Opening a restaurant in London involves hundreds of decisions, from the menu and the fit-out to staffing and licensing. Cooling often gets less attention than it deserves, usually because it feels technical and the budget is already stretched. But the choices you make about refrigeration and air conditioning at the start will affect your food safety, energy bills, staff comfort and customer experience for years.
Getting these decisions right at the fit-out stage is far cheaper than fixing them after opening. Here are ten cooling decisions every new restaurant should think through carefully.
1. Size Refrigeration to Your Menu and Volume
Your refrigeration needs depend on your menu, your delivery schedule and how many covers you expect. A restaurant with daily fresh deliveries needs less storage than one that buys in bulk twice a week. Undersized refrigeration leads to overloaded fridges that cannot hold temperature, while oversized equipment wastes money and space. Work through your stock levels and prep workflow with your chef before choosing equipment.
2. Decide Whether You Need a Walk-In Cold Room
For many restaurants, a walk-in chiller or freezer is more practical than several upright units. Cold rooms provide bulk storage, are easier to organise and can be more efficient per cubic metre. They do need space, a suitable floor and careful placement of the condensing unit. Think about whether a cold room fits your kitchen layout early in the design process.
3. Plan Prep Counter Refrigeration Around the Line
Under-counter fridges, saladettes and pizza prep counters keep ingredients close to where chefs work. Position them to suit how dishes move along the line, but avoid placing them directly next to fryers, ranges or ovens, where heat will make them work much harder.
4. Consider a Blast Chiller
If you cook food in advance and cool it for later service, a blast chiller is worth serious consideration. Standard fridges cannot bring hot food down to safe temperatures quickly, and loading them with hot food warms everything else inside. Blast chillers are designed for rapid chilling and help you meet food safety requirements.
5. Think About Bar Refrigeration and Ice
If you have a bar, plan for bottle coolers, back-bar fridges, an ice machine and possibly cellar cooling. Ice machines need a water supply, drainage and space for ventilation, and they require regular cleaning, since ice is legally treated as food. Cellar coolers need to suit the size and insulation of the cellar.
6. Design Air Conditioning for Both Kitchen and Dining Room
The kitchen and dining room have very different needs. The kitchen produces large amounts of heat, while the dining room needs quiet, draught-free comfort. A good design pairs effective kitchen cooling and extraction with discreet front-of-house units such as ceiling cassettes or ducted systems. Remember that modern split systems are heat pumps, so the same system can provide efficient heating in winter. Be Cool’s London air conditioning services include free site surveys for restaurants and hospitality venues, with systems designed to balance kitchen heat against dining comfort.
7. Plan Outdoor Unit Locations Early
Both air conditioning and refrigeration need outdoor condensing units, and in London, finding space for them can be one of the hardest parts of the project. Landlords, freeholders and planning authorities may have restrictions on where units can go and how much noise they can make. Address this at the design stage, not after the kitchen is built.
8. Choose Equipment for Efficiency, Not Just Price
Cheap refrigeration and air conditioning can cost much more over their lifetime through higher energy bills and repairs. Look for energy-efficient models, inverter air conditioning and equipment using modern refrigerants. Avoid systems built around refrigerants being phased down, such as R404A, which are becoming more expensive to service.
9. Set Up Maintenance and Repair Cover Before Opening
New equipment can still fail, especially during the first busy summer. Arrange a maintenance contract and have an emergency repair contact in place before you open. Be Cool’s commercial fridge repair service covers restaurants and commercial kitchens across London, including prep counters, upright fridges and freezers, blast chillers and walk-in cold rooms, with 24/7 emergency callouts and costs confirmed before any work starts.
10. Use a Certified Contractor With Hospitality Experience
Installing refrigeration and air conditioning requires F-Gas certification by law. Beyond that, choose a contractor who understands restaurants: the heat of a working kitchen, the pressure of trading hours and the importance of food safety. A contractor who handles both refrigeration and air conditioning can design the whole system together, which avoids problems such as AC condensers blowing hot air onto refrigeration plant.
Budgeting for Cooling
Cooling is often one of the larger mechanical costs in a restaurant fit-out. It is tempting to cut corners to save money upfront, but undersized or low-quality systems usually cost more in the long run. Get a proper survey and quotation early, and build cooling into your budget from the start rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Working With an Experienced Partner
Be Cool Refrigeration has installed and maintained restaurant cooling across London since 2004, working with brands such as KFC, Saravanaa Bhavan, 9 Cuisines and Kokoro as well as independent restaurants. Its projects include walk-in chiller and freezer installations, cold rooms and full air conditioning systems. With more than 2,000 projects completed, F-Gas certified engineers and 24/7 support, the company can take a new restaurant from survey through installation to ongoing aftercare.
Final Thoughts
Cooling decisions made during a restaurant fit-out are hard and expensive to change later. Size refrigeration properly, design air conditioning for both kitchen and dining room, plan outdoor units early and choose efficient equipment. Put maintenance and repair cover in place before opening, and your kitchen will be ready for whatever the first London summer brings.
