What Does 'SOS' Mean In A Restaurant Kitchen?

Unless you've worked at a restaurant before, you may not be immediately aware of all the goings-on that happen out of sight from your dining table. This can involve certain protocols and procedures, along with a division of labor that helps with efficiency and quality. But there is also a whole unique language that restaurant workers employ in order to effectively communicate with each other.

You may already be familiar with some of this lingo, especially when it's been adopted into common speech, like when someone mentions that they will 86 a particular item, meaning that they are scrapping it or no longer including it in a selection of items. But there is one term that may give you pause if you happen to overhear your waiter shouting it to the kitchen: SOS. This combination of letters is used in Morse code to express distress. However, at a restaurant, SOS is simply an acronym for sauce on the side.

So, whenever you request that your server place the sauce on the side of your dish, don't be shocked to hear SOS or see it scribbled on a handwritten bill. There's no emergency, and you haven't been flagged as a difficult customer, unless you're pulling a classic camper move in a busy fine-dining establishment or behaving like one of the worst types of restaurant diners. This is simply a shorthand way for the waitstaff to communicate the request to the kitchen that is easy to hear amid the activity and clatter of a busy atmosphere.

Besides 86 and SOS, there's a whole dictionary of terms that restaurant workers utilize to efficiently communicate with each other. One of the first things you may overhear when visiting a restaurant is the term "top," which can sometimes refer to a high-top table. More often than not, however, a host or hostess may be talking about a specific number top, like two-top or four-top, which simply refers to how many diners can sit at a particular table. And if you're at a two-top, your party may be referred to as a deuce.

When you're seated at your table, you may sometimes find yourself with two servers, and one server may indicate that the other is shadowing. This means that they are a new employee who is observing a more experienced one. When it comes to your specific order, you may sometimes overhear the staff refer to killing it, but don't worry about them canceling your order because this is simply a way to communicate that you're ordering your steak well done. As you can see, there is a bit of humor involved in some of this lingo.

If you're dining late at a restaurant, your server may also approach your table to inform you of last call, but don't take out your cell phone to call your loved ones. This means that the kitchen or bar is taking the last orders before they start to wrap up for the night. Finally, your server may need to go to the POS to get your check, but don't think for a second that they're referring to their less-than-pleasant manager because it's simply an acronym for the point-of-sale system where they enter orders and print out bills.