Restaurant Interior Design Singapore: Plan From the Kitchen

Restaurant interior design in Singapore works when the plan starts in the kitchen and moves outward: unit approvals, exhaust and grease trap, the cooking line, the pass, then seating and atmosphere. This guide is for operators opening or refitting a restaurant, café or bar, and covers the SFA, URA, SCDF and PUB rules that decide what the layout can be.

Restaurant interior design is the planning of an F&B outlet’s kitchen, service routes, seating, lighting, materials and brand atmosphere so the space serves food safely and quickly, seats the right number of guests and meets Singapore’s licensing, fire and drainage rules. Between January and October 2025, 2,431 food establishments closed (MTI). Right-Space’s commercial interior design and build team designs these spaces.

Why restaurant interior design starts with the kitchen

A restaurant’s layout should be planned from the kitchen outward, because the cooking line, exhaust and drainage fix where everything else can go. Atmosphere matters, but a beautiful room on top of a slow kitchen loses money every service.

The numbers support a cost-and-operations focus. The Ministry of Trade and Industry reported 3,357 new retail food establishments and 2,431 closures between 1 January and 23 October 2025. Of the closures, 63% had been registered for five years or less, and 82% of those had never recorded a profit in their tax declarations.

In a separate reply on 7 April 2026, the ministry (renamed the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry on 1 October 2026) said rent fell from 26% to 17% of F&B business costs between 2019 and 2024.

Rent is a smaller share of F&B costs than it was in 2019, which puts more weight on labour, throughput and waste. Layout affects all three. Design from the kitchen out.

[IMAGE 1: Kitchen-out planning diagram of a 150 m² restaurant showing the five steps as concentric zones: kitchen line at the core, the pass, service routes, seating, then façade and brand elements. Placement: under the table.]

Check the unit before designing: URA use, SCDF and landlord rules

Confirm the unit can legally and physically host your kitchen before any design starts. The approved use, the exhaust route and the drainage point decide whether a concept fits.

URA’s rules depend on the building. In approved commercial premises of standalone commercial buildings, such as shopping centres, no planning permission is needed to convert between shop, showroom and restaurant, subject to URA’s conditions. Shophouses need a change of use application, and the government’s GoBusiness portal advises checking the intended use is allowed before signing any tenancy.

SCDF applies a separate test. Its plan approval rules list a change of use from shop to eating establishment as fire safety works, so a mall unit that needs no URA permission still needs a Qualified Person’s fire safety submission. In practice, operators who read “no planning permission required” as “no approval required” lose weeks.

Landlords add their own F&B conditions. CapitaLand’s November 2023 fit-out guidelines for one of its buildings require an electronic air cleaner in the kitchen exhaust duct and the kitchen supply fan interlocked with the gas solenoid valve. Our guide to approval sequencing for renovations covers how these steps fit together.

SFA licensing: what the layout plan must show

The Singapore Food Agency’s Food Shop Licence is built around your layout plan, so the plan is a design deliverable as much as a licensing form. Renovation should start only after SFA has approved the application and layout.

SFA’s application process requires a layout plan with a metric scale and dimensions, the scale ratio, the kitchen equipment and infrastructure (including exhausts, sinks and wash basins) and the boundaries of the refreshment area. The application also needs URA’s change of use or HDB approval. SFA reviews complete applications within 7 working days, and the licence costs S$195 for one year.

After the build, SFA carries out a pre-licensing inspection, by virtual inspection or photo submission, before operations start. Virtual inspections must be booked at least 5 working days ahead.

The cleaner approach is to draw the SFA layout and the construction drawings from the same base plan. When the two drift apart, the pre-licensing inspection finds the difference.

Kitchen exhaust and fire rules for restaurant kitchens

SCDF’s Fire Code 2023 requires every restaurant kitchen to have its own mechanical exhaust system, independent of the rest of the building, with fixed clearances and discharge distances. These rules decide where the hood goes and whether a unit can take a cooking kitchen at all.

Clause 7.1.13 requires the hood and ducts to keep 500 mm clear of unprotected combustible materials, with Class F portable extinguishers under SS 578. The exhaust must discharge directly outside and at least 5 m from any air intake. Ducts outside the kitchen must be enclosed or fire-rated, and no fire damper is allowed in a kitchen exhaust duct.

Sharing a duct has strict limits. Restaurants can share only if they sit on the same storey within a zone of 2,000 m² and 50 m in length, with an aggregate floor area of no more than 1,000 m². The shared system also needs a common exhaust fan, sprinkler protection throughout the building and a wet chemical fire extinguishing system on each hood.

Maintenance belongs in the design brief. The entire duct and hood must be degreased and cleaned by a specialist at least once every 12 months, so access panels and service clearances need to be drawn in from the start.

Grease trap and drainage

Every food shop that cooks or offers dine-in needs a grease trap, so the drainage point is one of the first things to check in a unit. PUB’s Code of Practice on Sewerage and Sanitary Works (3rd edition, March 2025) sets the rule.

Sinks and floor traps serving food preparation areas must discharge through a separate system to the grease trap, and toilets must not connect to it. Traps follow PUB’s standard drawings or comply with BS EN 1825 or ASME A112.14.3, and must be sited where NEA’s licensed general waste collector can clean them. Food shops with no cooking and no dine-in can apply to PUB to go without one.

Portable grease interceptors inside the shop are allowed only where URA has approved a change of use and the premises cannot discharge to a standard or non-standard trap. Where this breaks down is the unit with no reachable trap and no URA change of use on record: the kitchen plan has to change, or the unit does.

How many seats can a restaurant have? Occupant load and layout

A Singapore restaurant’s seat count is capped by its occupant load, which SCDF’s Fire Code 2023 calculates at 1.5 m² of floor area per person for restaurant dining areas. Occupant load sets the exits, door widths and escape routes the layout must provide.

The arithmetic is simple. A 60 m² dining area carries an occupant load of 40; 90 m² carries 60; 120 m² carries 80. Where a restaurant uses fixed seating, the Code allows the occupant load to be based on the number of fixed seats. These are our worked examples from the published factor.

Plan the table mix around how guests arrive. Two-tops that join into fours suit lunch crowds in office districts. Banquettes along walls hold more covers than loose chairs in the same area and keep aisles clear for runners. Counter seats suit solo diners and short visits.

Seats and covers are different numbers. A restaurant that turns 40 seats twice per lunch serves 80 covers, more than one that seats 60 and turns once, which is why the service routes in the next section matter as much as the chair count.

Front of house built for service

Front of house works when the guest route and the staff route cross as little as possible. Put the pass where runners can reach every table without crossing the entrance queue, and send dirty plates back by a different line.

Map four routes on the plan before choosing furniture: guest arrival to table, food from pass to table, dish return to the wash area, and delivery to storage. Every crossing point slows service and raises the chance of a spill. Payment points and pickup shelves for delivery riders belong away from the dining entrance.

Atmosphere comes last in the sequence, not least in importance. Lighting levels, acoustic finishes on hard surfaces, and materials that survive daily cleaning in Singapore’s humidity all shape how long guests stay. The brand layer, from façade to menu boards, is covered in our guide to concept and brand identity.

Café interior design follows the same rules at a smaller scale. A café with a compact bar, a pastry display and no hot kitchen still needs the SFA layout plan, and still needs a grease trap if it prepares food for dine-in.

Restaurant fit-out cost, timeline and funding

Right-Space’s published starting point for commercial interior projects is around S$50,000, with standard projects taking 6 to 12 weeks; restaurant kitchens add exhaust, drainage, gas and fire suppression costs that offices and shops do not carry.

Approvals sit inside that programme. SFA’s layout review takes up to 7 working days for a complete application, SCDF fire safety works need a Qualified Person’s submission, and the landlord reviews its own F&B conditions. Equipment lead times for hoods and suppression systems belong in the critical path.

Multi-outlet operators save most by designing once. For the Joy Luck Teahouse expansion, Right-Space created the key visuals once and adapted them to each location, with in-house carpenters building every element so each shop opened on schedule. 

Government funding covers part of the layout thinking. Enterprise Singapore’s F&B Process Optimisation Programme, launched in October 2025, reviews outlet operations “from layout and workflow design to technology adoption” with up to 50% grant support. At Restaurant Asia on 15 July 2026, Senior Minister of State Low Yen Ling said businesses used it to “identify bottlenecks, redesign workflows” and run outlets with fewer resources. Check eligibility with Enterprise Singapore before the design is fixed.

Build the kitchen first

Restaurant interior design in Singapore succeeds when the room is planned around the work it has to do. Check the unit’s approved use, exhaust route and drainage before signing; draw the SFA layout and the build from one plan; size seating to the occupant load and the turn you need; then let atmosphere carry the brand. With rent a smaller share of F&B costs than in 2019, a layout that saves steps on every service is worth more than another feature wall.

Opening or refitting an F&B outlet? Book a site and layout review with Right-Space before you sign the lease.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need URA approval to open a restaurant in a shopping mall?

Not always. In approved commercial premises of standalone commercial buildings, URA authorises conversion between shop, showroom and restaurant without planning permission, subject to conditions. Shophouses need a change of use application. SCDF still treats shop to eating establishment as fire safety works, so a Qualified Person’s submission is required.

How much is an SFA food shop licence in Singapore?

The SFA Food Shop Licence costs S$195 and is valid for one year. The application needs a scaled layout plan showing kitchen equipment, exhausts, sinks, wash basins and the refreshment area, plus URA or HDB approval for the premises. SFA reviews complete applications within 7 working days.

Does a café need a grease trap in Singapore?

Yes, if it cooks or offers dine-in. PUB’s Code of Practice on Sewerage and Sanitary Works (March 2025) requires grease traps for all food shops, with sinks and floor traps from food preparation areas draining to them. Food shops with no cooking and no dine-in can apply to PUB for an exemption.

How often must a restaurant kitchen exhaust be cleaned?

At least once every 12 months. SCDF’s Fire Code 2023, Clause 7.1.13, requires the entire duct and hood to be degreased and cleaned by a specialist, with records kept by the owner or operator and the requirement written into the Fire Safety Instruction Manual.

Is there a grant for restaurant layout redesign in Singapore?

Yes, for operations-led redesign. Enterprise Singapore’s F&B Process Optimisation Programme, launched in October 2025, supports reviews covering layout, workflow design, technology adoption and menu engineering, with up to 50% grant support. Confirm eligibility and approved consultants with Enterprise Singapore before committing.