Thailand's restaurant industry keeps growing: Kasikorn Research Center puts the value of the Thai restaurant market in 2025 at roughly 669 billion THB. The sobering figure sits alongside it — more than 60% of new restaurants close within their first three years. The main cause is rarely the food. It is planning that was not rigorous enough from the start.
This article gathers the key steps in opening a restaurant, from the beginning through to your first day of trading, drawing on how working restaurant owners actually do it and on the current 2026 regulations. If you are planning to open a restaurant or have only just begun, this guide will give you the overall picture and the right order to work through.
In short:
A restaurant with a real chance of surviving does ten things in order: (1) define the concept and the customer; (2) set a budget and find funding; (3) write a business plan; (4) choose a location; (5) register the business and obtain licences; (6) design the floor plan and the menu; (7) source kitchen equipment and a POS system such as Qashier POS; (8) hire and train staff; (9) market the restaurant before opening; and (10) run a soft opening before the real one. The budget depends on the scale of the restaurant.
1. Define your concept and your customer clearly
The concept is the first thing that matters. Before you think about location or equipment, answer three questions: what are you selling, who are you selling to, and what sets your restaurant apart from the competition?
Surveys of food trends for 2025–2026 from several research houses point to growing Thai consumer interest in healthy food, Korean and Japanese cuisine, specialty drinks and plant-based food — while made-to-order rice dishes and noodle shops remain consistently strong.
How to test a concept before committing real money
- Trade as a pop-up store or at a market first, for one to three months
- Open a central kitchen or cloud kitchen to test the menu through food delivery
- Survey at least 50–100 people in your target group to gauge interest and what they are willing to pay
2. Set a budget and find funding
Restaurant start-up budgets in Thailand fall into three tiers by size and format, as in the table below. These figures already include three to six months of working capital, because most restaurants are not yet profitable in the early months.
Format | Start-up budget (THB) | Main costs | Average monthly sales |
|---|---|---|---|
Cart / street food | 30,000 – 100,000 | Cart, stove, ingredients | 60,000 – 150,000 |
Small shophouse restaurant | 200,000 – 500,000 | Rent, fit-out, equipment | 150,000 – 400,000 |
Mid-sized dine-in restaurant | 500,000 – 1,500,000 | Fit-out, kitchen, POS, staff | 400,000 – 1,000,000 |
Full-format restaurant in a mall | 1,500,000 – 5,000,000+ | Fit-out, mall rent, branding | 800,000 – 3,000,000 |
Funding sources open to new restaurant owners
- Personal savings — use no more than 70% of your total savings, so you keep a liquidity buffer
- SME loans from commercial banks — facilities for new operators typically run from 100,000 to 5,000,000 THB
- Franchising — an initial investment from the low thousands into the hundreds of thousands, with a ready-made system and brand
- Taking on a partner — it spreads the risk, but put the agreement in writing
3. Write a short business plan
A business plan does not need to run to the textbook 50 pages. A small restaurant should have a three-to-five-page document covering six key sections.
- Executive summary — the concept, target customer and selling point, in one page
- Market analysis — competitors within a one-to-two-kilometre radius, and an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses
- Menu and pricing — an opening menu of 15–30 items, with prices and costs
- Operations plan — opening hours, headcount, main suppliers
- Marketing plan — promotional channels, marketing budget and KPIs
- Financial projection — projected sales, costs and break-even over 12 months
4. Choose a location that fits the concept
Location is one of the single largest factors in whether a restaurant succeeds. Among restaurants that have closed in Thailand, one of the leading causes is a location that did not match the target customer.
What to weigh when choosing a location
- Foot traffic — how many people pass during the hours you intend to open
- Customer base — whether the people in the area match your target customer
- Rent — it should not exceed 10–15% of projected sales
- Competition — being very close to direct competitors, or very far from them, cuts both ways
- Parking — critical for a dine-in restaurant drawing customers from outside the immediate area
- Lease — three years minimum, with clear terms on rent increases
5. Register the business and obtain licences
Restaurants in Thailand must apply for a licence or a certificate — the notification of establishment of a food sales premises or food storage premises.
Documents required
- A copy of the national ID card and house registration of the licence holder or notifier
- A copy of the house registration for the building used as the business premises
- A copy of the certificate of juristic person registration, together with a copy of the national ID card of the juristic person's representative (where the applicant or notifier is a juristic person)
- A letter of consent to use the building, or a copy of the lease agreement from the building's owner
- A legally valid power of attorney, together with copies of the national ID cards of the grantor and the grantee (where the operator cannot file the application in person)
- Health check results or a medical certificate for staff who handle food
- A copy of the certificate for completing the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's food sanitation training course (if held)
- A sketch map showing the location of the business premises
- Licences from other relevant government agencies (if any)
For further detail, check again with your district office.
6. Design the floor plan and the menu
A good floor plan divides the space into three clear zones: the customer area (60–65% of the space), the kitchen and food preparation area (25–30%), and back of house — storage and office (10–15%).
Principles for designing the menu
- Start with 15–25 items. A short menu done well beats a long one of uneven quality
- Choose three to five signature dishes that are clearly your selling point
- Keep food cost below 30–35% of the selling price
- Group dishes by category, and place the high-margin ones where customers look first
7. Source kitchen equipment and a POS system
Kitchen equipment falls into three groups: cooking equipment (stoves, ovens, fryers), storage equipment (chillers, freezers) and preparation equipment (stainless steel tables, grinders).
The POS: the investment that pays back fastest
A POS (point of sale) system is not just a cash register. It is the brain of the restaurant, doing five things at once: taking orders, sending them to the kitchen, processing payment, deducting stock and reporting sales. A restaurant running a good POS cuts daily closing from two or three hours to 15–20 minutes.
Features a restaurant POS should have
- Food delivery integrations (GrabFood, for example)
- Table and queue management for dine-in restaurants
- QR code ordering, so customers order from the table and staff carry less of the load
- Support for QR PromptPay and e-wallets
- Real-time sales reporting you can check from anywhere
- A membership and loyalty points system that brings customers back
Qashier POS covers all six of these in a single device, and is trusted by more than 25,000 businesses across Southeast Asia, supporting everything from small coffee shops to multi-outlet restaurants.
8. Hire and train staff
Staff costs in a restaurant should sit at 20–30% of sales. Small restaurants often start with the owner plus one or two staff; a mid-sized one needs a kitchen team of two or three, a service team of two or three, and one manager.
Key documents when hiring
- A written employment contract stating the position, salary and days off
- Social security registration within 30 days (employer pays 5%, employee 5%)
- Food hygiene and safety training before staff start
- An SOP (standard operating procedure) for every position
9. Market the restaurant before you open
Start building awareness at least four to six weeks before opening, to gather an interested audience and take bookings for opening day.
The channels that pay off most for a new restaurant
- Google Business Profile — free, and the single biggest influence on local search
- Facebook page and Instagram — post behind-the-scenes preparation to build a connection
- TikTok — suits restaurants with photogenic dishes or a photogenic room
- LINE Official Account — build a customer base and send promotions
- Join food delivery platforms from day one — Grab and LINE MAN promote new restaurants free in the early period
- Register on Wongnai and Google Maps — both help local SEO
10. Run a soft opening before the real one
A soft opening is a trial period of three to seven days before you open properly, for friends, family and a small group of customers — a way to test every part of the operation and fix problems before going fully live.
Checklist before you open the doors on day one
- Every licence in hand and displayed where it can be seen
- Menus printed and checked
- POS configured with menu and prices, and receipt printing tested end to end
- Every food delivery platform you use connected
- Enough stock for the first three to five days
- Staff trained and familiar with the SOPs
- Google Business Profile live, with 10 or more photos
- A backup plan for power or internet failure
- CCTV and security systems
- Delivery routes and real cooking times tested under rush-hour conditions
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
How much does it cost to open a restaurant?
Anywhere from 10,000 THB for a street food cart to 5 million THB and above for a full-format restaurant in a shopping mall. A small shophouse restaurant starts at 200,000–500,000 THB, including rent, equipment and three months of working capital — though some formats come in below that.
Does a small restaurant really need a POS?
Yes, even a small one. A POS cuts the time spent closing the books, reduces errors at the till, deducts stock automatically, and connects to food delivery from a single place. An all-in-one POS like Qashier starts at a price a small restaurant can afford.
How many months does it take to prepare?
A street food stall takes roughly one to two months to prepare, a small shophouse restaurant two to four, and a mid-sized or large one four to eight. A mall restaurant requiring a fit-out can take six to twelve months.
How many staff should I hire for opening day?
It depends on size. Small restaurants usually start with one or two owners plus one or two part-time staff; a mid-sized one needs a kitchen team of two or three and a service team of two or three; a large one should have a restaurant manager separate from the owner.
In summary, and what to do next
Opening a restaurant successfully does not rest on the food alone. It rests on planning systematically from the outset. The ten steps in this article are the map a new owner should follow. Spend the preparation period well, and you will open with confidence and a far better chance of lasting.
If you are looking for a POS that covers every part of running a restaurant — from taking orders to food delivery integrations to a membership system — Qashier POS is trusted by more than 25,000 businesses across Southeast Asia. Register to speak with our team at qashier.com/th/en
Start running your restaurant better with Qashier today
If you would like Qashier to be your restaurant's assistant, get in touch to find out more. We are ready to support you — whether that is the terminal itself, POS for restaurants, retail shops, or an effective POS system, backed by support from our team seven days a week
For more information, reach us on our Line Official account: @qashier.th or call 02 544 0267