Restaurant Kitchen Layout That Works

In short: a good kitchen layout follows food through the building. Goods arrive, go to storage, are prepared, cooked, plated at the pass and handed to service, with dirty dishes returning along a separate route. If the path is short, one way and clean, tickets move faster and food is safer.

Equipment catalogues make it tempting to start with the machine you want. Start instead with the dishes you will sell at 19:30 on a Saturday and ask: how does each one travel through this room?

Step 1: Map the flow of one dish

Take your three busiest dishes and trace them. For a burger, for example:

1. Beef and buns arrive at the back door.
2. Cold items go to the fridge, dry goods to the store.
3. Prep: portioning, sauces, chopping.
4. Cooking on the grill and the fryer.
5. Assembly and plating.
6. The pass, where the order is checked and handed over.
7. The dining room, and the dirty plates back to the wash.

Draw the path of each dish on a plan. Lines that cross each other, or double back, show where cooks will bump into each other. Fix them on paper first.

Step 2: Divide the kitchen into zones

Most restaurant kitchens have these zones. Small ones combine some of them, but keep the idea.

• Receiving and dry store. Close to the back door, with space to check deliveries. See suppliers and ordering.
• Cold storage. Walk in or reach in fridges and freezers, close to receiving and to prep.
• Preparation. Separate areas or at least separate boards and times for raw meat and fish, vegetables and ready to eat food.
• Cooking line. Grill, fryer, range, oven, in the order the dishes use them.
• Cold section. Salads, desserts and cold starters, away from the heat of the line.
• The pass. Where finished plates wait for service and tickets are checked.
• Dishwash. Near the dining room return, with a dirty side and a clean side that do not touch.
• Staff area and waste. Lockers, toilets and bins, out of the food route.

Step 3: Protect food safety in the design

Layout is one of the three things an inspector reviews, along with how food is handled and how you manage safety. The UK Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, for example, looks at food handling, the physical condition of the business including layout, lighting, ventilation and pest control, and food safety management. See food hygiene inspections.

Design for:

• No crossing of raw and ready to eat food. Different tables, boards, knives and, where possible, different fridges or shelves with raw at the bottom.
• Hand wash basins that are reachable, supplied with hot and cold water, soap and drying, and used only for hands.
• Smooth, cleanable surfaces at floors, walls and tables, with coved edges where rules ask for them.
• Clean and dirty routes for dishes and for waste, kept apart.
• Ventilation and extraction designed by someone competent, because heat and grease drive both comfort and fire risk.
• Pest proofing: sealed gaps, door brushes, no stored items against walls that block cleaning.

Your written plan should match the building. See HACCP for restaurants and the cleaning schedule.

Step 4: Space the equipment for people

Space for equipment is not the same as space for a cook to work. Allow room for:

• Opening oven and fridge doors while someone is behind you.
• A second person passing behind a cook.
• Carrying a hot pan to the sink without crossing the line.
• A clear exit route and fire equipment access.

Look up the minimum widths in your local building regulations, and check them with your kitchen designer. As a practical test, stand in the gap with a tray and see if two people can still pass.

Place the heaviest and hottest activities where they can be controlled. Fryers away from sinks, stockpots near the floor drains, and the dishwasher near the return door.

Step 5: Put the pass at the centre

The pass is where food stops being the kitchen's responsibility and becomes service's. Your layout should make it easy to answer three questions at a glance: what tickets are open, what is plated, and what is waiting for a table.

For tickets, you have two main choices:

• Printers. Each station that cooks has a printer. They are simple and familiar, but they need paper and ink and tickets can pile up unseen. See printer setup.
• A kitchen display. Orders show on a screen with timers and status. DineHarbor's kitchen display is built for this. See the kitchen display guide to decide if you need one.

Mount screens above eye level, away from steam and splashes, and wire power and network before the walls are finished. If you run online and dine in orders together, make sure both reach the same screen. See ticket times and peak service.

Step 6: Plan the front of the kitchen too

The kitchen is only half of the flow. Waiters should reach the pass without crossing the dish return. Takeaway and delivery orders need their own shelf and a clear handover spot, so drivers do not block the line. See run your own delivery and takeaway packaging.

Plan the till, the card reader, the waiter handheld route and the printer for receipts where the staff will really stand. A well placed waiter app saves walking.

Common layout mistakes

• One door for everything. Deliveries, waste, staff and dirty plates all using the same route.
• The dishwash too far from the dining room. Staff leave plates on any surface instead.
• No landing space. Every cook needs a place to put down a pan.
• Fridges in the heat. They work harder, fail sooner and use more energy.
• Storage under the stairs. If it is hard to get to, it is hard to count and rotate. See stock control.
• Too much equipment. Space used by a machine you use twice a week is space not used for prep.

Walk a service through the plan

Before you build, take the drawing and a pen. Imagine 20 tickets in ten minutes: three starters, six mains, a few sides and two allergy orders. Follow each cook and each plate. Where does someone wait? Where do two people want the same tool? Move equipment on paper until the walk is smooth.

Then ask your head chef, who will cook there every day, to do the same walk. Their notes are worth more than any catalogue.

Questions to take to your designer

1. Where will raw and ready to eat food be prepared, and how are they separated?
2. How many hand wash basins, and where?
3. What extraction rate does the cooking line need, and what permission is needed?
4. Where do the tickets arrive, and who sees them?
5. How will the layout cope with twice the covers in a year?

If your kitchen is small

Many good restaurants cook in a very small space. The rules do not change, but the choices get sharper.

• Cook to order only what must be cooked to order, and prepare the rest off peak.
• Use vertical space with wall shelves and under counter fridges, while keeping the floor clear.
• Choose multi use equipment, such as a combination oven, rather than three single use machines.
• Share one pass between food and drink, and keep the printer or screen in a place that does not block it.
• Move dry storage, or bulk prep, to a spare room or an off site unit if the rules allow it.
• Keep the menu short enough that one cook can see the whole board at a glance.

If your concept is mainly delivery, read about dark kitchens, which are designed around orders rather than tables.

Planning the screens and the printers is part of the design. Start the 30 day free trial to try the kitchen display with your own menu before the walls are built.