The back of house, built properly — zoning that does not fight your staff, stainless fabrication specified in writing, and every utility landing where the equipment actually is.
Every RM figure on this page is one ClickBina already publishes elsewhere on this site, for the job that page prices, and each one is attributed in the text. Where the corpus prices nothing, this guide stays deliberately price-free and gives you the cost drivers and the quotation lines instead of an invented number. WhatsApp us your unit size and menu for a survey.
“Setting up the kitchen” in an F&B fit-out is a bundle of five quite separate trades that have to land in the right order: the builder’s work (floor falls, drainage, hygienic wall and floor finishes, any structural opening), the stainless fabrication (benches, sinks, shelving, hood canopy, wall cladding), the equipment (bought or leased, with lead times of its own), the services (gas, electrical, water, waste and extract), and commissioning with the paperwork that follows. Each has its own lead time, and each is somewhere a cheap quotation quietly leaves something out.
The kitchen is also the part of an outlet that constrains everything else, which is why it is budgeted first. Our restaurant fit-out guide puts a Klang Valley F&B fit-out at roughly RM150–RM350 per sq ft, rising above RM400 per sq ft for high-spec full-service dining with heavy kitchen M&E, and our cafe fit-out guide puts a cafe at RM150–RM300 per sq ft. Those are whole-outlet figures covering front of house as well. What follows is what sits behind the pass.
One framing worth adopting early: decide what you are buying and what you are building. Cookline equipment is bought; benches, sinks, shelving, splashbacks and the canopy are fabricated to your kitchen. The build is where design decisions still exist, and it is the half that a good contractor can change to fit the space.
A kitchen that fights the staff costs money every single shift, long after the fit-out is paid for. The zoning principle is simple and it is the same everywhere: product should move in one direction, from delivery through storage, preparation, cooking and plating to the pass, with dishwash returning on a path that does not cross it. Every time clean product crosses dirty return, you have created both a hygiene risk and a bottleneck.
| Zone | What lives there | What it needs from the build | Common error |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery and dry store | Shelving, dry goods, packaging | A clear route in that does not pass the cookline; ventilated shelving off the floor | Store placed behind the cookline so deliveries cross hot work |
| Cold storage | Under-counter fridges, upright chillers, walk-in | Power, ventilation clearance for condensers, drainage for condensate | Condensers boxed into an unventilated corner |
| Preparation | Benches, prep sinks, boards, slicers | Water and waste at the bench, power above bench height, task light | A single prep sink shared with the wash-up |
| Cookline | Range, wok, fryer, griddle, oven, salamander | Gas or power to each position, extract canopy coverage, heat-tolerant finishes | Equipment added later that sits outside the canopy footprint |
| Plating / pass | Hot holding, pass shelf, ticket rail | Power, a clean surface, and a short path to service | Pass so far from the cookline that food travels cold |
| Wash-up | Pot sink, dishwasher, clean and dirty landing | Hot water, a heavy waste run, splash containment, its own extract consideration | Dirty return crossing the prep bench |
| Staff and cleaning | Hand-wash basins, mop sink, chemical store | Dedicated hand-wash points where staff actually work | Hand-wash basin fitted where nobody passes it |
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💬 Get Your Instant QuoteTwo rules carry most of the value. Set the layout from your menu, not from the shape of the unit — a menu with a wok section and a fryer has a different cookline from one built on ovens. And size for the menu you intend to run in two years: adding a station later means breaking into finished services, which is the most expensive kind of change.
Stainless is the commercial-kitchen default because it takes heat, does not rot, survives daily chemical cleaning and can be fabricated into seamless, coved surfaces that clean properly — which is why our stainless versus aluminium comparison puts it above aluminium for heavy-cooking use despite the price. The catch is that “stainless steel” on a quotation means very little on its own. Three things have to be written down.
Grade. Our commercial drainage guide names grade 304/316 stainless as the specification for F&B kitchens, wet rooms and hygiene-critical areas, and our kitchen sinks and taps guide is blunt that cheaper 201-grade is less corrosion-resistant than 304 — which matters in a room that is wet, salty and cleaned with chemicals every night. 316 is the grade specified where corrosion exposure is higher. Ask for the grade in writing on every fabricated item, not just the sinks.
Sheet thickness and construction. Thin sheet drums, dents and flexes under a working knife; a bench top is only as good as its substrate and its frame. Ask for the thickness in millimetres, whether the top is supported on a backing board, how the undershelf and legs are constructed, and whether the legs are adjustable — a floor with a drainage fall is never level, and a bench that cannot be levelled rocks forever.
Detailing. This is where fabrication quality shows: welded and ground joints rather than silicone-filled ones, coved internal corners, a turned-up back edge where a bench meets a wall, radiused corners on anything at hip height, and marine edges where liquid must not run off. Integrated sink bowls welded into the top rather than dropped in are easier to keep clean, and easier to prove clean to an inspector. For pricing, our commercial cabinetry guide publishes a stainless steel cabinet run at RM650–RM1,000 per foot run against RM280–RM420 per foot run for commercial laminate — the honest gap you are paying to close.
These two documents are the whole project. The equipment schedule lists every item, bought or fabricated, with its dimensions, its position on the plan and its supplier. The utilities schedule takes each item and states what it needs: electrical load and whether it requires a dedicated circuit, gas type and connection, hot and cold water, waste, and whether it sits under extract. Build them together and the services first fix lands in the right places. Build them separately and you will pay for the gap.
Three habits prevent most variation orders. First, freeze the equipment list before the services first fix closes — a fryer specified after the walls are plastered means chasing finished work. Second, write the incoming capacity question down early: can the existing electrical supply and the incoming gas actually carry this schedule? That is a survey question, not a discovery to make three weeks in. Third, record lead times against each line; the room can be finished and the kitchen still not open because one item has not arrived.
Leave headroom deliberately. A spare circuit at the cookline, a capped water and waste point at the end of the prep run, and a metre of clear bench are the cheapest things you will ever buy, and they are what let you add a machine in year two without opening a wall.
Extract decides whether a unit works at all, and in a mall or a shoplot with residential floors above it can decide whether you can trade there. The canopy has to cover the cooking footprint with proper overhang, the duct has to reach a legitimate discharge point, and — the half most operators forget — the air you extract has to be replaced. A kitchen with a powerful hood and no make-up air goes negative: doors pull shut, the extract underperforms, and the dining room draws kitchen smells rather than the other way round.
This site’s commercial kitchen exhaust and ducting guide owns the design detail and the pricing, and it publishes: a full supply-and-install system at RM6,000–RM12,000 for a small cafe or cloud kitchen, RM12,000–RM25,000 for a mid-size restaurant and above RM25,000 for a large multi-station kitchen; ducting at RM250–RM600 per metre; a canopy at RM1,500–RM6,000 per hood; and an exhaust fan at RM1,200–RM5,000 per point. Grease-duct cleaning — an ongoing obligation, not a one-off — runs RM600–RM2,500 per visit. Verify the exhaust route, and the landlord’s consent to it, before you sign the lease.
Two build interfaces belong here rather than there. Access panels have to be built into the duct run so it can actually be cleaned, and they are far cheaper installed than retrofitted. And a fire-suppression system over the cooking line is commonly required in Malaysian F&B premises — confirm the requirement for your unit with Bomba and your local council early, because it interacts with the canopy and the gas supply. Where a process rather than a cookline is being ventilated, our local exhaust ventilation guide covers that separately.
A commercial kitchen floor is washed down, so it has to drain. That means falls laid to channels or gullies, channels positioned where the water actually goes (under the wash-up and along the cookline, not in the middle of a walkway), and gratings rated for the traffic they will take. Get the falls wrong and you have standing water, which is a slip hazard, a smell and a hygiene finding all at once — and it is almost impossible to correct after the floor is finished.
Our commercial drainage and grating guide publishes the material rates: roughly RM250–RM750 per metre for stainless steel and RM60–RM220 per metre for galvanised steel. Stainless is the usual specification inside a food preparation area for the same corrosion reasons as the benches; galvanised belongs in back-of-house and general commercial runs. Specify removable, liftable gratings and baskets — a channel nobody can open is a channel nobody cleans.
The grease trap is not optional. Local councils across the Klang Valley require food-and-beverage premises to install and maintain an adequate grease interceptor as a condition of the business licence, and our grease trap guide publishes supply and install of an under-sink or stainless trap at RM500–RM2,000, an under-sink trap clean at RM150–RM400 per service and an in-ground interceptor pump-out at RM400–RM1,200 and above. Size it to the council’s requirement rather than to the cheapest unit, and put the servicing schedule in the operating budget from day one.
This is the part of a kitchen fit-out where the right answer is a licence, not a technique, and this guide deliberately does not describe how any of it is done. Gas should be installed and connected by a competent, trained gas fitter — piped gas falls under the Suruhanjaya Tenaga (Energy Commission) framework, and commercial premises also have fire-safety requirements to meet. Our gas piping guide sets out what to require; a general renovation crew is not the right trade for it.
Electrical. A commercial kitchen is a heavy load: multiple dedicated circuits, correctly rated protective devices, local isolators at each machine, and often an incoming supply that has to be assessed before the equipment schedule is signed off. Live mains work must be carried out by a competent person registered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga. If the board cannot carry the schedule, see our DB box upgrade guide, and our commercial electrical maintenance guide for what the ongoing obligation looks like once you are trading.
Water and waste. Hot water capacity is routinely underestimated — a pot sink and a dishwasher running together will find the limit of an undersized heater on the first busy service. Specify hand-wash basins where staff actually work, backflow protection where the authority requires it, and a waste run sized and fallen for a kitchen rather than for a domestic sink. All of it is far cheaper before the floor is laid.
A food-safe room is a room that can be cleaned quickly and proved clean. That means washable, non-absorbent wall finishes behind every wet and hot area, coving at the wall-to-floor junction so there is no square corner for soil to sit in, a floor that is slip-resistant when wet and laid to falls, and sealed penetrations wherever a pipe or conduit passes through. Stainless splashback cladding behind the cookline and the wash-up is the usual answer where tiles would be grouted — grout lines are the hardest thing in a kitchen to keep presentable.
Floors deserve their own decision rather than a default. Our epoxy floor cost guide covers seamless resin systems and where they suit; whatever is chosen, the specification has to cope with thermal shock from hot water, daily chemical cleaning and the falls already discussed. Ask what happens at the door thresholds and at the channel edges, because that is where floor finishes fail first.
Cold storage is a project inside the project. Under-counter and upright units need ventilation clearance and condensate drainage; a walk-in chiller or freezer is a small building with its own panels, plant, power and drainage, and it is quoted after a survey rather than from a price list — our cold room installation guide covers it in full, including the sequencing point that matters most: the room needs its floor level and its drainage set before the kitchen screed goes down.
The approvals gate your opening date, which makes them a programme item rather than paperwork. A Malaysian food business generally needs a food premise and business licence from the local council, Bomba fire-safety sign-off, grease-trap provision where you cook, and a signboard licence for your sign. Our commercial renovation permit guide sets out the order they come in and what an authority submission adds to the programme.
Mall units add a second rulebook: the centre’s fit-out manual, an approved-contractor list, a fit-out deposit, tight working hours and a defined route for the exhaust. Shoplots are easier on rules and harder on infrastructure. Either way, read the lease before anything is fixed: the exhaust route, external plant positions, incoming gas and electrical capacity, and the reinstatement obligation at the end of the term are all lease questions first — see our commercial tenancy guide and reinstatement cost guide. A kitchen that has to be stripped out at lease end is a cost you should know about on day one.
Before the itemisation, here is every figure this site publishes for the parts of a commercial kitchen, each from the page named. There is deliberately no headline “commercial kitchen” price, because the number follows your menu and your equipment schedule rather than your floor area:
| Component | Published Klang Valley figure | Source page |
|---|---|---|
| Stainless steel cabinet run | RM650–RM1,000 per foot run | Commercial custom cabinetry |
| Commercial laminate / HPL alternative | RM280–RM420 per foot run | Commercial custom cabinetry |
| Full extract system — small cafe or cloud kitchen | RM6,000–RM12,000 | Kitchen exhaust & ducting |
| Full extract system — mid-size restaurant | RM12,000–RM25,000 | Kitchen exhaust & ducting |
| Ducting, supply and install | RM250–RM600 per metre | Kitchen exhaust & ducting |
| Exhaust hood / canopy | RM1,500–RM6,000 per hood | Kitchen exhaust & ducting |
| Exhaust fan | RM1,200–RM5,000 per point | Kitchen exhaust & ducting |
| Grease-duct cleaning (ongoing) | RM600–RM2,500 per visit | Kitchen exhaust & ducting |
| Grease trap, supply and install | RM500–RM2,000 | Grease trap |
| Grease trap servicing (under-sink trap) | RM150–RM400 per service | Grease trap |
| Drainage grating — stainless / galvanised | RM250–RM750 / RM60–RM220 per metre | Commercial drainage & grating |
| Whole outlet, for context | RM150–RM350 per sq ft restaurant; RM150–RM300 per sq ft cafe | Restaurant · Cafe |
| Stainless fabrication of benches, sinks, shelving and canopy cladding as individual items; walk-in cold rooms; gas and electrical scope | Not published — quoted after survey against your equipment schedule | — |
Reject a single-line “supply and install commercial kitchen” figure. It hides exactly the items that become variations. Ask for this structure, and treat a missing line as a question rather than a saving:
| Line item | What it must state | Red flag if missing |
|---|---|---|
| Stainless fabrication | Item by item, with grade, sheet thickness in mm, edge and corner detail, leg and shelf construction | “Stainless steel benches” with no grade and no thickness |
| Sinks and hand-wash basins | Quantity, bowl sizes, integrated or drop-in, tap type, position | One prep sink doing three jobs |
| Equipment | Bought by whom, make and model, dimensions, lead time, who receives and positions it | “Equipment by others” with no schedule attached |
| Extract system | Canopy size and coverage, duct route and length, fan rating, make-up air, access panels | A fan and a canopy with no duct route or discharge point named |
| Gas | Scope, connection points, and by whom — a competent, trained gas fitter | Gas bundled into general contracting |
| Electrical | Circuit schedule, dedicated circuits, isolators, and by a competent person registered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga | “Power by others” left undefined |
| Water, hot water and waste | Heater capacity, pipe runs, waste falls, floor channels and gullies | Hot water capacity not stated anywhere |
| Drainage and gratings | Channel positions, grating material and load class, baskets, falls | Falls not shown on any drawing |
| Grease trap | Type, size against the council requirement, position, access for servicing | Sized to the cheapest unit rather than to the requirement |
| Finishes | Wall cladding or tiling, coving, floor system, thresholds, sealed penetrations | Coving omitted — a routine inspection finding |
| Cold storage | Under-counter and upright positions; walk-in priced separately after survey | A walk-in given a headline price with no survey |
| Approvals and commissioning | Who submits, what is included, testing, handover documents and training | No commissioning line at all |
| Warranty | Separate terms for fabrication, equipment and workmanship, with response times | One vague “1 year” covering everything |
ClickBina builds and coordinates commercial kitchens for Klang Valley F&B — builder’s work, stainless fabrication, drainage, hygienic finishes and the licensed gas and electrical trades under one programme, with an itemised quotation. See also our retail fit-out guide, commercial interior design guide, pest control contracts for the operating side, and our stone slab fabrication guide where a front counter is stone rather than steel.
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