses to make this training course more fun and engaging.

Scope: Types of difficult customers, how to respond to a guest complaint, how to handle a wrong food order, and dealing with intoxicated customers

Price: Free (up to 10 users)

Created by EdApp

8. Multi-Unit Restaurant Management

Looking for credible courses that will help you advance your career in restaurant management? Then look no further - Multi-Unit Restaurant Management by Pearson delves into the various types of restaurants, the advantages and disadvantages of multi-unit or chain restaurants, and how you can successfully move from novice beginner to an expert multi-unit manager. This course is part of the valuable training course series, Hospitality Management Learning Modules, and it can be taken separately or in conjunction with other restaurant management courses.

Scope: Definition of multi-unit or chain restaurants, advantages and disadvantages of this type of restaurant organization, qualifications of a multi-unit manager, multi-unit management development, ways how to be an effective multi-unit manager.

Price: $4.99 USD

Created by Pearson

10. Food Runners Guide

Food runners are responsible for delivering a satisfying experience to your customers - they communicate their orders to chefs, double-check orders, and bring the foods straight to their table. Playing an essential role in the success of your restaurant, it is important that you understand their core responsibilities, and provide them all the necessary training needed to maximize their potential. Free training software EdApp designed the Food Runners Guide particularly for restaurant owners, managers, and first-time food runners. It outlines all the responsibilities of food runners, the importance of looking presentable, and some must-follow etiquettes to be observed in front of customers. This free and editable course also tackles the right and safe way of carrying and serving food and removing plates and utensils without offending the customers. 

Scope: Fundamental differences between a food runner and a waiter, recommended clothing and hygiene practices for food runners, proper conduct, proper carrying and serving food, dealing with bussing tables. 

Price: Free (up to 10 users)

Created by EdApp

12. Restaurant Revenue Management

Designed by experts from Cornell University, this certificate program will provide you with pretty much everything you need to know to effectively manage restaurant costs and revenue. It starts off by introducing the concept of revenue management and then dives into topics such as menu design and engineering and restaurant space and pricing optimization. Through the course, you’ll also learn how to manage meal duration and reservations, ensuring that you’re not wasting a single minute of potential revenue. It also provides you with several revenue management tools and techniques to help you boost your restaurant performance even in slower periods. Although the course requires a large budget and quite some time to complete, it’s still a great option for anyone looking for a one-stop-shop restaurant revenue management course.

Scope: Introduction to restaurant revenue management, menu design and engineering, optimizing restaurant space and pricing, managing meal duration and reservations, and building demand during slow periods

Price: $2,520 USD

Created by eCornell

14. Food Safety Hazards

EdApp developed its Food Safety Hazards course for restaurant workers to help them understand the fundamentals of food safety and its risk factors. The first part of the course emphasizes the need to check for damaged food packaging, expiry dates, and foreign objects or insects to minimize health-related risks. It then touches on the best practices to reduce and fully eliminate food contaminants before, during, and after the cooking process. The course also discusses the different types of food hazards to watch out for, including allergenic, physical, biological, and chemical food hazards, going in-depth about their causes, types, and ways to combat and minimize them. There’s even a short quiz at the end to help your learners check how much they’ve learned and retained from the course. 

The platform allows you to import and deploy this free course directly from their editable course library. And if you want to rebrand the lessons according to your business guidelines, you can customize them through the platform’s user-friendly authoring tool. 

Scope: Introduction to food safety risk factors, allergenic and physical food hazards, biological and chemical food hazards, food safety best practices

Price: Free (up to 10 users)

Created by EdApp