5 CV examples · UK · Updated October 2026
Waiter CV and Waitress CV Examples and Templates (UK)
A strong waiter CV proves three things fast: you give warm, accurate table service at pace, you handle allergens and payments carefully, and you are reliable on an evening and weekend rota. Lead with a short personal profile, then back it with covers, sales and guest feedback.
Waiter and Waitress CV at a glance
- Best format
- Reverse-chronological, single column, personal profile first
- Length
- 1 page for most; 2 pages for head waiters
- Top skills
- Table service at pace, Allergen and dietary awareness, Upselling food and drinks, Payments and cash handling
- Key qualifications
- Level 2 Food Safety in Catering, Food and Beverage Team Member apprenticeship (England), WSET Level 2 Award in Wines (optional)
- Average salary
- £17,000 to £27,000 a yearstarter to experienced, National Careers Service
- Typical hours
- 30 to 42 a weekevenings, weekends, bank holidays on shifts
5 waiter and waitress CV examples for 2026
Below are 5 UK waiter and waitress CV examples, from a school leaver with no experience to a head waiter, plus copy-ready personal profiles, skills, bullet points, ATS keywords and a free waiter CV template in Word for every example. Each one is shown at true A4 size and comes with a free single-column Word template. Open any example to read it in full.
Swipe to see all 5 examples →
Chioma Okafor-Eze
Waitress
Leicester · chioma.okaforeze@email.com · 07700 900314
Personal Profile
Friendly, quick-learning sixth form leaver looking for a first waitress role in Leicester. A year of Saturday volunteering in a busy community café has built confidence taking orders, carrying plates and taking card payments, and answering allergen questions with care. Holds a Level 2 food safety award. Available immediately for evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Core Competencies
Customer service · Taking orders accurately · Carrying plates and trays safely · Card and contactless payments · Allergen awareness (14 allergens) · Clearing and resetting tables · Teamwork on busy shifts · English and Igbo (fluent)
Employment History
Volunteer Café Assistant, Hollybrook Community Café, Leicester Sep 2025 – Present
- Take orders for up to 40 diners each Saturday lunch, writing clear tickets so the two-person kitchen cooks them in sequence.
- Carry up to three plates at once and clear and reset 12 tables between sittings, keeping the room ready for walk-ins.
- Answer allergen questions from the café’s ingredients folder and check with the cook before confirming any dish is safe to serve.
Work Experience, Breakfast Team, City-centre hotel, Leicester Jul 2025
- Completed a two-week Year 12 placement on the breakfast team of an 80-bedroom hotel, serving up to 120 guests each morning.
- Laid tables to the hotel’s standard, refilled the buffet and took hot drink and cooked breakfast orders by room number.
- Shadowed the supervisor during a guest complaint, learning to apologise, fix the problem fast and update the kitchen.
Events Volunteer, Sixth form events team (school), Leicester Sep 2024 – Jun 2026
- Served drinks and canapés to 150 guests at the annual awards dinner, working to a timed running order.
- Welcomed visitors at four open evenings, guiding families to subject rooms and answering their questions.
Education & Qualifications
A-levels (2026): Business (B), Sociology (B), Biology (C)
9 GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language (7) and Maths (6), 2024
Training & Certificates
Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering (Highfield), 2025 · FSA food allergy and intolerance training, 2025
Achievements
- Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Silver (2026), with the volunteering section completed at the community café
Why this example works
- Treats café volunteering like a job, with covers, allergen checks and payments, so a first CV still shows real front-of-house evidence.
- States evening, weekend and bank holiday availability in the profile, answering the first question every restaurant manager asks.
- Lists a Level 2 food safety award and free FSA allergy training, which reduce the training a new employer has to provide.
Kacper Grabowiecki
Waiter
Bristol · kacper.grabowiecki@email.com · 07700 900652 · linkedin.com/in/kacpergrabowiecki
Profile
Waiter with five years in high-volume casual dining, now running a six-table section in a 160-cover Bristol restaurant that serves up to 400 covers on Saturdays. Known for calm service at peak, confident upselling and careful allergen handling. Seeking a senior waiter role.
Employment History
Waiter, Brindle & Vine, Bristol Mar 2023 – Present
- Run a six-table section of 24 covers on busy Friday and Saturday nights, turning each table in 75 minutes without rushing guests.
- Raised dessert orders from 22% to 35% of tables in six months by describing the day’s specials while clearing main courses.
- Record every allergy on the handheld ticket and confirm it with the pass before serving, with no allergen incidents since 2023.
- Trained nine new starters on table numbers, handheld ordering and the steps of service during their first two shifts on the floor.
Waiter, Saffron Quay Kitchen, Bristol Jun 2021 – Feb 2023
- Served a 90-cover Mediterranean restaurant with a 40-seat terrace, managing up to eight tables at a time during summer weekend lunches.
- Covered the host stand on Saturdays, balancing ResDiary bookings against walk-in guests to keep waiting times under 15 minutes at peak.
- Checked ID under the Challenge 25 policy and refused service politely, recording each refusal in the log for the designated premises supervisor.
Café Assistant (part-time), Independent coffee shop, Bristol Jul 2018 – May 2021
- Took counter and table orders in a 40-seat café, making espresso drinks and carrying brunch plates through the busy Saturday and Sunday rush.
- Cashed up the till each evening and logged fridge temperatures on the food safety checklists.
Education & Qualifications
A-levels: Polish (A*), Geography (B), Business (C), 2020; 8 GCSEs 9-4 incl. English and Maths, 2018
Training & Certificates
Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering (2021); FSA allergy training (2023)
Key Skills
High-volume table service · Section management · Handheld EPOS · Upselling · Allergen checks · Challenge 25 · Training new starters · Polish and English (fluent)
Why this example works
- Gives the scale of the restaurant and the section, so a manager can picture the pace before reading a single bullet.
- Quantifies table turns and dessert sales, two numbers that busy casual dining managers watch closely.
- Shows training new starters and covering the host stand, early leadership evidence for a senior waiter promotion.
Why this example works
- Uses brigade titles, demi chef de rang to chef de rang, that fine dining managers recognise as a clear, credible progression.
- Names Scottish credentials correctly: REHIS food hygiene and the mandatory licensing staff training for anyone serving alcohol in Scotland.
- Backs silver service and wine claims with tasting menu, guéridon and WSET evidence rather than adjectives.
Why this example works
- Puts term-time and holiday availability in the profile, which is how event managers decide who gets weekend and December shifts.
- Shows banqueting scale, 300 guests and a 20-strong team, alongside café work, proving both event and everyday table service.
- Keeps the degree, A-levels and GCSEs brief, so hospitality experience fills most of the page.
Applying through an online portal? Use the Word download: it is the same CV in a single-column, ATS-safe layout. Keep this two-column design for emailing and networking.
Aoife Kerrigan
Head Waiter
York · aoife.kerrigan@email.com · 07700 900841 · linkedin.com/in/aoifekerrigan
Executive Profile
Head waiter with over ten years in restaurants, hotels and tearooms, now running the floor of a 140-cover York brasserie serving up to 1,800 covers a week. Leads a front-of-house team of 14, writes the weekly rota, owns allergen and licensing compliance and trains every new starter. Personal licence holder with WSET Level 2 and a Level 3 Hospitality Supervisor apprenticeship. Ready for an assistant restaurant manager role.
Core Competencies
Floor and section management · Rota planning to labour budget · Team training and coaching · Allergen matrix and briefings · Personal licence holder · Challenge 25 and refusals log · ResDiary bookings and table plans · Cash-up, card machines and banking · Complaint handling and service recovery · Wine list and staff tastings · Private dining and events · Health and safety checks
Employment History
Head Waiter, Bramblegate Brasserie, York Jan 2022 – Present
- Run the floor for lunch and dinner in a 140-cover brasserie, deploying up to nine waiters across sections, terrace and private dining.
- Write the weekly front-of-house rota on a scheduling app, holding labour within budget through race days and Christmas peaks.
- Introduced pre-shift allergen briefings and a written allergen matrix, with no allergen incidents across more than 300,000 covers since 2022.
- Lifted the mystery diner score from 81% to 93% in twelve months by coaching the steps of service and two-minute table checks.
- Act as duty personal licence holder on evening shifts, training staff on Challenge 25 and signing off the refusals log weekly.
Senior Waiter and Shift Supervisor, Wrenfield Hotel, Harrogate Apr 2018 – Dec 2021
- Supervised breakfast and dinner in a 90-cover hotel restaurant, covering the restaurant manager’s days off from 2019.
- Ran conference lunches and wedding breakfasts for up to 180 guests, briefing casual staff and timing courses with the head chef.
- Cut weekend breakfast waits from 15 to 6 minutes by adding a second hot drinks station and pre-laying tables the night before.
- Reopened the restaurant after the 2020 lockdown with distanced floor plans, table ordering and new cleaning checklists.
- Retained 10 of 12 seasonal waiters through summer 2021 by agreeing fixed days off and fair weekend shift swaps with each of them.
Waitress, Teasel & Thyme Tearoom, York Jun 2015 – Mar 2018
- Served afternoon teas and lunches in a 60-cover tearoom near the Minster, managing tourist queues in peak season.
- Trusted with opening and cashing up from 2016, balancing the till and card machine to the end-of-day report.
- Learned 30 loose-leaf teas and matched them to cakes for guests, helping grow retail tea sales at the counter.
- Handled coach party bookings of up to 45 guests, setting the room and serving a set menu within a 50-minute slot.
Saturday Waitress and Kitchen Porter, Nettlebank Farm Shop Café, Malton Sep 2013 – May 2015
- Cleared, laid and served tables in a busy farm shop café on Saturdays and school holidays while studying for A-levels.
- Washed up and helped the cook with breakfast preparation at peak times, learning safe cleaning and food hygiene routines.
- Covered the till on summer Saturdays, serving walkers and coach visitors and staying calm and friendly with a long queue.
Education & Qualifications
A-levels (2015): English Literature (B), Business Studies (B), Psychology (C)
10 GCSEs grades A*-C including English and Maths, 2013
Training & Certificates
Level 3 Hospitality Supervisor apprenticeship (England), 2021 · Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders (APLH) and personal licence, 2022 · Level 3 Award in Supervising Food Safety in Catering, 2022 · WSET Level 2 Award in Wines, 2023 · Emergency First Aid at Work, 2025
Training Delivered
- Wrote a two-shift induction checklist covering table numbers, EPOS ordering and side-station set-up, now used for every front-of-house starter
- Run monthly wine and cocktail tastings for the team with the drinks supplier, linked to that month’s menu changes
- Mentored two waiters through the Level 2 Food and Beverage Team Member apprenticeship, 2025 – 2026
Achievements and Volunteering
- Team Member of the Year, Wrenfield Hotel (2019), nominated by guests and colleagues
- Volunteer server at a York homelessness charity’s Christmas Day lunch for 80 guests, 2023 – 2025
Why this example works
- Leads with the size of the operation and the team, the first thing an employer checks when hiring a head waiter.
- Proves leadership with outcomes, such as the mystery diner score, allergen record and labour budget, not just ‘supervised staff’.
- Lists the personal licence, WSET and a Level 3 food safety award, which signal readiness for an assistant manager role.
Waiter and Waitress personal profile examples
Copy the personal profile that matches your level, then swap in your own experience, settings and results.
Cheerful, well-organised school leaver with GCSEs in English and Maths, a Level 2 food safety award and a year serving teas at a care home’s weekly coffee morning. Quick to learn menus, steady carrying hot drinks and happy chatting with guests of every age. Looking for a first waitress role with evening, weekend and holiday availability.
First-year university student with a year of weekend table service in a 70-cover pizzeria and casual waiting shifts at weddings. Fast and accurate on a handheld ordering system, confident suggesting drinks and desserts, and reliable on late finishes. Available Thursday to Sunday in term time and full-time in the summer and Christmas holidays.
Waiter with four years in a busy pub restaurant and a casual dining chain, comfortable running a seven-table section on 250-cover weekends. Known for warm service, steady drinks and dessert sales and careful allergen orders. Trains new starters on the EPOS and the steps of service. Seeking a senior waiter role with a step towards supervising.
Hotel waiter with five years in a 150-bedroom spa hotel, serving breakfast, afternoon tea, à la carte dinners and weddings for up to 200 guests. Trained to plate at the table and to run a banquet section to a timed running order. Records returning guests’ preferences in the hotel’s booking notes. Keen to join a fine dining restaurant as a demi chef de rang.
Head waiter with nine years in managed pubs, now leading the floor of a 200-cover dining pub with a team of ten. Runs shift briefings, cashes up and covers the duty manager’s days off. Grew wine-by-the-glass and cask ale sales with a drink-of-the-month promotion and scored 95% at the latest brand standards visit. Looking for an assistant pub manager role.
Best skills for a waiter and waitress CV
List the skills the job advert and person specification name, in the same wording, and prove the important ones in your employment history.
Hard skills
- Table service and the steps of service
- Taking orders on handheld EPOS
- Menu knowledge and recommendations
- Upselling starters, sides, drinks and desserts
- Allergen and dietary requirements (14 allergens)
- Plate carrying and tray service
- Table laying and mise en place
- Silver service and guéridon
- Wine and drinks service
- Payments, split bills and cash-up
- Age-restricted sales (Challenge 25)
- Bookings, walk-ins and table plans
- Opening and closing duties
Soft skills
- Warm, confident communication
- Good memory for orders and regulars
- Staying calm under pressure
- Teamwork with the kitchen and bar
- Active listening
- Handling complaints politely
- Reliability and punctuality
- Attention to detail
Systems and equipment
- Handheld EPOS ordering (for example Lightspeed, Square or Zonal)
- Card machines and pay-at-table
- Booking systems such as ResDiary and OpenTable
- Kitchen ticket printers and display screens
- Espresso machines and grinders
- Rota and clock-in apps
- Allergen matrix and recipe folders
- Safer Food, Better Business diary (England and Wales; CookSafe in Scotland)
Qualifications and training
- Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering (REHIS Elementary Food Hygiene in Scotland)
- Catering and Hospitality Level 2 Foundation Apprenticeship (England, ages 16 to 21)
- Food and Beverage Team Member Level 2 apprenticeship (England)
- Hospitality Supervisor Level 3 apprenticeship (England)
- WSET Level 1 or Level 2 Award in Wines
- Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders (England and Wales; SCPLH in Scotland)
- FSA food allergy and intolerance online training
- Emergency First Aid at Work
Waiter and Waitress CV bullet point examples
Strong bullets pair an action verb with a specific task and a measurable result. Adapt these to your own numbers.
Table service and guest experience
- Greeted every table within two minutes of seating during a 220-cover Mothering Sunday lunch, keeping first drinks orders under five minutes.
- Remembered regulars’ usual orders and dietary needs, earning 18 named mentions in Google and Tripadvisor reviews in one year.
- Turned round a delayed anniversary dinner by updating the table every ten minutes and arranging a complimentary dessert with the manager.
Sales and upselling
- Offered a premium gin upgrade with every pre-dinner drinks order, raising the section’s drinks spend per head by £2.40.
- Sold 40 Sunday roast pre-orders a week by mentioning the booking offer to departing Saturday diners.
- Topped the monthly bottle-of-wine sales board five times after learning three pairings for every main course.
Allergens, food safety and licensing
- Carried every allergy-safe dish to the table separately from the rest of the order, so nothing could be swapped at the pass.
- Completed opening and closing checks in the food safety diary, supporting a top food hygiene rating at the last council inspection.
- Stopped serving a visibly drunk guest, offering water and a taxi and telling the duty manager, in line with the licensing policy.
Teamwork, training and leadership
- Buddied six new starters, starting each on two tables and signing them off for a full section once they passed a menu test.
- Set up a side-station checklist so every waiter restocked cutlery, glassware and condiments before service, ending mid-service shortages on Saturdays.
- Helped explain the restaurant’s new written tipping policy to a 12-person team when the 2024 tipping law came in, answering colleagues’ questions.
Action verbs for a waiter and waitress CV
Start each bullet with a precise verb instead of “responsible for”.
- Greeted
- Welcomed
- Served
- Recommended
- Upsold
- Advised
- Explained
- Paced
- Coordinated
- Prioritised
- Organised
- Prepared
- Laid
- Polished
- Cleared
- Processed
- Balanced
- Resolved
- Reassured
- Trained
- Coached
- Supervised
- Briefed
- Checked
- Logged
- Maintained
- Raised
- Reduced
Find more by category with the free action verb finder.
Best CV format for a waiter and waitress
Use a reverse-chronological waiter CV in a single column: personal profile, key skills, employment history, then training and education. Most waiters and waitresses fit on one side of A4; head waiters and supervisors can use two. Leave off a photo, date of birth and full address.
| Your situation | Format | Length | Lead with |
|---|---|---|---|
| No experience or school leaver | Skills-led: profile, skills, volunteering, work experience | 1 page | Availability, volunteering, school events and food hygiene training |
| Student (part-time or weekends) | Reverse-chronological | 1 page | Term-time and holiday availability, café or banqueting shifts |
| Experienced waiter (casual dining or pub) | Reverse-chronological | 1 page | Covers, section size, sales results and allergen record |
| Fine dining or hotel waiter | Reverse-chronological | 1 page | Silver service, wine knowledge and brigade titles |
| Career changer into hospitality | Hybrid: profile and transferable skills first | 1 page | Customer service from retail, care or call centres |
| Head waiter or supervisor | Reverse-chronological | 2 pages | Floor leadership, rotas, training and personal licence |
Every example above follows these rules, on A4 and without a photo, date of birth or full address.
How to write a waiter CV that gets interviews
A waiter CV gets interviews when it shows friendly, accurate table service at speed, careful allergen and payment handling, and reliability. Managers skim fast, so put your best evidence in the personal profile and the first bullet of each role.
Name the venue type and scale, from café or pub to hotel or fine dining. Then add numbers: tables in your section, dessert or wine sales, review mentions or new starters trained. ‘Ran a six-table section on 300-cover Saturdays’ beats ‘responsible for serving customers’.
State your availability: the National Careers Service says waiters work evenings, weekends and bank holidays, so ‘Available Friday to Sunday and two weekday evenings’ answers a manager’s first question.
Job titles vary: waiting staff, server and food and beverage assistant describe the same core job, so this advice works for a waitress CV too. Use the exact title from the advert under your name.
Waiter or waitress CV with no experience
You can write a strong waitress or waiter CV with no experience by treating volunteering, work experience and school events as evidence. The National Careers Service lists volunteering and applying directly as routes in, alongside college food and beverage service courses.
Lead with a personal profile that names the job you want and your availability. Then show a community café shift, a hotel work experience week or serving at a school event, each with one concrete result, plus any food hygiene training.
In England, you can earn while you train: 16 to 21-year-olds can start the Catering and Hospitality Level 2 Foundation Apprenticeship, and those with some GCSEs in English and maths can apply for a Level 2 Food and Beverage Team Member apprenticeship.
At 16 or 17 in England or Wales, you can serve alcohol with table meals in an area used only for dining; other alcohol sales need a responsible person’s approval.
Keywords to include in a waiter CV
Include the words UK restaurant job adverts repeat, such as covers, allergens, table service and food and beverage service. Restaurant groups, hotel chains and pub companies often screen applications with applicant tracking systems, so mirror the advert’s wording naturally.
- Table service, steps of service, guest experience
- Upselling, recommendations, wine and drinks service
- Allergens, dietary requirements, food hygiene
- EPOS, handheld ordering, card payments, cash-up
- Challenge 25, age-restricted sales
- Silver service, fine dining, banqueting, events
How to show allergen and food safety training on your CV
List allergen and food hygiene training under ‘Training and Certificates’, then prove it in one bullet, such as allergy orders handled with no incidents. Servers take every allergy order, so managers look for this evidence first.
UK food law names 14 allergens, including peanuts, milk, cereals containing gluten, sesame and celery. Businesses serving loose food must give accurate allergen information, and Food Standards Agency guidance for England, Wales and Northern Ireland says written information supported by a conversation works best.
Food handlers do not legally need a certificate, but they must be trained or supervised in food hygiene, so many employers ask for a Level 2 food safety award. In Scotland, the REHIS Elementary Food Hygiene certificate is common.
Moving up: senior waiter, head waiter and fine dining
To move up from waiter, show leadership evidence: training new starters, covering the host stand, running a section or cashing up. The National Careers Service lists head waiter, restaurant supervisor and restaurant manager as next steps, along with specialising in fine dining.
For fine dining, add silver service, wine knowledge and tasting menu experience. WSET Level 1 and 2 Awards in Wines are regulated by Ofqual. In England, the Level 3 Hospitality Supervisor apprenticeship suits waiters stepping into supervision.
Head waiters who authorise alcohol sales often hold a personal licence. In England and Wales that needs an accredited qualification such as the Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders; Scotland uses the SCPLH, and staff serving alcohol there need at least two hours of prescribed training.
What to include and leave off a UK waiter CV
| ✓ Include | ✗ Avoid |
|---|---|
| A 3-5 line personal profile naming the venue type and the job you want | A photo, date of birth, age, marital status or nationality |
| Your availability: evenings, weekends, bank holidays and notice period | Your full home address or National Insurance number |
| Venue scale: covers, section size, café, chain, hotel or fine dining | Duty lists such as ‘took orders and cleared tables’ with no results |
| Measurable results: upselling, review mentions, table turns, new starters trained | An ‘objective’ in place of a personal profile |
| Allergen, food hygiene and Challenge 25 experience or training | Referees’ names and phone numbers |
| Systems you use: handheld EPOS, card machines, booking software | Tips earned or hourly pay from past jobs |
| GCSEs in one line, plus apprenticeships and short courses such as WSET | Clichés such as ‘people person’ with no evidence |
| Volunteering, work experience or school events if you are new to waiting | Tables, columns and graphics that applicant tracking systems misread |
How to write a waiter CV
- Read the job advert closely. Note the venue type, the shift pattern and the skills the advert repeats, such as table service, upselling or allergens. Those words become your CV keywords, and the shift pattern tells you which availability to state.
- Write a personal profile. In three to five lines, say who you are, the venues you know, one result and the role you want. Add your availability, because most waiting jobs run on evening and weekend rotas.
- List your key skills. Pick 8 to 12 skills that match the advert, mixing hard skills such as handheld EPOS, silver service and Challenge 25 with soft skills such as memory, teamwork and staying calm under pressure.
- Show results in your employment history. List roles newest first with job title, venue, town and dates. Give each three to five bullets that start with an action verb and include a number: covers, tables, sales, reviews or new starters trained.
- Add training and education. List food hygiene, allergen, WSET or first aid training, then summarise GCSEs in one line. School leavers can put education and volunteering near the top when they are the strongest evidence.
- Check length, layout and spelling. Keep to one side of A4 unless you are a head waiter or supervisor with several roles and training to show. Use a single column, a clear font and UK spelling, then save as Word or PDF as the application asks.
Waiter and Waitress salary in the UK
National averages for England. Use them to benchmark offers, not as a promise for any single job.
The National Careers Service puts average pay for a waiter at £17,000 a year for new starters, rising to around £27,000 with experience. Typical hours are 30 to 42 a week, with evenings, weekends, bank holidays on shifts.
Source: National Careers Service, Waiter job profile (Department for Education), contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are averages; pay varies by region, employer and experience.
Covering letter tip for a waiter and waitress
Open your covering letter by naming the restaurant and the role, then give one example that proves you suit it, such as a packed Saturday service or an unhappy guest you won round. Mention food hygiene or allergen training, close with your availability and keep it under 250 words.
Start from our cover letter templates or draft one in seconds with the cover letter generator.
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