The 30 Best Online Courses For Starting A Restaurant

If you are looking to run a restaurant then these are the courses for you. Running a restaurant is risky and over 50% of restaurants fail in the first year. There are multiple reasons for this. But what are they and how do you avoid them?

Running a restaurant is also multi-faceted and is more than just a food program. You’ll have to learn about the kitchen staff, the menu and also the front of the house, marketing, dealing with licensure and health department checks as well as of course, keeping your customers happy.

These courses are varied and included all of the steps required to open up a restaurant. You’ll learn how to write a business plan as well as how to promote and grow your business on social media. If you are looking to initiate a restaurant career, check out our picks for the 30 best online courses on starting a restaurant.

30 Best Online Courses For Starting A Restaurant

1. How to open a Restaurant

“How to Open a Restaurant” is a restaurant management course for individuals who are entrepreneurs, restaurant owners, business owners, or just individuals who are interested in learning the basics of how to run a restaurant. The course teaches you how to find the most profitable location for your business.

Additionally, the course talks about how to pick the right concept for your restaurant, how to do a market analysis for your customers, as well as how to investigate your competitors. The course includes information on how to use Excel Analysis and also how to make a business model of a restaurant.

As a part of the module, you will also receive a library of ready-made analyses that you or your team can apply to your work with some modifications.

This course is intended for entrepreneurs, consultants, retail managers, restaurant owners, restaurant managers, and business analysts. The course is an interactive, step-by-step guide packed with tons of tips, tricks, hints, and examples that will dramatically change your perception of your business and dramatically increase your chances of success.

There is not much theory – much more examples, some tips from the experience of the instructor himself, and a few notable examples that deserve mention.

This course includes a 3-hour on-demand video, full lifetime access, 16 downloadable resources, 1 article, and a certificate of completion after the course. They can be accessed via mobile or TV.

2. Start a Killer Restaurant- How to open a Restaurant Course

If you are serious about running a restaurant, the “Start a Killer Restaurant- How to Open a Restaurant” course is probably for you. This course was created by Brian Cliette on Udemy. The purpose of the course is to give serious individuals the basic tools they need to start and run a restaurant.

Some of the materials in the course include information about how to pick a restaurant concept to help you reach as much of your chosen demographic as possible, how to find a location for your restaurant, how to build a menu, how to analyze the competition so that you can be amongst the competition, and how to establish a budget for your restaurant.

Additionally, there is some information on how to acquire the necessary capital to start your endeavor.

As a result of taking this course, you will learn all you need to know about operating a successful restaurant, which contrary to popular belief is not as straightforward and as easy as a piece of cake.

The first year of operations is typically the most difficult for food-related businesses. Restaurant owners should consider taking this class if they are serious about running a business. It doesn’t matter whether the restaurant is independently owned by a chef or whether it’s a franchise, this course will be perfect for you to gain more know-how in the restaurant industry. 

The course entails 43 minutes of on-demand video, 47 total articles, 2 downloadable resources, full lifetime access, and a certification of completion after the course. You can access the course through mobile or TV. 

3. How to Start a Successful Business (UK)

Are you living in the UK? Then you may want to try “How to Start a Restaurant Business (UK)”. This course teaches you how to run a successful business and how to avoid the mistakes that 80% of restaurants make resulting in a failed attempt.

You’ll learn to pick a restaurant concept, as well as a theme that will help you reach as many of your chosen demographic as possible.

This is a step-by-step guide to show you how to launch a successful restaurant business in the UK. Some of the things that you’ll learn in this course include:

• the basics of starting a restaurant,
• funding your restaurant,
• how to get your restaurant off the ground,
• menu design and pricing,
• marketing your restaurant,
• staffing labor costs,
• business insurance,
• music and alcohol licensure, and more.

If you are interested in starting a restaurant but don’t really know where to begin this is the course for you.

It is still legal for people in the UK to sell food from their homes to members of the public as of 2019, the year this course is being created, so long as you have permission from your local council. By selling food from home, you will save money on the upfront costs that are making other restaurants on the high street of the UK close.

Perhaps you can start from this business model and gradually work your way into opening a real food store after some time. If you’re a budding startup or amateur entrepreneur, enroll in this course and broaden your restaurant business education.

The course runs with 1.5 hours of on-demand video, 7 downloadable resources, full lifetime access, and awards a certification of completion.

4. The Ultimate Food and Restaurant Business Course

“The Ultimate Food and Restaurant Business” course is both for start-ups and existing food and restaurant businesses. The purpose of the course is to increase individuals’ chances of success in running a restaurant business. This is a four-hour class that gives you in-depth information on how to successfully run a restaurant.

The course is presented by Nigel Simon, a famous restauranteur living in London. Additionally, the course includes information about optimal meal menu design, mapping the customer and service journey, putting together a business plan, and all about start-up costs.

In the 12 videos, you will learn how to talk about your big idea, tell your story, market your business, manage finances, choose a site, recruit staff, and maintain your workforce. There are 69 pages of additional advice in the form of downloadable resources that, when combined, create a valuable workbook for you to keep and refer to.

This course is perfect for chefs, hospitality startup people, restaurant investors, members of the house team, or people who are curious about the hospitality industry. The course comes with 4 hours on-demand video, 28 downloadable resources, and a full lifetime access. You’ll receive a certificate of completion after completing the course. 

5. Masterclass: Start a Profitable Restaurant Business

Udemy offers “Master Class: Start a Profitable Restaurant Business.” In this class, you’ll learn how to find the initial capital you need to open your restaurant, how to perform market analysis, as well as competitor analysis, how to understand customers in the industry, how to manage and track finances, in addition to how to maintain productivity and quality in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.

You’ll learn how to create and develop as well as evaluate and improve upon the products and services that you sell. And, you’ll learn how to market your restaurant.

The course is designed for small restaurant and eatery business owners.  You will learn everything you need to know about setting up and managing your own food business, from obtaining capital to conducting preliminary research, to building your team, acquiring the facilities you need, to marketing your products to the right customers.

Students can readily apply powerful concepts and methods they learn in this course to real business situations, which makes it very effective.  In addition to developing entrepreneurial skills and intelligence, the course is more practical than academic. Anyone who wishes to open up an eatery business should take this course, especially those without a formal orientation to entrepreneurship.

Expect to have 3 hours on-demand video, 47 downloadable resources, and a full lifetime access with this course, as well as certificate of completion.

6. Restaurant Business Plan Example: Template W/Excel

“Restaurant Business Plan Example, Template, with Excel” is a course on how to write a business plan to start and run a restaurant that includes templates with examples and samples. This class is all about writing a business plan to start and run a restaurant business. Creating a business plan is a crucial first step to sharpening your restaurant concept and will be necessary to reach out to potential investors.

The course is for anyone who wants to start, run, or expand a restaurant business. This is great for entrepreneurs who want to create business plans to show to potential investors and/or lenders. Upon enrollment, you can gain access to the inclusions of this course. You can see a full business plant template for a restaurant. You’ll also have a complete financial model and a pitch deck. 

You will be able to use the business plan you create to run your company as well as to obtain a loan or investment if you so desire. The course comes with 37 mins on-demand video, 2 articles, 6 downloadable resources, a full lifetime access, and a certification of completion award.

7. Practical Restaurant Management Course

The “Practical Restaurant Management” course teaches you how to run a restaurant. This course includes information on how to start a restaurant business from scratch and how to become an entrepreneur.

You will learn everything about the restaurant business from ideas to franchising. You’ll also learn about the key components of running a restaurant business successfully and how to grow your restaurant’s customer base.

By taking this course, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of what makes restaurants successful and how to execute critical actions routinely to get there. The best part is that if you start your career without any prior knowledge, it will take years to learn these things.

Someone who is passionate about running a restaurant business to become successful should enroll in this course. This is also perfect for the owner of a restaurant who wants to learn about continuous improvement and an individual who plans to take part in any restaurant chain company.

The length of the course is 1.5 hours and includes two downloadable resources. This is an absolute beginner’s course.

8. Start Serving, Start Selling

“Start Serving, Start Selling” is a step-by-step guide to help you land the restaurant job that you want. If you are looking to land a restaurant job, this course is for you. You will learn how to create a resume even if you have no restaurant experience, you’ll learn how to apply for a restaurant server job and gain insight or information on the role and responsibilities of a restaurant server.

The course will provide tips on selling your work experience both on your resume and in your interview. You will be taught about the role and responsibilities of a restaurant server. You can also be guided on where or how to apply for restaurant server jobs.

By the end of the course, you can Improve your confidence and understand how to format your work experience so that it is relevant to the server position. This course is perfect for anyone wishing to become a restaurant server. It’s also perfect for non-restaurant workers, college students, or anyone who wants to look for passive income.

The course comes with 37 mins on-demand video, 18 articles, a full lifetime access, and a certificate of completion. 

9. Menu Planning Blueprint for Cloud Kitchens

The “Menu Planning Blueprint for Cloud Kitchens” is a great course for home chef bakers, budding entrepreneurs in the food and beverage space, as well as existing cloud kitchen owners, or catering business people.

Aspirants to Cloud Kitchen often misunderstand the business as a home delivery service, resulting in them investing in the business without an understanding of its foundation. Learn how to connect every function of a cloud kitchen – from billing to stock management to CRM.

All Cloud Kitchen owners and aspirants who are interested in understanding the fundamentals of this industry are invited to this Masterclass. The goal of this course is to allow you to gain a better understanding of the Cloud Kitchen business.

10. Restaurant Management: Human Resources Best Practices

“Restaurant Management Human Resources Best Practices” is all about the human resources component of running a restaurant. This course was created by Christopher Wells and has a two-hour on-demand video. In this course, you’ll learn how to simplify the hiring process as well as maximize your return on investment employee ROI.

You’ll learn how to keep your best employees and make the scheduling process easier, as well as how to reduce turnover in your restaurant. To take this course, you should have a basic understanding of the restaurant business.

The human resources department is one of the most challenging aspects of running a successful restaurant. Get familiar with these systems and take your time implementing them. The course includes 2 hours on-demand video, 9 downloadable resources, a full lifetime access, and awards a certificate of completion.

The course is intended for restaurant owners, managers, hospitality human resources managers, and would-be managers.

11. Restaurant Kitchen Basics: Restaurant Classics

“Restaurant Kitchen Basics: Restaurant Classics” teaches you how to gain confidence in a restaurant or home kitchen. This is a cooking class where you learn how to egg pan grill and stove mechanics. Also, you will learn how to present upscale restaurant egg dishes; cooking eggs in any style.

This course teaches you how to cook a Florentine omelet, eggs Benedict, a burger, and a filet mignon. If you’re interested in perfecting the cooked egg, this is a good course for you.

During this course, you will learn how to cook with eggs, how to create classic breakfast dishes, as well as how to cook lunch, dinner, and professional stir fry dishes. By completing this course, you will expand your cooking knowledge and become more confident in the kitchen.

The instructor comes with over 42 years of experience in the restaurant sector so they will teach you the skills and techniques that can contribute to restaurant success. This course can be for anyone who wants to master flipping eggs, be more confident in their cooking skills, or those who want to start their cooking experience from scratch.

The course comes with 2 hours on-demand video, 2 articles, 1 downloadable resource, a full lifetime access, and a certificate.

12. How to Open a Successful Restaurant: The Step-by-Step Method

“How to Open a Successful Restaurant: The Step by Step Method” is brought to you by Chris Seseryn. In this course, you’ll be able to learn from hospitality industry professionals about how to avoid the most common mistakes and exactly how to open up your dream restaurant.

This is an hour-long course that teaches through the entire process of opening up a successful restaurant. You will learn what to avoid and which steps to take to succeed.

These real-world techniques have been honed by years of trial and error. Neither the public nor the first-time buyer have access to them. So enroll in this course now to gain valuable insights. The instructor is a designer, builder, and manager of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs of all kinds, with over 20 years of experience.

In an easy-to-understand way, he will teach you every aspect that ranges from beginner to advanced mode of learning. The course comes with a full one hour on-demand video.

13. Achieve Excellence in Restaurant Service

The “Achieve Excellence and Restaurant Service” class is a 1.5-hour class taught by Christopher Wells. This class aims to answer the question: “Why is it that some servers are more successful than their colleagues?”

In this course, you’ll learn how to sell more, make more tips, be a good server, have a great attitude while being a server, and different ways to make your guests happy. And, if things are not going well, you will learn how to fix it! This class is designed for individuals who desire a career as a server and are looking for ways to make more money and to improve their performance on the job.

During this hotel management training, some topics covered are guests’ expectations, total guest satisfaction, dealing with complaints, business acumen, tips, and tricks. Hopefully, you can sharpen your server abilities and talents through this program. 

As a result, you’ll learn how to provide amazing service, build relationships with everyone you serve, and gain a better understanding of the restaurant business. This course is perfect for anyone working in the restaurant industry who wants to earn more money, bartenders, food servers, and managers who want to establish better relationships with servers.

14. Digital Marketing For Restaurants

The “Digital Marketing for Restaurants” class is a two-hour class with two downloadable resources taught by Chris Worfolk. The purpose of this tutorial is to learn how to use Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and more to grow your business. You will learn how to build a simple website, create a Facebook page, use Google my business, run Facebook advertisements, manage TripAdvisor reviews, and more.

As the instructor develop Pori Kitchen’s digital presence, you can watch their screen. You won’t get bored with dull lectures. You will see everything that needs to be applied and done for your own restaurant too.

The course comes with 2 hours on-demand video, 1 article, 2 downloadable resources, and a certificate after compliance.

15. Restaurant Leadership

“Restaurant Leadership” focuses on the 12 qualities of leaders. It is taught by Christopher Wells. This is a one-hour class that explains how to become an effective leader for your team in the restaurant industry, as well as how to drive more engagement from employees.4

This program also outlines the important principles that ensure you are credible to your team. This can be great for anyone who are related in the food and beverage job roles and positions, managers of restaurants, or restaurant owners. 

16. The Art of Restaurant Marketing

“The Art of Restaurant Marketing” is a one-hour course that explains ten effective business and marketing tips for new restaurants.

This course introduces you to restaurant marketing and business fundamentals, as well as the importance of standard operating procedures, how social media is an important key element to your business success, how you’ll be able to create a mission statement for your business, and the importance of staffing very specific positions. You will also learn how to hire the right employees.

Restaurant marketing consulting and training is extremely expensive and time-consuming for busy restaurateurs so this course is a better alternative. The goal of this program is to teach you restaurant business and marketing tips that you can use right away to become a successful restaurateur.

The instructor knows the hospitality industry well, so I know that your business’s success will be determined by how it handles the first few weeks. Expect to have one hour on-demand video and one downloadable resource for this program.

17. Restaurant Staffing and Hiring

“Restaurant Staffing and Hiring” is a one-hour and a half class that explains the importance of hiring well. In this class, you will learn how to calculate turnover and retention, interviewing skills, and how to hire the right person for the job.

This course is designed for restaurant managers, restaurant owners, hospitality students, and retail managers. You will learn how to create objective staffing pars, as well as what it means for your hiring rates.  Following this, the course dives deeply into the hiring process to make sure you are only hiring the best candidates.

The course comes with 1.5 hours of on-demand video and a certificate of completion award after.

18. How to Choose the Right Location and Premisis for a Restaurant

“How to Choose the Right Location and Premise for a Restaurant” is a one-hour video that teaches you how to discover the most optimal location to place your restaurant.

In this video, you will learn how to conduct research about the potential premise, how to understand the link between the restaurant concept in the area, about layout and basic kitchen design, understanding the property leased, rent benchmarks, and points for negotiation, as well as how to take the first steps and opening your successful restaurant.

This easy-to-understand, clear-cut manual was developed using the experience of 10 years of professionals working in the restaurant industry. It is based on a practical approach and real-life experiences from the field and is presented in an easy-to-understand, straight-forward manner. Those who are interested in opening a successful restaurant should enroll in this course.

The program comes with 1 hour on-demand video, 2 practice tests, and a certificate award. 

19. How to Start Your Restaurant and Make a Profit in 8 Weeks!

“How to Start Your Restaurant and Make a Profit in 8 Weeks” is going to be taught by Vincent Vermeulen. He is a fourth generation hospitality expert born into the restaurant industry. The School for Butlers and Hospitality was founded by him, and he will guide you through this detailed course and help you make your dream come true.

You will have an access to a pre-opening checklist for the first 12 weeks up until the official opening. You can get detailed spreadsheets and documents necessary for your restaurant operations. You can also witness an innovative 3D model of a restaurant to demonstrate service systems and much more. Utilize your new knowledge in your restaurant while completing the course at your own pace.

The course includes 6.5 hours on-demand video, 3 articles, 12 downloadable resources, and awards a certificate after. 

20. Restaurant Marketing: The Secret is in the Sauce™

“Restaurant Marketing: the Secret is in the Sauce” is a three-hour class that teaches you how to open, operate, and market, as well as manage a successful restaurant. In this class, you’ll learn how to increase customer satisfaction.

Also, you’ll learn to recognize the best characteristics of a great manager and determine who to hire. You’ll learn how to use effective customer marketing, along with how to effectively advertise on Yelp.

As part of this course, you will also explore various topics related to the restaurant industry, such as how to upsell; how to create a great menu; how to manage worker’s compensation costs; how to hire and fire employees, and specifically how to ask appropriate questions during a job interview.

In addition, they will cover restaurant marketing, strategic marketing, management, the POS system, finding the best location, and negotiating the lease. The course comes with a 3-hours on-demand video. This is perfect for anyone who currently owns a restaurant or bar.

21. Hotel Management – Maximize and Analyze Restaurant Profits

“Hotel Management – Maximize and Analyze Restaurant Profits” is a two-hour class that teaches you how to analyze restaurant revenues. This course is for restaurant owners, restaurant managers, assistant managers, hotel restaurant managers, as well as hotel management students.

In this class, you will get the key metrics required and learn how to compare with competitors, creatively engineer menus to maximize revenue, and understand Food & Beverage costs and how to manage them in order to maximize profits.

You should be able to identify your major revenue & cost contributors after completing the course. You will discover ways to increase the profitability of your business. You can have the opportunities to interact directly with the instructor of this course. This course includes 2 hours on-demand video, 2 articles, 1 downloadable resource, and a certificate. 

22. Restaurant Waiter Training – An Outstanding Waiter

“Restaurant Waiter Training – An Outstanding Waiter” is a 3 1/2 hour class where you will learn how to increase your skills as a waiter.

In this class, you will learn how to earn more as a waiter, how to create opportunities to earn more wages, various persuasive and influential communication skills, how to provide VIP service and earn more tips in return, ways to build lasting relationships with customers, how to handle customers who are not happy, how to get along with colleagues, and how to upsell authentically.

Throughout this training, you are going to examine many different strategies and techniques that you can use to increase your profits and to reduce the odds of you missing any tips. You will learn how to serve your number 1 customer in order to increase your chances of getting a raise in your wages easily and effortlessly.

The course comes with 3.5 hours on-demand video, 1 downloadable resource, and a certificate. This program is intended for people who want to be waiters, food servers, or who wants to work in the cafeteria business.

23. Business Bootcamp: 7 Weeks to Start Your Own Business

“Business Boot Camp: 7 Weeks to Start Your Own Business” is a 6 1/2 hour course brought to you by Phil Abner. In this course, you’ll learn how to start your own business and how to define your target audience, as well as compete with other businesses. You’ll be able to find your first clients and scale up your business.

Additionally, this course introduces you to concepts related to building an online presence with website portfolio testimonials through social media and more. Finally, you’ll learn how to manage a business, including finances, taxes, expenses, and more. You can always ask the instructor a question in the course or send him a direct message if you have anything to ask about the course content or anything else related to this topic.

The objective of this course is to help you launch your own successful business. The program can help you conduct a thorough market research, help you define your value proposition, guide you in making a website, as well as capture leads for your business. You can learn to build a portfolio with customer testimonials, and create lasting relationships with customers on social media. 

24. UX Design For Restaurants

“UX Design for Restaurants: Learn the Best UX Practices” is a class that helps you to understand the importance of the user experience for customers in your restaurant.

This class will show you how to create your own customer persona and how to practice good user experience design. This is a 32-minute course that teaches you how to anticipate your customer’s needs.

You will be able to study case studies from other restaurants. Examine the business strategies of big companies, review their products, then collect your favorites. This course is great for restaurant owners, managers, and basically anyone who wants to create a restaurant website.

25. Opening a Restaurant

eCornell offers the course “Opening a Restaurant.” This course explores the challenges, as well as the opportunities that arise from opening a food and beverage establishment. In this course, you’ll work towards creating a business plan for your own food and beverage operation and examine strategies to determine whether or not your business idea will be successful in the market.

This course is appropriate for general managers and professionals looking to manage a restaurant or food and beverage service establishment.

This course is also relevant to individuals who are new to the food and beverage industry and caterers or restauranteurs, event space managers, property managers, and corporate event managers. This course is brought to you by Cornell University.

The program lasts for 2 weeks in total with 3 to 5 hours course sessions per week. It’s instructor-led entirely online. Professor Alex Susskind created this program

26. Restaurant Management 101

Universal Class offers the course “Restaurant Management 101.” This course is for qualified restaurant managers who are looking to up their game as managers in the industry. This is a six-month course that is self-paced and completely online.

The course involves 11 lessons with 8 hours average time, including an overview of the house, goals safety and profits, customer service essentials, guest recovery, and problematic guests, hiring and team-building, training, scheduling, supervision counseling and discipline, controlling food and beverage costs, maximizing revenue, and sanitation liability and legal considerations. At the end of the course, you may earn a certificate.

You can enroll in this course for a fee of $50 per month with no certificate, or a $75 fee for 6 months with a certificate award. 

27. Food and Beverage Management

International Open Academy offers a “Food and Beverage Management” course. In this class, you’ll learn about food service management, catering, product development, beverage management, and nutrition. This course is for an individual who likes to work with others, enjoys the satisfaction that comes from making people feel good, is patient, loves food, and is smart and quick on their feet. This course focuses on catering.

Anyone with a desire to learn can take International Open Academy courses. There is no formal qualification required. In addition to learning new skills, starting a new career, and upgrading your abilities and enhancing your resume, their courses are suitable for anyone looking to learn new skills.

28. Gourmet Cooking Certification

If you are interested in learning how to cook, you can take Penn Foster’s “Gourmet Cooking Certification” classes online. You can complete this course in as little as three months.

This program focuses on the following gourmet cooking dishes: making stock, sauces and soups, fruits, vegetables and herbs, cooking meat, poultry, and game, fish and shellfish, and cooking greens, legumes, and pasta, as well as how to bake and cook delicious pastries, and much more!

This is a self-paced course, that costs $699 if you pay in full or $50 per month. You can have 8 courses and 18 exams which can be completed in 3 to 7 months.

29. Bar Management

Are you looking to become a bar manager then try this course from Event Trix. The “Bar Management” course gives you the ins and outs of how to run a bar. You’ll learn the importance of why individuals choose bar management as a career path, as well as how to run a bar smoothly. This program also focuses on how to keep a bar or lunge well-stocked, safe, and profitable.

You will learn how to be an ace bartender and be at the very top of the bar business game. By the end of the course, you’ll earn CPD certification. Additionally, this course includes information on how to promote your bar including marketing, social media, and how to keep repeat customers.

It is impossible to build a successful career in bar management without a bar management degree. Whether you are looking for an internship or to join the management team at a top venue, you’ll have a solid foundation on which to build your career. This course is great for people who want to own their own bar, seek a job as a bartender, or add something new to their resume.

30. Professional Bar Management

Distance Education offers the “Professional Bar Management” mastery level certification course. This is a 40-hour course that takes three months to complete. If you’re a bartender that is interested in becoming a professional in the field, this is a great course for you.

Additionally, if you are a bar owner… the course will be beneficial for you as well. This is a great option if you are looking for a short-term course that focuses specifically on bar management. A quiz follows each lesson. Earning a Master’s Certificate of Excellence requires a score of 90% or higher. You will be awarded a certificate upon passing and completion of the course.

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