Restaurant Kitchen Design and Layout: Maximizing Efficiency and Productivity
Here’s your easy-to-digest guide to commercial kitchen design ideas that’ll help increase production and attract new customers.
Key Takeaways:
- All commercial kitchen design ideas must be built around safety regulations and code compliance.
- Workflow, equipment choice, and storage space are other key concerns.
- Integrating a shared aesthetic that connects the kitchen to front-of-house can create a more pleasant and inclusive working environment.
A restaurant’s kitchen is the heart and soul of its business.
In many ways, it’s also the unsung hero, often out of sight as it keeps the whole operation running behind the scenes.
Savvy restauranteurs know that this vital space—and everyone in it—must be their top priority.
Here, we’ll provide insights on key restaurant kitchen design factors that every restauranteur must know. We’ll also share best practices for creating a kitchen that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Safety Regulations and Code Compliance
The strongest restaurant kitchen designs have safety at their core—a design feature that protects people, products, and property from physical and financial damage.
It’s also an OSHA requirement to provide staff with a safe and hazard-free environment.
Your restaurant designer should be aware of this and all other state and local regulations when drafting kitchen plans to make the space as safe and productive as possible.
A few key concerns include:
#1: Proper Ventilation
Commercial kitchens can be high-temperature zones, causing heat stroke and exhaustion.
Restaurant designers can overcome this by adding CO2 sensors, setting proper hood placement, and ensuring the HVAC unit is installed to supply the proper amount of cubic feet per minute of outdoor air for every potential kitchen occupant.
#2: Volume Control
The sheer noise generated in a restaurant kitchen can be overwhelming.
Enduring it for extended periods of time can negatively affect your staff’s well-being, focus, and performance.
Sound-absorbing materials, like acoustic tiles, can dampen the din, as can certain ceiling insulations and arrangements of kitchen equipment.
#3: Sufficient Lighting
Slip-and-fall hazards, obstructions, and other risks can go unnoticed in dim working conditions and represent serious threats to health and productivity.
Plentiful and well-positioned illumination is critical to provide clear sightlines and spotlight potential risks.
#4: Electrical and Fire Safety
Restaurant kitchens must have fixtures and fittings integrated into their design in ways that allow ease of use, the ability to see if sockets are being used sensibly, and if the wiring is in good condition.
Electrical circuits must be well-protected, and all equipment must be shielded against power surges.
Smart design in these areas must be paired with staff training, so school your team in fire safety and electrical best practices so they can do as much as they can to promote safety.
#5: NSF-Certified Equipment
The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) certifies all kinds of commercial kitchen equipment built to promote greater safety and performance while guaranteeing freedom from food infiltration by harmful chemicals.
Start by browsing NSF options, then choose a restaurant designer and contractor who can successfully integrate them into your kitchen design.
Taking these vital steps is only half the work in designing and laying out a safe, compliant, and comfortable kitchen. The next step is ensuring that it will support streamlined operations.
Optimizing Workflow and Storage Space
Kitchens of all sizes share these two concerns when it comes to maximizing efficiency.
Essential aspects of commercial kitchen design ideas include:
- Designated stations for cooking, food preparation, and plating.
- Clear access to tools and ingredients.
- Storage space(s) off the main work floor.
- An unimpeded delivery entrance.
- A clear path to and from the kitchen into the dining area.
Some restaurants may be in a position to expand their operations in the future. If so, their current restaurant kitchen design should be flexible enough to allow for the potential addition of new staff and equipment.
Blending Restaurant Function With Aesthetics
Some might wonder why a restaurant kitchen needs to be anything more than functional and safe. Shouldn’t aesthetics apply solely to front-of-house spaces that customers actually see?
This depends on two factors. First, many restaurant kitchens are clearly visible to customers as an intentional part of the overall design; a coldly functional cooking space doesn’t always compliment the look.
Next, restauranteurs must ask themselves if kitchen staff deserve to work somewhere as visually pleasing as the rest of the team does. Of course they do! That’s why an on-brand and attractive aesthetic is the crowning touch in restaurant kitchen design.
This look should connect your kitchen team to the restaurant’s overall vibe. They’ll feel part of the atmosphere that customers and front-of-house staff enjoy, which can help lift everyone’s mood.
The best commercial kitchen design ideas consider this inclusive approach while making any necessary concessions to ensure aesthetics don’t compromise kitchen safety or workflow.
For example, subdued or soft lighting in the dining area won’t work in a kitchen, but there’s nothing to stop details like certain architectural features or color schemes from carrying over. In fact, the latter can be used to further blend aesthetics with functionality by color-coding kitchen areas for different purposes.
Choosing a Restaurant Kitchen Designer
It’s possible to tick many boxes simultaneously when you find a construction company that also does design.
Selecting a restaurant contractor you can trust can be challenging; finding one with a designer’s sensibilities can be even harder.
What’s more, they should also be able to help you navigate compliance and permits so you don’t end up with an attractive, functional kitchen that gets shut down before it even starts!
This sounds like a very tall order. The great news is that RPC is here to share our extensive knowledge in realizing restaurants, including helping our clients with conceptualization, layout, and design.
Make a Great Kitchen a Reality With RPC
RPC General Contractors Inc. is a full-service construction company with many years of experience in helping restauranteurs.
We’re eager to hear your commercial kitchen design ideas and offer any advice and assistance we can to help you realize your vision, so contact us to learn more.