Restaurant layout: how many tables and seats will fit
The layout of a restaurant or café decides much more than how it looks. It determines how many guests you can serve at peak time, how quickly staff move, and whether guests feel at ease or squeezed in. A room packed with seats but tight aisles often earns less than a more balanced one.
Below are the rules of thumb designers use for space planning, a simple worked example and the points to check before you order furniture.
Square metres per seat: the basic rule of thumb
The usual starting point is floor area per seat in the guest area (not the kitchen or back of house). The figures below are indicative and vary between sources, but they give a sound first estimate.
In practice the guest area is often around 60% of the total floor area, with the rest going to kitchen, storage, toilets and staff areas. The split varies a lot with the menu: a café needs a smaller kitchen than a full-service restaurant.
- Café, quick service: about 1.0-1.2 m² per seat.
- Casual restaurant, taverna: about 1.2-1.7 m² per seat.
- Fine dining: about 1.7-2.0 m² per seat or more.
- Bar with stools: about 0.9-1.0 m² per place.
Aisles and spacing between tables
The main aisle, used by staff carrying trays and by guests heading to the exit or toilets, usually needs 90-120 cm of clear width. Secondary aisles between tables can be narrower, but should not drop below about 60 cm with chairs occupied.
Allow roughly 45-60 cm behind each table edge for a chair to be pulled out and a guest to sit down. Where two tables sit back to back, the gap between their edges is typically 120-150 cm, so both chairs fit and someone can still pass between them.
Do not forget accessibility. A wheelchair user needs aisles of at least 90 cm, a turning space of about 150 cm and a table with clear knee space under the top. Single-column bases help a great deal here.
Worked example: a 100 m² dining room
Say the guest area is 100 m² and the venue is a casual restaurant. At 1.4 m² per seat the estimate is about 70 seats. Run the same room as a café at 1.1 m² per seat and the estimate rises to about 90.
Treat that figure as a ceiling for planning, not a target. Next, draw the floor plan to scale with real table sizes (say 70x70 cm and 80x80 cm) and check the aisles. The final count is very often a little lower than the first estimate because of columns, windows, radiators and doors.
For the final capacity, your engineer will work within the venue's operating licence and fire safety study, which set the maximum occupancy and the emergency exits. The furniture has to fit inside that framework, not the other way round.
Getting the table mix right
Most parties in restaurants and cafés are two or three people. If the room is all 4-tops you will often seat two people at a table for four and lose covers. That is why many operators choose mainly 2-tops that join easily into 4-tops or 6-tops.
For this to work, the 2-tops need the same height and width, and ideally single-column bases so they join without legs clashing. Banquettes along walls also add capacity, because one side of the table needs no space for pulling out a chair.
Round tables help conversation and soften circulation, but take more space per seat and do not join easily. Keep them for places where they sit naturally, such as corners or the middle of a room.
Terraces, pavements and outdoor areas
In Greece a large share of a venue's trade often happens outside. Using public space such as a pavement or square requires a permit from the municipality, which sets the area and often the table positions. Before choosing furniture, find out exactly how many square metres you are allowed and how much clear pavement must be left for pedestrians.
Outdoor furniture should stack so it can be cleared away at night or in winter, have adjustable feet for paving and stand up to sun and rain. Umbrellas and heaters take up space too, so put them on the plan from the start.
From floor plan to order
Best practice is to start from the floor plan and then choose furniture, not the reverse. Send your supplier a dimensioned plan and ask for a layout proposal with specific models. Almeco, with its factory in Oraiokastro, Thessaloniki, and showrooms in Thessaloniki, Athens and Crete, can suggest chairs and tables in sizes that suit your room and send a quote with prices and lead times, with delivery across Greece and the islands.