How important is lighting design for restaurants? Does lighting affect the dining experience?

How Lighting Design Affects the Dining Experience

When it comes to restaurants, food is given the most attention. This is rightly so. But restaurant owners should know that the food is not the only thing that attracts new customers and makes them keep coming back. Interior and excellent customer service are also given much importance and they do matter a lot. But all of these things can be destroyed by poor lighting. Poor lighting destroys the idea of of enjoying an intimate ambiance. Poor lighting can make the dining experience uncomfortable that even great tasting food, excellent servers and a beautiful interior cannot make up for.

Restaurant lighting is important to create pleasant dinning experiences for consumers. (Photo Courtesy AmeriLights)

lighting design for restaurants

Lighting design has a huge impact on your diners' experience.

So how should you light your restaurant?

Lighting Design for Restaurants

Here's a great pointer from Carol Chaffee Associattes:

"In architectural lighting design, the luminous environment evolves out of the character and the intent of the space … and the needs, desires and expectations of the people for whom the space is created”

For the architect and the designer of a restaurant, lighting is a crucial tool. Proper lighting design is what completes the idea for the restaurant which starts with designing the physical space and the furniture and objects within that space. But many restaurant owners fail to realize the immense value of a properly designed lighting.

Anyone going to a restaurant expects all of their senses to be tickled. Restaurant owners should keep this in mind. Taste, aroma, music, finishes, color, decorative art, service, people and light matters when people pick their go-to restaurants. These are the things that make up a dining experience.

It is by carefully designing a restaurant that you can lure in people and make them come back. It is only right to say that lighting is the other half of architecture. The lighting design is what completes and supplement the design theme of a restaurant and adds to the positive impression.

So what are the things that should be addressed by lighting design for restaurants?

• Visibility - The perception of form and space.
• Image to be projected.
• The uses of the space
• Color
• Surface finishes
• Ambiance
• The Lighting Design Approach

How the lighting designer will approach the lighting design of a restaurant depends on two things. The type of venue and the ambiance that the owner wishes to create. Themes can vary from having that drama, comfort, casual, or family-friendly feel.

To achieve the lighting theme desired, various lighting methods and patterns will be used by the designer.

After getting an understanding of what the ambiance or atmosphere is desired, the designer will then work on the lighting layout and fixture selection. For restaurants, a layered lighting method, variation of light level and lighting control are always considered in the design process.

If you're opening a new restaurant or you think you need a lighting overhaul, it is best to get in touch with a professional lighting designer.

If you have any question on lighting design or lighting in general, feel free to leave a comment. You can also check in on Twitter and connect with us!