Glossary

Turn time

What is turn time in a restaurant?

Turn time is how long a party occupies a table, from seating to the table being reset for the next guests. Typical planning numbers run from 45 minutes for a counter-service deuce to two and a half hours for a tasting menu, and they grow with party size: a solo diner eats faster than an eight-top celebrating a birthday. Turn time drives everything upstream: how many slots the booking page can offer, how many turns a table does per night, and therefore how many covers a service can hold. Measure yours by party size rather than guessing; a 15-minute error per turn compounds into an hour of chaos by 8 PM.