Ramadan changes how a restaurant operates more than almost any other time of year — shifted hours, concentrated demand around iftar, and menu items that only make sense during this specific period. A few things worth sorting out ahead of time rather than mid-rush on the first night.
Menu changes that actually need planning
Special Ramadan items and set iftar menus are common, and if your menu system requires re-entering items by hand, doing that the week Ramadan starts — while also handling the first few chaotic iftar rushes — is bad timing. Building the Ramadan menu in advance, ready to switch on, removes one more thing to scramble over.
The iftar rush is a genuinely different operational problem
Unlike a normal dinner rush that builds gradually, iftar demand hits almost all at once, right at sunset, concentrated into a narrow window. A system that's slow to take or confirm an order makes that bottleneck worse specifically during the highest-stakes moment of the day — this is exactly when a QR-ordering system that lets customers order ahead of the exact iftar moment, or a kitchen ticket system that doesn't rely on a waiter relaying orders verbally, earns its keep most.
Staffing and hours
If your system tracks shifts and cash counts, make sure shift times are actually updated to match Ramadan hours before the month starts — a shift-tracking system still assuming normal hours produces wrong variance calculations and confusing reports for the whole month.
If you're considering setting up QR ordering before Ramadan specifically to handle the iftar rush better, now is the right time to start — setup takes a day or two, and you want it tested well before the first iftar, not during it.