The fastest way to blow a fitout budget is to buy equipment in the order you think of it. The combi oven gets specified in week one, and the dishwasher, the hand-wash basin and the shelving turn up as afterthoughts, usually after the plumber has already roughed in. A commercial kitchen works as a sequence: goods come in, get stored, get prepped, get cooked, get held or served, and everything comes back to be washed. Build your equipment list in that same order and the gaps show up on paper instead of on opening night.
This is the zone-by-zone checklist our team works through with new cafés, restaurants, takeaways and clubs across Brisbane and the Gold Coast. No kitchen needs everything on it. Your menu decides what stays.
Before any line item, write down the five or six dishes that will do most of your volume and trace each one backwards: what it’s cooked on, what it’s held in, where the ingredients are stored. A burger takeaway lives on its griddle and fryers; a brunch café on its coffee machine, toaster and flat-top. The list below gives you every zone. Your menu tells you how deep to go in each.
| Zone | Core equipment | Commonly forgotten |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving & dry storage | Shelving, dunnage (floor) racks, scales | A probe thermometer for checking deliveries |
| Refrigeration | Upright fridge and freezer, underbench units, prep counters | Blast chiller, ice machine |
| Prep | Stainless benches, sink benches, food processor, mixer, slicer | Dedicated hand-wash basin in the prep area |
| Cooking | Range or cooktop, oven (combi or convection), fryers, griddle | Exhaust capacity for what you’ve chosen |
| Holding & display | Bain marie, heated holding cabinet, hot/cold display | Heat lamps at the pass |
| Warewashing | Dishwasher or pass-through, glasswasher | Pot and utensil washing capacity |
| Cleaning & safety | Chemicals, hand wash, insect control | Separate chemical storage away from food |
Deliveries need somewhere to land that isn’t the floor or the prep bench. Plan open shelving and storage for dry goods, a dunnage rack to keep stock off the floor, and a set of scales if you buy by weight. A probe thermometer belongs here too: chilled deliveries should arrive at 5°C or colder, and checking at the door is how you catch the ones that don’t.
Most kitchens need more cold storage than the first draft allows: an upright fridge and freezer for bulk stock, then underbench units along the line so chefs aren’t walking to the back for every ticket. If your menu relies on sandwiches, salads or pizza, a prep counter with a refrigerated well keeps ingredients at the point of assembly.
Two items get missed often. The first is a blast chiller: if you cook in batches and cool food for later, it gets product through the danger zone far faster than a standard fridge can. The second is an ice machine, if you run a bar or serve cold drinks. Browse the full commercial refrigeration range, which covers Williams, SKOPE, FED-X and Hoshizaki ice machines among others.
Prep is built on stainless. Stainless steel benches give you smooth, non-absorbent work surfaces, and sink benches handle vegetable washing and defrosting. On top of that, add the machines that match your menu: a food processor for volume veg, a planetary or spiral mixer if you bake or make dough, a slicer for deli and charcuterie, a vacuum sealer if you portion ahead.
Leave room for a dedicated hand-wash basin within easy reach of the prep area. It is a separate fixture from your prep sinks, and it is not optional (more on that in our commercial kitchen requirements guide).
This is where budgets concentrate and where the menu matters most. The core commercial kitchen equipment line-up for most venues is some combination of:
Before you lock this list in, add up the gas and electrical load. Every cooking appliance has a rated input, and that total drives your gas supply, your switchboard and the size of the exhaust hood you’ll need.
If food is cooked ahead of service or sits on show, it needs to be held hot or cold. Plan a bain marie or heated holding cabinet behind the line, heat lamps at the pass, and front-of-house food display cabinets (hot, cold or ambient) if customers choose from a counter. Cafés and bakeries often put more budget into cold and cake display than into cooking equipment.
Size warewashing to your busiest hour, not your average one. An undercounter dishwasher suits a small café. Once plates, trays and pots pile up at peak, a pass-through (hood-type) machine with inlet and outlet benches moves far more volume. High-volume clubs and function kitchens step up to rack conveyors. Bars need a dedicated glasswasher, and bakeries or production kitchens with a lot of trays and pots often add a utensil washer. See the full commercial warewashing range from Hobart, Washtech, Meiko and Winterhalter.
The last zone is the one inspectors look at first. Budget for commercial cleaning chemicals matched to your dishwasher and surfaces, hand wash at every basin, and insect control. Chemicals need storage away from food and food-contact surfaces, so plan a cupboard or shelf for them rather than the space under the prep sink.
| Venue | Where the budget usually goes | Watch-outs |
|---|---|---|
| Café | Coffee machine and grinders, toaster/griddle, underbench refrigeration, cold and cake display | Undersized warewashing at the morning peak |
| Restaurant | Range, combi oven, fryers, salamander, generous underbench refrigeration on the line | Exhaust and gas capacity for the full line |
| Takeaway | Fryers with oil filtration, griddle, hot display and holding, chip scuttle | Hot-holding at 60°C or above, and grease management |
| Pub or club | Combi ovens, bratt pan, blast chiller, pass-through or rack conveyor, bar glasswashers | Batch cooking and cooling capacity for functions |
If you’d rather not work it out alone, our commercial kitchen design team can turn your menu into a layout and show it to you in 3D renderings before anything is ordered.
Commercial Kitchen Company has been supplying Queensland hospitality for 35 years. Bring your menu and floor plan to either showroom and we’ll walk the list with you: Brisbane at 1/1 Carol Avenue, Springwood, or Gold Coast at 88 Upton Street, Bundall. Both are open to the public. Call 1300 CKC 000 or send us your equipment list and we’ll price it up.
Commercial Kitchen Company is the go-to source for high-quality hospitality supplies and equipment in Australia. As a proud, Australian-owned business, we cater to a diverse range of hospitality needs, including restaurants, cafes, catering services, and hotels in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Our extensive selection in our showrooms highlights everything from advanced commercial kitchen equipment to essential front-of-house products, all aimed at enhancing the efficiency and appeal of your business.
