Whether you are a brand new owner of a restaurant or you are revamping an existing restaurant, it is imperative that you choose the proper food service equipment to be successful in your endeavor. Depending on the type of restaurant you are opening or refurbishing, you may need special equipment specifically made for that type of restaurant environment. For example, if you are opening a Greek restaurant, you will need a gyro machine, but if you are opening a pizza place, you will need pizza ovens instead. In this article, we are focusing on common restaurant equipment that nearly all restaurants will need to have in place to successfully open or reopen and be able to provide high-quality food and top-notch service to customers.
Cooking Equipment
If you are going to be roasting, braising, baking, or something similar, you will need to have an oven in your restaurant kitchen. Your oven can include a range that is either powered by electricity or gas depending on the method you like best and the way your kitchen is set up. If you want a gas stove and oven but there is no gas line in place, you will need to contact your local natural gas company or a heating and cooling company to install the gas line to your new oven and range.
More than likely, you will need a deep fryer at your restaurant since they are great for a variety of foods, such as chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, French fries, deep-fried mushrooms, and an array of other foods.
A grill is almost an essential part of every restaurant kitchen since they are so versatile and can be used for a variety of foods. From browning pita bread or toasting buns to frying up hamburgers and pizza burgers, you will need a grill that allows for enough space to cook the foods that you will need when you are busy at your restaurant so that people get their food in a timely manner.
A griddle is similar to a grill, but a grill may be plenty for your restaurant unless you own a diner-style eatery in which you will need a griddle to cook things, such as pancakes and waffles.
It is essential for any restaurant to have some type of holding equipment on site that will keep the food warmed to a specific temperature while you are waiting for the rest of each customer’s order to finish cooking.
Nearly all restaurants serve some type of coffee and possibly tea so having a coffee machine in your restaurant kitchen may be of great value to you, even if that is not the main focus of your restaurant. If you serve breakfast foods, you may very well want to invest in an industrial-sized toaster for making toast, bagels, and other foods that need to be cooked in a toaster.
A microwave is very important since you can quickly heat up sauces, reheat foods, and even defrost frozen foods in it.
Refrigeration Equipment
No matter what type of restaurant you own or what other types of commercial kitchen equipment you will need, you must have some type of refrigeration equipment in your restaurant’s kitchen to keep foods from spoiling that are prone to that. There are many different types of refrigeration equipment for you to choose from based on your specific needs and the type of restaurant you are operating. Some of the most common restaurant equipment include two-door refrigerators with easy access so you can grab things that you need when you are busy and you will need a walking cooler, especially for overnight refrigeration storage and just storage in general since you can fit a lot of food in a walking cooler. You may also need a freezer and you can choose from an upright freezer or a chest-style freezer, depending on the capacity of your restaurant kitchen, as well as the items you will need to store in the freezer. You may also opt to have an ice machine if you are serving beverages as well as water to your customers. If that is the case, you may also want to have a beverage dispenser that can hold all of the different soft drink options you will want to offer to your customers.
Storage Equipment
You also need storage equipment for your restaurant and the type of storage equipment you choose will definitely be based on the amount of room you have in your restaurant kitchen as well as the types of things that you will need to store.
Shelving is great to have in your walk-in cooler or freezer since it frees up some more of the floor space for storing larger items. You will also need shelving or cabinets to keep your dinnerware for guests inside of as well as your dry ingredients for your recipes, along with pots, pans, dishes, and other items.
If you own a sit-down style restaurant, you will need a bussing cart for your servers to be able to clean off tables in a quick and efficient manner so that the customers just arriving at your restaurant will have a place to sit right away.
You also want to make sure you have plenty of food storage containers that you can keep ingredients inside of that you prepped ahead of time, as well as sauces, pasta and rice, and other items.
It is imperative to enlist the assistance of a consulting company to help you in choosing the correct equipment for your restaurant. The company can and will help you ensure that you are following local codes as well as state laws and other regulations and requirements when it comes to commercial restaurants.