line cook

server

dishwasher

floor manager

host/hostess

The Kitchen Restaurant Group

The food at the kitchen is delicious and that’s about where the good stops. Management is terrible and does not listen to its employees. Turn over is substantial. The tip pool awarded servers that slacked off, servers that went above and beyond did not see this reflected in their tips, the chefs in the kitchen will do anything to not accommodate a guest, they consider any changes to a dish a huge inconvenience. I’ve worked in multiple restaurants and being able to order food during a shift is always an option if not expected. They all offered discounts during your shift on food and I’ve had a restaurant where they even allowed everyone to order one free meal per shift. The kitchen will not let employee order food. At all. I could not even tell guests truthfully about the food because I didn’t make enough to dine there on my own time to try all of the food. The kitchen provides a measly “family meal” once a day that is generally scraps from that days prep, of which there aren’t enough to feed everyone and half of the staff isn’t even at the restaurant during family meal. I could for on and on about the issues but please do your self a favor and do not work there!

Working under the current management has been a difficult experience. The team dynamics are poorly supported, and communication is often unclear, making collaboration a real challenge. The management style doesn't foster a positive or productive environment, which leads to frustration and confusion on the job.

Despite putting in hard work, the compensation falls far short of reflecting the effort or value contributed. Even during busy weeks, it's common to barely earn the minimum wage, which adds to the disappointment and discourages motivation. This creates an unsustainable situation that significantly affects morale, making it difficult to remain committed to the role.

When both the work environment and compensation fail to meet basic expectations, it becomes challenging to continue. I hope management can make the necessary changes to create a more positive, supportive, and motivating workplace in the future.



This review is specific to the Boulder location. Despite the very corporate direction of the company starting 7-8 years ago, the OG has held together pretty well. It used to be about the best FOH job imaginable, but as the corporate crowd restructured upper management things started to go downhill. Luckily, despite a rough few years, local management and a core group of senior staff hung on and were able to push back and regain some of the ground that was lost. 
It will never be like it used to be, but it's stocked with some people who actually care about great food, real hospitality, and a supportive, fun-loving culture. Come ready to learn and push yourself to succeed and you'll do well.
Note - I left before COVID, so can't speak to how things are now (it's been rough in the industry), but I do know there are still good people there.

A typical day will start with coming in and being told you’re doing twice as much work as you thought you’d be. Picking up slack for unprofessional coworkers and managers/chefs. Managers wanting to run business short staffed or against regulations regarding health and safety. The hardest part of the job is dealing with management and their dysfunctions and their greed for money.

This restaurant's work environment suffers from favoritism, as upper Mngmt consistently offers better schedules and higher pay to select staff members and is dismissive and unkind to most of the others. This creates unnecessary competition and resentment among the team, negatively impacting morale. Coupled with low pay, lack of earned and merit based work and/ or promotion, the overall atmosphere feels tense, and employee satisfaction is significantly hindered. Good employees have left over these issues. 

Chef Team outstanding people to work with. FOH management and upper management hyper focused on sales and quality/level of service suffers. FOH management tries to push a fine dining experience with casual level of service even with a great service team more than able to provide fine dining service. Food is high quality and sourcing is great, local as much as possible. Given that it’s a corporate restaurant there is no creative freedom unfortunately. 

If you are down to work in the normal toxic restraunt culture than the kitchen is an OK place to work. The procedures for getting time off are deplorable in the FOH. Employees (except management) are not allowed to order any food from the menu on their shifts, a mostly lack luster family meal is provided though. Tip pool is spread pretty thin. Management is decent but not great. The patio will absolutely wreck you in the summer, good luck! 

Poor experience all around. If you give your all to your job and company, expect to be taken advantage of when working with the company.

Upper management has poor communication skills and a lack of understanding what day to day operations can be like. The entire position and company is extremely political. Speaking your mind is “welcomed”, but not embraced or respected.

Upper management doesn’t listen to the people who are in the restaurants every day. The teams are trying to make a living in a restaurant industry that is struggling, and the executives don’t seem to care. Great menus and service. 

Everybody gets paid the same because it's tip sharing but not everybody does the same amount of work management lets take younger ones and other people just playing on their phone and give warnings upon warnings without doing anything. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Line cook 18 salaries reported	$22.11 per hour
Server 3 salaries reported	$13.28 per hour
Dishwasher 14 salaries reported	$20.14 per hour
Floor manager 3 salaries reported	$68,333 per year
Host/hostess 12 salaries reported	$17.96 per hour

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