Restaurant regulation: fire safety, accessibility and the professional kitchen 2026

Type N covers restaurants, cafés, brasseries, station buffets, nightclubs serving meals, and licensed premises for consumption on the spot. The occupancy taken into account is the public: one person per seat plus one person per 5 m² of standing area. The professional kitchen does not count in the public occupancy.

ℹ The fifth-category threshold for type N Dining room and ancillary rooms — bars, covered terraces — below 100 people of public occupancy. No public in a basement for a fifth-category type N. An uncovered terrace does not count in the occupancy.

A restaurant above 40 m² of floor area, or one whose works exceed 20 m² in an existing unit, requires planning permission or a prior declaration according to the scale of the alterations. Converting a retail unit into a restaurant, with kitchen and extraction works, is a change of use in planning terms, subject to a prior declaration or permission according to the local plan. For buildings in the first four categories the application includes a safety file submitted to the commission.

ℹ Planning traps Kitchen extraction, with a duct through the roof, alters the external appearance and therefore requires a prior declaration — and may be refused in a heritage area. A change of use from offices to restaurant requires permission with a complete safety file. A covered or enclosed terrace constitutes additional floor area, requiring a declaration or permission. Some local plan zones prohibit restaurants outright or impose reinforced acoustic requirements.

The regulation contains general provisions applicable to every building open to the public, and provisions particular to type N. Restaurants carry specific risks tied to the professional kitchen — flames, oils, gas — and to the density of the public in the dining room.

The calculation rests on the general rule: one unit of passage, 0.60 m, per 100 people. A restaurant for 200 people needs two exits of 1.40 m, giving 4.66 units against the four required. Exits may not sit in a dead end more than 30 m from the nearest way out. Protected stairs are required in basements and as soon as the establishment occupies an upper floor.

The professional kitchen of a type N establishment is classified a medium-risk room. It must be separated from the dining room by a partition of at least EI 30 with a self-closing EI 30 door. The cooking installation is protected by an automatic extinguishing system, powder or water, beneath the extraction canopy. High-risk rooms — gas cylinder stores, spirit stores above 150 litres — must be separated by REI 60 construction.

A restaurant in the first four categories must be fully accessible. A fifth-category restaurant may make accessible only the part needed to receive the public. In practice the whole dining room, the sanitary accommodation, the cloakrooms and the covered terraces must be accessible. A service or fast-food counter must include at least one accessible position at or below 0.80 m with a knee space 0.30 m deep.

ℹ Accessibility checklist at design stage → Entrance: a ramp at or below 5 %, door width at least 0.90 m giving 0.83 m clear. → Aisles between tables: at least 0.90 m wide, with 1.50 m turning spaces every 10 m. → Accessible tables: at least 2 % of tables, minimum one, with a knee space at least 0.70 m high and 0.60 m deep. → Accessible sanitary accommodation: one accessible WC per sex per level open to the public. → An L-shaped counter with one section at 0.80 m where service is at the counter.

A restaurant kitchen is subject to the departmental public health rules and to the European hygiene package, which require washable materials, a food safety management plan and separated clean and dirty flows. These requirements do not fall under planning permission but strongly govern the design choices and the areas allocated.

Kitchen ventilation is governed by the gas code of practice and by the trade body's recommendations. The minimum extraction rate is 30 to 40 m³/h per kilowatt installed on the cooking positions. A medium restaurant kitchen with 8 to 12 kW installed needs extraction of 300 to 500 m³/h with fresh air compensation. The extraction duct, fire-protected, must discharge at roof level at least 8 m from neighbouring air intakes.

ℹ ✔ Summary for the economist Overall turnkey restaurant construction cost, excluding land: 1,530 – 3,570 €/m² of floor area according to standing. The kitchen often represents 25 to 40 % of the total works budget. For the first four categories, allow for the safety commission, the safety file and coordination with the fire engineer. On acoustics, restaurants in residential areas must meet a façade sound insulation of at least 35 dB. For kitchen extraction in a heritage area, consult the heritage architect from the sketch stage, since the duct will be visible on the roof.

The full public-building regulation — classification, categories, safety commission — is developed in its own article. Detailed accessibility standards are treated in the accessibility article. The retail article covers type M shops, which share many constraints with ground-floor restaurants. The mixed-use article covers buildings combining housing and shops, where ground-floor restaurants are frequent.

ℹ The construction economist on demand. Your restaurant project, or a business acquisition involving works, deserves a precise estimate. Submit your file on quostra.com and an economist prices the public-building, kitchen and accessibility constraints within hours.

Sources: the order of 25 June 1980 as amended for type N, the order of 8 December 2014 on accessibility in buildings open to the public, the European food hygiene regulation, the gas code of practice and the fire protection body's kitchen extinguishing rule.

Reference basis of the figures

The ratios per square metre and per item on this page are stated in January 2026 values. They were updated from January 2025 values, the basis adopted for the whole cocoon, using the BT01 all-trades index published monthly by INSEE on its 2010 base: 132.0 in January 2025, 134.7 in January 2026, a coefficient of 1.0205.

The global amounts quoted as examples, and any rents, charges or receipts expressed per year or per night, remain on their own basis: a building cost index does not apply to them.

To bring the ratios forward, apply the usual revision formula: updated value = page value × (BT01 for the month in question / 134.7). The BT01 measures contractors' input costs, labour at 44.9 % and materials at 36.5 %, not the prices actually tendered.