![\"Sample](\"https:\/\/www.philodex.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/HP-Table-Plan-201-1024x528.jpg\" "\\"Sample")
<\/p>\nFF&E and SOE stand for “Furniture, Fittings & Equipment” and “Small Operating Equipment”.<\/p>\n
When you open a new restaurant, you start with an empty room.<\/p>\n
Once you find a location, you will immediately try to figure out how many guests you can house.
\nBut you have to make a lot of decisions. You cannot just start with the square footage and divide it by the size of a table. It does not work like that. But I think that is clear to everybody.<\/p>\n
What else do you need to set up a restaurant, next to tables and chairs?<\/p>\n
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When you look at the available space now, you will see it could be just 70% of the allocated space remaining for guest areas. And now, last but not least, you can think of tables and chairs.<\/p>\n
Also take into account the shape of the room \u2013 that there might be any inconvenient corners, niches, pillars, or walls that could be inclined at a certain angle that cannot be used for guest areas. Plus, you need passageways for the service and, of course, for the guests. Eventually, you can figure out how many tables and chairs fit in.<\/p>\n
To sum it up: for a Restaurant with 300 sqm, deduct 30% for support areas, leaving 200 sqm of available space. When you put the tables in straight rows, you will end up with 32 table sets of 4 pax, because you will need 6,25 sqm per table.<\/p>\n
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Straight set up + service space 250 cm \u2013 6,25 sqm (straight) \u2013 32 table sets of 4 pax<\/strong> Diagonal vs Straight<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n That is the worst-case scenario. But there is also a best case scenario.<\/p>\n If you have no brewery like in my example, no live music, no dance floor, and you put the tables diagonally, you could fit almost 100 tables for 400 guests. That sounds much better. Right?<\/p>\n And if you open a Bar or nightclub for mixed purposes, you will need different metrics for your space allocation.<\/p>\n I can tell you that furnishing a restaurant requires a lot of thinking, planning and organising. Out of experience, I suggest that you sit with your key personnel \u2013 the head chef, the restaurant and the bar manager and talk it through. This is also advisable because the requirements for the different departments might not be the same. This is even more important for the next subject.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Plates – Bowls – Ramekins – Cups – Glasses – Cutlery – Crockery – Cruets – Napkins – Coasters \u2013 Decoration. This list is not complete.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The amount of SOE needed is often underestimated. It will be loads of cutlery, crockery, glasses and much more.<\/p>\n Do not forget the fluctuation of equipment and how much you need to bring in circulation – clean, dirty, in use, ready for plating, storage. Also remember that breakage happens in busy, high-volume operations and during peak times.<\/p>\n In modern kitchens at high-level restaurants, most head chefs wish to have representable plates, which means very large ones so that they can present the dishes in a very attractive way. That is understandable on one hand, and on the other hand, you must consider that plates still have to be served.<\/p>\n A waiter should still be capable of carrying 3 to 4 plates at once, unless you run an exclusive high-level restaurant.<\/p>\n You can use plateaus (large service trays). Then the waiter can load several plates onto the plateau and bring it to the table. But there you need space to put it down and serve the plates. Alternatively, you can structure the service so two waiters serve. One would carry the tray the second one serves.<\/p>\n It is a dance on a razor blade- either the service needs more space, or it is labour intensive. The third option would be to agree on a plate size that can be served manually and is representable enough for the dishes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The best thing to do is to summarise all relevant information on a list<\/p>\n
\nDiagonal set up + service space 200 cm \u2013 4 sqm (diagonal) \u2013 50 table sets of 4 pax<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Table](\"https:\/\/www.philodex.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Table-Set-Up-1024x512.png\")
RESTAURANT SET UP “SOE” \u2013 Small Operating Equipment<\/h4>\n
Besides the design and the price, please bear the following in mind<\/h4>\n
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![\"SOE](\"https:\/\/www.philodex.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Restaurant-Equipment-1024x587.png\" "\\"SOE")
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