Restaurant design is a fairly complex discipline within commercial interior design, and it can make the difference between the success or failure of your business. There are many factors that you should take into consideration when getting down to business with your restaurant design project.
As you may have seen, over the years the level of consumer demand has evolved and increased. Today, the goal when eating out is no longer just to find a place that offers quality food or good service. Now we are looking for something else, a unique and memorable gastronomic experience , a place where we can enjoy with all 5 senses. All this is part of what is called sensory marketing and is key in the design of bars and restaurants.
Below, we offer you a guide with the aspects that we consider most important and, therefore, that you should take into account when designing a restaurant that works:
Know and understand the business well
Before starting to design a restaurant, you need to spend time understanding the hotel and restaurant sector as well as the business model of your specific restaurant, bearing in mind your target audience.
Once you understand this and before getting down to business, spend some time thinking about the different spaces in your restaurant. It is important that as a whole it is a homogeneous place and that it transmits credibility . For example, have you thought about what kind of cuisine you are going to offer your customers? Will you offer a traditional cuisine or, on the contrary, will you innovate? In any case, keep in mind that the design of the industrial kitchen of your restaurant must be adapted to the type of food that you are going to offer.
The balance between functionality and aesthetics in restaurant design
Aesthetics and functionality are present in every design project, and it could be said that, in the design of restaurants, as it happens with stores , maintaining a balance is especially important.
The hospitality industry is so competitive that aesthetics are essential to stand out from the rest. On the other hand, we must not forget the functionality in this type of business, in which the staff must act quickly and accurately and any part of the process can influence the final customer experience.
Some functionalities that we must take into account when perfecting the design of our restaurant are:
- Lighting, direct and indirect.
- The comfort and functionality of the furniture.
- The optimization of space and tables.
- suitable soils.
- The different areas or zones (intimate, open, hidden, visible…).
- The choice of the right materials.
In addition to all this, remember that travel should be shortened as much as possible, and that the dishes should come out of a specific place that is fully accessible and comfortable for the restaurant staff.
Designing an aesthetically beautiful restaurant is relatively easy, the complicated thing is that its beauty helps the proper functioning of the business . The latter is what will make the difference.
Keeping all this in mind will help you offer the best dining experience for customers and a suitable work experience for your staff.
How to make a restaurant a cozy place?
Let us now see some relevant aspects to ensure that a restaurant is welcoming and comfortable both for customers and for the staff that works in it:
- Furniture : the choice of furniture for restaurants must be welcoming, pleasant and at least minimally comfortable. For certain types of situations or restaurants, it is necessary to favor a rapid circulation of clients, for which a balance must be sought between this and the comfort of the diners. The selection of furniture is one of the key points when designing a restaurant; This must be in line with the general design of the place, its function and the type or target customer . Keep in mind that all spaces must be consistent with each other; Homogeneity is essential when designing a restaurant.
- Acoustics : another key aspect to achieve a pleasant environment is to control the sound and avoid “noise”. In addition to the choice of music, which must be in keeping with the type of restaurant, also look at the reverberation, for which the choice of materials is very important, which must be absorbent to help minimize that annoying sensation.
- Lighting : it is essential to take care of the lighting, both natural and artificial, in your restaurant, since it can be a conclusive key aspect (in a positive or negative sense). The light must be just and necessary, and it must be organized correctly to avoid dazzling or producing annoying shadows or areas that remain in the shadows.
- Air conditioning and air renewal : to achieve a comfortable environment, it is essential to have good air conditioning and also to emphasize air quality. You have to make sure that the people who visit your restaurant breathe clean and renewed air that avoids bad smells.
The importance of customer experience
In the context of the society in which we live, the client has at his disposal a lot of information and resources that allow him to quickly make comparisons with just a few clicks. The fact that a customer chooses one restaurant or another, today, is a matter of small details.
Customers want to eat, and they already take it for granted that their food will be of quality, but given the great offer available to them, they now leave home in search of something else. A good restaurant design should promote a unique and relevant experience for the customer, a memorable experience that will make them return, if possible, again and again. In restaurant interior design, everything should revolve around the experience of the diners.
