Equipment for restaurants that lead to better operations

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Sourcing equipment for restaurants to run effectively can be daunting and time-consuming. The information online can be overwhelming if you’re finding restaurant equipment for your first startup or just looking for the next piece of equipment to boost your food service operation.

From expensive heavy-duty walk-in refrigeration units to griddles, outfitting a commercial kitchen isn’t easy. While most restaurant equipment is found in the kitchen, you need to consider ways to improve your front-of-house (FOH) operations too. KDS or point of sale systems (POS) help free up staff and create an atmosphere where customers feel cared for.

In this article, we won’t overload you with information about all types of restaurant equipment. Instead, we’ll offer helpful suggestions to help run your operation smoothly. First, we’ll cover kitchen equipment and storage. Following that, we’ll recommend a modern piece of equipment for restaurants that improves how the FOH works with the kitchen.

Dishwashers

The kitchen is where you’ll find the majority of restaurant supplies. It’s where the magic of cooking happens with tools and technology that help you serve award-winning meals.

Dishwashers may not help you create breathtaking dishes, but without dedicated washing equipment and dishwashing staff, your kitchen will soon become an unruly mess that will bring cooking to a halt.

There are three main types of commercial dishwashers. Pick a conveyor dishwasher if you have a huge restaurant kitchen and want to process between 350 and 1,000 racks full of dishes and cutlery daily. Most restaurants will opt for the more common rack dishwasher, which typically manages 30–350 racks. If your operation is more like a small deli, you could opt for an undercounter dishwasher that processes 20–30 racks a day. You’ve probably noticed these underneath the countertops of bars.

Refrigeration

Unless your restaurant is next door to a highly productive farm, you must consider your refrigeration options.

Many restaurants cope well with reach-in freezers and fridges—more robust and larger versions of what you have at home. Larger operations may want to consider investing in a walk-in fridge or freezer. It’s important to consider how your kitchen floor plan works with your choice of equipment for restaurants. You need to ensure walk-ins get put in a suitable place that doesn’t encroach on kitchen operations.

If you run out of commercial refrigeration space, you can also use undercounter fridges and freezers to find extra space for food storage without committing to a walk-in.

You may have a dedicated food-prep area for meals like salads and sandwiches in your kitchen. Optimize this station by installing refrigerated prep tables. You can organize your veggies into cooler sections, so they are ready to put on cutting boards for food preparation.

Any establishment that’s clearing a lot of drinks should consider buying a commercial ice machine. This may sound like an obvious choice, but when focusing on the food production aspect of a kitchen, it can be easy to forget about beverages. An ice maker gives your staff unlimited access to ice rather than searching for ice trays in the freezer, speeding up drink production massively. Ice machines work even better coupled up with beverage dispensers. This combo can also be a great investment for small cafés.

Cooking equipment

You’re not going to get very far in the restaurant business without being able to cook your food. Selecting your cooking equipment is where outfitting your kitchen gets exciting.

When buying cooking equipment for restaurants, it’s all about what type of food you want to cook. For instance, merchandisers in the fast-food industry will need multiple deep fryers, but a bakery might not need any.

Commercial ovens are one of the most essential components of your kitchen. A convection oven is perfect for chefs that want to cook food on multiple shelves. Powerful fans inside the oven circulate hot air, maintaining a consistent temperature throughout. If you cook more specialized food, you should consider an oven that suits that operation, such as a pizza oven.

How will you cook food outside of the oven? Do you want to BBQ different types of meat? How many grills will you need? Stainless steel griddles are great if you’re frying lots of eggs and pancakes for breakfasts. From stove tops to toasters, there’s commercial restaurant equipment to consider for every task.

Kitchen display and point of sale systems

A KDS enables better communication between front-of-house and back-of-house, as information appears instantly on-screen in the kitchen. Orders are captured at the POS station or on tablets carried by waitstaff.

Kitchen display systems can integrate with the point of sale system, a software and hardware-based solution that gives you greater control over your restaurant. Customers pay using card readers linked to the order tablets of the POS, which can then instantly display orders on the KDS in the kitchen.

Some POS systems can also act as a kiosk that allow customers to check themselves in during busy times, freeing up your maître d’. You can also change seating plans and monitor reservations. There are usually options to re-price your menus, manage inventory, and even integrate loyalty programs. A POS system can also streamline your internal operations to work alongside third-party delivery services. Depending on how much you are willing to pay, POS systems can be a one-stop-shop that supports the majority of restaurant management.

Sourcing equipment for restaurants shouldn’t be a chore

Finding the right equipment for restaurants can be rewarding. You’re taking positive action despite the hours of research and prices that may shock new owners. You’re planning how your restaurant will run, how you’ll make food, and your customers’ dining experience.

As you order specific equipment for your restaurant, it’s important to remember that now you can use software to make things run much more smoothly. Yelp Guest Manager is a  software solution that supports your team by handling reservations and waitlists, allowing customers to check themselves in, and more. Restaurants that start using Yelp Guest Manager experience up to twice the traffic on their Yelp Business Page.* 

Get a demo to improve your front-of-house management today.