5 Restaurant Design Tips to Enhance the Dine-In Experience

The restaurant industry is highly competitive, so you often need more than great food to stand out. Many diners want memorable experiences, so carefully plan the interior design to appeal to customers. Explore the design tips below that boost customer satisfaction. 

A well-designed layout features distinct sections like the kitchen, seating area, and bathrooms. Consider how big these areas should be and how far they should be from each other. For instance, the bathrooms should be easily accessible to diners but not too close to be a nuisance.

Planning the seating arrangements can be tricky since you likely want to avoid crowding customers, but more diners mean more profits. Also, you likely want staff to move between tables easily without bothering customers.

The seating layout largely depends on the type of restaurant. For instance, fast-food establishments usually place tables close together because diners only spend a little time eating. In comparison, fine dining establishments should offer more space between tables to encourage people to spend more time and money. Incorporate different seating arrangements to cater to different kinds of diners.

A stunning and bold entrance impresses customers and sets the tone for their overall experience. For example, if most buildings in your neighborhood featured muted colors, you may infuse your entrance with bold colors and a neon sign with your restaurant's name to attract crowds.

Other restaurant managers shape the entrance based on items representing the restaurant's theme. For instance, a cave entrance suits a jungle-themed establishment, while a door shaped like a shell matches a seafood theme. You can also add simple accessories like artwork, flower pots, and planters to spruce up the entrance.

A well-selected color pattern complements the overall design and influences the mood. For example, white in a small restaurant makes it feel bigger and brighter. If you have a seafood restaurant, pair white with blue to invoke a coastal feeling and prepare people for the cuisine.

Common restaurant colors include brown, red, blue, yellow, and orange. Warm earth tones are popular in gourmet restaurants because they create a homely mood that makes people spend more time eating and socializing. If you have a fast-food establishment, consider using red because it is stimulating.

Lighting can make your restaurant's interior feel spacious, homely, relaxing, or inexpensive. You have to experiment with lighting to get the desired effect, such as installing curtains on windows, hanging lamps from the ceiling in the seating area, or adding candles and lanterns to tables.

Low light works well for small restaurants with a romantic and intimate feel, while fast-food chains need more lighting. The light from your kitchen can also add ambient lighting and enhance the dining experience. 

In most restaurants, you often have one or multiple bad tables where customers don't want to sit. A bad table can be next to the bathroom, kitchen, or main door, exposing a diner to drafts so that they adjust their chair every few minutes.

Before you open the establishment, spend time on each seat, accounting for the views, smells, noise, and temperature. If the interior has tables with one or two of these problems, rethink your layout to spare diners from bad experiences. For instance, add partitions to conceal kitchens and bathrooms or remove a table exposed to temperature shifts.

At Chip Builders, our primary goal is to bring your restaurant design ideas to life. We execute every construction and design project with precision and speed and deliver a high-quality job that your customers will enjoy for many years.  Contact us  today to construct, design, or remodel your restaurant.