Between roughly AED 25,000 for a cafeteria and AED 1.5 million and up for a hotel main kitchen. That is the honest span, and the distance between those two numbers is the reason a single average figure is no use to anyone planning a project.
The ranges below are what we have actually quoted and delivered across more than 120 kitchens in the UAE. Read them as a starting position, not a quotation.
The short version
- Every figure here is the kitchen package only — equipment and custom stainless, supplied, installed and commissioned
- Civil works, MEP by others, joinery and front-of-house finishes sit on top
- The ranges assume mid-range Italian equipment, which is the middle of the UAE market
- Country of origin moves the whole band: China and Turkey below it, the UK and US above, Germany and Switzerland higher again
- A brand name means very little until you know where that specific model was built
- Within a category, the spread is wider than the gap between categories, because throughput decides how many pieces of equipment you need and how large each one has to be
What these figures cover
The kitchen package
Every number on this page covers commercial kitchen equipment and custom stainless fabrication, supplied, installed and commissioned.
It does not include civil works, MEP by others, joinery, front-of-house finishes, or the landlord’s own charges. Those are real costs and they sit on top. Any figure you see quoted for a “kitchen fit-out” that looks dramatically lower than these is almost certainly describing something narrower.
Ranges by type of operation
| Type of operation | Kitchen package (AED) |
|---|---|
| Cafeteria | 25,000 – 100,000 |
| Kiosk, food truck, container kitchen | 60,000 – 300,000 |
| Local Indian or desi restaurant | 80,000 – 200,000 |
| Cafe | 100,000 – 300,000 |
| Quick service and fast food | 150,000 – 700,000 |
| Gelateria | 300,000 – 400,000 |
| Casual and fast casual dining | 300,000 – 1,200,000 |
| Bakery, including production | 500,000+ |
| Fine dining | 800,000 – 4,000,000 |
| Central kitchen | 1,000,000+ |
| Hotel main kitchen, with supporting services | 1,500,000+ |
A resto-cafe is not a cafe. A bakery that produces on site is not a bakery outlet taking deliveries from a central kitchen. A restaurant inside a hotel is not a hotel main kitchen. Those distinctions move the number more than the name on the door does, and they are the most common reason an operator finds themselves looking at a figure well outside the band they expected.
Notice also how wide some of these bands are. Quick service runs from AED 150,000 to 700,000 — more than four times over. That spread inside a single category is larger than the gap between several neighbouring categories, and it is not noise. It tracks how much food the kitchen has to produce and how quickly it has to leave the pass, which is covered below along with the other things that move a quote.
Why the same kitchen can cost half, or double
The ranges above assume mid-range Italian equipment. That is the middle of the market in the UAE and a reasonable default. Change the country the equipment is made in and the whole range moves with it.
| Where it is made | Effect on the range |
|---|---|
| China, Turkey | Below the range |
| Mid-range Italian | The baseline above |
| United Kingdom, United States | Above the range |
| Germany, Switzerland | Higher again |
This is not snobbery about origin. It buys specific things: build quality, dimensional accuracy, how long the machine holds its tolerances, how readily parts arrive three years in, and how it behaves on the twentieth service of the week. There are good reasons to buy at either end. What causes trouble is buying at one end while believing you are buying at the other.
Does the brand tell you where it was made?
No. And this is the single most useful thing to understand before comparing two quotes.
Plenty of European and American brands manufacture in more than one country. The same badge appears on a line built in Germany and on a line built in China, Turkey, India, Thailand or Vietnam. Both are genuine. They are not the same machine, they do not cost the same, and they will not behave the same way in year three.
So if a brand presents as German and the price looks remarkably good, the likeliest explanation is that the unit was not made in Germany.
A brand name on its own tells you very little until you know the country of origin behind that specific model. Ask for it. It should be on the specification sheet, and if it is not, that is worth a question of its own.
What else moves the number
Origin sets the band. These decide where inside it you land, and several of them are the reason two quotes for the same kitchen can look nothing alike.
Volume, and how fast it has to turn over
This one runs through almost every category on the table. Two kitchens built around much the same menu can need quite different equipment if one is producing several times the output, because throughput changes both the number of pieces required and the capacity of each.
Fast food shows it most sharply. The speed at which food has to leave the pass decides how many fryers and griddles are needed and what size they have to be, and that is a large part of why quick service spans AED 150,000 to 700,000. A central kitchen or a bakery is sized on daily output, so the same principle sets the equipment list there. A large cafe can run on a small coffee counter, while a smaller one working a steady queue from open to close may need considerably more behind it.
Peak output is a more useful thing to give a supplier than floor area or a seat count.
Options, finishes and features
The same model from the same maker often comes in several builds. Door configuration, controls, drainage, castors, gas type, stainless grade and finish. A specification sheet that says only the model name has not told you what is being supplied.
How much is custom fabricated
Across our own quotes, custom fabricated items outnumber bought-in equipment line for line. Counters, tabling, shelving, hoods, sinks and the pieces that make a kitchen fit its room have no list price and no catalogue. They are drawn and made for the space, which makes them the most variable part of any quote and the hardest to compare between suppliers.
Whether anything is being reused
Two outlets of the same brand, both built by us, came in roughly six times apart. One was a new build. The other kept a great deal of its existing equipment. Reuse is often the right call, and it makes published ranges meaningless for that project.
Mall or standalone
A unit in a mall arrives with a fixed allocation of extract, fresh air and electrical load. If the kitchen needs more than the base build provides, the upgrade runs through the landlord at the tenant’s expense, and only if the building has the capacity to give. Malls may also name approved manufacturers for items such as hoods, which can turn a budgeted line into a very different number. See fitting out in a mall.
What is not in the machine price
Water treatment, sized to the hardness at your site, which decides how long a dishwasher survives here. Grease traps on every outlet producing greasy waste. Detergent and rinse-aid dosing, which some machines ship without. These are real line items and they are left out of budgets more often than anything else.
Stainless grade
304 is the working default. Coastal sites and some wash areas want 316. Same drawing, same item, different number. See stainless fabrication.
Programme pressure
Sea freight against air freight when an opening date slips. Working nights around a trading venue instead of an empty shell. Neither changes the equipment; both change the price.
Getting it into the room
Heavy equipment has to reach its position and the floor has to carry it. We have had a three-tonne oven stopped days before delivery because the slab needed a load distribution plate first. That took five parties and three weeks.
How to compare two quotes properly
If two numbers for the same kitchen are far apart, one of these is usually the reason. Ask for all of it in writing.
- Country of origin for every line, not just the brand
- Model and build variant, so options and finishes are visible
- What is custom fabricated, with gauge and stainless grade stated
- Whether water treatment is included, and sized against what
- Grease traps, dosing and the ancillaries, in or out
- Who installs and commissions, and whether that is in the price
- Warranty length and who honours it in the UAE
- Lead time, and what happens to it if the programme moves
- What throughput the kitchen was sized for, so the capacities can be checked against your own peak
A cheaper quote is sometimes the better one. It is worth knowing which of these it got cheaper on.
If you have a menu and a floor plan, we can put a real figure against them instead of a band. That is the point at which a kitchen fit-out budget stops being a guess.