KITCHEN PORTER
About the role
It is the hardest physical job in the building. Most of it is washing up, and the rest is cleaning, carrying and putting things away. It's hot, it's wet, and you're on your feet from the start of the shift to the end of it. Nobody here is going to tell you different.
This is the job the kitchen genuinely cannot run without, and the people you'd be working beside know exactly what it's worth.
What you'll be doing
Pot wash. The bulk of the job. Pans, trays, utensils and service ware, at a pace that keeps the sections stocked while they're still cooking.
Both kitchens. The restaurant side and the chippy run at the same time and they both make work. You'd stay on top of both as the night demands.
Cleaning down. Floors, surfaces, bins and the fryer area at the end of the night. Done properly rather than quickly, the difference shows up the next morning and everybody notices.
Deliveries. Taking them in, checking them off, getting them away in the right place, and rotating stock so nothing sits at the back going out of date.
Basic prep. Once you know your way around, peeling, portioning, whatever the section needs. This grows as much or as little as you want it to.
Hygiene standards. Cleaning schedules and food safety are a real part of this job, not paperwork somebody else does. When the kitchen gets inspected, a good deal of what's being inspected is your work.
What we offer
£10.85 an hour. Around £271 a week at 25 hours.
Around 25 hours a week, give or take about five depending on how we're trading and what your looking for. Evenings and weekends, including Sundays. The hours are consistent and we'll give you the rota in advance.
28 days paid holiday pro rata, including bank holidays.
Tips. The team run and share their own tips between them; the business isn't involved. They're consistently well above what's typical for the area, and the team will tell you straight what that actually comes to when you meet them.
Equipment that works. If the machine breaks, we get it fixed rather than telling you to work round it. That sounds like a small thing in an advert. Anybody who has done this job somewhere else knows that it isn't.
Free meals on shift, 40% staff discount, workplace pension.
What we're looking for
No experience needed, and a CV about you rather than experience if you haven't got one. We can teach the job itself in about a week. What we can't teach is most of what follows.
Reliability. Turning up, on time, ready to work, every shift. It matters more here than in any other job in the building, because the night you don't come in, a chef stops cooking to do your work and the whole service pays for it.
Stamina. Hot, wet, standing, lifting, for the length of the shift. If that's going to be a problem it will be a problem every single time, so be honest with yourself about it before you apply.
Working fast without getting flustered. A Saturday builds and then it doesn't let up. What gets you through is a steady pace you can hold all night, not a sprint at the start.
Actually caring that it's clean. Some people can walk past a dirty tray. If you can't, you'll do well here.
Being easy to have around. It's a small kitchen and a tight space, and everybody is under pressure at the same time.
Clear communication in English during service.
Who we are
We've been Arlecchino for sixty years this year, and the family has been feeding Greenock since 1921. We're independent, family-run, and still on West Blackhall Street. Straightforward food done properly, Italian and chippy both, family recipes, no fuss, and generations of regulars who'd tell us quickly if that ever stopped being true.
Where this goes
If you want to cook, say so at the interview. Plenty of good chefs started on pot wash and the route from here is a short one, because you'd already understand how a kitchen runs under pressure, which is most of what a commis spends their first year learning. We're taking more chefs on over the next couple of years and we would far rather train somebody who is already standing in the room.
If you don't want to cook, that's completely fine and we won't keep asking. We'd sooner have a good porter who stays than a reluctant chef who doesn't.
How it works
An informal chat first, then a paid trial shift.
The trial will be a real service, not a quiet Tuesday afternoon. That's deliberate. You should see what a Saturday actually looks like before either of us commits to anything.
Start date is flexible. If you're working somewhere at the moment, we'd expect you to give them proper notice.
Apply with a CV and a short note about yourself.