Any good restaurant will be comprised of a variety of things that make it stand out – food, service and a little bit of pizzaz will often influence success, but a lot of people don’t consider how important good design also factors into this success. If you’re a budding restauranteur or simply a fan of design and want to learn more about what design considerations go into a good restaurant, in this article we demonstrate some of our favourite tips to make good restaurant design much clearer.
How should you arrange your seating?
One of the challenges of good restaurant design is balancing seating arrangements. If you only have an indoor venue and want to maximise seating, cafeteria-style seating is always a good option as it helps you cram as much seating as possible into a small space, but if you have the luxury of having outdoor seating, you’ll also need to consider outdoor commercial furniture. Remember that in both cases, however, that jamming a small space with seating is never going to look good – you need to work out how to encourage a lot of people to come in while not having them feel like sardines. With this in mind, consider where a good middle ground is. Then, try to consider how many people you actually need to serve to be profitable and then think about where your kitchen and wait stations are positioned in relation to the dining area (we know, there are a lot of things to think about). Sometimes all you might need to do is be creative with the size of your tables, or even just rearrange them in a way that you hadn’t considered before – all while making your restaurant or café look appealing to passers-by.
Getting stuck into the visuals
With your venue now looking much more inviting than it did previously due to you rearranging your setup, you now should work out what your brand is all about. Brand identity is what separates you from the competition, and what will keep people coming back again and again. It’s more than just a paint job as well – the uniforms your staff wear (leather aprons vs t-shirts), the crockery and cutlery you choose to use(fine dining silverware vs Kmart plates and bowls) and the furniture (high quality wood or affordable plastic) will all give customers a very strong impression of what kind of vibe you’re going for. For this reason, consider what you want your restaurant and food to show, and you can then start working from there to determine what will best show off this kind of vibe (within the realms of your budget of course, which is another challenge altogether).
Did you forget the bathrooms?
While the other things we mentioned are obviously going to be the things your customers see first, more often than not they will take a trip to the bathroom, and this is a great opportunity to wow them even further. Although it might not seem like a big deal, almost everyone has been wowed by the quality of a bathroom at some stage! That doesn’t mean your bathroom has to be incredibly ornate – introducing things like nice soaps, little pieces of art and other small touches can subtly – but effectively – contribute to the feel of your venue.
