Since opening a restaurant and grabbing an avid customer base is so difficult, the least you could do is try and minimize any potential mistakes you could make. Below are some of the worst mistakes you can make when designing your restaurant:

  • Bad layouts – the first and most common mistake many restaurants make is in their layout. The layout of a restaurant decides how fast the service will be, and in turn, how pleased the customer can be. This is why it is important to have a professional architect or similar expert familiar with restaurants plan your layout – if you underestimate the power of a good layout, you can easily find yourself colliding with another employee, or worse, colliding into cafe chairs Melbourne you placed in the middle of the restaurant. Traffic flow should always be a priority, with enough space for customers and employees to walk around the restaurant without having to squeeze their way through.
  • Clashing designs – another common mistake is making poor choices with designs and themes. A restaurant, just like any other brand, should be able to deliver a single message, story and personality about itself. The type of restaurant you want to open greatly limits the ideas or themes you can incorporate – sleek and monochrome designs do well in the luxury dineries, whereas wooden designs and colourful themes match upscale cafes. Remember that the theme and design are neither limited to your cafe furniture nor to the walls, ceilings and floors of your restaurant – it applies to everything in your eatery.
  • Unnecessary cleaning expenses – remember to also factor in your cleaning bills when designing your restaurant! One of the biggest mistakes restaurant owners tend to make is opting for linens and other cloth varieties that cannot be washed or cleaned in-house, but instead need to be given to professional cleaning services. If you think about it, having to visit a cleaning service so frequently can easily rack up unnecessary bills. Your restaurant should be furnished with design choices that are easy to clean, and which require a thorough cleaning only once every few months at the very least.
  • Visible working spaces – unless your restaurant is going to capitalize on open kitchens where your employees can showcase their abilities in cooking, chances are your kitchens and other working spaces are far from ideal. Whilst they should not be dirty (or you could find yourself fined by health officers!), most kitchens are hardly appealing to dining customers. Accordingly, make it a point to leave them behind-the-scenes, away from the eyes of your clients.