Restaurant Manager jobs in Wavendon

Haddenham Garden Centre is a family-owned business established over 45 years ago. Our popular restaurant, The Gardeners Retreat, offers table service and focuses on high quality homemade food and drink with an emphasis on locally sourced ingredients.

We are looking for an ambitious, experienced and commercially minded Restaurant Manager to lead our team and help take the restaurant to the next level.

With over 280 covers, this is a substantial operation with exciting potential for further development. We want to enhance our food offering, develop an appealing and commercially successful menu, and consistently deliver exceptional standards of hospitality.

Our ambition is to continue building on the strong customer base that we already have, delivering excellent food, warm and attentive service, and a welcoming atmosphere that encourages customers to keep returning and attracts new guests.

This is an exciting opportunity for a hands-on leader who combines a passion for food and hospitality with strong commercial awareness, the ability to inspire a team and the vision to make a real difference to the business.

The position is full time and will include working alternate weekends.

Key Responsibilities

• Restaurant Leadership: Take full responsibility for the day-to-day management, performance and development of the restaurant.
• Food and Menu Development: Work with the kitchen team to enhance the menu, champion quality homemade food, introduce new ideas and ensure our offering remains appealing, relevant and commercially successful.
• Customer Experience: Deliver exceptional hospitality, ensuring consistently high standards of food quality, presentation, service and overall customer experience.
• Team Development: Lead, motivate and develop the restaurant team, creating a positive culture where people take pride in their work and deliver outstanding service.
• Commercial Performance: Drive sales, profitability and sustainable growth through effective management of key performance indicators, including sales, gross profit margins, labour costs and wastage.
• Operational Management: Manage rotas, staffing levels, stock control and purchasing, balancing cost efficiency with excellent food quality and customer service.
• Continuous Improvement: Identify opportunities to improve standards, develop customer loyalty, increase sales and enhance the overall restaurant offering.
• Compliance: Ensure full compliance with food safety, health and safety, fire safety, environmental and employment legislation.

Requirements for the role:

You will be an experienced hospitality professional with a proven ability to manage a substantial restaurant operation, lead a large team and deliver strong commercial results.

You will also have:

• A genuine passion for quality food, hospitality and creating an excellent customer experience.
• An interest in menu development and continually improving the food and drink offering.
• Strong leadership skills, with the ability to inspire, develop and hold a team accountable.
• Excellent commercial and financial awareness, with experience of improving sales, profitability and operational performance.
• A proactive approach, with the confidence to introduce new ideas and take ownership of improvements.
• Excellent communication, organisational and problem-solving skills.
• A strong understanding of food safety and HACCP procedures

Above all, you will be someone who recognises the potential of The Gardeners Retreat and wants to help create a restaurant known for its food, service and welcoming atmosphere, while delivering a successful and profitable business.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary of £40,000 - £50,000 dependent on experience
• Opportunity to earn a performance-related bonus after the qualifying period
• Daytime working hours
• Contributory pension scheme
• Staff discount after successful completion of probation
• Employee Assistance Programme
• On-site parking
• The opportunity to shape the future of an established, family-owned business

If you are passionate about great food, exceptional service and building successful teams, we would love to hear from you. Join us and help shape the future of The Gardeners Retreat.

Pay: £40,000.00-£50,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Employee assistance programme
• Employee discount
• On-site parking

Experience:

• Restaurant management: 1 year (required)
• people management : 1 year (required)

Work Location: In person