Get the most out of your restaurant kitchen design

Skip the article and turn takeaways into action by scheduling a call with our team.

A kitchen is the beating heart of any restaurant. So getting your restaurant kitchen design in order is one of the most critical steps in creating any successful restaurant. Commercial kitchen design differs significantly from home kitchen design, and for good reason. Operational efficiency, food quality, and customer satisfaction are all directly tied to a commercial kitchen’s layout and workflow. And kitchen design has to fit holistically with restaurant design.

After all, restaurant kitchen design is far more than just aesthetics. A well-considered layout combined with high-quality kitchen equipment can streamline the workflow, enhance productivity, ensure food safety, and create a solid environment for culinary creativity. Naturally, cooking isn’t the only thing that happens in the kitchen: The entire back-of-house (BOH) revolves around it. By investing time and resources into designing a functional and efficient kitchen, restaurant owners are creating a solid foundation for a successful restaurant.

So let’s look at some of the basics of restaurant kitchen design before examining more detailed concepts.

Why focus on restaurant kitchen design?

One of the most important benefits of a well-designed kitchen is improved workflow. A carefully planned layout can minimize unnecessary movement and optimize the use of space, allowing kitchen staff to work seamlessly during busy hours. Creating spaces dedicated to specific tasks like food prep, cooking, plating, and dishwashing helps keep kitchen staff from bumping into each other or having to say “excuse me” every ten seconds. Creating dedicated stations improves food preparation time, leading to higher turnover, happy customers, and higher profits.

There are many ways to arrange floorplans—we’ll get into that a bit more later.

In addition to anything cooking related, restaurant kitchen design directly impacts food safety and hygiene standards. Proper layout and kitchen equipment placement can help prevent cross-contamination, ensure proper food storage, and make cleaning and maintenance easier. Keeping up with health codes is both a moral and legal obligation, and any kitchen should be built with that in mind.

Factors to consider in restaurant kitchen design

Restaurateurs and chefs looking to plan a restaurant kitchen layout need to keep several key factors in mind. First, understanding the menu and culinary requirements is crucial in determining the layout and equipment needs. Got a pizza restaurant? You’re going to need ovens. Making an Indian restaurant? You’ll want specialized equipment, like tandoori ovens. Different cuisines and cooking techniques necessitate specific tools and commercial kitchen equipment, which must be factored into the design plan.

In addition to what you’ll be serving, the size of the space you’re working with will play a huge role in its layout. Whether it’s a compact kitchen in a small bistro, a large-scale operation in a fine dining restaurant, or the narrow confines of a food truck, the floorplan must be optimized to maximize efficiency and functionality. This includes ventilation, lighting, and plumbing to ensure a safe and hygienic work environment.

Budgeting for the right kitchen can be tricky since budgets vary widely between businesses, and not everybody can get the shiniest new toy. Balancing quality equipment, durable materials, and efficient design is key to making a kitchen work. Prioritize investments based on long-term benefits: Look for energy-efficient models of appliances you’ll need for a long time, like refrigerators, fryers, and freezers. Consider also sturdy flooring since it’s going to get a lot of foot traffic.

Types of restaurant kitchen layouts

Restaurant kitchens can be designed in a number of different floorplans, each catering to different food service needs and culinary styles. One common arrangement is the Assembly Line layout, where kitchen stations and cooking equipment are organized in a linear fashion for sequential food preparation flow. This layout works well for fast-food restaurants and high-volume kitchens, enabling efficient production and service. This is where we get the term and concept “line cook,” referring to high-speed and high-efficiency cooking.

Another popular layout is the Island design, where cooking stations are positioned in the center of the kitchen with food prep areas surrounding them. This layout promotes collaboration among kitchen staff and encourages easy communication and supervision. It works quite well for open kitchen concepts, for example, where customers can watch the culinary action.

For smaller kitchens with limited square footage, the Zone-style layout is a practical and ergonomic choice. In this design, different zones, such as cooking, prep, and cleaning, are strategically organized to maximize efficiency within a constrained area. Grouping tools for related tasks like fryers, grills, and stoves helps cooks work cohesively without unnecessary movement.

Planning the workflow in a restaurant kitchen

Just as a kitchen is the heart of a restaurant, efficient workflow is the heart of a successful restaurant kitchen. Planning the workflow involves mapping out the sequence of tasks, allocating workstations, and optimizing the movement of kitchen staff to minimize bottlenecks and delays. Creating a logical flow all the way from receiving ingredients to plating dishes allows chefs and all kitchen staff to work in harmony and deliver a solid customer experience.

One solid strategy in workflow planning is the Work Triangle concept, which focuses on the relationship between the three primary work areas in the kitchen: the cooking area, the food preparation area, and the washing station. Putting these zones in a triangular layout helps chefs move between tasks with ease and allows head chefs to supervise the workflow. This concept is particularly useful in busy kitchens where speed and accuracy are paramount.

Naturally, head or executive chefs will delegate tasks to staff based on their knowledge, experience, and abilities. That’s why there are prep cooks, grill masters, fryer operators, dishwashers, runners, expediters, and other kitchen staff. Before anything gets started in the kitchen, staff should know exactly what their tasks are—and aren’t—so everybody is on the same page.

Essential kitchen equipment for a restaurant

Getting the right restaurant equipment is a core aspect of designing a kitchen well. All the way from cooking essentials to food storage, each piece of equipment plays a critical role in the service area.

If you’re new to the industry and don’t know what you need yet, it’s a good idea to ask your chef for input since they’ll both know and have preferences. Regardless, some kitchen equipment that’s needed in every restaurant includes:

1. Commercial range: A heavy-duty range with multiple burners and ovens is indispensable for cooking a wide variety of dishes simultaneously. Quality heat control, cost-effective fuel use, and flexibility allow chefs to cook different recipes with precision.
2. Refrigeration units: Refrigerators and freezers are essential for cold storage of perishable ingredients, preventing spoilage (and the money lost from it) and ensuring food safety regulations are met. This can include both external fridges and freezers as well as the walk-in variety. Your kitchen floor plan must be built around these, as what you get and where you put them depends on your kitchen space and storage area needs.
3. Prep tables: Durable and spacious prep tables provide cooks with ample workspace for all the cutting, chopping, and assembling that goes on in a kitchen. Stainless steel tables are a classic choice because they’re easy to clean, sanitize, and maintain, making them ideal for food prep.
4. Commercial dishwasher and compartment sinks: The cleaning station is one of the most important parts of a kitchen. Without clean dishes, pans, and utensils, nothing could get done. So investing in a reliable, energy-efficient dishwasher as well as sturdy and nearly indestructible compartment sinks is a must. Your commercial dishwasher may be the unsung hero of the kitchen as it sanitizes anything put inside it, ensuring food safety and helping you keep up with local health regulations.
5. Ventilation system: Having a reliable ventilation system is crucial for removing excess smoke, heat, and smells from the kitchen. Proper ventilation creates a comfortable work environment for kitchen staff and maintains air quality while preventing the buildup of grease and airborne contaminants.

Back-of-house and front-of-house in harmony

With your kitchen designed properly, you’ll be able to sling dishes out to customers in record time with precision and grace. Then it’s up to your front-of-house (FOH) staff to ensure customers are happy with their dining experience—which begins long before a customer comes to your dining room. That includes finding your restaurant, knowing what you serve, booking reservations, and more.

So just like you’ll want to equip your BOH staff with the best equipment possible, you’ll want to give your FOH staff the best tools possible, too. These days, that includes a variety of digital tools that would seem like magic to someone from 30 years ago. Fully customizable floorplans, syncing with third-party apps like point-of-sale and delivery systems, customer profiling, online check-ins, reservations, and much more—it’s all there on Yelp Guest Manager.

We want to see restaurants thrive, not just survive. So we’re doing our best to give you the tools you need so your staff can thrive too. Want to see what Yelp Guest Manager can do for you? Reach out to us for a free demo and we’ll talk. It’s the best bang for the buck out there.