Café seating decisions are commercial decisions. Every layout choice trades covers against comfort, and comfort against turnover.
Space per cover
As a working guide:
- Quick-service / counter — 1.1 to 1.4 m² per cover
- Casual café dining — 1.4 to 1.7 m² per cover
- Full-service restaurant — 1.7 to 2.2 m² per cover
These include a share of circulation. Packing tighter than the lower bound produces a room that looks full at 70% occupancy because nobody wants the squeezed seats.
Circulation rules that hold
Leave 450mm behind a seated diner for someone to pass sideways, and 900mm for a main walkway or service route. Where two seated backs face each other across an aisle, allow 1.2m between chair backs. Skimping here shows up as spilled trays and staff fatigue, not as extra revenue.
Chair choice changes dwell time
This is deliberate in most successful cafés. Hard moulded shells and backless stools are comfortable for twenty to forty minutes, which suits high-turnover counter service. Upholstered seats with a proper backrest invite longer stays, which suits venues earning on food rather than volume. Neither is a compromise if it matches the business model — the mistake is specifying lounge comfort in a room that needs four turns at lunch.
Mixing seating types
A mixed floor performs better than a uniform one. A practical split for a 60-cover café:
- Around 60% standard tables and chairs — the workhorse
- Around 25% banquette or wall seating — feels generous, uses dead wall space efficiently
- Around 15% counter or bar stools — solo diners and short visits, and it keeps the window looking occupied
Practicalities worth specifying
Stackability for anything that gets cleared for events. Wipe-clean surfaces on everything within reach of a table. Floor glides matched to your flooring, checked on a sample before the bulk order — a room of chairs scraping a polished floor is an expensive lesson.
Our café chairs, café tables and bar stools are stocked as a coordinated range.