Easy Restaurant Floor Plan for Flow & Profit

The first step in starting your establishment is buying or leasing a restaurant site. Setting up the right layout is where it gets crucial. Next comes defining the right setup for your kitchen, bar, and seating. This helps in defining and enhancing your customer & employee experience. 

When it comes to guests, you want a layout that's welcoming and pleasing aesthetically. They should want to explore the restaurant at first glance. The seating and bar area should make them want to stay longer.

For employees, the right approach is the one that maximizes efficiency while keeping it simpler for them. Essentially, you need to remove any hurdles that may keep them from doing their job easily. 

In some territories and provinces, it's mandatory that you submit a floor plan as a part of your restaurant business plan. It's important that you get all the plans and layouts in place before you begin any work at the site. This makes restaurant permits and licensing easier.

What's a Restaurant Floor Plan?

A restaurant floor plan acts as a foundation for your establishment. It helps in mapping out your restaurant's physical space. This includes the lobby, seating area, bar, kitchen, prep area, storage, and bathroom. Before you even lift a single hammer, you need to ensure what your vision for the restaurant looks like. It's recommended to make the floor plan as detailed as possible so you have a clear direction.

Every restaurant floor plan should include:

• Square footage of the restaurant site

• The kitchen and its elements like refrigerators, stoves, and other large appliances

• The entrance, lobby/waiting area, seating, restrooms, and the bar

• The kind of tables & chairs you're going to use

• Your staff area or backroom

• Outdoor seating

• Your restaurant POS system and payment systems

• Windows, doors, and emergency exits

There are plenty of options available to create your own restaurant floor plans. They help you draft and envision a customized plan for your restaurant. You can also work with an interior design studio more experienced to optimize your space. This might add to your budget slightly but would add an extra edge to your restaurant. There's no one-size-fits-all in this case, as different spaces need different strategies. But a good place to start is making your customers and employees happy.

The process of opening a restaurant is a dynamic one. It includes answering questions like:

• What does the restaurant space feel like? Do we want the 'vibe' to be exciting or quiet?

• What would the walkthrough, waiting, and seating look like?

• How smooth is the process of ordering and enjoying a meal?

• What kind of payment systems are available to the customers?

• How involved will the wait staff be? Do the chefs need to be visible, or will the cooking take place behind closed doors?

Recommended Restaurant Layout Best Practices

Your floor plan needs to be compliant with all the building and food codes. It should also be accessible for a diverse group of people. According to restaurant architect Justin Alpert, “Restaurants are typically designed for the average customer, the typical customer. What we don't want to do is exclude customers who have accessibility challenges.”

Adhering to the codes is the bare minimum. Focus on whether your restaurant is wheelchair accessible. Is there space for kids & adults alike to move through the restaurant? Are the chairs comfortable for people of all ages? When you design for accessibility, you're making things easy for everyone visiting your restaurant.

Your restaurant floor plan should also follow these practices:

• Allow space for your guests to wait to be seated

• Create a space for your staff where they can take comfortable breaks

• Ensure there's a natural flow for food to be served and how the kitchen connects to your end patrons

• Create inclusive seating options

• Consider lighting, acoustics, theme, and ambiance

• Factor in your payment system and POS system and how your staff will access them

• Offer outdoor seating

Tools to Use While Creating the Best Restaurant Floor Plans

While creating a restaurant floor plan, ensure to account for fitting requirements, brand aesthetics, and ease for everyone. This will help you avoid any mishaps later. Whether you're DIY-ing your plan or consulting someone, remember to follow the best practices.

Some of the popular software you could use are: SmartDraw, ConceptDraw, and CadPro.

Key Elements of an Easy Restaurant Floor Plan

Before you sign on a professional or get to work on an easy restaurant floor plan, here are the key elements you need to remember:

1. Restaurant kitchen floor plan

When designing floor plans for the kitchen, take into account the number of people who'd be cooking and the waitstaff that'll have to come and go through the area. A well-laid-out kitchen ensures higher efficiency, fewer accidents, and overall happier staff. 

The example below from CadPro includes space for goods receiving, inventory, dry storage, prep, cooking, dishes, a bathroom, and a staff changing room. 

The cooking area is set up in a way that lets cooks communicate with each other while preparing meals. The best kitchen designs minimize the chance for cooks to bump into each other. It also ensures less time to run a plate to where a server will pick it up. Don't forget about the essential restaurant equipment and supplies.

A snapshot of the restaurant kitchen floor plan from CadPro

2. The waiting area floor plan

Oftentimes, the lobby or waiting area is completely ignored while drafting a restaurant floor plan. This may affect your patrons' first impression while making it difficult for your waitstaff, too. But this is the time you can show top-notch hospitality.

You could implement a free coat check, accept drink orders while they lounge, offer free appetizers, or explain to them the inspiration behind the restaurant. Another simple guest-centric option is to place a host in the waiting area whose job it is to keep guests happy and at ease as they wait for their table, as Giovanni’s Restaurant in Copperas Cove, Texas, has done. 

“Restaurant operators can sacrifice a great deal of storage and sales opportunity, or the ability to open the room up more for bar seating. But at the end of the day, the coat check adds to the hospitality, even if only in the winter,” said Richard Coraine, senior managing partner of business development and consulting for Union Square Hospitality Group. Coraine helped implement coat checks at Gramercy Tavern in New York.

Giovanni’s Italian Restaurant in Copperas Cove, Texas, by EVStudio

3. The full-service bar floor plan

When you add a bar to your full-service restaurant, you're adding another avenue to earn revenue. The bar can double as a paid waiting area and can help you serve more people. This example of Bahama Breeze Island Grille’s floor plan is a private dining setup. The full facility fits 152 people seated and 300 for cocktails or standing room.

While you can add more tables to your restaurant, it can make it difficult for patrons and employees alike. The waitstaff and bartenders will have to expend more energy to navigate the space. That can affect efficiency and time of delivery. 

Odd Duck in Austin, TX, found a solution in Toast Go, a handheld restaurant POS system. This allows waitstaff to split bills, take orders, accept payments, and collect guest feedback right at the table or the bar. All of this in one go without the back and forth. 

Bahama Breeze Island Grille

4. The dining room floor plan

This is one of the most important spaces for your patrons. It needs to be an elegant mix of intimate and spacious. Every bit should feel welcoming. No matter how large the dining area is, you need to stack the seats in a way where they don't feel left out. The empty spaces should be used by waitstaff for engaging with the guests.

And if you're wondering, "How big should a restaurant dining area actually be?" we have an answer. 

Total Food Service suggests that the dining area should take up 60% of the total area of a restaurant; the kitchen and prep areas should equal 40%. Allocate some space in case there are chances of maximum occupancy. The restaurant shouldn't feel suffocating or chaotic in case there are more guests. 

When trying to figure out the spacing and seating, offer different kinds of setups. A small side booth can be great in a café, especially if it's for 'remote' employees. Larger tables can be horizontal on the other side for families or large gatherings. You should offer many different styles of seating at your restaurant. It can be benches, booths, diagonal seating, deuce tables, small tables, or banquet-style tables.

As per the ADA accessibility standards, every restaurant should have a clear route of at least 36 inches wide. This helps guests using wheelchairs or mobility aids to move around comfortably. Some spots can have 32 inches, but keeping consistent makes the layout easier for everyone.

It’s crucial to allow guests some elbow room too. In post-COVID times, SeatingExpert.com suggests leaving at least:

• 18 inches between each occupied chair

• 42-60 inches between each square table

• 24-30 inches between corners of diagonal tables

If you’re looking for some inspiration, Chairman’s Steakhouse in Calgary won the top spot for Best Accessible Restaurant for 2024 as per avenuecalgary.com. The restaurant offers you a heated underground parkade to drop off guests. The range of options among the 192 seats in the dining room, lounge, and private dining room accommodates various sizes and heights of mechanical and manual wheelchairs. They also offer backlit menus for the sight-impaired and have spacious, well-appointed washrooms.

Snapshot of Chairman’s Steakhouse’s dining area, Calgary

5. The restrooms’ floor plan

Having a clean bathroom in your establishment is one of the basic, yet key things you can do for your customers. It shows them that you care throughout their entire experience. In many restaurants, the bathroom layout is considered an afterthought, like the waiting area. But more than 80% of consumers say they would avoid a restaurant with a dirty or poorly maintained restroom, according to a survey by Zogby International. 

Your bathrooms should be easy to access, clean, and suitable for all your customers. Ensure that your guests can access them without wandering through the kitchen or requiring staff to wander through the dining room to use them. The example below is from the design software AutoCAD. In it, the bathrooms are tucked away in the corner, by the back office. And there are two, including one that’s large enough for wheelchair access.

Restroom floor plan by AutoCad

6. Staff quarters/back room floor plan

Back of house isn’t just additional space for your kitchen; it’s where your employees can catch a short break during rush hours. This space also helps them to signal to supporting employees in case they need additional help. Waitstaff, sous chefs, hostesses, bartenders, bussers, barbacks, and all your staff will need a place to either gear up for a shift or unwind during a break. The staff quarters are where all the important discussions happen. This includes finalizing the menu for the day, figuring out the employee roster, schedule & leave announcements, and training meetings. In the example below from BrightHub, the staff quarters are right outside the dining room area and right next to the kitchen. The room is well located and has a door, so employees can easily have a quick, private conversation. 

Back of house by BrightHub

7. Payment & POS system floor plan

According to Ben Kaplan of Barbara Lynch Gruppo, a restaurant’s POS system is “the heartbeat of your restaurant.” While it’s important to choose a POS system for ease of payments and process, it’s also important to have its designated space in the floor plan.

You can do that by having several POS terminals in different sections: one for the bartenders, one for the hosts, and one for the waitstaff, as well as kitchen display screens for the kitchen staff. If you want to have the dining space be “tech-free”, you can opt for one terminal hidden away from guests. 

When choosing the space for the POS terminal, you need to keep your employees in mind. They shouldn’t have to run around just to process payments. To minimize the back and forth, you can implement handheld point of sales, allowing guests to order, pay, sign, tip, and even rate the restaurant experience at the table.

The example below is from designer Raymond Haldeman, who worked with La Fusion Lounge in Philadelphia, PA, where there are two POS stations at either side of the bar so multiple bartenders aren’t bumping into one another.

POS system terminals at La Fusion Lounge in Philadelphia, PA

8. Outdoor areas plan

A well-designed, intentionally thought-out outdoor seating area or patio can tremendously affect your profits. As per vsag.com, a well-set-up patio can increase gross profits by an incredible 65%. 

The ideal location for a patio is close to the kitchen and dining room, so waitstaff don’t have to walk very far in between. The example below from Acapulco’s Mexican Restaurant in Denver, CO, has a patio in the back of the restaurant with round seating. The patio has seven tables and is close to the dining room and the bathrooms.

Acapulco’s Mexican Restaurant by EVStudio

9. The entrance floor plan

It’s no surprise that a first impression can do a lot for first-time diners in your restaurant. They can choose to visit your establishment on the basis of what looks enticing and vice versa. Before a server even greets a single guest, you should ensure that your restaurant invites them inside.

“Think of your restaurant exterior like a billboard: designed to attract fast-moving visitors”, said Ilan Dei, of Ilan Dei Studio in Venice, CA. Dei, who designed the exteriors of the 12-unit Lemonade restaurant chain in Los Angeles, told Restaurant Development + Design Magazine that while all of the Lemonades are modern, cafeteria-style stores, they all needed a slightly different application of the billboard philosophy. 

Some may be in malls so they can tap into the generous foot traffic there. On the other hand, the drive-by locations need signs and billboards that appease them from afar. In the latter locations, he installed floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing drivers to glimpse the stylish, inviting interiors from a distance. 

Several common design elements tie all the restaurants together, including a customized door handle designed to look like two lemon wedges. These fun touches aid in brand recognition and create a memorable customer experience.

10. Emergency exits floor plan

Your restaurant needs to be ready for any and every kind of emergency. Remember your restaurant needs to be people-first, and that includes accessibility, too. You also need indicators highlighting the exits in case of an emergency. Floor plan software like SmartDraw generally gives you an example of the exits with the floor plan. The following example is of a floor plan with its paths of egress marked in red.

Restaurant exit floor plan by SmartDraw

Things to Remember Before Finalizing Restaurant Floor Plans

Once you've locked in the details related to various areas in your restaurant, you need to figure out what actually works for your establishment. This means answering specific questions related to the setup, the design, and setup investments.

Consider the following before your restaurant floor plans:

• How much space do you have? Consider the dimensions and leave extra space for guests to move comfortably.

• Where do you want to invest the most space?

• How much do you want to invest in the decor? Is it going to be minimal or detailed?

• Is your restaurant accessible?

• Will you have a huge lobby or a small one?

• Will you have a full bar?

• Would the seating change in case of events?

Map the Layout for Profit & Efficiency

Once you've locked down the layout, it's best to have multiple trial runs before you finalize everything. After the restaurant floor plan is implemented, see how you can improve the flow for your customers and staff. While you may not be able to change larger settings like the bar or the kitchen, you can always edit the seating arrangements. Trial and error is your best friend when doing this. Additionally, talk to your regulars and see how they feel about it. 

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