Commercial · Hospitality
Restaurant, café and coffee shop fit-out in London
The back of house decides the opening date. Extraction, drainage, gas and the counter services are designed first, and the room the customer sees is built around them, by one crew that has fitted out tea shops and coffee shops.
- In-house crew
Updated October 2026
A restaurant or café fit-out in London covers the kitchen or coffee counter and its services, extraction and gas interlock where food is cooked, drainage and grease management, front of house joinery, seating and the shopfront. MO Team fits out restaurants, cafés and coffee shops, as for HEYTEA in Liverpool and Vibean Coffee in Manchester.
Back of house first, front of house second
Hospitality fit-out is unlike other commercial work because the systems that decide whether you can open are the ones nobody photographs. In a restaurant that means extraction, make-up air, the gas interlock, suppression over the cooking line, grease management, floor drainage and cleanable finishes, all installed, commissioned and inspected before a single cover is served. In a café or coffee shop the kitchen is the counter: filtered water and drainage for the espresso machine, power for machines, grinders and under-counter refrigeration, a hand-wash basin where environmental health expects it, a pass at the height baristas actually work at, and enough extraction for whatever is toasted or baked behind it. We fit out both. The HEYTEA tea shop on Parker Street in Liverpool and Vibean Coffee in Manchester were counter-led fit-outs to a brand's design package, and we carried out service works at Sexy Fish in Mayfair.
Our sequence starts with the services capacity, because they dictate the plan. For a restaurant, an extraction duct has to reach a discharge point at a height and position the borough will accept, an external flue almost always needs planning permission and an odour assessment, and the drainage needs a grease interceptor sized to the kitchen and agreed with the water company. For a coffee shop the questions are smaller but just as decisive: whether the incoming water supply and the electrical capacity will run the equipment schedule, where the counter drainage can fall to, and whether hot food is on the menu, which brings extraction and grease into a unit that would otherwise not need them. Once those are settled, the kitchen or counter layout, the pass, the seating and the joinery fall into place and can be templated to the equipment. In a London high street unit that also means a shopfront that satisfies the conservation officer; in a shopping centre it usually means an out-of-hours programme under the landlord's fit-out guide, which we offer where the centre requires it. The fit-out contractors in London page explains the approvals side, and the sectors page compares hospitality with retail and clinics.
One programme owner keeps a hospitality programme honest, because the trades collide constantly: the ductwork runs where the ceiling wants to be, the gas line crosses the drainage, and the counter cannot be templated until the equipment is set out. Our site manager holds all of it and reports weekly against the opening date rather than against a percentage complete. Cafés and restaurants both sit in Class E, so converting a shop rarely needs permission for the use itself, but the extraction, the shopfront and the signage usually need their own consents, and a premises licence for alcohol runs on its own timetable. We put those applications in early, because a flue refused in week ten is one of the most common reasons a hospitality opening moves.
What a restaurant, café or coffee shop fit-out includes
Scope varies with the concept and the demise. These are the elements a hospitality fit-out contract with us usually covers.
What is in the price
How it runs
- 01
Feasibility on extraction, drainage and power
We check the extraction route and discharge position, the drainage falls, and whether the gas, water and electrical supplies will run the equipment schedule. For a coffee shop that can be a short exercise; for a restaurant it is the week that decides the concept. If the unit cannot take it, that is the cheapest week to find out.
- You receive
- A feasibility note on extraction, drainage and services capacity
- 02
Design the kitchen or counter first, then the room
The kitchen or coffee counter is laid out around the equipment schedule and the services, with the ventilation and drainage designed to it. Only then are the pass, the seating, the bar and the joinery drawn, so nothing front of house is templated before the services behind it are fixed in position.
- You receive
- Agreed kitchen or counter layout, services and front of house layouts
- 03
Consents: flue, shopfront, signage and landlord
Planning for an external flue or a new shopfront, advertisement consent for signage, the building control application and the landlord approval package, submitted together and early because the flue decision is what usually moves an opening date.
- You receive
- Submitted applications and a written quotation with an opening programme
- 04
Build from the back of the unit forward
Strip-out, drainage and services first, then ductwork and the kitchen or counter services, then partitions, finishes and joinery, with the counter templated once the equipment is set out. Weekly reports count back to the opening date and every variation is priced before it is built.
- You receive
- Weekly progress reports and inspection records
- 05
Commission, register and hand over
Extraction balanced, gas interlock and suppression commissioned and certified, electrical testing complete, the water and drainage checked in service, a joint snag, and the pack handed over ready for your environmental health inspection and the food business registration you have already made.
- You receive
- Commissioning certificates, warranties and an O&M pack
What governs a hospitality fit-out
Work of this kind
Common questions
Straight answers.
Not answered here?
Tell us what you are planning. We read every enquiry ourselves.
Ask us directly07424 445105The counter and everything behind it: joinery templated to the equipment, filtered water and drainage for the espresso machine, power for machines, grinders, fridges and the till, a hand-wash basin, a small prep area and cleanable finishes, plus the seating, lighting, decoration, shopfront and signage in front of it. Where hot food is served, extraction and grease management join the list. Equipment, EPOS and furniture are usually bought by you and connected by us.
It depends on what the unit already has more than on its size. A Cat A unit with adequate water, drainage and electrical capacity is largely a counter, connections and finishes. A shop conversion that needs a new incoming water supply, a drainage run to the counter position, extraction for a hot-food menu or a new shopfront is a different budget. We price from the equipment schedule and a survey rather than from floor area, and a firm figure follows a site visit.
The kitchen and the services usually account for more than front of house does. Extraction runs, make-up air, the gas interlock, suppression, drainage and grease management are the elements that move a hospitality price, followed by the bar and joinery specification. We price from a survey and an equipment schedule rather than from floor area, and a firm figure follows a site visit.
A café or coffee shop in a unit that already has the capacity is largely a counter, services connections and finishes, so it is one of the shorter commercial programmes. What extends it is a new extraction route, a drainage alteration, a shopfront that needs consent, or an out-of-hours access window inside a trading centre. We count the programme back from your opening date and show what has to be on site by when.
Yes: equipment set out and installed, canopies, ductwork, fans, attenuation, make-up air, odour control, and the gas interlock that shuts the supply down if ventilation fails. It is all commissioned and certified rather than simply fitted. Where you are buying the catering or coffee equipment directly, we co-ordinate the delivery date and make the services connections.
For an external flue or duct on the elevation, almost always. The borough assesses discharge height, odour control and fan noise, and neighbours may be consulted. In a conservation area or on a listed building the constraints are tighter still. We establish the route and the likely conditions at the feasibility stage, because it is one of the most common causes of a delayed opening.
Yes. Bar structure, bar top, back bar, under-bar services and drainage, coffee counters, pass counters, host stands, banquette seating and wall panelling. These are made to the surveyed dimensions of the room rather than to a drawing of it, which matters in old buildings where nothing is square. Services under a counter are set out before the joinery is templated.
Yes. Inside a trading centre that usually means working after the centre closes, to the centre's access rules, with a permit each night, booked dock and lift slots, hoarding kept presentable, and the unit left safe and clean before opening each morning. Kitchen extraction inside a centre also has to tie into the landlord's system, which is agreed in the approval package before work starts. Our Pop Mart store at the Trafford Centre was a shopping-centre fit-out; HEYTEA and Vibean were built to a brand's design package.
Often not. Cafés, coffee shops and restaurants all sit within Class E, so converting a shop to one usually does not need planning permission for the use itself. A drinking establishment or a hot food takeaway sits outside Class E and does. Either way the extraction, the shopfront and the signage may need their own consents, which is where the applications actually arise (Planning Portal, use classes, checked September 2026; confirm with your borough).
Register the food business with the local authority at least 28 days before you open. The inspection looks at cleanable finishes to walls, floors and ceilings, hand-wash basins in the right places, separation of raw and ready-to-eat preparation, temperature-controlled storage, adequate ventilation, pest-proofing and a compliant waste route. We build to those requirements rather than treating them as something to remedy afterwards.
Opening a restaurant, café or coffee shop?
Send the unit drawings, the concept, the equipment list and the date you want to open. We will tell you whether the extraction, the drainage and the supplies will support it.