Four Important Steps in Commercial Kitchen Design

A poorly conceived and rushed restaurant kitchen design can be a nightmare to operate. If the restaurant kitchen design is not well thought out it can easily drive unnecessary labor costs and negatively impact productivity. If the overall facility is poorly designed it can also become very expensive to make changes during and after construction. The four most important steps in kitchen design are:

1. Understand your concept and vision. Document your concept in detail. If you do not know what you are trying to achieve, your restaurant kitchen design team will not know.

2. Begin by interviewing several restaurant architectural firms. The architectural firm you hire must have restaurant and kitchen design experience. There are so many food service code issues to deal with that an inexperienced architect will create a nightmarish scenario for your restaurant kitchen design team and all the tradesmen. Always be active in every part of the process. It is not unusual to review several drawings. Continue the drawing process until your vision has been realized.

3. Interview and hire a food service consulting firm that has experience in restaurant design. The restaurant kitchen design team will take the architectural space and make it functional with a great layout. The restaurant kitchen design team should be involved in all decisions with the entire space, including the bar, kitchen, side stations and seating areas.

4. Why hire an independent restaurant consultant/kitchen designer? Because if they have integrity their sole function is consultation and kitchen design, as opposed to those also selling equipment which can create a conflict of interest. A well designed restaurant kitchen will use every square foot of space strategically and efficiently. You want a professionally laid out space to accommodate a good lean crew, not a track team running around your restaurant.

The combination of a great architect and food service consultant/restaurant kitchen designer will ensure that you achieve the big-wow-factor in a very efficient use of space. Synergy Restaurant Consultants has extensive experience in designing new, or remodeling existing restaurant kitchens. Some options for restaurant kitchen design that we can coordinate and implement are:

• Space Planning
• Kitchen Design
• Identify Ideal Cooking Platforms
• FF E Fixtures, Furnishings and Equipment Specifications and Procurement
• Review and Coordination of Architectural And Construction Design Drawings