Restaurant and Cafe Movers in Jeddah
Moving a restaurant is not moving furniture. It is moving a production line, and every extra hour the doors stay shut is money that does not come back. That is why we plan restaurant relocations backwards — from the hour you want to reopen, not from the volume of the contents — and why we normally work after close or in the early morning, with a written price after a free survey.
Why a venue move is planned backwards
In a house nobody charges you for an extra day. In a restaurant, every closed day is rent paid, wages paid and zero revenue. So the first question we ask is not how much there is to move. It is: what is the shortest window the kitchen can be out of action? Everything else is built from that answer.
The second difference is that a venue is not one kind of content. There is refrigeration that hates being tilted, gas equipment that needs a competent disconnection, heavy stainless steel, delicate front-of-house furniture, and food stock with a cold chain you cannot break. Each category is packed and loaded differently, and treating them as one load is how things get ruined.
The third difference is administrative. Kitchen licences, price boards, maintenance contracts and equipment certificates need to be collected and handed to one named person before anything moves, because losing them delays the new branch opening far more than late furniture ever could.
- Fix the closing hour and the reopening hour first, then build the schedule around them.
- Separate food stock from equipment in the plan — it has a different timeline.
- Keep licences and paperwork in one file held by the branch manager, not in the truck.
Refrigeration: display chillers, prep fridges and freezers
Display chillers, under-counter prep fridges and chest freezers all run on a compressor and oil, and all of them travel upright. Tilt them too far and oil migrates into the cooling circuit. The failure often does not show on the day — it shows a week later as cooling that gradually weakens, which is the worst kind of fault because it spoils a full load of stock before anyone notices.
The correct sequence: disconnect well in advance, empty the unit, defrost it, dry the interior completely, remove and separately wrap the glass shelves rather than trusting their rubber clips, and tape the door shut so it cannot swing open in transit. On arrival the unit stands switched off until the oil has settled.
Glass shelves and glass doors are the single most commonly broken items in cafe moves. We take them out, foam-wrap them and stack them on edge in a separate crate. Equipment-level detail for the back of house is on our commercial kitchen movers page.
Display chiller
Glass shelves removed and wrapped separately, door taped before lifting.
Chest freezer
Disconnected, defrosted and dried a full day ahead.
Prep fridge
Carried upright and left standing before it is switched back on.
Stock
Moved in refrigerated transport or run down beforehand, never left in the truck.
Gas, ovens and the things we will not load
Disconnecting gas is not a removals job. The gas line is disconnected by a competent technician, the valve is closed, the line is purged and the outlets are capped before anything moves. We do not break gas connections ourselves and we do not carry full cylinders inside a furniture load. That is a safety policy, not a negotiating position.
A commercial oven is heavy with a high centre of gravity, which makes it prone to tipping off a trolley unless it is strapped from above. We use a trolley with top straps and at least two people, and we remove the internal racks and trays and wrap them separately to cut the weight and stop them rattling about inside.
Griddles and fryers are degreased before the move, not after. Residual oil runs out inside the truck and contaminates everything around it, and cleaning it off after a full day in Jeddah heat is far harder than spending half an hour on it before loading.
Front of house: seating, bar and counters
Dining tables and chairs are the easiest part and the most numerous, and this is where numbering pays off more than anywhere else. We number each table top and give its detached legs the same number, so reassembly in the new branch involves no guesswork and no leftover legs.
Marble and natural stone tops travel upright on edge, never flat. Stone is strong in compression and weak in bending, and a flat slab on a vibrating truck floor cracks straight across the middle. That one rule alone saves cafe owners repeated losses.
The bar counter is usually fixed to the floor and has to come apart in the reverse order it was built. We photograph the unit from three angles before dismantling, because the photo saves the joiner in the new branch an hour of guesswork. Precision coffee equipment — grinders and espresso machines — is drained of water and crated separately.
What a venue relocation costs
Pricing follows volume, floors and lift access exactly as it does for residential work, with dismantling and reassembly added according to the equipment involved.
| Move size | Estimated price (SAR) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup / single items | 80 – 250 | One or two pieces inside Jeddah, loading and unloading |
| Studio or single room | 350 – 600 | Dismantling, packing, loading, transport, reassembly |
| Two-bedroom flat | 500 – 900 | Full crew with a closed truck |
| Three-bedroom flat | 800 – 1,400 | Larger crew and extended packing |
| Four to five bedrooms | 1,200 – 1,900 | Sometimes two days depending on floors |
| Small villa | 1,500 – 2,500 | More than one truck and an extended crew |
| Large villa | 2,500 – 4,000 | Scheduled over two days with full packing |
Prices are estimates and are fixed after a free survey. The agreed figure is written down before work starts and does not change afterwards.
Dismantling and reassembly items:
| Item | Estimated price (SAR) |
|---|---|
| Bedroom dismantling and reassembly | 150 – 300 |
| Sliding or IKEA wardrobe | 100 – 250 |
| Aluminium kitchen | 200 – 400 |
| Whole-flat package | 400 – 900 |
The package covers dismantling and reassembly only; transport is priced separately using the table above.
The full list is on our Jeddah moving prices page, and office and admin areas follow our office furniture moving page.
The overnight schedule that keeps closed hours down
Survey after close
We visit during a quiet hour, list the equipment and furniture and measure the access routes.
Split into batches
Anything movable before the closing day goes early: spare seating, unused stock, decor.
Moving night
Work starts the moment the doors close, with front of house first, then the bar, then the dry kitchen.
Refrigeration last
Chillers are disconnected, dried and loaded last, to keep their downtime as short as possible.
Unload kitchen first
In the new branch the kitchen is unloaded before the dining room, because the kitchen is what delays reopening.
Reconnection
The gas and electrical technicians reconnect, then refrigeration is powered up once it has settled.
Test run
Every appliance is run and checked, and the handover is signed before the crew leaves.
Numbering the equipment and mapping the new kitchen
A commercial kitchen is not a room where equipment is placed wherever it fits. It is a sequence: receiving, cold storage, prep, cooking, pass, wash. Get that order wrong in the new branch and the kitchen pays for it every single day in extra steps walked by the team.
So we ask the branch manager for a simple layout drawing of the new kitchen before the moving night, and we number each appliance to match its position on that drawing. The crew member bringing a unit in reads the number and places it correctly first time, so heavy equipment is never moved twice.
The same numbering works front of house: table number, leg number, chair number. And with each batch we hand the manager a numbered, signed list, so they know what has arrived without counting it themselves at two in the morning.
- Draw the new kitchen layout and mark each appliance position before the moving night.
- Number appliances to match the drawing rather than labelling them by name.
- Ask for a signed numbered list with every batch that arrives.
Insurance, condition and responsibility
Restaurant equipment is worth considerably more than household furniture — one display chiller can be worth a flat full of furniture. So it needs to be clear before work starts what the agreement covers, how an item is valued if it is damaged, and who records its condition before loading.
Our method is simple and written down. Each appliance is photographed from several angles before wrapping, and any existing scratch or dent is logged on a list signed by a representative of the venue. That protects both sides: the crew is not blamed for old damage, and genuine transit damage cannot be denied.
Check maintenance contracts before the move as well. Some agents require their own technicians to disconnect and reconnect equipment for the warranty to stand, particularly for professional coffee machines and convection ovens. Checking the contract beforehand costs nothing; discovering a void warranty afterwards is expensive.
- Photograph every appliance and log existing damage in writing before wrapping.
- Review maintenance and warranty terms before deciding who disconnects what.
- Get the written agreement in place before work starts, not after.
Storing equipment between branches
Plenty of venues close one branch before the replacement is ready. Equipment then needs a closed warehouse rather than an open yard, because stainless steel corrodes in humidity and salt air, and Jeddah is a coastal city.
| Stored volume | Monthly rent (SAR) |
|---|---|
| One to two rooms | 150 – 300 |
| A full flat of furniture | 250 – 450 |
| A villa of furniture | 400 – 800 |
Storage is billed monthly under a written agreement, and warehouse access is by appointment.
Every appliance is wrapped before storage and raised off the floor on pallets. More on our Jeddah storage page.
Mistakes we see in cafe relocations
- Powering up refrigeration on arrival. Let the oil settle; the resulting fault appears a week later and spoils a full load of stock.
- Moving stone tops flat. Marble travels upright on its edge, always.
- Leaving glass shelves inside their units. The rubber clips were never designed for sustained vibration.
- Postponing the degreasing. Cleaning before loading is easier and far cheaper than cleaning after.
- Loading stock with the equipment. Stock needs its own cold chain or should be run down beforehand.
And the largest one: choosing a moving date in peak season. If you can pick a quiet week, the saving in lost trade outweighs any difference in the moving fee by a wide margin.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and it is our preferred arrangement. Working at night cuts closed hours and avoids daytime traffic around the venue.
Not ourselves. A competent gas technician disconnects and reconnects, and we coordinate with them within the same schedule.
Usually a single night for small and medium cafes, and a full day for restaurants with a large kitchen.
Yes. We remove and separately wrap the glass shelves and doors, and the unit travels upright.
Once they have stood upright and undisturbed long enough for the compressor oil to settle. Switching on immediately risks the compressor.
We recommend running it down or moving it in separate refrigerated transport. Stock does not travel with equipment in the same load.
From SAR 800, rising with the number of appliances and floors. The figure is written down after a free survey.
Yes, in a closed warehouse, from SAR 250 a month for a flat-sized volume of equipment.
Yes. We photograph them first and dismantle in the reverse order of their assembly to make rebuilding straightforward.
No. It is free, done during a quiet hour at the venue or by video on WhatsApp.
Book a free survey today
Send photos on WhatsApp and get a written, itemised quote before you commit — the survey costs nothing.