The Bamboo Garden restaurant is experiencing several operational issues including a language barrier between staff, no defined wait stations, tables being left unattended, and disorganized food delivery. A plan is proposed to hire a bilingual manager, redesign the dining room for better flow, assign wait staff specific stations, and have staff keep individual tips to improve accountability. The changes would be implemented over 30-60-90 days with reviews of financial metrics and staff performance.

1. ---The Bamboo Garden Case
Thomas Sharpe - Shena Papa - Ernest Bailey
- Week four-
Course: HFT 6299 Case Studies in Hospitality Management Section RXT
Instructor: Dr. Miranda Kitterlin

2. The Bamboo Garden
---Familiarity - Timeline
Korean
Dining (take-
out) Sue Lee
as Owner &
Manager
Bamboo
Garden
(Dine-in) Sue
Lee Owner &
Manager
Heon & Kim
hired
as Chefs /
Kitchen
Hannah now
as Wait- staff
Sue Lee
additional
role as
Hostess
Sue Lee no-
longer role
as Hostess
Hannah's
role
sometimes
as Head
Waiter;
and/or
Manager in
Sue Lee's
absence
pay-issue
Friday
evening

3. The Bamboo Garden
---Familiarity - Timeline
Sue Lee
Owner/Manager
Hoan Han
Kitchef Chef
Kim Young
Kitchen Chef
Tai Sung
Sushi Chef
Jose Hernandez
dish steward
Hannah Lee
Wait / Asst Mgr
Waitstaff
10-15 people
Kacey Wu,
WaitStaff

4. The Bamboo Garden - Symptoms
• Guests left to stand at door waiting for tables
• Hostess stand left un-manned during dinner
rush
• Guests searched to find Manager to be seated
• New guests are noticed only after several
minutes
• Waitstaff serves tables-cross-dining room
• Fifteen-minutes before guest orders are
followed upon
• Multiple Waitstaff taking orders at same table
• Kitchen staff operates area like “territory”
• Kitchen Lead “snaps” back when asked about
orders
• Kitchen presents courses and orders at-own-
pace
• Kitchen does not notify Waitstaff when courses
are ready
• Guests do not receive complete orders as
Kitchen won’t release
• Waitstaff required to watch window for food to
be presented
• Guests experience enhanced wait-periods
during production of sushi
• Perfection-centric Sushi production method
provides slower output
• Chef’s instructions contradict Owner’s
instructions
• Guest-tickets not transferred to next station
after completed
• Single-table available in dining room during
height of dinner hour
• Two-seats available in Sushi Bar at height of
dinner hour
• Narrow dining room prompts guests to shift in
chairs so disabled can pass
• Organizational structure includes management
role with limited power
• Three day unpaid training period
• Inept food ordering system.
• Weekends busier than weekdays

5. The Bamboo Garden - Symptoms
• Sue Lee: Own and Manage a Korean-Japenese restaurant
featuring effcient service and inviting atmosphere; Provide
leadership; earn a profit
• Heon Han: Provide leadership for Kitchen; Work with sense of
urgency; Prepare consistent dishes; and earn income
• Kim Young: Sponsor leadership in Kitchen; Work with sense of
urgency; Prepare consistent dishes; and earn income
• Tai Sung: Provide leadership in Susi-Bar; Work with sense of
urgency; Prepare consistent dishes; and earn income
• Hannah Lee: Earn income; hone leadership skills; complete degree
• Jose Gonzalez: Provide leadership for stewarding/dish area; Work
with sense of urgency; produce consistent product; and earn
income

6. The Bamboo Garden - Analysis
• Governance: The Bamboo Garden is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.
Busy times on weekend is from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. No manager on floor and hostess
stand unattended. Customer’s are having to look for someone to be seated.
Kitchen staff has no urgency or organization in getting food out together. Order’s
are not being properly executed.
• Organizational Factors: The Bamboo Garden has no assigned stations/tables for
the Waitstaff and they are all over the place. The weekends tend to be busier than
during the week. There is no accountability of the kitchen getting the food out
wrong, late or not altogether. Tickets are left at prior stations thus promotes
mistakes and sponsors poor customer service. The Sushi Chef is slow in preparing
the food which cost money from lack of turnover.
• Management Systems: The Bamboo Garden is open seven days a week and the
weekend dinner are busier than weekday. Manager spends most time in office
working on bills, order, etc. No Host or Hostess available to seat guest. Dining
room is very tight and hard to maneuver. Waitstaff running all over dining room
not knowing who has or has not been waited on.

7. The Bamboo Garden – Analysis (cnt’d)
• Work Units: There is Sue Lee, the Owner/manager and has worked in restaurants
all her life and has another take out restaurant; her daughter, Hannah who was a
Hospitality undergrad and is also a wait person and acting manager when Sue Lee
is not there, but has no real authority. The Sushi Chef who is middle aged and
reluctantly speaks English; two Kitchen Chefs who are in their mid-thirties and also
speak Japanese; a busser/dishwasher, who only speaks Spanish and about 10 to 15
wait personnel, all part time and all female and mostly Caucasian.
• Social Systems: The Waitstaff keeps themselves busy by cleaning, folding napkins
and filling condiments during slower times. The manager owner has given staff no
set direction and therefore the restaurant runs in hectic mode. The Chefs run their
sections the way they want even against the owner’s wishes. The staff has little
time to socialize with one another.
• Organizational Culture: There is very little organization within The Bamboo
Garden. The Kitchen Chefs run the kitchen the way they want and the Waitstaff
has no sense of seating arrangements and everyone is waiting on all the
customers. The dining room is cramped and hard to maneuver around tables.

8. The Bamboo Garden – Outcomes
• Individual Outcomes: The Kitchen Chefs are not responsive to the
Waitstaff’s’ needs. The Waitstaff has no defined assignment of tables;
both create havoc based delivery. Customer satisfaction is low even
though the food being served is good. Production is slow and food is
presented in spurts. Hannah, the acting manager, has no real authority,
but has the education.
• Unit Outcomes: The restaurant is in a tranquil setting with different water
features, Japanese music playing softly and decorated with Asian
paintings, flowers and pots of bamboo.
• Organizational Outcomes: The restaurant has no hostess on duty during
the busy times and the Waitstaff has no designated sections so all the
servers are assisting all the customers and food orders are not being
delivered properly because no one knows who has or has not been waited
on. The manager stays in the back doing paper work instead of being on
the floor when the restaurant is busy.

9. The Bamboo Garden - Problems
• Problem 1: Major language barrier. Communication
between wait- staff, Chefs, and Owner is limited
• Problem 2: No defined stations for the Waitstaff. Dining
room is hard to maneuver around in. The Kitchen Chefs
run the kitchen their way despite of being told how it
should be ran. No Hostess on duty during busy times.
• Problem 3: All Waitstaff personnel are part time. The
tips are pooled and then divided by the owner who is
not overseeing their work so the tipping is possibly
unfair. The ordering procedures are not being followed
through on and orders are being left at prior food
stations.

10. The Bamboo Garden - POA
• Plan of Action
• Problem 1: Language barrier.
• Alternative: No action.
• Pros: Communication between Waitstaff and Chefs remain Strained.
• Cons: Customer orders still come out at different intervals or not at all.
•
•
•
•
• Alternative 2: Sue Lee the owner stays more on the floor and acts as translator.
•
• Pros: Waitstaff has better communications with Chefs and other Waitstaff.
• Cons: Sue Lee gets behind in all her other work running the restaurant and paying bills, payroll and
inventory.
•
• Alternative 3: Move Hannah, her daughter into role of Manager.

11. The Bamboo Garden – POA cnt’d
• Pros: Someone is there manning the hostess stand and can translate between kitchen and
Waitstaff. Will free-up Sue Lee to perform executive duties
•
• Con: Sue Lee would lose some control over how things are done.
•
•
• Problem 2: No defined wait stations – cramped dining room – no host/hostess.
•
• Alternative 1: No action.
•
• Pros: Nothing changes and restaurant runs the same.
• Cons: Orders come out wrong and customer satisfaction goes down.
•
• Alternative 2: Assign wait stations – open dining room by removing some tables – man host/hostess
station.
•
• Pros: Dining room runs more efficiently and customers know who their server is. Ease of moving
around dining room and stations are being seated in a rotation fashion.
• Cons: The restaurant would lose two to three tables.

12. The Bamboo Garden – POA cnt’d
•
• Problem 3: Waitstaff are part-time and pool tips.
•
• Alternative 1: No action.
•
• Pros: Waitstaff payroll remains the same, but includes no benefits.
• Cons: Tips continue to be pooled and probably unequally.
•
•
• Alternative 2: Make some Waitstaff full time and paid training. Each server keeps their own tips.
•
• Pros: Better understanding of management rules and menu. More efficiently run dining room. Promote Hannah
to head waiter and dining room manage to more effectively train future Waitstaff. Each server would be
accountable for their tips and work harder to earn them.
• Cons: Full time Waitstaff would cost more since there is a break between lunch and dinner. A free meal or
discounted meal would need to be offered. There is no negative on the individual tips.
•
•
• Alternative 3: Install a POS (point of sale) system to eliminate incomplete or wrong orders.
•
• Pros: Higher customer satisfaction. More efficient kitchen and Sushi bar. Orders are not left at prior stations.
•
• Cons: Cost of the system. It will take time to train the staff on the system. Possible system outages

13. The Bamboo Garden
Recommendation
First recommendation would be to hire a Japanese/English speaking manager. This
would not only free up Sue Lee, the owner, so she can take care of the administrative
side of the restaurant, but help eliminate the major language barrier that now exists. I
would highly recommend that the Chefs adhere to policy and understand that
management wants the kitchen to operate in a certain way. If they cannot adhere to
policy than replacement it is suggested. I would also recommend that the dining room
be redesigned. By taking out two to three tables would not only allow the Waitstaff to
move around the dining room more freely, it would be more inviting and Zen like to go
along with the atmosphere not to mention the dining room would be more efficient.
With fewer tables and increased table space higher per-ticket averages will be
available. thus offsetting losses incurred through slight volume advantage of smaller
tables would strongly recommend there be assigned stations/tables so the Waitstaff
know who their customers are and to be able to give a more personal service to each
one, and the customer’s know who their server is. By not pooling the tips, everyone
would have to work equally as hard to insure they make money. If someone slacks off
their tips should reflect it so no one is doing less work and getting tipped the same as
those that work harder.

14. The Bamboo Garden
Implementation
I would speak to Hannah to see if she would like to take on the role of
head server and dining room manager. If so that problem would be
solved. Next, a meeting with the Chefs would be called to outline Sue
Lee's mandates and their necessity to follow them without deviation. I
would also have a meeting with the Waitstaff to see if any of them are
interested in coming on full time. This would eliminate some of them
having possibly two different jobs and a chance to earn more money.
During the busy times I would have Sue Lee on the floor to meet and
greet the customers as an added measure of customer service. Make
the customer feel like family, and important. I would also like the
dining room manager meet with the Waitstaff at least once a week to
just see how things are or what needs to be fixed. Finally, I would
follow up with the entire staff and see how things are progressing, if
anything needs to be tweaked or revisited.

15. The Bamboo Garden
30-60-90 Follow-up
30 days
• Hire Manager
• Chef performance reviews
• Review avg. tickets for adjusted tables
• Review tip pooling status & outcome
60 days
• Employee handbook by New Manager
• Review avg. tickets for adjusted tables
• Review tip pooling status & outcome
90 days
• Finalize audit of adjusted tables and review
• Review outcomes with New Manager
• Review Chef performance and adjust accordingly