Cafe Fit-Out Cost: Real 2026 Budgets

The honest ranges

The ranges below assume a design-and-build route where one contractor carries the counter, the joinery, the finishes and the site works. VAT excluded, shell or stripped-back unit. Kitchen equipment and espresso machines are usually bought separately and are not in these figures, which is the single most common cause of a blown cafe budget.

What actually drives a cafe budget

Two cafes the same size can sit £40,000 apart, and the difference is almost never the furniture.

• ✓Kitchen and extraction: once you cook, extraction, ductwork, fire compartmentation and gas or boosted power add £10,000 to £40,000. A coffee-only cafe skips most of this
• ✓Water and drainage: new supply, waste connections and grease traps are priced per unit and frequently surprise first-time operators
• ✓The counter: bespoke servery joinery with solid surface tops, refrigerated display and barista layout runs £15,000 to £45,000 depending on scale
• ✓Lighting: hospitality lighting does the selling. Track, pendants and dimmed zones cost several times a builder's basic layout
• ✓Seating and joinery: banquette seating, bench tables and perimeter joinery are priced per metre and carry the atmosphere
• ✓Condition of the unit: old drains, floor level discrepancies and landlord requirements are the classic unbudgeted items

Worked examples

Two real-world shapes, based on how our recent cafe and hospitality projects actually priced.

• ✓Small coffee bar, 35 sqm, no cooking: counter £18,000, seating and joinery £8,000, lighting £4,000, flooring and finishes £6,000, decoration and signage £3,000, preliminaries £5,000. Roughly £44,000 plus VAT, before espresso machines and grinders
• ✓Mid-size cafe with a kitchen, 80 sqm: servery counter and display £30,000, kitchen and extraction £25,000, seating and banquette joinery £18,000, services and lighting £15,000, finishes £12,000, preliminaries and management £10,000. Roughly £110,000 plus VAT, before kitchen equipment

Where cafe budgets are usually wasted

Late changes to the counter. The counter drives the equipment layout, the waste points, the water, the queue space and the electrics. Change it after first fix and you pay for the works twice.

The second is equipment bought before the design is fixed. An espresso machine, under-counter chiller and dishwasher set the counter dimensions. Buy the equipment list into the design, not the other way round.

The third is skipping a proper services survey. A cafe draws more power and water than a shop, and a unit that cannot take the load becomes a landlord negotiation mid-build.

How to get a quote you can actually compare

Ask for the quote split into counter and joinery, kitchen and services, finishes, and preliminaries. Give the contractor your equipment list and your menu concept, not just a floor area.

• ✓Provide a floor plan, photos and the landlord's fit-out guide
• ✓Fix your menu concept first, cooking changes everything
• ✓State your trading date, not your ideal date
• ✓Confirm the power and water capacity of the unit before signing the lease where you can