By Heidi Macomber · July 30, 2026 (updated July 31, 2026)

Contractors will give you a number. Then the number changes. Then the health department wants something you didn't budget for, the plumber finds a pipe where your drain was supposed to go, and the fire marshal decides you need a different hood. If you're planning to build out a commercial kitchen, you need a cost estimate you can actually trust. Here's a framework for estimating what a commercial kitchen costs to build, category by category, based on what operators actually spend.

Why Commercial Kitchen Estimates Are All Over the Place

Search for "how much does a commercial kitchen cost" and you'll get answers ranging from $15,000 to $500,000. That's not a range. That's a worthless number.

The reason estimates vary so wildly is that "commercial kitchen" means completely different things depending on who's asking. A ghost kitchen with a flat top, a fryer, and a sandwich prep table is a commercial kitchen. So is a full restaurant line with a six-burner range, two ovens, a salamander, a walk-in cooler, a separate prep kitchen, and a three-compartment dish pit.

Before you can estimate your cost, you need to answer three questions:

1. What are you cooking? A bakery and a burger joint have completely different equipment needs. A bakery needs ovens, proofers, and mixers. A burger place needs a flat top, a fryer, and a hood rated for grease-laden vapors. Different equipment, different electrical, different ventilation.

2. Are you building from scratch or renovating an existing space? If the space was already a restaurant or commercial kitchen, you may have existing plumbing rough-ins, a grease trap, and an exhaust hood. That saves you tens of thousands. If you're converting a retail space that has never been a kitchen, you're starting from zero on every system.

3. What does your local code require? Every jurisdiction has different requirements for hood systems, fire suppression, grease traps, ADA compliance, and ventilation rates. The same kitchen can cost 30% more to build in one county than the one next door.

The Four Cost Buckets

Every commercial kitchen build breaks down into four categories. If your estimate doesn't account for all four, it's incomplete.

Let's break each one down.

Equipment Costs

This is the part most people focus on because it's tangible. You can see a range and touch a fryer. Equipment costs depend heavily on whether you buy new, used, or refurbished.

A basic line for a small cafe or quick-service operation (flat top, fryer, prep table, reach-in cooler, hand sink, three-compartment sink, basic smallwares) runs roughly $12,000 to $25,000 new. The same setup used might run $6,000 to $14,000.

A full restaurant line with a six-burner range, double oven, fryer, flat top, walk-in, reach-in freezer, two prep tables, full dish pit, and smallwares runs $45,000 to $90,000 new.

Used equipment can cut 40 to 50% off your equipment budget. The tradeoff is reliability. A used compressor fails at 7 PM on a Friday night, not on a slow Tuesday. Budget for at least one major repair in the first year if you go the used route.

Build-Out and Construction Costs

This is where budgets die. The build-out is everything behind the walls and under the floor that makes the kitchen legal and functional. Most first-time operators underestimate this category by a wide margin.

Exhaust Hood and Ventilation

If you cook with grease, you need a Type I hood with a fire suppression system. If you're only baking or steaming, you may only need a Type II hood, which is cheaper.

A Type I hood system (hood, make-up air, fire suppression, installation) runs $8,000 to $25,000 depending on length and complexity. A short 6-foot hood over a flat top and fryer is at the low end. A full 14-foot hood over a line with multiple pieces is at the high end.

This is often the single most expensive line item in a kitchen build-out. And it's non-negotiable. No hood, no permit. No permit, no opening.

Plumbing

Commercial kitchens need dedicated grease waste lines running to a grease trap or interceptor. They need hot water capable of reaching 120 degrees minimum at the three-compartment sink, which often means upgrading the water heater. They need floor drains, mop sinks, and pot filler lines.

Plumbing for a new kitchen in a space that's never been one runs $5,000 to $20,000. If the contractor has to trench a floor to run a new grease line, add another $3,000 to $8,000.

Electrical

Commercial equipment draws serious power. A six-burner range with a convection oven, a fryer, a walk-in, and a dishwasher may require a 400-amp service upgrade. If the space has 200-amp residential service, you're paying an electrician to pull new wire from the panel and possibly upgrade the building's service entrance.

Electrical build-out for a commercial kitchen runs $3,000 to $15,000. Service upgrades (if the building can't handle the load) add $2,000 to $10,000.

Grease Trap

Most jurisdictions require a grease trap or interceptor. An under-sink interceptor (smaller, for low-volume kitchens) runs $300 to $800 installed. An in-ground exterior grease trap (required for higher-volume operations) runs $2,000 to $6,000 installed, plus permitting.

Some landlords require you to install one even if code doesn't. Read your lease.

Flooring, Walls, and Finishes

Health code requires non-porous, cleanable surfaces. That means commercial-grade epoxy or quarry tile flooring with sealed seams, FRP or stainless wall panels behind cooking areas, and coved base transitions where the floor meets the wall.

Flooring: $3 to $12 per square foot installed. A 500-square-foot kitchen at $8/sq ft is $4,000.

Wall finishes: $1,500 to $5,000 depending on how much stainless or FRP you need.

HVAC

The kitchen needs to be comfortable enough to work in, and make-up air has to balance what the exhaust hood pulls out. If the building's existing HVAC can't handle the load, you're adding a dedicated unit.

HVAC additions for a commercial kitchen run $3,000 to $12,000.

Permits and Code Compliance

This bucket sneaks up on people because the costs are scattered across different agencies and vendors.

Total permit costs for a kitchen build-out typically run $1,500 to $7,000. The range depends entirely on your jurisdiction. Some cities make this fast and cheap. Others treat every permit like a negotiation.

One thing that catches people: plan review fees. Most health departments require you to submit detailed kitchen plans (drawn to scale, showing equipment placement, sink locations, drain lines, and hood coverage) before they'll issue a permit. If your plans get rejected, you revise, resubmit, and pay another review fee. Budget for at least one round of revisions.

Estimating Cost by Kitchen Type

Here's a practical framework. These ranges assume you're building into an existing commercial space (not raw land) and that the space has some existing infrastructure.

Small Cafe or Coffee Shop Kitchen ($20,000 to $50,000)

Limited cooking. Panini press, convection oven, under-counter refrigeration, basic prep area. No heavy fryer, no Type I hood required if you're not cooking with grease. Simple three-compartment sink setup.

Quick-Service / Fast Casual Kitchen ($40,000 to $100,000)

Flat top, fryer, possibly a pressure fryer, prep tables, reach-in refrigeration, a small walk-in or large reach-in combo. Type I hood with fire suppression. Full grease trap. This is the most common build-out for new food businesses.

Full Restaurant Kitchen ($80,000 to $200,000)

Full cooking line with range, ovens, fryers, flat top, salamander. Walk-in cooler and freezer. Dedicated prep area. Full dish washing station with commercial dishwasher. Large hood system. This is where most of the money goes into the build-out, not the equipment.

Ghost Kitchen / Cloud Kitchen ($15,000 to $45,000)

Minimalist. You're optimizing for delivery volume, not dine-in experience. Often built into a shared commissary space where infrastructure already exists. Equipment is limited to what you need for your specific menu.

Bakery or Production Kitchen ($25,000 to $75,000)

Heavy on ovens, proofers, and mixers. Light on cooking line. May not need a Type I hood if you're not producing grease-laden smoke. But electrical load is high because of multiple ovens.

How to Run Your Own Estimate

Here's how to build a cost estimate that holds up.

Step 1: Make a complete equipment list. Not a wish list. Every piece you actually need to execute your menu, down to the hand sink and the thermometer. Price each item new and used. Use the table above as a starting point.

Step 2: Get a build-out quote from a contractor who has done commercial kitchens. Not a residential remodeler. Not a generalist. Commercial kitchen contractors know what code requires and where the expensive surprises live. Get at least two quotes.

Step 3: Call your health department before you sign a lease. Ask for a plan review meeting. Find out exactly what they require for your kitchen type. This is free and it will save you thousands.

Step 4: Add 15% contingency to everything. If your estimate is $60,000, plan to spend $69,000. If you can't afford the number with contingency included, you can't afford the project.

Step 5: Get a fire suppression quote separately. Hood contractors often bundle the hood, make-up air, and fire suppression into one package. Get this quoted early because it's a large fixed cost that doesn't move much.

The Mistakes That Blow the Budget

Signing a lease before checking what the space can support. You fall in love with a location, sign the lease, then find out the electrical service can't handle your equipment and the nearest grease line is 40 feet away. Now you're paying for a lease on a space you can't afford to build out. Always get a contractor to walk the space before you sign.

Budgeting for equipment but not the build-out. Equipment is the fun part. You shop for it online, pick what you want, add it to a cart. The build-out is where the real money goes, and most people don't start pricing it until after they've committed. The build-out is typically equal to or greater than equipment cost.

Forgetting that make-up air costs money. The exhaust hood pulls air out of the building. That air has to come from somewhere. If the building doesn't have adequate make-up air, you have to install a system to replace it. This runs $3,000 to $8,000 and nobody mentions it until the mechanical permit gets denied.

Underestimating the permitting timeline. Permits take time. Plan review can take 2 to 6 weeks. If your plans get kicked back, add another 2 to 4 weeks. During this time you're paying rent on a space you can't use. Build holding costs into your estimate.

Not budgeting for the gap between build-out and revenue. The kitchen is done. Now you need to load it in, train staff, do a soft opening, and build to your target sales volume. That takes 4 to 8 weeks minimum. You're paying rent, insurance, and possibly staff during that window. If your estimate ends at "kitchen is installed," it's missing the runway costs.

How This Connects to Your Food Cost and Pricing

Here's the connection most operators miss. The cost of building your kitchen is a capital expense, but it drives your ongoing costs in two ways.

First, if you financed the build-out, you have a monthly loan payment that's now part of your fixed overhead. That payment has to be covered by your gross margin on every plate you sell. If you spent $80,000 on a build-out financed over 5 years at 9%, that's roughly $1,660 a month. On $40,000 in monthly sales, that's 4.2% of revenue before you've bought a single ingredient.

Second, the equipment you chose determines your ongoing costs. A kitchen built around energy-efficient equipment costs less to run. A kitchen with undersized refrigeration will spoil more food. A kitchen with a poorly designed workflow will require more labor hours to produce the same output.

Before you commit to a build-out, you need to know your target food cost percentage and your projected sales volume. Those two numbers tell you how much gross margin you'll generate. That gross margin has to cover the kitchen loan, labor, rent, utilities, insurance, and still leave profit.

How Percy Plate Helps

Percy Plate doesn't estimate construction costs. But it gives you the numbers that tell you whether the kitchen you're planning to build makes financial sense.

Know your target food cost percentage before you build. If you're planning a menu, Percy Plate lets you cost out every recipe before you buy a single piece of equipment. You'll know your food cost percentage, your per-portion cost, and your target menu price. Those numbers tell you how much gross margin each plate generates. That gross margin is what pays for the kitchen.

Run the prime cost check. Plug in your projected COGS, labor, and revenue to see your prime cost as a percentage of sales. If your prime cost is above 65% on paper, building an $80,000 kitchen isn't going to fix that. Fix the unit economics first.

Model different menu scenarios. Thinking about two different kitchen setups? Build the menu in Percy Plate both ways and compare the food cost and labor implications. A simpler kitchen with a tighter menu might generate better margins than a full line with a sprawling menu.

Project your break-even point. The break-even calculator tells you how much revenue you need to cover all costs, including the loan payment on your build-out. If your break-even is $28,000 a month and you're not confident you can hit that in the first year, the kitchen is too expensive for the concept.

Build Your Estimate This Week

Start with the equipment list. Write down every piece you need, price it new and used, and total it up. That's your equipment bucket.

Then call two commercial kitchen contractors and ask for a rough build-out quote. Give them the square footage, the equipment list, and the hood type. They'll give you a range. It won't be exact, but it'll be in the ballpark.

Call your health department. Ask for a pre-application meeting. Find out what they need.

Add 15% contingency. Add the permit costs. Add a runway budget for the weeks between completion and positive cash flow.

That number, the full one with all four buckets and the contingency, is what the kitchen actually costs. Not the brochure number. Not the YouTube number. The real one.

View this article in the app: https://percyplate.com/blog/commercial-kitchen-cost-estimator-guide