How Long Does It Take to Open a Restaurant? A Designer’s Honest Timeline (From Real Projects)

Over the last 25 years I’ve worked on everything from independent restaurants to hotel restaurants and refits. One of the most common questions I get is:

“How long will it take to open my restaurant?”

The frustrating answer is: it depends.

The useful answer is: there is a predictable sequence of phases, and there are predictable places where time gets burned. If you plan for those properly, you can avoid the “we were meant to open last month” scenario that drains cash and morale.

This is how I think about timelines when I’m advising clients, based on real projects I’ve worked on in places like London and Edinburgh, including fast-turnaround openings, hotel restaurant work, and refits.

The shortest honest answer

• • 12 months is ideal if you want to do it properly without unnecessary stress.

• • 3 months can happen, and I have done it, but I would not encourage it unless the stars align and you are comfortable taking risks.

• • 6 to 9 months is a common “real world” range for a lot of projects that are not starting from absolute zero.

• • More than 12 months is normal if you have planning constraints, heavy building work, or you are trying to create something genuinely distinctive rather than “good enough to open”.

When someone tells you they opened in 8 weeks, what they usually mean is that they found a site that was already close, reused most of what was there, made fast decisions, and accepted compromises.

A practical timeline you can actually use

I like to break a restaurant opening into phases. The important point is that these phases overlap. People get into trouble when they assume they are sequential.

Phase 1: Site choice and feasibility (2 to 6 weeks)

This is where time gets lost before you even realise you’ve started.

What happens here:

• • You view sites

• • You check restrictions and basic feasibility

• • You start shaping the concept around what the site will allow

Designer input at this stage is valuable because you can avoid signing a lease on a space that will fight you the whole way. With restaurants, a few wrong assumptions about layout, extraction, or front-of-house flow can add months later.

Best practice: Get a quick feasibility pass early, even if it is lightweight. It is cheaper than redesigning the whole plan after you are committed.

Phase 2: Concept and interior design (4 to 10 weeks)

This is where you define what the place is and how it feels. Not just visually, but operationally.

What we usually do:

• • Mood and concept direction

• • Layout and flow planning (kitchen vs front of house, covers, waiting, bar)

• • Key “signature moments” people remember, photograph, talk about

• • Early material choices that influence cost and lead times

A lot of founders underestimate how much the brand and the interior are linked. Some restaurants are “nice” but forgettable. The strong ones create distinctive moments on purpose.

Best practice: Decide what you want to be known for. It can be one thing. A dramatic bar, a statement feature wall, a strong lighting mood, a clever open kitchen moment. You do not need ten “moments”. You need one or two that are deliberate.

Phase 3: Technical design and approvals (4 to 12+ weeks)

This is the unglamorous part, but it controls the schedule.

What happens here:

• • Detailed drawings, specs, coordination

• • Contractor pricing and procurement

• • Sometimes planning, landlord sign-off, building control coordination

• • Solving constraints that only show up once things are measured properly

This phase can be quick when you are refitting an existing restaurant with minimal structural change. It can drag when you are changing use, changing shopfronts, or dealing with local objections.

One challenge that comes up is local sentiment about shopfront changes. People can be surprisingly vocal about an “open” frontage, signage, or changes to the street feel. It does not always stop a project, but it can slow it down.

Best practice: Assume approvals and sign-offs will take longer than you want. Build slack into the schedule early, not at the end.

Phase 4: Fit-out and build (6 to 16+ weeks)

This is where the calendar gets real.

What happens here:

• • Strip-out (if required)

• • Construction and MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing)

• • Joinery, finishes, lighting, furniture installation

• • Snagging, fixes, rework

This is also where “small” design changes become expensive and slow. One altered decision can ripple into multiple trades.

A useful comparison I sometimes use when clients are trying to calibrate budget and scale: if your ambition is “my restaurant is like Nando’s” in terms of footprint and general operation, you are in one category of complexity. If you are creating something more bespoke or heavily styled, you are in a different category, and timelines usually follow.

Best practice: Lock key layout decisions early. Changes during build are where projects bleed time and money.

Phase 5: FF&E, deliveries, and staging (2 to 6 weeks, overlapping)

FF&E is furniture, fixtures, and equipment, but in restaurant reality it includes all the practical details people forget until the last minute.

Examples:

• • Crockery, glassware, cutlery

• • Bar kit and smallwares

• • Loose furniture and soft furnishings

• • Decor, art, plants, signage

• • POS equipment, menus, everything that makes it operational

This is a classic delay trap.

People assume deliveries arrive “on opening week”. In reality, suppliers often deliver before the site is ready. Then you have a storage problem.

If your restaurant is not ready to receive, you need a plan for:

• • secure storage

• • staged deliveries

• • someone managing it

• • damage and loss prevention

Best practice: Create a delivery schedule and storage plan as early as you choose suppliers. Do not wait until two weeks before opening.

Phase 6: Pre-opening, photos, and launch (2 to 4 weeks)

A lot of founders treat marketing as something you do at the end.

In my experience, the best openings build momentum before the doors open:

• • behind-the-scenes progress

• • brand story and positioning

• • early reservations list

• • press and local community awareness

There is also a practical reason for this: when the restaurant is finished and you do the photos, you need it dressed properly. That means the interior details, furniture, table dressing, lighting and styling all need to be ready.

If you try to “open and then sort it out”, it often looks unfinished in photos, and that first impression is hard to undo.

Best practice: Plan for a soft launch, even if it is just a few services. Give yourself time to fix operational issues without the pressure of a big announcement.

Real examples from my work

Example 1: The “3 month opening”

I have worked on a restaurant that we delivered in about three months.

It is possible, but I would not encourage it as a default plan.

Why it worked:

• • Decisions were made quickly

• • The scope was controlled

• • There were fewer unknowns than a true blank-canvas site

The trade-off:

• • You accept more stress and less optionality

• • You have less time to refine details

• • One supply issue or contractor slip can wreck the schedule

If you are trying to open in three months, you are not “planning a restaurant”. You are running a time-critical project. That requires a different mindset.

Example 2: A hotel project in six months

I have worked on a hotel project delivered in around six months, including redesign work and room types that needed to be rolled out consistently.

Hotel environments add complexity:

• • Multiple stakeholders

• • Operational constraints

• • Phased rollouts

• • A need for consistency across many spaces

Hotels are also harder because you are designing within an existing operational machine. That often adds layers of approval and coordination.

Example 3: Independent restaurant realities (London and Edinburgh)

I’ve worked with independent restaurant clients where budgets are real, the calendar is tight, and every week delayed matters.

Sometimes founders spend money in the wrong place early. For example, burning budget on paid ads before the fundamentals are ready. I have seen situations where money was being spent on Google Ads while the project itself still had major unanswered questions.

The better approach is usually: get the concept, design, and delivery plan stable first, then turn on the marketing with confidence.

The biggest schedule killers I see

1. 1. Late decisions
      Changing your mind during build is expensive and slow. That’s why it’s so important to get the research and design stage right first time, even if it means taking a few extra weeks.

1. 1. Underestimating lead times
      Joinery, lighting, bespoke furniture, even crockery and glassware can have longer lead times than you expect.

1. 1. No storage plan for deliveries
      Things arrive early. If the site cannot receive them, you lose days scrambling.

1. 1. Trying to do everything at once
      The best openings focus on a few deliberate signature choices, not constant last-minute additions.

1. 1. Forgetting seasonality
      In London, for example, August can be slow because people leave the city, while January can sometimes be better than expected depending on the market and travel patterns. Timing can help or hurt your first months of trading.

My rule of thumb if you want a realistic plan

If you are aiming to open a restaurant in September, start serious planning a year before. That does not mean construction starts a year before. It means you want enough runway to:

• • choose the right site

• • design it properly

• • price it properly

• • avoid panic decisions

• • manage suppliers and logistics without chaos

You can compress it. I’ve done it. But it should be a deliberate choice with eyes open, not an accidental consequence of starting late.

If you’re planning an opening, what I’d do first

• • Decide your target opening window and work backwards

• • Get a feasibility check on your shortlisted sites

• • Lock the “one or two signature moments” you want to own

• • Build a schedule that includes approvals, lead times, and storage logistics

• • Treat the final month as staging and testing, not as “we’ll finish everything then”

That is how you open on time, and more importantly, how you open with a place that looks and feels like it was intentional.