Guide
Where the minutes go.
Ticket time is the number customers feel most directly, and almost nobody measures it accurately.
In short
Measure ticket time from order received to order ready, by hour and by station. Most delay sits in waiting rather than cooking: tickets queuing before anybody starts, items finishing at different times, and orders sitting ready while something else finishes. Fix sequencing before speed.
Updated 28 August 2026
Measure the whole thing, not the cooking
Chefs measure cook time. Customers experience order-to-ready. The gap between those two is where most delay lives: the ticket sitting before it was started, the wait for one component, the completed order waiting on a driver. Measuring only the cooking hides most of the problem.
Sequencing beats speed
Most kitchens are not slow, they are badly sequenced. Items that take twelve minutes started at the same time as items that take three means everything waits for the longest. Starting the long item first, on every ticket, often removes several minutes without anybody moving faster.
Look at the queue, not the average
An average ticket time hides the tail, and the tail is where the reviews come from. Look at your worst ten percent of tickets by hour. They will cluster around the rush and around specific items, and those items are usually where a small menu or prep change fixes the whole distribution.
- Worst ten percent, by hour
- By item, to find the dish that holds everything
- By channel, since delivery adds packing time
Prep is where minutes are actually won
The reliable way to shorten service is to move work out of it. Components prepped, portions weighed, sauces made. Every minute moved from service to the afternoon is a minute off the ticket at the moment it matters most.
The honest limitation
There is a floor set by the food itself, and pushing below it produces undercooked or badly finished dishes. Faster is not always better: a customer waiting an extra three minutes for correct food is happier than one served quickly and wrongly.
Questions, answered straight.
Not covered here? Just ask us.
What is a good ticket time?
It depends entirely on the menu. Set your own target per item and measure against that rather than against a general figure.
Does a kitchen screen reduce ticket times?
It helps mainly by making the queue and its order visible, which fixes sequencing. The gain comes from the visibility rather than from the screen itself.
Should I quote longer times instead?
Honest quoting protects the customer experience and should be your first move at peak. Reducing the actual time is the longer project.
How do I measure it without a system?
Timestamp a sample by hand for two services. It is tedious and it will tell you where the delay is, which is what you need.
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