How to Open a Restaurant in Singapore: Licences, Costs and Checklist (2026)

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules and fees change, so check each agency’s page and GoBusiness before you commit money. Fees quoted here were taken from official pages in September 2026.

Start with the concept and seat count

Most restaurant decisions flow from two numbers: how many seats you have and how many times you can fill them in a service. Settle the concept first, then work out the seat count the concept needs to pay its rent.

• Service style. Full table service, counter order with food runners, or a mix. Table service needs more floor staff and more space between tables. Counter or QR ordering lets you run the floor with fewer people.
• Average spend and table turns. A set lunch crowd turns tables quickly. A dinner restaurant with courses turns slowly but earns more per cover. Estimate both for lunch and dinner separately.
• Table mix. Twos and fours that can be pushed together are more flexible than fixed six-seaters. A room full of large tables loses covers when couples walk in.
• Kitchen-to-dining ratio. A menu with many cooked-to-order dishes needs more kitchen space and more stations. A short menu with shared prep lets you give more floor area to seats.
• Break-even. Work backwards from rent, wages and food cost to the number of covers you need a day. If the plan only works when every seat is full at every service, rethink the site, the menu price or the concept.

Write these assumptions down. They become your brief for the designer, the kitchen consultant and your POS setup, and you will check them against real sales once you open.

Choosing premises for a restaurant

The unit must be approved for restaurant use. URA’s criteria for restaurant use list shopping centres and commercial buildings as places where restaurant use can be approved, and set out areas where new eating houses are unlikely to be approved. HDB units need HDB’s approval for a change of use. The café guide covers mall, shophouse and HDB options and the questions to ask a landlord.

A full-service restaurant puts more demands on a unit than a café, so add these checks before you sign:

• Exhaust. Is there an existing kitchen exhaust riser, and can it take the hood size your cooking line needs? Heavy wok, grill or deep-frying menus need more extraction than a café.
• Drainage and grease trap. Is there an existing grease trap, where is it, and what size is it? Who maintains it, you or the landlord?
• Gas and power. Does the unit have a gas supply, and enough electrical load for combi ovens, dishwashers, chillers and air-conditioning for a full dining room?
• Storage and refuse. Is there space for dry stores and cold rooms, and where does refuse go?
• Loading and access. How do deliveries reach the kitchen, and at what hours?

Get the answers in writing. A unit that needs a new exhaust riser or grease trap can add significant cost and weeks of work, and some malls restrict the kinds of cooking they allow.

Kitchen design, exhaust and grease traps

The kitchen layout goes into the layout plan you submit to SFA, and SFA says you renovate only after it approves that plan. Treat the kitchen design as a compliance document as well as a working plan.

Grease traps: what PUB states

PUB’s grease trap page says all establishments that handle food, including restaurants, coffee shops and hawker centres, require grease traps, and that owners must get approval from NEA and PUB before installing one. PUB also states:

• Grease traps pre-treat only culinary water from the food preparation area and kitchen. Toilets and other sanitary lines not serving the kitchen connect to the sewer and bypass the grease trap.
• The grease trap must be in an accessible location so workers can clean it without causing nuisance or hygiene problems.
• It should be cleaned by a licensed waste collector at least once every two weeks, more often if your used water carries a heavier load of fats, oils and grease.

The detailed design rules are in PUB’s Code of Practice on Sewerage and Sanitary Works. Sizing and approvals are work for a qualified professional, so ask your designer or contractor to handle the submission rather than guessing.

Exhaust, fire safety and workflow

Kitchen exhaust, ductwork and fire protection for cooking equipment are specialist work. SCDF’s plan approval page says fire safety works need approved plans, submitted by a qualified person such as a registered architect or professional engineer. Your landlord’s fit-out manual will usually add its own requirements. Get your contractor or qualified person to confirm what applies before you order equipment.

For the workflow itself, plan a one-way flow: receiving, storage, prep, cooking, the pass, then dishwash. Keep raw and cooked food apart, and keep dirty returns from crossing the pass. Decide where tickets or screens go at each station, and run power and data cabling there during the build.

Licences and approvals for a restaurant

SFA puts restaurants under the Food Shop Licence. According to SFA’s application process page, it costs $195 and is valid for one year, you apply on GoBusiness with a layout plan, and SFA reviews complete applications within 7 working days. The documents to submit during renovation and the pre-licensing inspection are explained step by step in our café guide, and the process is the same for a restaurant.

Liquor licence classes

Most full-service restaurants sell alcohol, so the liquor licence matters more than it does for a café. SPF’s licence classes page lists these annual fees for drinking on the premises:

Class	What it covers	Hours	Fee per year
1A	All liquor, including beer, consumed on the premises	0600 to 2359hrs	$880
1B	All liquor, including beer, consumed on the premises	0600 to 2200hrs	$660
2A	Beer only, consumed on the premises	0600 to 2359hrs	$460
3A	Retail supply for consumption elsewhere, typically deliveries or takeaway	0700 to 2230hrs	$110

Match the class to your menu and trading hours. If you plan to sell bottles of wine for takeaway or delivery, check whether you also need a Class 3 licence. Apply through GoBusiness well before opening, and check the current fees and conditions on the SPF page.

Food hygiene roles

SFA’s food handler requirements say anyone who handles or prepares food, including chefs, cooks, kitchen assistants and bartenders, must hold a valid WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1 certificate and be registered with SFA by the licensee. SFA states that managers, service staff such as captains and waiters, and cashiers are not food handlers, and that untrained staff must not help with food preparation. SFA also requires certain licensed establishments to appoint a Food Hygiene Officer, a supervisor such as a head chef or restaurant manager who has passed WSQ FSC Level 3. Check with SFA whether this applies to your premises.

Staffing a full-service restaurant

A restaurant runs two teams, and each needs its own structure. The right headcount depends on your seats, service style and opening hours, so build a roster around peak services rather than a flat number.

Team	Typical roles	What to plan for
Front of house (FOH)	Restaurant manager, captain or supervisor, servers, runners, host, bartender, cashier	Section sizes per server, who handles bookings and walk-ins, who can void or discount
Back of house (BOH)	Head chef, sous chef, section cooks, prep cooks, kitchen assistants, dishwashers	Stations that match the menu, prep schedules, food handler registration with SFA

Employment basics apply as for any business. The CPF Board says employers must pay CPF contributions for Singapore citizen and permanent resident employees earning more than $50 a month. MOM states that foreigners must hold a valid work pass before starting work, and quotas depend on your sector and local headcount, so confirm your options before you plan a kitchen team around foreign hires.

Plan training before the soft opening: menu tastings for servers, allergen and dietary questions, how tickets flow to each kitchen station, and how to split a bill or transfer a table in the POS.

Service charge, GST and pricing

Many Singapore restaurants add a service charge. IRAS’s hotel and F&B GST page says a service charge, typically 10%, is part of the total price and subject to GST, and that GST is calculated on the total payable including the service charge. So on a $100 food bill with a 10% service charge and 9% GST, the customer pays $119.90.

You only charge GST once you are GST-registered. IRAS says you must register for GST if taxable turnover exceeds $1 million at the end of a calendar year, or is expected to exceed $1 million in the next 12 months. A busy full-service restaurant can reach that threshold sooner than a small café, so track turnover from the first month.

Our guide to service charge and GST in Singapore covers price display rules, discounts and rounding with worked examples. Set these rules in your POS before opening so every receipt is calculated the same way.

Reservations and table management

How you take bookings affects how many covers you seat. Decide early:

• Booking channel. Phone, WhatsApp, your website or a reservations platform. Keep one source of truth so two people do not promise the same table.
• Seating times. Fixed seatings (for example 6pm and 8.30pm) make turns predictable. Open booking suits a slower, higher-spend dinner.
• No-shows and deposits. For large groups or peak nights, decide whether you ask for a deposit, and state the policy when you confirm the booking.
• Walk-ins and queues. Hold some tables back for walk-ins, and have a way to take names when you are full. ChaChaCha’s queue system sends SMS notifications and shows the queue on a digital display, so waiting guests can leave the doorway.

Once guests are seated, table management in the POS shows which tables are open, how long they have been seated and what they have ordered. ChaChaCha’s POS handles table management, split bills and tabs, so a table of six can pay separately without the cashier recalculating by hand.

POS, kitchen display and payments

Your POS is the link between the floor and the kitchen. Choose it before renovation ends, because the kitchen layout determines where printers and screens go. Our guide to restaurant POS systems in Singapore compares options. For a full-service restaurant, look at:

• Order routing. Orders should go to the right station automatically: drinks to the bar, mains to the hot line, desserts to pastry. ChaChaCha’s kitchen display system routes orders by station, lets the kitchen prioritise, and shows prep timers. It also supports Epson cloud printing to multiple printers if you prefer tickets at some stations.
• Modifiers and languages. Doneness, spice level, no onions, allergy notes. ChaChaCha supports custom modifiers and prints kitchen tickets in English or Chinese.
• Offline operation. Service should not stop if the internet drops. ChaChaCha keeps taking orders offline and syncs later.
• Staff permissions. Limit voids, discounts and refunds to managers.
• Payments. ChaChaCha supports PayNow, PayLah!, NETS, Visa/Mastercard and GrabPay, with split payments and automated reconciliation. See POS payments.
• Reports and accounting. Sales by item, hour and staff, plus a Xero integration for your accountant.

ChaChaCha pricing is quote-based. Use the POS cost calculator for a rough estimate, or ask us for a quote based on your floor plan.

Budgeting categories and grants

Restaurant budgets vary too much for a meaningful “typical” figure, so list every category and get written quotes. Compared with a café, expect more weight on these lines:

• Kitchen fit-out: exhaust hoods and ducting, grease trap works, gas piping, cold rooms, cooking line.
• Dining room: furniture, lighting, acoustics, air-conditioning for a full room.
• Professional fees: designer, qualified person for SCDF submissions, kitchen consultant.
• Licences: SFA Food Shop Licence ($195 a year), liquor licence (from $460 to $880 a year for on-premises classes), plus any URA change of use fee.
• Pre-opening wages: a larger team to pay during training.
• Ongoing maintenance: PUB requires grease trap cleaning by a licensed waste collector at least every two weeks, so budget for a service contract.
• Technology: POS terminals, kitchen screens or printers, payment terminals, QR ordering. See our POS cost guide.
• Working capital: enough cash to cover several months of losses while you build trade.

On grants, Enterprise Singapore’s EDGE Grant page says PSG, EDG and MRA are combined into the EDGE Grant from 30 September 2026, with support of up to 70% for SMEs, varying by activity, paid on a reimbursement basis. Eligibility conditions apply, and you still need the cash upfront. AppsPOS, which powers ChaChaCha, has been a PSG pre-approved vendor and is approved under the EDGE Grant. See our grant guide for POS systems.

Opening timeline and checklist

Durations depend on your site, landlord and contractor, so this table shows order and dependencies rather than weeks. The only official timings here come from SFA: it reviews complete applications within 7 working days, and closes an application if outstanding documents are not submitted within two months.

Phase	Key tasks	Depends on
1. Plan	Concept, menu, seat count, break-even, funding; register the business with ACRA	Nothing; start here
2. Site	Check approved use, exhaust, grease trap, gas and power; negotiate lease and fit-out period	Concept and seat count
3. Design	Kitchen and dining layout; choose POS, KDS and printer positions	Signed lease; landlord fit-out manual
4. Approvals	SFA Food Shop Licence with layout plan; SCDF plans if needed; NEA/PUB grease trap approval; liquor licence	Final layout
5. Build	Renovation, equipment, cabling, POS installation	SFA layout approval
6. Documents	Stamped tenancy agreement, cleaning programme, pest control contract to SFA; pre-licensing inspection	Renovation progress; within SFA’s two-month window
7. People	Hire FOH and BOH; food handler training and SFA registration; CPF and work passes	Opening date
8. Rehearse	Menu tastings, mock services, test payments and ticket routing, soft opening	Licence issued; POS set up
9. Open and review	Launch; review covers, table turns and food cost weekly; track GST threshold	Everything above

Run at least one full mock service with real orders flowing from the floor to each station before you open to the public. It is the cheapest way to find the gaps in your layout, roster and systems.