8 Restaurant Renovation Tips To Successfully Remodel Your Restaurant (2024)

Though making the right impression is vital in every industry, it is more so in the restaurant industry where customers pay only for two things: toothsome food and exquisite ambiance. If you serve delicious food to your customers day after day but are still unable to reap the expected benefits, it’s time you considered restaurant renovation. While thinking of how to renovate your restaurant, we will help you with a few tips in this article. Even if your restaurant has been doing a good business, sometimes it’s necessary to give it the right facelift to keep up with the ever-evolving landscape of exciting, shiny, and bright new openings. According to sources, remodeling your restaurant can drive more sales as compared to advertising a restaurant.

Find out how a striking restaurant interior design attracts customers here.

How To Renovate A Restaurant: A Restaurant Renovation Checklist

Restaurant renovation is a serious business.The way your restaurant looks will determine what your customers think about your brand and food. Restaurant exterior and interior form the first impression of the quality of your restaurant in the customer’s mind. Moreover, renovating a restaurant is a costly business, and you can not just undo the renovations if you feel that they do not work. So, if you are thinking about remodeling your restaurant, here is a restaurant renovation checklist that will help you renovate your restaurant successfully.

1. Start With A Foolproof Plan

While answering the question of how to renovate your restaurant well enough, you must analyze your restaurant with a foolproof plan. Analyze how various brands have successfully achieved their goals after renovating. Talk to your peers and ask your customers (a contest or giveaway might help in extracting the best suggestions from your customers).

You can also seek help from a survey company or a brand management specialist. The plan devised after considering realistic data will not only be foolproof but will also be readily accepted by your customers. At the same time, ensure that the core concept of your restaurant is not lost in the renovation unless rebranding the image is your target. Take your target audience, idea, brand image, and format into account before finalizing any changes.

2. Pair Up Your Plan With Your Restaurant’s Vision And Functionality

There is cutthroat competition in the restaurant space. To stand out, you don’t only need to set up your vision and functional specialty, but also ensure that your restaurant’s ambiance matches these two perspectives of your brand. For example, if you want to lead the Chinese cuisine restaurants in your area, interiors representing Punjabi or Mexican theme might not appeal to your customers and might set them off. On the other hand, putting up local souvenirs and impressions on the walls and playing traditional Chinese music will create the perfect ambiance!

3. Set Up A Budget

Next on the restaurant renovation checklist is setting a budget. Remodeling projects always cost more than what you expect them to be. They also influence your profits. So, setting up a budget for your restaurant needs special attention and sometimes, professional assistance as well. Hire a professional if you are not experienced in planning a budget.

4. Select The Right Architect, Designer Or Contractor

Restaurant renovation may require special considerations in regards to lighting, wiring, heating, air conditioning, painting, ventilation systems, water, parking, and many other factors. Hence, look for professionals who have worked on similar projects before. Request references from places they have worked at in the past, look for online reviews, and visit their previous sites to gauge their quality of work.

5. Establish Your Goals

Restaurant renovation will always leave an impact, which is why you must have a set purpose for renovating your restaurant. Ask yourself the reason behind renovating – whether you want to notch up your décor or rebrand yourself.

For instance, Indigo-famed restaurateur cum chef Rahul Akerkar’s Tote On The Turf shut down, because according to him he didn’t think of the food properly, and there was a host of other problems that failed to attract customers. Rahul got the place renovated and opened up Neel (the Hindi name for Indigo), which serves Awadhi and Mughlai cuisines and is getting rare reviews since it has opened. Hence, when you decide about how to renovate your restaurant, think about why your restaurant needs it?

6. Prioritize The Critical Issues

Sometimes, during the restaurant renovation process, the appeal of aesthetics might be too strong and win over the convenience of your customers. However, critical issues should always be taken care of first. For example, if you have issues like a leaking basin or congested parking, address them first and then jump to other aesthetic improvements.

7. Keep A Check on the Latest Trends

This renovation checklist would not be complete without emphasizing the need to look at relevant trends. If you haven’t renovated for years, you might need a complete redo rather than add just a twist. Analyze the latest trends in your industry and come up with a renovation plan that is not only modern but also differentiates you from your competitors. Even if you have a traditional family restaurant business, you can still incorporate the new-age facilities and technologies in your plan.

8. Don’t Forget To Let The World Know

After spending too much time on solving the question of how to renovate your restaurant, you should know enough about marketing and the world around to make a presence. Therefore, you must advertise the fact that your restaurant just underwent a renovation. Announce it on all your social media profiles and through digital marketing campaigns such as promotional SMSs and emails. You can also come with social media campaigns or organize giveaways to get the word out. Your restaurant management software can help you achieve the same.

According to studies, an increase of 10-20% was seen in the sales of restaurants that had undergone a recent renovation. Set the right objectives and goals and contact the right people to help you out, and you are all set to reap the benefits of your restaurant’s renovation.