Starting a restaurant is exciting because you get to serve high-quality food to customers and see their happiness once they take a bite off your dish. Once you have a place to set up your restaurant, the next step is figuring out how you plan to design it.
Designing the exterior and interior of a restaurant may seem easy, especially when you have a professional designer helping you. You also have to consider your kitchen design because having a poorly designed one will affect your food’s quality. Your cooking staff needs a kitchen that is appealing and functional at the same time, and you can achieve them by following a professional guide in designing one.
Determine the Food You Plan on Serving
The first tip in designing the best kitchen is figuring out what type of food you plan on serving to customers. Your staff may require a spacious kitchen for food preparation, so adding useless decorative pieces can reduce its overall functionality. Focus on the needed area instead.
You can go over your entire food list and talk with the kitchen staff about how much space they need for the prep area. It can make your kitchen staff’s jobs easy since they won’t have any problems moving around grabbing ingredients and sending the prepared dish over to the customer.
Know the Different Appliances Used for Cooking
Your kitchen will have different cooking appliances, and they will depend on what food your restaurant serves. Keep in mind that there are small and large cooking appliances, so knowing where to place them around the kitchen might be challenging. You should have no problems when you survey and measure the entire space correctly.
Photo by Beautiful Chaos Interior Design & Styling
You might have to expand the kitchen, but you must consider if the property has enough space for the expansion project. Make a list of the different cooking appliances your kitchen needs and learn the dimensions of each one to give you a breakdown of whether all of them will fit, or you may need to remove or replace others with the correct size.
You should also install smoke vents roof hatches if your cooking appliances generate tons of smoke. They work by providing ventilation inside your kitchen and also help in removing smoke.
Choose the Correct Flooring
The kitchen flooring you choose needs to have appeal and functionality. Your kitchen might be close to the dining area where customers can see the inside, so customers and guests can see the floors. If you choose unappealing flooring that looks dirty, your customers might have doubts and leave your restaurant right away.
Photo by Kitchen Classics – Charles Heller
You can find many types of flooring that will fit in any restaurant kitchen. One type is ceramic tile flooring that gives off a classic appearance, perfect for restaurants with the old, rustic style. Another option you have is natural stone tiles, which provide the best aesthetics. Don’t forget about the flooring’s durability and lifespan because you might encounter issues in the long run that can negatively affect the overall kitchen.
Create a Flexible and Efficient Space
As mentioned a while ago, your restaurant needs a more expansive kitchen space for each staff to move around quickly. One way you can achieve a flexible and efficient kitchen space is by placing space-saving cooking appliances. Ensure you maximize your space and keep in mind the number of people moving around.
Ensure High Levels of Food Sanitation
Your food should never be unclean because it can become a massive problem for diners. In most cases, they would get food poisoning because one of the kitchen staff handling it forgot to wash their hands. That’s why every kitchen should have two or more wash stations for ease and convenience.
Apart from the multiple washing stations, you also have to think about the meeting health codes for your restaurant. Health inspectors will not think twice about shutting down your restaurant if they see a severe health code violation. You can make the kitchen easy to clean by designing it with accessibility in mind. Ensure that anyone can clean the deepest corners and edges of the kitchen to achieve a high level of overall kitchen sanitation.
Be able to design the best kitchen for your restaurant or commercial building by considering the several tips given above. Don’t also hesitate to consult with a professional for any additional assistance.