Table-Side Allergen Question Time Calculator

Estimates how many staff hours and dollars a restaurant spends each year answering guest allergen questions at the table, and how much a self-serve allergen menu could give back.

Your estimate

Allergen questions per week...

Staff hours per year...

Annual labor cost...

Potential annual savings...

Estimates only. Assumptions are listed below, and you can change every input.

A guest asks whether the risotto has dairy in it. The server is not sure, walks to the kitchen, waits for the chef, walks back, and the table next to them waits too. Multiply that by every allergen question on a busy night and you have a real labor cost that never shows up as a line item, plus a slower floor and a guest who is now a little less confident in the answer.

The calculator takes your daily covers and the share of guests who ask about allergens to estimate questions per week, then multiplies by the minutes each one takes and your hourly wage to reach an annual cost. The savings figure applies the percentage of questions you believe a live, self-serve allergen menu would handle without a staff trip to the kitchen. That percentage is your call; the default is a placeholder, not a benchmark.

How to use this tool

Enter your average daily covers and the share of guests who ask an allergen question, based on a few shifts of tallying.
Enter how long a typical question takes from the moment it is asked to the moment the guest has a confident answer, then your hourly wage and days open.
Adjust the self-serve percentage to your own expectation and read the annual hours, cost and potential savings.

What the math assumes

Questions per day equal covers per day multiplied by the percentage of guests who ask; both are figures you observe and enter, not built-in benchmarks.
Each question consumes the full number of minutes you enter of one staff member's time, including any trip to the kitchen.
A year is 52 operating weeks at the days per week you enter, with no seasonal closures.
The savings figure assumes the percentage of questions you enter would be fully handled by a self-serve allergen menu with zero staff time; the remaining questions still take the full time.
Labor cost uses the hourly wage you enter with no benefits, tips or overhead added.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know what percentage of guests ask about allergens?

Track it for a week: have servers tally allergen questions per shift and divide by covers. Operators are often surprised by the result in one direction or the other, which is why the tool does not assume a number for you.

Why would a single question take several minutes?

The clock includes the server finding the answer, not just the conversation. If the answer is on a card or screen the server trusts, the time drops sharply; if it needs a kitchen check and a wait for the chef, it climbs.

Does the savings figure mean I can cut a shift?

Rarely. It represents time returned to the floor for service, upselling and turning tables, which is usually worth more than the wage math alone. Use it as a measure of friction removed, not headcount.

Link to this toolhttps://menuaegis.com/tools/allergen-question-time/

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More free tools from MenuAegis

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