A trained eye for the details you don't have time to check.
Operational audits and advisory for high-end restaurants, from someone who's worked both sides of the pass, front of house and back of house, in luxury hospitality and aboard private yachts, where the standard was never allowed to slip.
An eye trained on both sides of the pass.
James spent years working front and back of house in luxury hospitality, then years more as a chef aboard private yachts, where service and kitchen both had to run without a single visible flaw. That dual fluency, guest experience and kitchen operations, service flow and staff dynamics, is what he brings into every audit.
He's not observing from a manual or a franchise checklist. He's worked the floor and the pass himself, in the kind of settings where owners notice everything and forgive nothing, which is exactly the standard he now holds other businesses to.
An eye for detail and pattern.
“I'm not your spreadsheet guy. I'm the guy who's going to see the thing nobody else will see. I only work with businesses aligned around excellence: the ones with a discerning eye, who want the small things spotted before anyone else notices.”
James has worked both front and back of house in luxury hospitality, which gives him a rare, whole-operation read: service flow, kitchen workflow, quality control, and guest experience, all at once. He's brought in to walk the floor an owner no longer has time to walk themselves, and to catch what internal teams have stopped seeing, not to hand over a generic checklist.
Diagnose, advise, and, if you want it, execute.
Diagnostic
A full front-of-house and back-of-house audit, observing service flow, kitchen workflow, and guest experience firsthand.
Report
A written, prioritized report tailored to the stakeholder who needs it: ownership, GM, or operations.
Advisory or Implementation
Ongoing accountability on the recommendations, or James on-site executing the fixes directly, depending on what you need.
Three levels of involvement.
Diagnostic
€1,800–3,500Full FOH & BOH audit with a written, prioritized report for the relevant stakeholder.
One-off · quarterly · biannualAdvisory
€1,800–3,000/moDiagnostic tier, plus monthly check-ins tracking implementation and benchmarking.
Quarterly audit + monthly callsImplementation
from €1,000/dayOn-site execution: service retraining, FOH/BOH coaching, workflow redesign.
Embedded days per quarterDiagnostic is a complete, standalone engagement. If you move to Advisory within 30 days, the Diagnostic fee is credited toward it.
Common questions
What does a Diagnostic actually involve?
James spends time on-site observing live service and kitchen operations, then delivers a written report ranked by what matters most, not a generic checklist.
Will my staff feel like they're being inspected?
The approach is discreet and direct, not a gotcha exercise. The goal is a business owners can trust to run without them watching.
Do you work with hotels too?
The primary focus is high-end restaurants, with hotel engagements considered case by case.
Tell him what you're working with.
A short note on your business, covering what's working, what isn't, and what you're hoping to fix, is enough to start. Response within 48 hours.
Based in Bali, working internationally. Diagnostic and Implementation engagements arranged by travel.
hello@jamesnicholson.example