How Much Does It Cost to Open a Restaurant in India in 2026? (Full INR Breakdown)

A restaurant in India can cost anywhere from ₹5 lakh for a small cloud kitchen to ₹3 crore for a full-service restaurant with a bar. Most articles online stop at a single average number, which isn’t useful when you’re actually trying to raise capital or size a loan. This breakdown goes by format, by city tier, and down to an actual line-by-line capex sheet from a project we executed, so you can build your own number instead of guessing at someone else’s average.

We’ve costed out 50+ restaurant launches across India since 2015. These are the numbers we actually use with clients.

Total setup cost by restaurant format

The swing within each format comes down to two things: which city you’re in, and how much of your interior and kitchen spend is new versus good-condition second-hand equipment. Both matter more than most first-time owners expect — we’ll break down both below.

A full line-item example: 30-seat casual dining

Total investment: ₹20.85 lakh on the lean end, up to ₹60 lakh if you’re well-capitalised.

The two lines first-time owners consistently underbudget are the working capital and the staff salary buffer. A restaurant rarely fails because the concept was wrong — it fails because the owner ran out of cash in month four, with a full dining room and no runway left to get there. This is exactly what we model out properly in a restaurant business plan: a real P&L and break-even timeline, not a guess.

Kitchen equipment costs

• Commercial gas range: ₹25,000–80,000
• Tandoor oven: ₹15,000–60,000
• Deep fryer: ₹8,000–30,000
• Refrigeration: ₹35,000–1 lakh
• Exhaust / chimney: ₹30,000–1.5 lakh
• Work tables & sinks: ₹15,000–45,000

For a full-service kitchen with a bar, budget for significantly more — our Noida project below spent ₹15.4 lakh on kitchen equipment and ₹6.6 lakh on bar equipment alone. Good second-hand commercial equipment can cut 30–50% off these numbers without sacrificing reliability, which is part of what we evaluate in commercial kitchen design.

Licensing costs

• FSSAI: ₹2,000–5,000/year
• Fire Safety NOC: ₹2,000–10,000
• Municipal Health Licence / Eating House Licence: ₹1,000–5,000/year
• Shop & Establishment Act registration: ₹500–2,000
• Music licence (PPL/IPRS, if playing music): ₹10,000–30,000/year
• Liquor licence (if serving): varies hugely by state — our Noida project budgeted nearly ₹5–10 lakh for just six months of liquor licence fees

Licensing is where timelines and budgets both go wrong most often. See our full breakdown of every licence a restaurant needs in India for costs and sequencing by state.

What changes by city — real numbers

These are the actual benchmarks we use with clients, not scraped averages.

Say you’re taking a 1,000 sq ft space in a Tier 1 city at ₹300/sq ft — that’s ₹3 lakh in monthly rent, which means a security deposit of ₹15–18 lakh before you’ve spent a rupee on the kitchen. Staff cost then tracks your revenue, not your rent: at ₹15 lakh/month in sales, budget at least ₹2.25 lakh/month in staff cost, and treat anything lower as a warning sign, not efficiency.

Looking to open in a specific city? See our city-by-city consulting pages for local licensing timelines and market context.

A real worked example: full-service restaurant with a bar (2,700–3,000 sq ft)

This is a real capex sheet from a full-service casual dining and bar project we executed in Noida, adjusted roughly 10% for 2026 material and labour costs.

Capex — construction & fit-out: ₹98.73 lakh – ₹1.21 crore

Opex — kitchen, bar & operating setup: ₹52.2–54.18 lakh

Fixed / one-time pre-opening expenses: ₹78.3 lakh – ₹1.11 crore

Opening / running stock: ₹18.7 lakh

Grand total: ₹2.48 crore (actual spend) to ₹3.05 crore (forecast budget) — roughly ₹10,000–13,000 per square foot all-in, including security deposit, licensing and opening stock, for a full-service restaurant with a bar in this size bracket.

The real question isn’t “how much” — it’s “how much can you actually recover”

A cost breakdown only matters against a realistic revenue and break-even plan. Before committing capital, a feasibility study tells you whether these numbers actually work for your specific site, footfall and price point — and prime cost control is what protects the margin once you’re open.

FAQs

How much security deposit should I budget for a restaurant in India?
Budget 5–6 months of your monthly rent as a refundable security deposit, on top of the rent itself. On a ₹3 lakh/month lease, that’s ₹15–18 lakh locked up before you’ve spent anything on the kitchen or interiors — factor it into your total capital raise, not just your monthly burn.

What percentage of revenue should restaurant staff cost be in India?
Plan for a minimum of 15% of revenue on staff cost, across all city tiers. This is a floor, not a target — it should track your actual sales, not stay fixed at your opening-day headcount.

How much does restaurant rent cost per square foot in India?
It varies sharply by city tier: ₹300–500/sq ft/month in metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore), ₹200–400 in Tier 1 cities, ₹150–250 in Tier 2 cities, and ₹80–140 in Tier 3 cities.

What’s the difference between capex, opex and fixed pre-opening expenses when budgeting a restaurant?
Capex is one-time build-out — construction, AC, fire safety, furniture, sound. Opex here means one-time operating setup — kitchen and bar equipment, crockery, uniforms, utensils — not ongoing monthly cost. Fixed pre-opening expenses are the one-time costs to get the doors open: security deposit, licence fees, architect and design fees, two months of rent, and launch marketing. Add opening stock on top, and that’s your full pre-launch capital requirement.

How much does it cost to open a full-service restaurant with a bar in India?
For a 2,700–3,000 sq ft format, budget ₹2.5–3 crore all-in: construction and fit-out (~₹99 lakh–1.21 crore), kitchen and bar equipment and operating setup (~₹52–54 lakh), pre-opening fixed expenses including security deposit and licensing (~₹78 lakh–1.11 crore), and opening stock (~₹18.7 lakh).

The bottom line

The number depends entirely on format, city, and whether you’re serving alcohol — but the mistakes that blow past every one of these budgets are the same across India: underbudgeting the security deposit as “just rent,” staff cost that doesn’t flex with revenue, and no real P&L before signing a lease.

If you’re ready to put real numbers against your own concept, a restaurant business plan built on your actual site and format is the next step — or book a free 30-minute consult and we’ll walk through it together.