Restaurant Fitout Cost Calculator
Estimate the cost of a restaurant fitout in Australia, including the commercial kitchen, exhaust canopy, grease trap, bar, front of house finishes and the council approvals that drive the timeline.
Front of house furniture, banquettes, lighting and floor finishes scale with seat count.
Kitchen exhaust is the highest risk line in a restaurant fitout. The canopy is the cheap part. The cost sits in ducting the discharge to a compliant point above the roof line, providing tempered make up air so the kitchen does not go negative, and satisfying the landlord and council on noise and odour. In a multi storey building with no existing kitchen riser, this alone can add $60,000 to $150,000.
A grease arrestor is mandatory for any commercial kitchen and requires a trade waste agreement with the local water authority, which is separate from council approval. In situ arrestors need slab excavation and a truck accessible pump out point, and if the site cannot accommodate one, the tenancy is not viable as a restaurant.
Kitchen and services typically consume 45 to 60 percent of a restaurant fitout budget while occupying about a third of the floor area. Operators who spend the design money on front of house and leave the kitchen as the residual almost always run out of budget at the worst possible moment, because the kitchen cannot be value engineered without breaking compliance.
Your development consent conditions, your liquor licence and your fitout design are one problem, not three. Trading hours, seat numbers, outdoor dining, noise limits and patron capacity are all conditioned, and a design that assumes more seats than your consent allows is a design you cannot use.
💰 Ways to save
- Take over a tenancy that already trades as a restaurant. An existing food premises brings the exhaust riser, the grease arrestor, the trade waste agreement, three phase power, the mechanical make up air and, most valuably, an approved food and beverage use with established hours. Refitting one commonly costs 45 to 60 percent of converting a retail shell, and it removes the two items that most often kill a project, which are the exhaust discharge path and the grease trap.
- Buy your kitchen equipment as a mix of new and quality second hand. Cooking equipment, refrigeration and stainless benching come onto the market constantly through hospitality auctions and closures, and a well maintained combi oven or under bench fridge at 40 to 60 percent of new price is a genuinely good buy. Stay new on anything with a compliance or warranty dependency, meaning the canopy, gas interlock, dishwasher and cool room, and save on the rest.
- Design the front of house so the expensive gestures are concentrated and everything else is calm. One strong feature, a bar face, a banquette run, a ceiling treatment, reads as a designed room. Applying bespoke detail to every surface multiplies joinery and trade hours without changing how the room photographs or how guests feel in it, and joinery is usually the fastest growing line in any restaurant tender.
- Negotiate a rent free fitout period that covers approval as well as construction, and get it in the agreement for lease. Restaurant approvals routinely take three to six months before a builder can start, and paying full rent through that window on a 220 square metre tenancy can be $60,000 to $150,000 of dead cost. Landlords accept this readily for food tenants because a fitted restaurant is a long lived asset that anchors their centre or strip.
or from $5,079/week over 5 years , indicative finance
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## What a restaurant fitout costs in 2026
Pricing reviewed: June 2026.
Pricing reviewed June 2026. Indicative Australian costs, not a quote.
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Understanding restaurant fitout costs in Australia
What a restaurant fitout costs in 2026
Restaurant fitouts in Australia are quoted per square metre of total tenancy area, and the 2026 bands are wide because the category spans a suburban bistro and a fine dining room. A casual restaurant with simple finishes and off the shelf furniture, built into a tenancy that already has kitchen services, runs about $1,800 to $2,600 per square metre. A mid range designed restaurant converting a retail shell sits at roughly $2,800 to $4,000 per square metre. Premium dining with feature ceilings, bespoke joinery, a designed bar and high end lighting runs $4,500 to $7,000 per square metre and beyond. A typical 220 square metre, 80 seat neighbourhood restaurant converting a retail tenancy therefore lands somewhere between $600,000 and $900,000 all in, and taking over an existing restaurant can bring that to $300,000 to $450,000.
The kitchen is the budget, not the dining room
The most consistent mistake first time operators make is treating the kitchen as the back end of the project. In practice the kitchen, its services and its compliance obligations typically consume 45 to 60 percent of the total fitout budget while occupying only about a third of the floor area. Cooking equipment, refrigeration, stainless steel benching, a cool room and freezer, a commercial dishwasher, gas reticulation and the exhaust system together commonly total $180,000 to $350,000 for a mid sized restaurant. None of it can be meaningfully value engineered late in the project, because most of it is either a compliance requirement or a functional necessity. Set the kitchen budget first, then design front of house against what is left, rather than the other way round.
Exhaust, make up air and the discharge path
Kitchen exhaust is the single highest risk item in a restaurant fitout and the most common reason a tenancy turns out to be unusable. The canopy itself is inexpensive. The cost and the risk sit in getting the discharge to a compliant point, which generally means above the roof line and clear of neighbouring windows and air intakes. In a single storey strip shop with rear access that is straightforward. In a multi storey building without an existing kitchen riser it can be impossible, or it can cost $60,000 to $150,000 to create. You also need tempered make up air, because a canopy extracting large volumes will pull the tenancy negative, slam doors, backdraught the neighbours and stop the canopy working. Before signing any lease, have a mechanical engineer confirm the discharge path and the make up air strategy in writing.
Grease trap, trade waste and the approvals that run in parallel
Every commercial kitchen in Australia needs a grease arrestor sized to its expected load, and its installation requires a trade waste agreement with the local water authority. That is a separate application from council consent, with its own timeline and its own fees, and your plumber cannot legally connect the kitchen without it. In situ arrestors require excavation of the slab and a pump out point a tanker can reach, which is a real constraint in basement tenancies and in centres with restricted service access. Alongside trade waste you have the council development application for the change of use to a food premises, the food business registration and fitout approval from the council's environmental health officer, and if you are serving alcohol, a liquor licence with its own advertising period and objection window. These run in parallel but each has a critical path, and collectively they usually take three to six months.
Front of house, and where design money actually shows
Front of house cost scales with seat count and with how bespoke the design is. Furniture ranges from around $400 per seat for good commercial off the shelf chairs and tables through to $1,500 or more per seat once you are building custom banquettes and specifying designer chairs. Lighting is disproportionately important and disproportionately cheap: a well specified lighting scheme with dimming and layered sources transforms a room for a fraction of what feature joinery costs. The practical advice is to concentrate spend on one or two strong gestures, typically the bar face and a banquette run or a ceiling treatment, and keep everything else calm. Applying bespoke detail everywhere multiplies joinery hours and trade coordination without changing how the room feels.
Timelines, rent and the cost of an empty tenancy
A restaurant conversion realistically takes nine to fourteen months from signing to opening. Design and documentation is six to ten weeks. The development application is eight to twenty weeks, longer in inner city councils and where late trading hours or outdoor dining are proposed. Trade waste and liquor licensing run alongside and can extend beyond the DA. Construction is twelve to twenty weeks for a mid sized restaurant, with long lead items like the cool room, the canopy and custom joinery driving the programme. The financial exposure across that period is rent. Negotiate a rent free fitout period covering approval as well as construction, and make sure it is written into the agreement for lease rather than agreed verbally, because six months of full rent on a non trading tenancy is commonly $60,000 to $150,000 of pure loss.
What sits outside the construction contract
Restaurant budgets fail when operators price the build and forget everything else. Smallwares, crockery, glassware, cutlery and cookware commonly add $25,000 to $60,000. Point of sale, booking systems, networking and music add $10,000 to $30,000. Signage, external branding and a menu and website package add more. Professional fees for a designer, town planner, building surveyor, mechanical engineer and project manager typically run 10 to 15 percent of construction. Then there is working capital, which needs to cover wages, food cost and rent for at least three months of trading below capacity while the room finds its audience. Hold a 12 to 15 percent construction contingency, because running a kitchen exhaust through an existing ceiling is where surprises live.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a restaurant fitout cost in Australia in 2026?
A casual restaurant in a tenancy that already has kitchen services runs about $1,800 to $2,600 per square metre. Converting a retail shell to a mid range designed restaurant sits at roughly $2,800 to $4,000 per square metre, and premium dining runs $4,500 to $7,000. A typical 220 square metre, 80 seat neighbourhood restaurant converting retail lands between $600,000 and $900,000, while taking over an existing restaurant can bring it to $300,000 to $450,000.
What proportion of the budget is the kitchen?
Typically 45 to 60 percent of the total fitout, despite the kitchen occupying only about a third of the floor area. Cooking equipment, refrigeration, stainless benching, a cool room and freezer, a commercial dishwasher, gas reticulation and the exhaust system commonly total $180,000 to $350,000 for a mid sized restaurant. Almost none of it can be cut late, because it is either a compliance requirement or a functional necessity, so set the kitchen budget before designing front of house.
Why is kitchen exhaust such a big cost?
Because the canopy is cheap and the discharge path is not. The exhaust generally has to terminate above the roof line, clear of neighbouring windows and air intakes, and you also need tempered make up air so the kitchen does not go negative and stop the canopy working. In a single storey strip shop with rear access this is straightforward. In a multi storey building with no existing kitchen riser it can add $60,000 to $150,000, or make the tenancy unusable.
Do I need a grease trap and how much does it cost?
Yes, every commercial kitchen needs a grease arrestor sized to its load, and installing one requires a trade waste agreement with the local water authority separate from council approval. Expect $15,000 to $40,000 installed for a typical restaurant, more where the slab has to be excavated. The arrestor needs a pump out point a tanker can reach, which is a real constraint in basement tenancies and centres with restricted service access.
How long does it take to open a restaurant from signing a lease?
Nine to fourteen months for a conversion. Design and documentation takes six to ten weeks, the development application eight to twenty weeks and longer where late hours or outdoor dining are proposed, with trade waste and liquor licensing running alongside. Construction is twelve to twenty weeks, driven by long lead items like the cool room, canopy and custom joinery. Negotiate a rent free fitout period covering approval as well as construction and get it into the agreement for lease.
Is taking over an existing restaurant cheaper?
Substantially, often 45 to 60 percent of the cost of converting retail, because you inherit the exhaust riser, grease arrestor, trade waste agreement, three phase power, make up air and an approved food use. Audit it before signing though. Check the age and cleanliness of the exhaust duct, whether the grease trap is sized for your planned covers, the electrical capacity, and whether the existing consent actually covers your intended hours, seat count and liquor licence.
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