Be sure you use the proper cover letter format to make your cover letter readable and professional.
Wait staff cover letter template (text format)
Contact Person’s Name
15 Dorset Street
Sheffield
S10 2FW
07123 456 789
contact.person@gmail.com
Dear [Mr/Ms/Mx] [Contact Person’s Name],
I’m writing to you regarding the waitress role I saw on [Website Name]. With more than four years of experience in the food industry and a BA in food service management, I firmly believe I can bring excellent customer service and promote sales at [Restaurant Name]. As a regular diner at [Restaurant Name], I’m thrilled by the opportunity to serve at the restaurant where my family and I have celebrated many happy occasions.
While working at Café Emmeline and La Maison Blanche, I honed many skills useful in the food service industry, such as customer service, food handling techniques, and multitasking in fast-paced environments. As a senior waitress, I was entrusted with managing responsibilities including opening and closing the restaurant, resolving customer issues, and stepping in to supervise the wait staff and care for customers when managerial staff were busy.
My accomplishments include:
- winning the Waitress of the Month award 10 times
- being personally named and praised by customers on 80+ Google Maps reviews
- increasing sales at La Maison Blanche by 20% using effective upsale techniques
Here’s just one example of my exceptional customer service: A customer during one of my shifts complained that the food they ordered wasn’t cooked to their liking. Without hesitation, I offered to have it remade and apologized for any inconvenience. As the kitchen prepared the new dish, I engaged the customer in conversation and even offered a complimentary dessert. The customer ended up loving the new dish and dessert, eventually leaving a glowing review on the restaurant’s social media page. I would bring the same level of friendliness, communication, and problem-solving to maintain [Restaurant Name]’s reputation as a warm, high-quality family-style restaurant.
I’ve attached my CV and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
How to write a waiter or waitress cover letter
Whether you’re looking for your first restaurant job or are an experienced food service worker, writing a cover letter can make a huge difference to your job application. Cover letters give context to the information on your CV, showing restaurant managers how you keep a cool head and deliver great customer service during even the busiest dinner rushes.
Here are 3 tips to help you stand out from the crowd and land your next waiter or waitressing job:
1. Highlight your waiter skills
Given that waiters work with servers, cooks, and management to serve customers, you need excellent soft skills to succeed in the restaurant business.
Soft skills are especially useful if you don’t have previous work experience in the restaurant industry. Two that are especially important for wait staff work are teamwork and interpersonal skills.
Other great soft skills to include on your waiter or waitress cover letter include:
- Communication
- Multitasking
- People skills
- Customer service
- Flexibility
- Problem solving
- Conflict resolution
- Time management
- Organisational skills
- Good memory (for prices, menus, etc.)
- Reliability
- Attention to detail
Hard skills are job-specific abilities learnt through experience and training. You should tailor your cover letter to include the hard skills specified in the ‘Requirements’ section of the job advert.
Add some of these hard skills to your waiter or waitress cover letter to assure employers you won’t need much training:
- Maths skills (especially quick mental maths)
- Point of sale (POS) systems
- Knowledge of restaurant machinery
- Foreign language skills
- Bartending skills
- Knowledge of food pairings
- Food handling
- Good hygiene practices
Build a standout cover letter in just a few clicks using our cover letter builder.
2. Relate your experience to the restaurant
Explaining why you’re interested in the hiring restaurant will show the employer that you carefully considered the job before applying.
Giving a specific reason, such as an interest in the brand, love of the food they prepare, or a special memory you had at the restaurant, will help you establish a more authentic connection and make you seem genuinely excited about the job opportunity.
Visiting in person is also a great way to form personal connections with the staff and help managers put a face to your application once you submit it.
Restaurant employers are more likely to grant interviews to and hire people who are personally referred. So, if applicable, don’t forget to mention the name of an employee who pointed you to the position and can speak to the skills on your CV.
3. Discuss similar experiences if you’re new to food service
Experience in any customer-facing role (such as shop assistant or customer support representative) looks great on a wait-staff CV.
If you’re writing this CV for your first job, think about customer service experience you’ve gained through volunteer work, student societies, or personal projects. Here are a few examples:
- Serving as a camp counsellor
- Being an assistant warden in a dormitory
- Doing an internship
- Participating (and placing) in competitions, such as sport and academic Competitions
- Organising a campus event
- Completing a high-intensity language immersion program abroad (which can also Highlight foreign language skills that might be a plus to the restaurant)
Remember to check that your wait-staff CV is optimised to highlight your waiting-staff experience. Uploading it to an online CV maker can help you make necessary changes in minutes.
