The cost of fitting out a restaurant from China breaks down into four structural categories rather than one number: kitchen and back-of-house equipment, front-of-house furniture and fixtures, bar and beverage equipment, and lighting/decor items — and the split between them, not a single per-square-foot figure, is what actually determines how a restaurant group’s fit-out budget should be allocated across factories and orders. A commercial kitchen line is consistently the single largest share of a restaurant FF&E package sourced from China, and treating it as “furniture plus a kitchen” rather than four separately quoted, separately QC’d scopes is the most common budgeting mistake first-time restaurant clients make.
- Commercial kitchen equipment (cooking line, refrigeration, ventilation, prep stations) typically accounts for roughly 30–38% of a full restaurant FF&E package’s value — the single largest cost category, and the one with the longest factory lead time because of custom stainless fabrication.
- Front-of-house furniture (dining chairs, tables, booth seating, hostess stand) commonly runs 20–28% of package value, with upholstered booth and banquette seating priced significantly higher per unit than loose dining chairs because of the custom foam and frame work involved.
- Bar and beverage equipment (back-bar refrigeration, draft systems, casework) generally falls in the 12–18% range, varying widely by concept — a full-service bar concept sits at the high end, a quick-service or fast-casual concept may have almost none of this scope.
- Lighting, decor and smallwares typically make up the remaining 10–20%, and are the category most often added late in the process after the core furniture and kitchen orders are already in production.
Why Does Kitchen Equipment Dominate the Restaurant Fit-Out Budget?
Commercial kitchen equipment costs more per item than most front-of-house furniture because it is custom-fabricated stainless steel built to a specific kitchen layout, not a catalogue product ordered in a standard size. A cooking line, exhaust hood and refrigeration package is drawn against the restaurant’s actual kitchen floor plan, fabricated to match ventilation and utility rough-in points, and typically carries certification requirements (NSF for the US market, for example) that add both cost and lead time compared with front-of-house furniture. This is also why the kitchen equipment scope needs shop-drawing sign-off earliest in the schedule — it is the item most likely to delay the whole project if drawings are not finalized before production starts on other categories.
How Does Restaurant Chain Rollout Change the Cost Structure?
A single-restaurant fit-out and a multi-unit chain rollout use the same four-category cost structure, but a rollout changes two things: first, per-unit cost typically drops once a factory is tooled for a repeat kitchen line or booth design across multiple locations, because the custom fabrication cost is spread across a production run instead of a one-off. Second, and more importantly for scheduling, a rollout program needs QC and container planning built around a repeat delivery cadence — new restaurants opening on a staggered schedule — rather than a single delivery date, which is a materially different logistics plan from a single-location fit-out.
Sourcing this for a commercial project?
FBM Sourcing works with project owners, developers, main contractors and FF&E contractors on hotel, apartment, school, office and other commercial building projects. Send us your BOQ, drawings or product list — our team will review it and get back to you.
What Is FBM Sourcing’s Fee on a Restaurant FF&E Order?
For products the client has selected themselves, FBM Sourcing charges a 5% commission on the goods value. For products FBM Sourcing sources on the client’s behalf — matching a kitchen equipment spec or a booth seating design to a suitable factory — the profit is built into the quoted price. All quotations, invoices and shipping documents are issued by FBM Sourcing, so the client deals with one party and one point of responsibility across all four cost categories, rather than reconciling separate invoices from a kitchen equipment factory, a furniture factory and a lighting supplier.
How Does a Restaurant FF&E Package Ship?
Kitchen equipment, furniture, bar casework and lighting are usually produced by different specialist factories, which is exactly the kind of order a sourcing partner’s container consolidation work is built for. Sometimes, on a large restaurant project, the kitchen equipment alone fills full containers; sometimes the four cost categories share containers with each other because no single category is large enough to fill one on its own; and sometimes, in one batch, we combine equipment and furniture from several restaurant locations of the same client into a few containers. Always full containers — for FBM Sourcing this is routine, well-practised work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of a restaurant fit-out budget goes to kitchen equipment?
Commercial kitchen and back-of-house equipment typically accounts for roughly 30–38% of a full restaurant FF&E package’s value when sourced from China, making it the single largest cost category ahead of front-of-house furniture, bar equipment and lighting/decor.
Why does kitchen equipment take longer to produce than restaurant furniture?
Kitchen equipment is custom-fabricated stainless steel built to match a specific kitchen floor plan and utility rough-in points, and often needs certification such as NSF for the US market — all of which adds lead time compared with catalogue or standard-spec front-of-house furniture.
Does a multi-unit restaurant chain rollout change the fit-out cost structure?
The four-category structure (kitchen, front-of-house, bar, lighting/decor) stays the same, but per-unit cost commonly drops once a factory is tooled for a repeat design across multiple locations, and the shipping plan shifts from a single delivery date to a staggered cadence matching the rollout schedule.
How is FBM Sourcing’s fee calculated on a restaurant FF&E order?
For suppliers the client nominates, the commission is 5%. For products FBM Sourcing sources on the client’s behalf, the fee is built into the quoted price rather than charged as a separate commission.
Kitchen equipment is one of the largest single line items in a restaurant fit-out budget — see top commercial kitchen equipment manufacturers in China for restaurant and hotel projects for where the manufacturing is concentrated and what certification each destination requires.
Restaurant fit-out costs cover the dining floor, but a hotel ballroom program has its own furniture category — see top banquet and event furniture manufacturers in China for hotel ballrooms for stacking chairs, folding tables and staging systems built for daily reconfiguration.
Related Reading
- How Much Does Hotel FF&E Cost per Room? Budget Ratios Explained
- What Drives the Price of Custom Furniture from China? Cost Structure
- How Does Procurement Work for Convenience Store & Retail Chain Rollouts?
- One-Stop Showroom Supplier vs Owner-Side Procurement Agent
- China Sourcing Agent for Hotel FF&E Procurement: Who Should You Use?
- How Does FF&E Sourcing Work for Pub, Bar & Taproom Chain Projects?
