The Restaurant Pre-Opening Checklist: 90 Days, Week by Week

A good restaurant opening checklist is built backwards. You start from the tasks that cannot be rushed, such as approvals and deliveries, and let the rest fit around them. The opening date is then the result of the plan, not a promise made before it.

This checklist assumes the lease is signed, funding is in place and the concept is settled. It covers the last 90 days, about 13 weeks. If you are earlier than that, our guide on how to open a restaurant covers the steps before this one.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. The approvals named here come from England, where the sources are official, and your country will differ, so check current local rules with your local authority and a qualified adviser.

What actually sets your opening date?

The longest chain of dependent tasks sets it, which project managers call the critical path. In a restaurant, four chains usually compete: approvals, building work, equipment delivery and hiring. Whichever is slowest is your date.

Two approvals show how much time is fixed. In England, you must register a food business with the local authority at least 28 days before trading. GOV.UK also says registration is free and cannot be refused, but the gap is not optional. A new alcohol premises licence has a 28-day advertising period. If someone objects, a hearing normally follows within four weeks after that, so a contested application can take roughly eight weeks from submission.

That is why the alcohol licence goes in by about week four. A plan that submits it in week ten has already chosen a later date. Food registration works the other way: it goes in about 28 days before trading, because the official advice is not to register too early.

Lead times vary, so ask suppliers and contractors for dates in writing and treat them as the real inputs.

How do you build your own critical path?

Take one sheet of paper and work backwards in five steps. It takes an hour, and it is the single most useful thing you can do in week one.

1. Write your target opening date at the right-hand edge.
2. List every task that must finish before it, from approvals to the last delivery.
3. Beside each, write the lead time you have been given in writing, not the one you hope for.
4. Link tasks that depend on each other: you cannot train staff in a kitchen that is not signed off.
5. Trace the longest chain. That chain, and only that chain, sets the date.

Here is an illustrative example, not a real project. Picture a small restaurant with a target opening on a Friday, 13 weeks away. The alcohol licence needs 28 days if unopposed and about eight weeks if there is an objection. Submitted at the start of week four, even the slow case lands with about two weeks to spare. Submitted in week nine, the slow case runs past the opening date. The task is identical. Only the start day changed.

Review the sheet every Friday, with the contractor and the head chef in the same room if you can. Any task that has slipped by more than a few days is a signal to move something, not to hope.

Weeks 1 to 3 (90 to 70 days out): lock the dependencies

Use the first three weeks to start every long chain. Nothing here finishes soon, and everything here delays something else if it starts late.

• Confirm the contractor schedule and agree a written handover date for each stage.
• Order long-delivery equipment and confirm installation dates.
• Start recruiting the head chef and general manager, if you have not already.
• Open conversations with insurers, the bank and your accountant about opening requirements.
• Choose your point-of-sale and booking systems, since both need set-up time.
• Draft the menu at concept level and start costing it.

Mistake to avoid: ordering equipment before the kitchen layout is final. A change after delivery costs more than a week's delay before it.

Weeks 4 to 6 (69 to 49 days out): submit and specify

Submit the alcohol licence and every premises approval you can this month, then turn to the menu and suppliers. This is the window where deadlines either fit or start to slip.

• Submit alcohol licence and any premises applications.
• Confirm fire, safety and insurance requirements with your adviser.
• Finalise the menu, recipes and portion costs. Our guide to HACCP for restaurants shows how to build a food safety system into the recipes.
• Set up supplier accounts, delivery days and credit terms.
• Start the allergen matrix: the official guidance says customers must be told if a dish contains any of the 14 specified allergens, so record them for each dish.

Weeks 7 to 9 (48 to 28 days out): hire, document and train

Hiring and written procedures belong in the middle, because training needs time and a finished kitchen. Everything before this is paperwork. From here the restaurant becomes a team.

• Recruit and contract the rest of the team. Stagger start dates so that no one waits idle.
• Write the opening procedures: opening, closing, cleaning, cash handling and waste.
• Confirm that you can show staff are adequately trained in food hygiene. The official guidance does not make a certificate compulsory, but it recommends one.
• Build the HACCP-based food safety system and the allergen process.
• Create the supplier order guide and par levels.
• Test the booking, POS and payment systems with dummy orders.
• Register the food business at about 28 days out. GOV.UK says to register at least 28 days before trading and recommends not registering too early.

If you need a framework for the documents, start with our guide to the restaurant operations manual.

Weeks 10 to 11 (27 to 14 days out): rehearse, do not prepare

Spend the last three weeks rehearsing, not preparing. A kitchen that has cooked the full menu for strangers, to time, is a different thing from a kitchen that has read it. Most openings are lost in this gap.

The first night shows what you rehearsed.

• Run a kitchen-only drill: cook every dish to tickets, with timers.
• Hold two or three trial services with invited guests such as friends, family and suppliers. Ask them for blunt notes.
• Time the whole journey: seat, order, first course, payment.
• Fix the top three problems from each trial before running the next.
• Walk the building with your adviser or the local authority contact, if available, to confirm nothing is outstanding.

Trial services are not the same as a public soft opening. Our explainer on soft vs grand openings shows how to sequence both.

Weeks 12 to 13 (13 days to opening day): final checks

The last fortnight is for closing loose ends and protecting the team's energy. Resist new ideas now. Decisions made in the last ten days tend to create the problems found in the first ten.

• Confirm every approval is in writing and displayed where required.
• Stock the opening order: dry goods, beverage, cleaning supplies, uniforms and linen.
• Brief the whole team. Walk through the menu, the allergen process and the service flow.
• Print menus only after the final cost check.
• Make sure the first week of rosters, deliveries and cash floats are done.
• Set a go or no-go call two days before opening, with a named person who can say no.

Which mistakes cost the most time?

Slips trace back to the same handful of causes. The fixes are cheap if made early and expensive if made late.

Notice that every fix is a decision, not extra work. That is the pattern across the whole list.

How should the team spend its last week?

Protect energy and keep the routine simple. The final week is for people, not projects, and a calm team opens a better restaurant than a heroic one.

• Cap rehearsal hours so that nobody starts the first service exhausted.
• Run a short daily briefing, ten minutes, covering the day's plan and one thing to fix.
• Do one last allergen walk-through with the whole floor and kitchen team, using real dishes.
• Agree who decides when something goes wrong, and write down the phone numbers.
• Give the team a proper meal and a clear schedule for the opening week.

Keep the briefing short enough that people remember it, and end it with the same question each day: what is still unclear?

What happens in the first inspection?

Expect it, and expect it to be unannounced. In England, GOV.UK says the local authority inspects the premises, food handling, food safety system and records, usually without notice. Higher-risk businesses are prioritised, so a first inspection may take several months. You then receive a published Food Hygiene Rating from 0 to 5, and a letter listing any improvements.

Keep your records ready from the first day. Temperature logs, cleaning schedules, training records and supplier details should be in one place and current. A HACCP-based system is the backbone of those records.

What belongs on the day before opening?

A short list, checked by two people. If it takes more than one page, something was left too late.

1. Every approval is in writing and on site.
2. Food safety records and allergen information are in place.
3. Every system works: POS, booking, payments, printers, music.
4. The opening order is delivered and stored correctly.
5. Rosters and briefings are done for the first week.
6. Cash floats, change and card terminals are tested.
7. A named person holds the go or no-go decision.

Key takeaways

• Build the plan backwards from the slowest approvals, deliveries and hires, and treat the date as a result.
• Submit the alcohol licence by about week four, register the food business about 28 days before trading, and remember that fixed waiting periods cannot be shortened by effort.
• Hire the head chef and manager first, then the team, leaving enough weeks for training.
• Spend the last three weeks rehearsing with real guests and fixing the top problems.
• Keep food safety and allergen records current from day one, ready for an unannounced inspection.
• Check local rules with your authority and a qualified adviser, since requirements differ by country.