Restaurant Kitchen Setup Guide: Station-by-Station Equipment List for Australia (2026)
A clear restaurant kitchen setup guide is the difference between a kitchen that prints money during peak service and one that costs you a fortune in churn, breakdowns and OH&S incidents. Whether you are opening a new restaurant — a 30-seat suburban bistro in Newcastle, a 60-seat trattoria in Carlton, or a 120-cover destination venue in Brisbane — the same six core stations apply, what changes is the size of your kitchen space, the type of food on the menu, the number of kitchen staff working at peak, and the price of the commercial kitchen equipment you put at each workstation. This guide walks through every station of a commercial kitchen, lists the cooking equipment and appliance specs each one needs (with honest Australian price ranges), covers the layout types and workflow that prevent cross-contamination, and finishes with the compliance, ventilation and health and safety items every hospitality operator has to check off before opening day.
It complements our 5 commercial kitchen layouts guide, HACCP compliance guide and essential commercial kitchen equipment list — read those alongside this one if you are at the planning stage. Throughout we work in AUD ex GST and reference Australian standards.
Restaurant Kitchen Stations Overview: What Your Kitchen Needs
The modern Australian restaurant kitchen still draws its bones from the French brigade de cuisine that Auguste Escoffier formalised over a century ago. The idea: divide the restaurant kitchen into specialised stations, each owned by a chef de partie, so that during service every plate flows through a parallel assembly line rather than a single bottleneck. A small café might collapse five brigade stations into two; a large hotel kitchen might run twelve. For most independent Australian restaurants in 2026, the working model is six stations: hot line, cold line, prep, dish pit, storage and the pass — plus a beverage station that often sits at the front of house. Building your equipment list around these six is the fastest path to a kitchen that actually flows, and the stations themselves dictate where the equipment, the appliance plumbing, the workflow lanes and the handwashing basins go.
1. Hot Line — The Heart of the Restaurant Kitchen
The hot line is where heat-cooked dishes are fired, finished and plated. It is the single most expensive part of any restaurant kitchen equipment list, typically 40–55 % of the total fitout budget — and it is where every cooking appliance, stove, grill, oven and fryer the chef brigade relies on lives.
Equipment checklist:
- 6-burner gas range with under-oven — backbone of most Australian hot lines. $2,500–$8,000. A Cookrite or Garland six-burner with stand and gas oven covers everything from stocks to roasts.
- Combi steam oven — the single highest-leverage piece in a modern kitchen. $8,000–$30,000. A Rational SCC, Unox Cheftop or Convotherm 6-grid does the work of three appliances. See our best commercial ovens in Australia for full options.
- Deck oven or conveyor oven — only if pizza/bread is a menu pillar. $4,000–$25,000.
- Chargrill (gas or charcoal) — for steakhouses, modern Australian, Greek. $2,500–$10,000.
- Flat-top griddle — burgers, breakfast, eggs. $1,500–$6,000.
- Commercial deep fryer (single or twin tank) — see our commercial deep fryer buying guide. $1,500–$8,000.
- Salamander grill — overhead grilling, gratin, toasting. $1,500–$4,500.
- Hot bain-marie / heat lamp pass-through — keeps proteins at temperature on a long ticket. $800–$3,500.
- Wok burner (Asian menus) — high-BTU recessed wok station. $1,500–$6,500.
Always pair the hot line with a properly sized wall canopy to meet Australian ventilation requirements — the canopy is not optional, and undersizing it is the most common compliance failure on first inspection.
2. Cold Line — Plating, Garnish and Dessert
The cold line handles cold starters, salads, garnishes, plated desserts and final assembly. It sits as close to the pass as possible so plates leave the kitchen at the right temperature.
Equipment checklist:
- Salad / sandwich prep fridge with refrigerated GN pan top — the workhorse. $1,000–$3,500. Atosa VRX, Fed-X, Saltas common in AU.
- Under-bench prep fridge for backup product and dressings. $1,500–$5,000.
- Chef base refrigerator — drawers under a flat top for the saucier station. $3,000–$8,000.
- Cold bain-marie or refrigerated wells for ice cream, sorbets, mousses. $1,500–$5,000.
- Stainless work bench with edge return — at least 1.8 m of bench length per cold-line chef. $400–$1,500.
- Granite or marble pastry slab insert (if doing chocolate / sugar work). $200–$600.
- Plate warmer / cold-storage cabinet to stage plated courses. $500–$2,000.
Cold line equipment lives or dies on airflow — never block the front grille of a prep fridge with cling-film boxes, and order one size larger than you think you need.
3. Prep Station — Mise en Place Engine Room
The prep station feeds the hot and cold lines through the day. It is the most under-budgeted area in most kitchen fitouts because owners forget that prep happens for 8 hours before service starts.
Equipment checklist:
- Stainless prep benches with under-shelves and over-shelves — at least one 1.5 m bench per active prep chef. $400–$1,800 each.
- Hand-wash basin (separate from food prep sinks — required under AU food safety standards). $200–$500.
- Double-bowl food prep sink with side bench. $600–$2,500.
- Commercial food processor / robot coupe (vertical cutter mixer). $1,500–$8,000.
- Planetary mixer — 20 L for cafés, 30–60 L for bakery-side prep. $1,800–$12,000.
- Meat slicer (if processing in-house) — see our health-and-safety meat slicer guide. $700–$5,000.
- Vacuum sealer (sous-vide kitchens, butcher-style portioning). $800–$6,000.
- Blast chiller (post-cook rapid cooling for HACCP compliance). $5,000–$20,000.
- Walk-in or under-bench freezer for prepared base products. See storage below.
A well-equipped prep station turns a chaotic 6 am start into a calm one — and a calm prep brigade lets every chef arrange their station efficiently so dinner-service ticket times stay under 12 minutes, even when the dining room is full.
4. Dish Pit — Compliance and Throughput
The dish pit is the highest-volume station in your kitchen by item count, and the single biggest hygiene-audit risk if it is set up badly. Australian state health standards require strict separation between dirty-in and clean-out flow.
Equipment checklist:
- Dishwasher — three duty classes:
- Undercounter (passthrough door) — 30–60 covers, $3,000–$8,000
- Passthrough (hood-type) — 60–150 covers, $8,000–$25,000
- Conveyor / flight-type — 150+ covers, $25,000–$80,000+
See our industrial dishwasher rack vs conveyor guide.
- Three-bowl scrap / pre-rinse / final-rinse sink — required for high-volume venues. $2,000–$6,000.
- Pre-rinse spray arm with knee-operated tap. $300–$700.
- Drying / drainboard tables flanking the dishwasher. $500–$1,500.
- Glasswasher (separate from main dishwasher for bar service). $2,500–$7,000.
- Chemical dosing system — locked, child-proofed, with eye-wash station nearby.
- Wall-mounted hand-wash basin at the dish-pit exit. $200–$500.
Position the dish pit at the kitchen entry, opposite the pass — that way dirty plates return without crossing the cooking lines and clean stock cycles back to the cold line without backtracking.
5. Storage — Cold, Frozen and Dry
Storage equipment defines how many days of stock you can hold, how often deliveries arrive, and whether you can cover a long weekend without an extra Wednesday delivery slot.
Equipment checklist:
- Walk-in coldroom — 2 m × 3 m gives ~6 days of fresh stock for a 60-seat restaurant. $8,000–$25,000 installed.
- Walk-in freezer (separate or partitioned). $10,000–$30,000.
- Upright fridges and freezers for active stock and overflow. $1,500–$8,000 each.
- Under-bench fridges for line backup. See our types of under-bench fridges explained.
- Dry-goods shelving (epoxy-coated wire or stainless) — FIFO labelled bins for flour, rice, pulses. $200–$1,500 per bay.
- Spice / dry mise racks at each cooking station.
- Chemical store — locked, separate from food, with MSDS folder.
Australian state health acts require all food storage above 150 mm off the floor, so cheap pallets are not legal. Build the budget around proper commissary-grade shelving.
6. The Pass — Quality Control Hub
The pass is the bridge between the kitchen and the dining room. Every plate is finalised, garnished, wiped and checked here before service runners pick it up.
Equipment checklist:
- Heated pass shelf with overhead heat lamps. $1,500–$5,000.
- Stainless pass bench with sneeze guard. $1,000–$3,000.
- POS / ticket printer rail — kitchen display system (KDS) increasingly replaces paper. $800–$3,500.
- Plate warmer drawer or cabinet — keeps stacks at 55–65 °C. $1,200–$3,500.
- Garnish wells, fine-salt boxes, micro-herb trays.
- Strong directional lighting — 700+ lux at plate level for colour fidelity.
The pass is also where the head chef stands during service — make sure the sightlines to every station are clear.
7. Beverage Station
In small to mid-size venues the beverage station often straddles front of house and back of house. Equipment essentials:
Equipment checklist:
- Commercial coffee machine (2- or 3-group) — see our coffee machine buying guide. $5,000–$25,000.
- Coffee grinder (on-demand or doser, one per blend). $1,200–$4,500.
- Knock box, tamper, milk jugs, water filter.
- Ice maker (cube + nugget mix for bar service). $2,500–$10,000.
- Glasswasher at the bar. $2,500–$7,000.
- Bar / drinks fridge — at least one per service station. $1,500–$5,000.
- Soda gun / juice tap infrastructure (if applicable).
Main Types of Restaurant Kitchen Layout
Before sizing equipment, decide the commercial kitchen layout. The five main types of common layout used across the Australian hospitality industry are the galley, island, zone, assembly-line and open kitchen layouts. Picking the right one is one of the most important early decisions when opening a new restaurant — it dictates equipment positioning, ventilation runs, the workflow your kitchen staff follow during service, and how efficiently each station can plate.
Galley, Zone, Open Kitchen and Assembly-Line Restaurant Layouts
- Galley / two-parallel layout — two opposing cooking and prep lines facing each other across a central walkway. The classic ship's-galley arrangement; popular choice for narrow shopfronts, food trucks and quick-service venues where kitchen staff need to move fast in a tight kitchen space.
- Island layout — a central cooking suite under one canopy, surrounded by prep and cold zones on the perimeter. A popular choice for medium-to-large restaurants that want a single visible workflow hub and a single chef-in-charge sightline.
- Zone layout — stations grouped into discrete zones (cooking, prep, cold, dish pit, storage) with clear walking lanes between them. The default for most full-service restaurants.
- Assembly-line layout — linear stations arranged in the exact order a dish is built. Used in pizzerias, burger joints and any high-throughput quick-service kitchen.
- Open kitchen / open layout — the brigade is visible to diners across a pass or counter. A powerful marketing tool for modern Australian restaurants, but it demands a much higher standard of cleanliness, plating discipline and health and safety routine because everything is on display.
Workflow, Food Safety and Preventing Cross-Contamination in a Restaurant Kitchen
Whichever layout you choose, arrange the stations so the workflow runs one way — receiving → storage → prep → cooking → plating → pass → dish pit return — to prevent cross-contamination of raw and cooked product. Australian food safety standards specifically require handwashing basins separate from any food preparation sink at every workstation that handles open food, and stainless steel surfaces wherever knives touch product. The condenser units on prep fridges and freezers should breathe into a corridor or back-of-house service area, not into the dining room of an open layout. For a deeper layout breakdown see our 5 commercial kitchen layouts explained guide.
Kitchen Needs by Restaurant Size
A working restaurant kitchen layout depends as much on seat count and menu complexity as it does on floor area, and the type of food on the menu drives most of the equipment specifications. Realistic Australian benchmarks for what each size of kitchen needs:
Small restaurant / quick-service venue (≤30 seats, café/bistro)
- Kitchen floor area: 18–28 m²
- Typical fitout (excluding fitout works): $30,000–$70,000
- Suggested layout: single-line or L-shape, hot and cold sharing one canopy, undercounter dishwasher in front-of-house bar zone
- Stations: hot line + small prep + dish pit; cold line collapsed into prep
Medium restaurant (40–60 seats)
- Kitchen floor area: 30–55 m²
- Typical fitout: $60,000–$150,000
- Suggested layout: island hot line + parallel prep/cold, separate dish pit with passthrough dishwasher, walk-in coldroom + dry store
- All six stations present, brigade of 4–6 chefs
Large restaurant (80–120+ seats, destination venue)
- Kitchen floor area: 60–110 m²
- Typical fitout: $120,000–$350,000+
- Suggested layout: dedicated zones per station, dual canopies, conveyor dishwasher, two walk-ins (cold + freezer), separate pastry section
- Brigade of 8–14 chefs
For deeper layout analysis (galley, island, zone, open kitchen, assembly line) see our 5 commercial kitchen layouts guide.
Australian Food Safety, Ventilation and Compliance Checklist
Whatever the size, every restaurant kitchen in Australia must clear the same compliance gates before service:
- Council registration as a food premises under the Food Act of your state (NSW Food Act 2003, Vic Food Act 1984, etc.)
- Food Safety Supervisor (FSS) certification for at least one staff member on every shift (NSW + ACT + Vic mandatory; other states recommended)
- Mechanical ventilation designed to AS 1668.2 with a wet chemical fire suppression system meeting AS 4587 and serviced under AS 1851. See the full ventilation requirements guide
- Grease trap sized to council code, registered with Sydney Water / Yarra Valley Water / Urban Utilities (state-dependent)
- HACCP-based food safety program — see our HACCP commercial kitchen guide and Australian food safety standards guide
- Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) access compliance — accessible toilets, threshold ramps, table heights
- Workers Compensation insurance + Public Liability ($20 m minimum for most venues)
Run a final pre-opening rehearsal against our council health inspection checklist before invite-only soft launch — it is the single best way to find the gaps your designer missed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to set up a restaurant kitchen in Australia?
A 30-seat café-style restaurant kitchen runs $30,000–$70,000 in equipment; a 60-seat mid-size restaurant $60,000–$150,000; a 100+ seat destination venue $120,000–$350,000+. These figures cover equipment only — fitout works (flooring, ventilation, plumbing, electrical, gas, dish pit infrastructure) typically add another 40–80 % on top.
What is the most important piece of restaurant kitchen equipment?
The combi steam oven is the highest-leverage purchase in a modern Australian restaurant kitchen — one unit replaces a convection oven, steamer and proof box, cooks more menu items than anything else on the line, and pays back in labour and consistency within 18–24 months. For lower-budget kitchens, the 6-burner gas range with under-oven is the next-most-essential workhorse.
What kitchen stations does a small restaurant need?
A small (≤30 seats) restaurant can run on three combined stations: hot line + small prep + dish pit, with the cold line collapsed into the prep bench. Medium and large kitchens add a dedicated cold line, the pass and the storage area as separate zones.
Do I need to follow Australian ventilation standards?
Yes. Every commercial cooking kitchen in Australia must meet AS 1668.1 and AS 1668.2 with a properly sized exhaust canopy and a wet chemical fire suppression system serviced under AS 1851. Skipping or under-sizing this is the most common compliance failure at the first council inspection.
Where do I buy commercial kitchen equipment in Australia?
Commercial Kitchen Store stocks the full hot-line, cold-line, prep, dish pit and storage range from CookRite, Atosa, Rational, Unox, Skope, Williams, Bromic, Washtech, Hobart and 50+ other Australian-supported brands. Browse the commercial cooking equipment and commercial fridges collections, or get in touch for a full-kitchen spec.
Next Steps
If you are at the lease-signing or floor-plan stage, run the equipment list above against your menu, then sense-check it against an experienced fit-out designer and a licensed mechanical engineer for the ventilation calculations. We help dozens of Australian operators a year spec a full kitchen from station-zero — talk to our team about a free quote-and-spec, or browse the commercial cooking equipment, combi steam ovens and commercial dishwashers ranges to start building your equipment list.
