The short answer
A restaurant incident log is a dated record of anything that went wrong on a shift: an injury, a food safety problem, broken equipment, a security issue or a guest complaint. Each entry says what happened, when, how serious it was, what was done and who will follow up, then tracks it until it is resolved.
What counts as an incident
Anything on a shift you would want on record if someone asked about it later:
- Injuries: a burn, a cut, a slip, to staff or a guest.
- Food safety: a possible allergen mix-up, food held too long, a pest sighting.
- Equipment: an oven down mid-service, a cooler failing.
- Security: a break-in, a till that does not balance, a threat.
- Guests: a serious complaint or a dispute.
What to write
- A short title: what happened, in a few words.
- The type and how serious it is.
- When it happened.
- What happened and what you did straight away, in plain words.
- Photos, where they help.
- Who will follow it up. An incident nobody owns does not get closed.
Write it while it is fresh. A note written at the end of the night, from memory, is the one that leaves out the detail you later need.
Example: a burn at the pizza oven
This is an example of one incident, from report to resolution.
- Reported Saturday, 7:40 pm. Type: injury. Severity: medium. “Cook burned forearm on oven door while turning a pizza. Cooled under running water for 20 minutes, first aid kit dressing, finished shift on the cold line.” Follow-up: the kitchen manager.
- Update Sunday: status monitoring. “Checked the burn at start of shift, healing. Oven door guard is loose; repair booked for Tuesday.”
- Resolved Tuesday: “Door guard repaired. Long oven gloves now hang beside the oven.”
The first report stays exactly as written. Each update adds to it, so anyone reading later sees what was known at each point.
Follow it through
The log is only useful if incidents get closed. Look at open incidents at every manager handover, and do not let a serious one sit open without a note of what is happening.
How Mezbano helps
Any team member can report an incident from a phone: what happened, its type (food safety, injury, equipment, security, customer or other), its severity (low, medium, high or critical), when it happened, what was done, photos and who will follow up. Updates are added until it is resolved; a store owner or admin resolves it with a note, and a resolved incident no longer changes. An open critical incident stops the day being signed off, and other open incidents show on the day as a warning.
What Mezbano does not do here
- Workers’ compensation, insurance or health authority reports: Mezbano keeps your own record only.
- Alerts sent by text or email when an incident is reported.
- Custom incident types: the types are fixed.
Questions owners ask
What should a restaurant incident report include?
What happened and when, what kind of incident it was, how serious, what was done straight away, photos where they help, and who will follow up.
Who should write up an incident?
Whoever saw it, as soon as they can, while details are fresh. A manager then follows it up. In Mezbano any team member can report and update an incident, and a store owner or admin resolves it.
Does an open incident stop the day being signed off?
In Mezbano an open critical incident stops the day being signed off. Other open incidents show as a warning.
Can an incident report be edited later?
The first report stays as it was. Updates are added after it until the incident is resolved, and a resolved incident no longer changes.