Restaurant Construction & Renovation in Toronto

1BENMU works with restaurants on both complete interior renovations and specialized custom millwork projects. A project can involve transforming an entire commercial space, or a focused scope such as custom bars, banquette seating, service counters and feature walls and other architectural millwork. This allows us to work across a wide range of restaurant businesses, including:

• Casual, fine dining and themed restaurants
• Fast-casual and quick-service restaurants
• Franchise and chain locations
• Japanese restaurants, sushi bars, ramen shops and izakayas
• Chinese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants
• Italian restaurants, pizzerias and pasta houses
• Steakhouses, burger restaurants and grills
• Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants
• Brunch spots, bistros and family restaurants
• Pubs, gastropubs and bar-and-grill concepts
• Takeout, delivery and ghost kitchen concepts

Each concept changes the balance of kitchen, service and dining room work, so the scope, layout and millwork are planned around how it runs. For franchise and chain locations, drawings and finishes are built to the brand’s standards so each location stays consistent.

A dedicated project manager is assigned to your restaurant renovation from the first site visit through the final walkthrough, and is your single point of contact for schedule questions, site issues and decisions during construction. That continuity means you are not re-explaining the project to a different person at each stage.

Behind the scenes, 1BENMU tracks progress with project management software and AI-driven project tracking, so the schedule, inspections and millwork fabrication stay visible and coordinated rather than tracked separately on paper or in email. If a stage runs behind, it shows up early enough for your project manager to adjust the plan and let you know, instead of surfacing as a surprise closer to your opening date.

Restaurant construction and renovation costs in Toronto range from approximately $75 to $450+ per square foot. A 2,000 sq. ft. restaurant, for example, could represent an investment of roughly $225,000 to $450,000+, depending on the scope and existing conditions.

Lighter restaurant renovations and refreshes can fall toward the lower end of that range, while complete build-outs with extensive kitchen work, mechanical and electrical upgrades, plumbing or specialty finishes tend to fall toward the middle to upper part of the range. High-end and luxury restaurants with premium finishes and extensive custom millwork sit at the very top.

The cost depends on the size of the space, the kitchen and equipment requirements, the existing condition of the property, and how much of the project involves construction versus custom millwork. A dining room and reception refresh costs far less than a complete restaurant build-out with a new commercial kitchen, back-of-house systems, plumbing, electrical and custom millwork. Larger spaces can also have a lower cost per square foot because fixed restaurant construction costs are spread across more floor area.

1BENMU provides an estimate after the initial site review, with construction and custom millwork broken out separately, so you can see where the project costs are going before committing to the work.

1BENMU works directly with your architect or interior designer throughout a restaurant project, picking up their concept and floor plan and carrying it into construction and millwork. We review their drawings against the actual space, the kitchen equipment and the mechanical and electrical requirements before anything is built, so ideas that work on paper also work on site.

Our team stays in contact with your designer through the project rather than handing the drawings off and working in isolation. When a detail needs to change to fit a wall, a drain or an equipment clearance, we flag it early so the designer can approve the adjustment before it affects the schedule or the finished look of the dining room and bar.

Yes, 1BENMU completes restaurant renovation, construction and custom millwork projects across Toronto, the GTA and surrounding areas of Southern Ontario, including:

Greater Toronto Area (primary service areas)

• Ajax
• Aurora
• Brampton
• East York
• Etobicoke
• Markham
• Milton
• Mississauga
• Newmarket
• North York
• Oakville
• Oshawa
• Pickering
• Richmond Hill
• Scarborough
• Thornhill
• Vaughan
• Woodbridge

Southern Ontario (depending on the project)

• Barrie
• Bolton
• Burlington
• Collingwood
• Georgetown
• Guelph
• Hamilton
• Innisfil
• Orangeville
• Orillia
• Keswick
• King City
• Kitchener
• Midland
• Waterloo

When 1BENMU handles both the renovation and the custom millwork, one team carries the project from shop drawings through construction, fabrication and installation, so the bar, banquettes and service counters are designed around the real walls, utilities and equipment instead of a separate millwork shop working from someone else’s site measurements.

This also protects the schedule. Millwork is fabricated at our Scarborough shop while site construction is underway, so it arrives ready for installation instead of waiting on an outside supplier once the space is finished. Your project manager coordinates both sides of the work, so a change to the construction schedule or the millwork design is caught and adjusted by the same team, not discovered after the fact.

Based on our completed restaurant and related commercial projects, a restaurant renovation typically takes 4–12 weeks of on-site construction, depending on the size, existing condition and scope of the project.

A smaller renovation focused on finishes, the dining area, bar or front counter, or limited millwork may take 2–4 weeks, while a complete restaurant build-out involving a commercial kitchen, kitchen ventilation, new plumbing, electrical, HVAC, washrooms and extensive millwork can take 3–6 months or longer.

For example, an average-sized quick-service or fast-casual restaurant with a service counter, seating area and limited kitchen changes may take around 6–8 weeks of construction. A full-service, fine-dining or casual dining restaurant with a commercial kitchen, bar and larger dining area may take around 8–12 weeks when much of the existing infrastructure can be retained. Projects involving major kitchen ventilation, plumbing, electrical or other building-system changes can extend beyond that range.

For projects starting before construction drawings and permits are complete, design development, architectural and engineering drawings, permits and pre-construction typically add 2–4 months before construction begins.

What affects the schedule:

• Starting condition: Renovating an existing restaurant is different from converting a retail, office or unfinished shell into a restaurant.
• Design stage: We can work from completed architectural drawings or coordinate the design, drawings and required documentation with our architectural partners.
• Permits and approvals: When building permits, public health requirements or other approvals apply, we account for them before establishing the construction start date rather than treating approval time as part of the construction schedule.
• Project scope: Commercial kitchens, kitchen ventilation, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, accessibility work and structural changes all affect how much work needs to happen on site.
• Equipment and materials: Owner-supplied items such as cooking equipment, exhaust hoods and refrigeration, along with specialty finishes and other long-lead materials, can affect the schedule depending on availability and installation requirements.
• Custom millwork: The amount and complexity of custom millwork affect the schedule, but our fully equipped in-house millwork shop, with CNC routers, edge banders, a spray booth and more, gives us the capacity to produce bars, banquettes, host stands, service counters and other millwork efficiently while renovation work progresses on site, instead of waiting for construction to finish.

Yes. 1BENMU prepares shop drawings in-house for every piece of restaurant millwork we build, from the bar and host stand to banquette seating and service counters. These drawings translate the approved design into exact dimensions, materials and construction details before fabrication starts at our Scarborough shop.

Because drafting and fabrication sit with the same team, the shop drawings reflect how the piece will actually be built and installed, not just how it looks in a rendering. Material samples are confirmed against the drawings before we cut anything, so what arrives on site matches what you approved, and changes are caught on paper instead of after a piece is built.

Yes. 1BENMU partners with experienced architects to handle the drawings, documentation and approvals required for restaurant renovations and build-outs. Commercial restaurant renovations must comply with the Ontario Building Code (OBC), applicable municipal fire and safety requirements, and local public health requirements for food premises.

Architectural and engineering coordination may be required when changing the floor plan, adding or relocating a commercial kitchen, installing exhaust hoods and ventilation, modifying plumbing or electrical systems, adding or removing walls, changing exits or occupant capacity, or making structural changes. Our team coordinates the required architectural drawings, professional stamps, and structural, mechanical, electrical, fire and life-safety, and accessibility requirements.

As for permits, requirements depend on the scope of the work. A building permit is commonly required when the work involves moving or adding walls, modifying the commercial kitchen, changing plumbing, electrical or mechanical systems, or altering washrooms and accessibility features. Cosmetic-only updates, such as painting or replacing flooring, generally do not.

1BENMU identifies permit requirements during the design stage and coordinates submissions and required inspections, so the project is properly documented and approved before and during construction.

Yes. 1BENMU measures the actual space before fabrication begins, so bars, banquettes, host stands and wall panelling are built to fit angled walls, columns, uneven floors and tight service areas rather than a standard size adjusted on site. This matters most in older buildings and second-generation restaurant spaces, where the layout rarely matches a clean floor plan.

Our in-house shop can fabricate curved runs, custom returns and built-in pieces that follow the exact geometry of your dining room or bar. Because the same team handles the site measurements, the shop drawings and the fabrication, a difficult wall or an awkward corner gets designed around early, instead of becoming a problem once the piece is already built.

Both. Some restaurant owners come to 1BENMU for a complete build-out, covering construction, permitting, kitchen and dining room work and custom millwork as one project. Others already have a contractor or an existing space and only need the custom millwork, such as a bar, host stand, banquette seating or feature wall, fabricated and installed at our Scarborough shop.

We scope the project around what you actually need rather than requiring the full renovation to access our millwork capabilities. If you start with millwork only and later decide to renovate more of the space, the same team and the same shop drawings carry forward, so the work stays consistent instead of starting over with a different contractor.