RESTAURANT AI MANAGERNEW

AI Restaurant Assistant: The Few Things Costing You Money, Every Morning

Restaurant AI Manager reads your venue’s own orders, deliveries, invoices, stock counts and POS sales, and each morning puts the handful of things costing you the most at the top of the day — each with a dollar figure, the reason, and a fix drafted for you to approve. You can also ask it questions in plain English, such as “why is food cost up this week?”, and it answers from your own numbers.

A morning briefing ranked by what each issue costs you a week
Plain-English answers from your own data — “what should I order for tomorrow?”
Every suggestion shows how sure it is: High, Check or Unsure
It drafts the fix; nothing is sent or changed until a person approves it

Try it live as owner See Restaurant AI Manager →

Built on Open Pantry ordering — free, and used by 5,000+ venues

Restaurant AI Manager Today screen for a three-venue restaurant group: an Ask box with suggested questions and an AI briefing listing the top three things to fix, each with a weekly dollar figure and a fix button

Recommended by:

Built for hospitality venues of every kindRestaurants Cafes Bars Pubs Quick service Catering Production kitchens Fine dining

The numbers are all there. Nobody has time to read them.

The reports exist, but no one opens them before service

A drink pouring below target costs money every night until someone notices

Waste jumps for a week and only shows up in the month-end food cost

The owner asks “why is GP down?” and the answer takes a day to find

Alerts from five different systems all shout at the same volume

An AI tool that acts on its own is a risk nobody wants near the books

From your own figures to a fix you approve

It reads what the venue already records

Orders, deliveries checked off at the door, supplier invoices, stock counts, waste and POS sales — the same records the team keeps anyway, venue by venue.

It ranks what matters in dollars

Each morning it works out which issues are costing the most this week — a dish below its GP target, a jump in waste, a price rise — and puts the top few first, with the figures behind them.

It drafts the fix

Each item has a one-tap next step: rework a pour, open the waste log, reprice a dish, adjust an order. The tap opens a draft; it never sends or changes anything by itself.

You ask, it answers from your data

Type a question in plain English and the answer comes from your own venue’s records, limited to what your role is allowed to see.

Try it live as owner

No sign-up — a demo restaurant group with a guide that shows you around

A briefing with the dollar figure first

The briefing does not list everything that happened; it lists the few things worth fixing first, ranked by what they cost you a week. In the demo group it leads with a glass of sparkling wine selling at a GP of 49.2% against a 70% target — worth several hundred dollars a week — explains why (the portion costs more than the target allows), and suggests the fix: rework the pour or the spec before touching the price.

Top three to start with, every morning
The reason and the figures behind each one
A fix button that opens a draft, not an action

AI briefing card in Restaurant AI Manager: a drink earning below its GP target with the weekly dollar figure, the reason, a Rework the pour button and a High confidence chip, and a waste jump below it

Ask it like you would ask your best manager

The Ask box sits at the top of the day. “Why is food cost up this week?”, “Which dishes should I reprice?”, “What was labour % yesterday?” — the answer comes from your own orders, invoices, counts and sales, not from the internet. It only ever answers with what your role can see: a chef asking about wages gets no figures.

Plain-English questions about your own venue
Answers respect each person’s role and money visibility
Suggested questions to start from

Restaurant AI Manager Ask box with suggested questions such as why is food cost up this week and what should I order for tomorrow

One list for the whole day

Below the briefing, Today gathers the day’s jobs from every part of the operation into one feed — checks due, orders to send, counts to finish, prep, invoices to review and the close — with what is late flagged. A venue manager starts the shift from one screen instead of six.

Orders, counts, prep, checks, invoices and the close in one feed
Late items flagged
Each venue, or every venue in the group

Restaurant AI Manager Today screen: yesterday’s sales, GP and labour against target, and one task list filtered by checks, orders, stock, counts, close and prep

AI you can audit

Every suggestion carries a confidence label — High, Check or Unsure — and the reasoning is one tap away. The AI drafts; a person approves. Every AI action is logged, can be undone, and each AI feature can be switched off per venue. Restaurant AI Manager’s AI use is included in the price per venue.

High, Check or Unsure on every suggestion
Drafts only — nothing reaches a supplier or the books until a person sends it
Logged, undoable, and switchable per feature and per venue

Restaurant AI Manager price trends: what everything you buy cost over time, with the biggest rises listed

What it reads from

Orders to any supplierDeliveries checked off at the doorSupplier invoicesStock counts and wastePOS sales, whichever POS you useBookings and functionsXero and QuickBooks Online

Built by the team venues already order with

Christian Abbot

“Open Pantry has created exactly what the restaurant industry needs. Something very easy to use that doesn’t require any upkeep. Their menu costing feature is fantastic and simple enough that any chef or bar manager can use it. I think restaurants that are serious about growing their profit & managing their costs need to consider Open Pantry.”

Group Executive Chef, Australian Venue Company

Chefs Love Open Pantry

Junior Malvern crew x

Thank you OPEN PANTRY, we used to have to use 6 apps to get access to ordering from our suppliers, the fact we can do it all in one has saved an incredible amount of time & effort! We love you!

Tom Pearson

We’ve been using Open Pantry for a few months now and it’s been an absolute lifesaver. We’re short staffed so being able to place all of our orders with all of our suppliers in the one spot is a massive help.

James Evans

So glad this service exists. Has made it so easy for my manager & chefs to order & all payments are settled in one go. The recurring orders & pantry lists are amazing time savers!!

Why not just use a general AI chatbot?

A general chatbot does not know what you paid for salmon on Tuesday, what came through the door short, or what you sold last night — so it can only give general advice. Restaurant AI Manager answers from your own records, ranks issues by what they cost your venue, respects who is allowed to see the money, and turns an answer into a draft order, credit request or price change for a person to approve.

AI restaurant assistant — questions operators ask

What does the AI restaurant assistant actually look at?＋

Your own venue’s records in Open Pantry: orders to suppliers, deliveries checked off at the door, supplier invoices, stock counts, waste, POS sales, and bookings and functions where you have added them. It does not guess from industry averages — every figure in the briefing comes from your data.

Does the AI change anything or send orders on its own?＋

No. It drafts — an order, a credit request, a price change — and a person approves and sends it. Suppliers see nothing and nothing reaches your accounts until someone presses Send, and every AI action is logged and can be undone.

How does it decide what goes in the morning briefing?＋

It works out which issues are costing the most in dollars this week — a dish or drink below its GP target, a jump in waste, a supplier price rise — and lists the top few first, each with the reason, the figures and a suggested next step.

Can my chefs see wages or the owner’s figures when they ask a question?＋

No. Answers follow each person’s role: a head chef sees quantities and food cost but not wages, and floor staff do not see prices. The same rules apply to the briefing and to anything the AI drafts.

How sure is it about its suggestions?＋

Every suggestion carries a confidence label — High, Check or Unsure — and the reasoning behind it, so you know which ones to act on straight away and which to check first.

Does it work for a single restaurant as well as a group?＋

Yes. A single venue gets its own briefing and Ask; a group gets one per venue plus a group view that puts every venue side by side.

Is the AI an extra cost?＋

No. Restaurant AI Manager is priced per venue per month with the AI included, and there is no contract. You can see the whole thing working in the live demo without signing up.

Can I try the AI assistant before I buy?＋

Yes. The live demo signs you in as an owner, head chef, group manager or bar manager at a demo restaurant group, with a guide that shows you around. There is no free trial; the demo is the whole product, with nothing to sign up for.

See tomorrow’s briefing for a demo restaurant group

Open the demo as the owner of Harbour & Vine and ask it anything — no sign-up.