How to Build a Restaurant Order Guide
A restaurant order guide is the list of everything the kitchen buys, with the pack size, the par level and the delivery day for each item, arranged so that placing an order means filling in quantities instead of hunting for products. Build it from what the kitchen actually ordered over the last 90 days, give every core item a par, group it the way the kitchen counts and receives, and prune it every quarter.
A guide built this way lets anyone on the team count and order the same way, and it makes forgotten items, over-ordering and emergency runs to the store less likely. It is also the starting point for checking prices and tracking food cost, because every item and pack size is written down in one place.
What the ordering data says about order guides
FareFood's ordering data for the 90 days to September 29, 2026 shows how uneven a real order guide is. The median restaurant bought roughly 240 to 300 different items in that time. The most-ordered fifth of those items made up about 7 in 10 of all cases ordered, while about 3 in 10 items were ordered only once. About a quarter of the items came up in at least half of the weeks.
| Measure (median across restaurants, 90 days) | Result |
|---|---|
| Different items ordered | Roughly 240 to 300 |
| Share of all cases from the most-ordered fifth of items | About 7 in 10 |
| Items ordered only once | About 3 in 10 |
| Items ordered in at least half of the weeks | About a quarter |
A small core of items carries most of the volume, and a long tail of one-off purchases clutters the list. A good order guide puts the core first and keeps the tail out of the way.
Method: completed orders placed through FareFood in the 90 days to September 29, 2026, test orders excluded; counts of items, cases and orders only, no prices; each figure is a median across restaurants, and no restaurant's orders are shown.
How to build an order guide in six steps
- Pull 90 days of invoices or order history. List every item with its pack size, the number of cases ordered and the number of weeks it appeared in. Ninety days covers enough weeks to show the pattern and is short enough to reflect the current menu.
- Move the weekly core to the top. Items that appear in at least half of the weeks are the core of the guide. They get a par, a fixed position on the sheet and a count at every order.
- Set a par for each core item. Par is the quantity needed to last until the next delivery, plus a buffer. A kitchen that uses 2 cases of romaine a day with a delivery every 3 days needs 6 cases to reach the next truck; with a one-day buffer, par is 8. If 3 cases are on the shelf at order time, the order is 5.
- Arrange it the way the kitchen counts. Group items by storage area (walk-in, freezer, dry storage, chemicals) in shelf order, so the person counting walks one path and never skips a shelf. Note each item's source and delivery day next to it, because one kitchen often orders from several suppliers on different days.
- Write down the details that prevent wrong substitutions. Record the pack size, the brand or spec, the unit the item is priced in (case, each or pound) and whether it is sold by catch weight. A case of six large cans and a case of twelve small cans can hold about the same weight and still work very differently on the line.
- Keep one-off items off the main list. Put occasional purchases (event items, seasonal specials, a one-time repair part) in a short separate section. With about 3 in 10 items ordered only once in a quarter, mixing them into the main guide makes every count slower.
How to keep the guide current
An order guide goes stale as the menu, the covers and the supplier catalogs change. A short routine keeps it accurate:
- Every quarter, compare the guide with the last 90 days of orders. Remove items that were not ordered, move items that became weekly into the core, and reset pars for anything whose usage changed.
- Every menu change, walk through each new dish and confirm its ingredients are on the guide with a par.
- Every invoice, check that the pack size and price on the invoice match the guide, and update the guide when a line changes.
- One owner keeps the master copy, so edits do not split into several versions on different clipboards.
A guide that follows the kitchen's real usage also makes food cost easier to manage, because the items that carry most of the spend sit at the top where they get counted and priced every week.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between an order guide and a par sheet?
An order guide lists every item the kitchen buys with its pack size, source and delivery day. A par sheet is the counting tool built from it, with the par, the count on hand and the quantity to order for each item, and many kitchens keep both on one sheet.
How often should a restaurant update its order guide?
A full review every quarter against the last 90 days of orders keeps it accurate, with smaller updates whenever the menu or a pack size changes.
Should an order guide include prices?
Including the last price paid per case makes a price change easy to spot on the next invoice, and it gives the kitchen a running estimate of what each order will cost.
How many items should be on an order guide?
The full list can run to a few hundred items over a quarter, but the part that drives each order is small: in the ordering data above, the most-ordered fifth of items made up about 7 in 10 of all cases.
The short version
An order guide works when it matches what the kitchen really buys: the weekly core at the top with a par for every item, occasional purchases kept in their own section, and a quarterly review that keeps both lists current. FareFood connects the distributor accounts a restaurant already has, keeps its order guides in one place with current prices, and lets the kitchen order from all of its distributors in one cart; see how it works at fare.food.