Dobbies Garden Centres
Assistant Restaurant Manager

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Assistant Restaurant Manager
Our Assistant Restaurant Managers play an essential role in delivering an exceptional experience across our Restaurants – delivering tasty food, maintaining operational standards, smashing commercial targets, and ensuring food hygiene, whilst assisting the Restaurant Manager.
Responsibilities
- Oversee the fast-paced restaurant operation, taking responsibility for both the kitchen and front of house operation
- Lead an engaged team, focused on delivering a great customer experience and making it work for our customer
- Ensure strict compliance with health and safety regulations at all times
- Effective stock management controls, to ensure wastage is minimised and the kitchen has everything it needs to deliver to our customers
- Support the delivery of instore events, including seasonal highlights such as Breakfast with Santa, and regular fixtures such as Afternoon Teas
- Communicate effectively with our central support teams to maintain smooth operations and feedback to improve our business
- Work as part of the overall Garden Centre Management team to deliver a safe working environment, commercially successful store, and a great place to work for our colleagues
Who We Are Looking For
- You'll bring passion for hospitality with proven experience of restaurant management
- Commercial awareness and understanding of budgets, profitability from driving sales, and improved ways of working
- A proven ability to manage stock controls and strict adherence to health & safety regulations
- Ability to identify training needs. You'll be effectively coaching and training all levels ensuring our teams are delivering a first-class customer experience and safe centre environment
- Adaptability. You'll act quickly and enthusiastically to changing priorities, workload, and new regulations or requirements
- Positivity managing change, you'll lead the team through each session with care and motivation to deliver the best
- Can demonstrate our values at all times - we're one team, getting better every day. We bring a smile. We live and breathe gardens. We make it work for our customers.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
See breakdownIt searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
What We Offer
- Generous annual leave entitlement. Use your holidays when you want with limited statutory days off required
- Treat yourself with generous uncapped discount across our stores with 50% off in our Restaurants, 25% off in the Garden Centre, and 10% off in our food halls
- Access to Stream - support your financial wellbeing, with ability to access earnings ahead of payday, save for the future, and financial advice
- Access to Retail Trust - seek confidential support, access to a virtual GP, free counselling service, and discounted retail rewards with our employee wellbeing platform
- Access to Dobbies Academy - continue your development with our eLearning platform and development programmes
- Thriving culture; the Dobbies team are passionate, diverse, and committed to making it work for our customers


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About Us
At Dobbies, we’re proud to have a history dating back to 1865. We were founded by James Dobbie and are the only garden centre retailer to have stores in every nation across the UK.
Our passion and joy for gardens and plants is what makes us special. In our stores, we showcase this through our own brand and branded products, concession partners, and services. We champion garden living all-year-round.
Many of our stores feature a restaurant or coffee shop, where customers can enjoy refreshments or meals in a relaxed and welcoming environment.
We offer a calendar of events and experiences that bring people and communities together, and we have a national charity partner that both our colleagues and customers raise money for.
We’re committed to being a great place to work. We’re one team, and we encourage our colleagues to be the best version of themselves, every day; to share their wins and celebrate success. Together, we make it work for our customers.
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