The F&B Language

If you work long enough, you'll tend to start saying things unconsciously that normal people don't usually say. This is the lingo!

85 - 1 left
86 - No more. Also means, get rid of. 
Closing - Shutting down operations and wiping the place down
Dine and Dash - Running off without paying for the bill. 
Dutch - Split evenly. Usually only used on bills.
Dying - When a dish is becoming 'unservable'. Eg, when your hot latte becomes cold, or your ice cream melts. This term is only usable before we serve it to the customers. 
Floor - The service and seating area of the establishment. Floor staffs would include: Host, waiter, cashier, busser
FiFo - Acronym for First in First out. All restaurants/cafes/bars live and die by this rule. What ever is stocked first, has to be used first.
Jammed - (Usually used in the kitchen) When the orders start to accumulate and you cannot handle the volume. That is also the time customers start asking for their food.
Opening - What we have do to get a place ready to run it's operations. Eg, switching on the machines, heating up the coffee machine. 
Operation - The period where we prepare customer's food and drinks

Plating - The action chefs take to decorate/design how a dish looks on a plate.
Pre-closing - Start Closing before actual closing time. Usually shutting down lesser used machineries.
Slammed - aka In the weeds. The period when you have so many things to do and not enough time to complete or you have more things to do than your brain/entire being can handle. Leads to stress.  
Prep Work - Things that we need to do before we start cooking/making drinks as to ensure quicker operation flow. Such include; pre-squeezing juices, peeling potatoes, cutting mushrooms.
PT/FT - Acronym for Part Time/Full Time. 
Push - To try and sell a product out to customers.
Regular - Short for "Regular Customer"
Send - To deliver the dish to it's respective table. Eg, "Send the beef to table 12".
Service - To provide assistance to a customer.
Split Shift - Usually happens at places which close in the middle of the day and have 2 separate operation hours. Most restaurants near the CBD are like this. We, The Talking Menu, generally do not like to work at such places.
Turn over - The rate customers come and go
       High Turn over - Customers leave once they finish their food, tables then taken over immediately by a new customer
       Low Turn over - Customers stay longer than they should(also known as campers), no tables for new customers. Or no crowd.
Walk-in - Customers with no reservations.

These are the usual ones you would hear when you work in cafes/restaurants around Singapore.
Have any of your own to add? Do leave us comments!