10 essential steps before opening a restaurant or café (full checklist)
If you're sketching plans for a new restaurant or café right now, your head is probably full of décor, logos and finding a great name. The good news is that all of that matters. The more useful news is that those are the last things you should be worrying about.
Most food businesses that close in their first year don't fail because the food was bad. They fail because the owner opened the doors without answers to the basic questions: how much do I need to sell to break even? Does this neighbourhood actually want this kind of food? How and when do I update my menu when the price of chicken changes three times in a month?
This checklist is written to be genuinely usable, not a theoretical list from a management textbook. Let's get into it.
1. Define your concept precisely
Before anything else, know exactly what you are. "A nice place with a varied menu" isn't a concept, it's an excuse. A guest should be able to describe you in one sentence: "that café with the healthy breakfast and the good coffee" is far stronger than "a café with a varied menu".
Your concept drives everything else: pricing, décor, location, opening hours, even who you hire. The sharper the definition, the easier every later decision becomes.
2. Understand your local market
Before signing a lease or settling a menu, spend a few days studying the neighbourhood like a detective. What do the surrounding restaurants and cafés offer? What do they charge? What are guests saying in reviews on Google Maps or under their Instagram posts?
Here's the valuable part: don't just look at the star ratings, read the complaints. If several unrelated people write "service is very slow" or "there's nowhere to park", that is precisely where you can build your point of difference.
3. Write a simple, realistic business plan
You don't need a fifty-page academic document. You just need these things clear on paper — or in a spreadsheet:
- Setup costs and fixed monthly costs (rent, wages, bills)
- Projected sales and your break-even point
- Pricing strategy and food-cost percentage
- Staffing plan
- Opening marketing plan
Break-even is the single most important number, and a lot of owners never calculate it. You need to know exactly how much you must sell each month just to cover costs — before you start thinking about profit at all.
4. Choose the right location
The best location depends on what you're building. A breakfast café needs morning footfall; a family restaurant needs parking and visibility; a late-night café needs a neighbourhood that's busy after dark.
Don't judge an empty space by eye alone — picture the daily operation. Can suppliers unload easily? Does the kitchen have a sensible layout? Is there enough storage? Before signing, talk to a commercial property advisor or an accountant. A bad lease can sink the business before the doors even open.
5. Start licences and insurance earlier than you think
Trading licence, health and environmental approval, fire safety clearance, tax registration, liability insurance — the exact list varies by city and business type. Almost every owner will tell you this stage takes longer than they expected.
Make a separate checklist just for paperwork and start it in your first week, not the last week before opening. The smallest missing permit can push your launch date back.
6. Design a focused opening menu
Day one isn't the place to showcase every idea you have. A strong menu is focused, uses cost-effective ingredients, is easy for staff to describe, and can actually be executed during a rush.
Once the items are settled, spend real time on the descriptions. A good description doesn't just name the dish, it helps the guest choose. This is exactly where many restaurants stay stuck on paper — whereas with a digital menu you can put a photo, a description and even a "popular" tag beside every item, with no reprinting cost.
7. Get your pricing right
Pricing may be the most important and most nerve-wracking decision before you open. Price too high and you drive guests away; price too low and you end up with a full room and an empty till.
For every item you need to account for ingredient cost, portion size, packaging, how much chef time it takes, and what competitors charge. And one hard reality: with ingredient costs moving the way they do, pricing isn't a one-time decision, it's an ongoing process. If your menu is printed, every change means another print run and more hassle — we've written up the practical side in managing menu price changes without reprinting.
8. Build your online presence before you open
Guests need to be able to find you before day one. Google Maps, an Instagram page, a digital menu, your exact address and opening hours — all of it should be in place.
The menu is the most important part of that presence. A lot of potential guests look at your menu before deciding to come. If it's missing, out of date, or a blurry photo of a piece of paper, you lose them right there. A digital menu with a QR code on the table solves that completely: the guest scans with their phone and sees a current menu with photos and correct prices, with nothing to install.
9. Hire and train your team
Hiring isn't just filling shifts. Your staff create the guest experience from day one. Training should cover the menu, allergens, how to handle a complaint, and open/close checklists.
Before the official launch, run a soft opening with a small group of friends and family. Treat it like a real shift and see where things break down — before you face a full room.
10. Plan your opening marketing in advance
Don't wait until launch day to tell people you exist. Build anticipation over the preceding weeks with behind-the-scenes photos, an introduction to your chef, previews of dishes and a countdown.
Every post should have one clear next step: view the menu, get directions, or scan a QR code to book. After opening, ask happy guests for a review while the experience is still fresh.
Quick checklist
1. Define your concept and target guest 2. Study the local market and competitors 3. Build a business plan and calculate break-even 4. Choose a location that fits the concept and budget 5. Start licences and insurance early 6. Build a focused opening menu 7. Price every item with real data 8. Publish your menu and online presence before opening 9. Train the team with trial shifts 10. Launch with local marketing and collect reviews
Frequently asked questions
What's the first step in opening a restaurant? Defining your concept and your target guest precisely. Before you sign a lease or design a menu, you need to know exactly what kind of place you're building and who it's for.
When should the menu be ready? Draft a first version early, but expect it to change. The final menu needs to be settled before you train staff and run your soft opening.
Do I need a digital menu before opening? Yes. A digital menu helps guests find you before they ever walk in, and it lets you keep prices and items current through the sensitive first months without paying to reprint.
What is a soft opening? A limited trial run before the official launch. Restaurants use it to train staff, test the kitchen and fix problems before facing a full room.
In summary
Opening a restaurant becomes manageable when you take the stages in the right order: start with the concept, learn the market, build the numbers, choose the location carefully, start the paperwork early, build a focused and correctly priced menu, get your online presence live before you open, train your team, and launch with a plan.
Hesabesh makes easy exactly the part of this checklist that most owners overlook: a digital menu that opens with one QR scan and updates from the dashboard in seconds. And if you want to record sales and invoices from day one, consider accounting software for cafés and restaurants alongside it.