Finding the best talent in the food industry takes intentional effort and focus. And there are many different methods for ensuring your restaurant is staffed with the best candidates in your region. One of these methods is using restaurant employment websites. In this guide, I break down the best restaurant hiring platforms available. I also […]
Finding the best talent in the food industry takes intentional effort and focus. And there are many different methods for ensuring your restaurant is staffed with the best candidates in your region. One of these methods is using restaurant employment websites.
In this guide, I break down the best restaurant hiring platforms available. I also share tips on how to avoid high turnover, seasonal staffing issues, and skill shortages in key positions. Restaurant employment websites streamline the hiring process, so let’s find out which is best for your business.
You have options for the best restaurant job boards. Below are the top four job boards I recommend for hiring top talent in your restaurant.
My score | Avg. monthly or subscription starting cost | HR tools** | Supports multiple languages | |
Indeed | 4.47/5 | $150 | None | Yes |
Visit Indeed | ||||
Culinary Agents | 3.95/5 | $150 | Good | No |
Visit Culinary Agents | ||||
3.85/5 | $299* | Good | Yes | |
Visit ZipRecruiter | ||||
Poached | 3.45/5 | $59 (per 30-day job post) | None | Yes |
Visit Poached |
*According to third-party sources
**Background checks, I-9 everify, W-4s, e-signature, etc.
Pricing: 4.75/5
General features: 4.25/5
Advanced features: 4.38/5
Support: 4.38/5
Expert score 4.5/5
Indeed is the leader in restaurant employment websites in 2025. It offers robust tools and modifiers for each job posting, tailoring to your very specific needs when posting an open position online.
Their support staff is very knowledgeable about the restaurant industry, and their average cost per hire is below $250, with several reports putting the actual investment between $167 and $200 per hire. What it lacks in HR tools, it makes up for in candidate review and in-app communication tools. Overall, it’s this suite of robust tools and fair pricing that makes them my top pick for hiring restaurant employees in 2025.
Average monthly or base subscription cost: $150
Average daily cost: $5
Average cost per hire: $167-$200
Pricing: 4.88/5
General features: 4.38/5
Advanced features: 3.13/5
Support: 2.38/5
Expert score: 3.75/5
I have personally used Culinary Agents to find jobs in the restaurant industry. It’s one of the most popular restaurant job sites for kitchen workers looking for new positions. With robust targeting for the hospitality sector, it’s hard to find a more dedicated online website.
Culinary Agents offers an ATS bundle and batch discounts, making it ideal for restaurants or hospitality groups with numerous job openings to post or hire. Culinary Agents is a great choice for larger restaurant groups or restaurants that want hyper-targeted hiring for restaurant workers.
Average monthly or base subscription cost: $150 (includes four job ads)
Average daily cost: $5
Average cost per hire: Less than $250
Pricing: 3.69/5
General features: 4/5
Advanced features: 3.81/5
Support: 4.25/5
Expert score: 3.88/5
ZipRecruiter is a great tool for matching job openings with ideal candidates. Their “Smart Matching Technology” helps distribute jobs to key candidates and relies on AI tools to find the best person for each open position.
I find ZipRecruiter is one of the best restaurant job websites for smaller to medium-sized businesses, as they can target local geographic regions better than most online job boards. ZipRecruiter has switched to a custom-quote pricing model, so pricing transparency is limited. But they are a great option for those who struggle to find the best candidates for their open roles.
Average monthly or base subscription cost: Custom quote needed
Average daily cost: $16
Average cost per hire: Dependent on custom quote
Pricing: 3.56/5
General features: 4.13/5
Advanced features: 2.44/5
Support: 2.75/5
Expert score: 4.63/5
Poached is similar to Culinary Agents in that it connects restaurant owners directly to hospitality workers. Poached’s unique shift-hiring feature has proven to be a game-changer for restaurants to fill roles and bring on staff immediately.
While Poached may be more limited in scope than the other options on this list, it’s still worth noting that Poached is absolutely a great choice, especially for restaurants that need shifts filled immediately.
Average monthly or base subscription cost: $59 per 30-day job posting
Average daily cost: $39 fee per shift
Average cost per hire: Less than $250
Writing an effective job posting is critical for attracting top talent. A restaurant job posting should be easy to read and clearly outline the position offered. It should also excite potential candidates, offering a vision of your excellent work environment and showcasing what they have to gain by joining your team.
I can speak firsthand to the difficulty many restaurant owners have when it comes to both attracting and retaining good talent in the food industry. Attracting talent is challenging due to the high level of saturation in the food industry’s labor market.
As of February 2025, the industry workforce was projected to grow by 200,000 jobs this year. But restaurant labor shortage statistics suggest full-service restaurants are still struggling to find staff.
Retaining talent can be even more tricky due to the demands of our industry and, unfortunately, poor culture or non-competitive labor practices by restaurants. Below are some key practices to keep in mind for better success with employee attraction and retention.
Burnout, abuse, and overall poor working conditions were the norm for many restaurants leading up to the 2000s. The last two decades have seen a dramatic shift in working conditions for restaurant workers, along with an increase in demand from these workers for better overall working environments.
This all begins with the restaurant culture management builds for its staff. Some of the best restaurants in the world are beacons of both excellent food and excellent working conditions, with workers competing to be part of a team that values them. This type of culture helps attract and retain talent in your restaurant.
The beautiful aspect about the restaurant industry is the fact that there are a lot of relationships within it that you can leverage. Events like industry nights at local restaurants or collaborative cooking festivals are great ways to meet and find talent within the food world. Being a beacon of leadership in your community as a chef or restaurant owner will help boost the perception of your restaurant and what it’s like to work there.
Many restaurant workers strive for career growth in their roles. Yet restaurant employee turnover runs rampant, so finding a place of employment that compensates fairly and offers regular promotions stands out to talented workers.
Promoting from within and celebrating this on social media or through digital announcements is key to showing prospective employees that your restaurant is a great place to work. This also helps build a winning culture that attracts and retains the best talent in your region.
Keeping open communication channels with your staff can help address any issues they face. Open dialogue on improving the work environment is an excellent way to retain staff. Another important aspect of your job is maintaining a work-life balance.
Burnout is an epidemic for food industry workers, so offering fair schedules, adequate time off, and managing employees who are feeling overworked is key to keeping your talent.
Restaurants often face shortages or surges of employees, depending on the season. Some restaurants are very busy in the summer, making it more difficult to hire staff during these peak times. Restaurants that are further out of town, in rural areas, or in areas of heavy tourism or short-term visits face similar challenges.
Other restaurants may only need labor during a season because they are not open year-round, so being able to hire top talent is vital. By building a good kitchen culture and planning your staffing plans well in advance of the season, you are better able to prepare for the eventual effects of seasonality.
One aspect of employment that restaurants face is the fact that skill shortages exist among new employees. Restaurant work is very unique and can vary from business to business. My recommendation for keeping talent on that may have skill shortages is to create a robust onboarding and training program for new hires.
Many smaller restaurants or groups lack this aspect of onboarding, but it’s vital for long-term success for your employees. By intentionally ensuring proper training, you can better retain your employees in the long term and keep your labor force sustainable.
You can use a few alternative hiring methods when hiring for a restaurant. While online job boards may be effective, it’s good to diversify where you find talent, as not everyone aggregates to these sites. Below are some of the most effective alternative hiring methods in the food nd beverage industry.
A really effective way to hire is to use your social media channels to attract and retain top talent. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are great ways to let people know that you have availability on your team. One unlock I’ve found when hiring is using local food industry Facebook groups.
These local online forums are excellent because they connect the food industry in a region and make it easy to find talent. Furthermore, talent found in these groups is often recommended by a chef or business owner, which lends more trust to the candidate being interviewed.
Referral programs are implemented in small and large-scale businesses due to their effectiveness. A referral program usually involves an incentive for an employee to refer a colleague, in return for which they receive a monetary bonus or reward.
Referral programs tap into your employees’ network, which can yield great results in the restaurant industry. Offering a competitive referral program while also including a retention clause is key to executing this alternative method.
AI-driven recruitment can be useful for restaurant owners who have limited time and resources. Looking through resumes or applications on paper or by hand is best for kitchen workers, in my opinion, but AI tools can help with efficiencies if you have limited time for administrative tasks. Websites like Upwork are also great ways to attract talent or remote-based workers for backend work, such as menu design or a virtual assistant role to help manage administrative tasks.
An old practice in the restaurant industry is the concept of a “stage,” which is essentially a working interview. In the modern restaurant industry, paying all workers is the norm and should be a basic business function.
That being said, offering potential employees the ability to intern or stage while being paid is a great way to see if they are a good fit and to determine if they actually want to take on the work they’re interviewing for. Paid stages are done by some of the most successful restaurant groups and can be a great trial run for those looking to join your culinary team.
Hiring is one of the most vital aspects of managing a restaurant. This includes finding the right restaurant job posting sites to attract and retain the talent you’re looking for. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about employment websites and restaurant hiring in 2025.
The best job board for hiring restaurant staff depends on your restaurant’s needs and the number of positions you need to fill. In 2025, our top pick for a restaurant employment website is Indeed. With great tools for finding and attracting top talent and robust customer support, it’s hard to find a better website that caters to restaurant-specific hiring.
Whether you can post a restaurant job for free depends on your restaurant employment website. Some sites, such as ZipRecruiter, offer a few free postings a day, while sites like Indeed may offer a free plan entirely. Posting your job for free can be a perk, especially if you have limited job openings. Many sites offer this option.
The best hiring tips for restaurant owners generally revolve around a robust screening process, a clear understanding of what the role entails, and positioning your wages at a competitive rate compared to the local food industry. Hiring for restaurants is competitive, especially since most restaurants experience high employee turnover.
By interviewing with intention, setting the standard for a position, and competing with your compensation, you’ll find quality candidates that you can retain and convert to restaurant employees.
There are three significant aspects to attracting talent in the food industry: role, compensation, and culture. You can offer a competitive wage to employees, but if your culture is poor, then turnover in your restaurant will be high.
Alternatively, you can have a great culture, but if your compensation is not at least somewhat competitive, then your talent may and will look for more value in other positions. By offering competitive wages and a good working environment, you can attract the top talent within your local food industry.
Hiring in the restaurant industry can be very challenging, so using a restaurant employment website that delivers results is essential. Indeed is my top pick for 2025, due to its intuitive tools, reach across the hospitality industry, and a focus on enhancing the interview process.
Whatever system you choose from this guide, know that selecting the system is only half the task. By writing engaging job postings, offering competitive pay, and building a great culture, you can hire and retain top talent for any restaurant job opening.
Ray Delucci is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America with a Bachelor’s in Food Business Management. He has experience managing restaurants in New York City, Houston, and Chicago. He is also the host of the Line Cook Thoughts Podcast, where he interviews and shares the stories of foodservice workers. Ray currently works in food manufacturing and food product development.
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