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The restaurant opening checklist

Opening day arrives faster than you think. This checklist groups the essentials so nothing critical slips through the cracks before your first guest walks in.

6 min readThe Menulisa team

Legal & premises

  • Business registration, licences, and food-safety permits secured early.
  • Lease signed, fit-out and equipment installed and tested.
  • Insurance and any required inspections completed.

Menu, suppliers & costs

  • Menu finalised and every dish costed.
  • Suppliers lined up and opening stock ordered.
  • Prices set with a target food cost and a known break-even.

Systems & hardware

  • POS, QR menu, and kitchen workflow set up and tested.
  • Printers, payments, and offline mode verified.
  • Reporting and roles configured for the team.

Team & soft open

  • Key roles hired and trained on the menu and the systems.
  • A soft opening planned to test flow under real, limited pressure.
  • Feedback loop ready so you fix issues before the full launch.
Key takeaways

The short version

  • Lock licences, lease, fit-out, and insurance early
  • Finalise and cost the menu; line up suppliers
  • Set up and test POS, QR, printing, and offline mode
  • Hire and train the team on menu and systems
  • Soft-open to test flow before the full launch

Questions, answered

Licences and permits — they take longer than expected — alongside the lease and fit-out. Start these well before your target opening date.

A tested POS, QR menu, and kitchen workflow, with printers, payments, offline mode, reporting, and team roles all configured and verified.

A soft opening tests the kitchen, flow, and team under real but limited pressure, so you fix what breaks before opening to a full house.

Related guides

Keep reading
How to start a restaurant
Types of restaurants, explained
How to create a QR code menu for your restaurant

Put it into practice

Menulisa brings ordering, POS, kitchen, inventory, and reporting together so the ideas in this guide are easy to act on.

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Restaurant Opening Checklist · Menulisa