If you’re opening a new dine-in restaurant or any commercial establishment involving kitchens and meal preparation, you should understand that designing its layout is not as easy as it looks.
Commercial kitchens require thorough planning, unlike residential kitchens, where you only need to have a sink, stove, and fridge. While it may not appear as sophisticated as a dining room interior design, a safe and efficient restaurant kitchen layout is essential to a great guest experience.
A well-thought-out commercial kitchen layout allows the kitchen staff to produce mouth-watering meals and improves your team’s speed and efficiency. Examples of products that provide your kitchen with extra safety and efficiency are installing acoustical smoke vents.
If you wish to know the possible kitchen layouts, we’ve listed down some of the most common ones that provide convenient, functional, accessible, and efficient outcomes even for the busiest kitchen.
Table of Contents
Assembly Line Layout
This kitchen layout should follow a linear setup that begins with food preparation that ends in the area where you serve the food.
The assembly line layout is ideal for fast food restaurants with limited menu lists where speed, accuracy, and efficiency are the main focus from a service standpoint. It is simple and makes for an accessible communication channel within the food creation process from beginning to end.
Island Layout
If your kitchen is abundant in space, the island layout is your best option. The design features the food-making process in the middle of the kitchen, with all other placements positioned around it.
The island layout focuses on the food creation process and allows accessible communication in the middle with the food creation station. It is ideal for restaurants with plenty of variety of dishes and an extensive menu that may require more time to cook and prepare compared to a fast-food restaurant.
Zone Style Layout
The zone style layout prioritizes each type of food creation and preparation process and labels each specific zone. Imagine a kitchen that has a frying station, salad station, and dessert preparation station spread out across the kitchen.
The layout allows the staff to create various dishes at the same time. It keeps your kitchen organized by dividing the food creation responsibilities rather than straight-line processes.
It is suitable for extensive kitchens with diverse menus like catering stations, hotels, or cooking for significant and high-end events. If you’re planning to establish a small restaurant with limited space, this should be the last option on your list.
Galley Out Layout
The galley kitchen layout offers a vast station in your kitchen around the area’s perimeter rather than in the middle.
It is the best option for kitchens with limited spaces because most of the heavy equipment is along one or two walls and creates enough room for your employees to work and move around comfortably without bumping into each other.
You can locate the exit and the entrance to the kitchen in opposite directions, where the equipment utilized to create the quality food rests.
Open Kitchen Layout
The main goal of the open kitchen layout is to provide a unique dining experience. The food is created and prepared either in front of or within the dining room guest’s area. The guests can see the staff preparing the food due to the design.
While it is ideal for storing all cooking materials and equipment that require high heat safely away from the diners, this kitchen style brings the kitchen tasks to center stage. It provides entertainment to your guests for a luxurious dining experience. A significant amount of space is needed to pull off an open kitchen concept.
Conclusion
Constructing kitchen layouts will primarily depend on your kitchen’s space and dining theme. It would be best to research various commercial kitchen layouts before proceeding with the project because it can significantly affect your establishment in the long run.
