To choose a restaurant cleaning company, get five answers in writing. What does the scope cover? When do crews work? Who handles the kitchen and hood? How are missed tasks reported? How does the contract change or end? A company that walks your restaurant before it quotes will usually answer all five without prompting.
Below: what a restaurant cleaning scope should include, how to compare quotes, and which questions to ask before you sign. It fits a single café as well as a multi-level dining room.
What should a restaurant cleaning scope cover?
A restaurant scope should name every area, the task in each one and how often it happens. “Nightly cleaning” is not a scope. A list is.
Most restaurants split the work into three groups:
- Front of house: dining room floors, entrances, tables, chair bases, windowsills and glass
- Washrooms and staff areas: fixtures, floors, mirrors, waste bins, restocking, break rooms and corridors
- Back of house: kitchen floors, drains, walls, prep surfaces, waste and recycling areas
Write down what is excluded as well. Kitchen equipment you clean yourself at close, for example, should be listed so nobody assumes it is covered.
When should crews clean a restaurant?
Crews should clean when the room is empty, which for most restaurants means after close or before open. Overnight and weekend service are common for late-closing venues and for restaurants inside hotels or food courts.
Ask how the company handles events and slow seasons. A patio that fills in July and sits empty in January should not be on the same schedule all year. Everest runs after-hours, overnight and weekend visits, and sets the visit times around your closing and prep schedule.
Who cleans the kitchen and the hood?
Dining room and washroom cleaning is routine janitorial work. Kitchen degreasing and exhaust hood cleaning are separate jobs with their own equipment, and some companies do not offer them at all.
Ask for each of these by name:
- Kitchen floor degreasing and drain cleaning
- Hood and exhaust cleaning, including baffle filters
- Stainless steel surfaces and walls
Everest handles commercial kitchen floors and restaurant hood and exhaust cleaning alongside the dining room and washrooms, so one company can cover the whole building. How often a hood needs cleaning depends on how much and what kind of cooking you do. Your fire code and your insurer set the minimum, so check both before you agree a cycle.
Questions to ask before you sign
These questions separate a vague quote from a usable one:
- Which areas are included, and which are excluded?
- Can crews work after close, overnight or on weekends?
- Who supplies equipment and chemicals?
- How do you report a missed task, and how fast is it fixed?
- Do you clean kitchens and hoods, or only the front of house?
- Who is licensed and insured, and can you send proof?
- Who is my contact when the schedule changes?
- What does it cost to add a deep clean or drop a visit?
Ask for a site walkthrough before any price. Floor type, kitchen size and the number of washrooms change the work more than square footage does.
How do you compare restaurant cleaning quotes?
Give every company the same scope and the same visit frequency, then compare the line items. A quote for three visits a week and a quote for five cannot be compared on the monthly total.
Check what is billed separately: kitchen degreasing, hood cleaning, carpet extraction, strip and wax, and post-renovation cleaning. Each is a periodic job, priced on its own. Our guide to how to choose a commercial cleaning company covers the general checks that apply to every building type, and what commercial cleaning includes explains nightly work versus extras.
Red flags in a restaurant cleaning proposal
- A firm price without seeing the kitchen
- No written list of tasks and frequencies
- No answer on who handles hoods and grease
- Cleaning hours that overlap your service
- No proof of licence or insurance
Reviews help too. Read the ones from other commercial clients, and look for comments on reliability and communication rather than star counts alone.
Frequently asked questions
How much does restaurant cleaning cost? It depends on the size of the dining room, the number of washrooms, the kitchen scope and how many nights a week crews visit. We quote after a walkthrough, and you get the written quote within 1 business day. For the factors in more detail, see what affects a commercial cleaning quote.
How often should a restaurant be cleaned professionally? Most restaurants need washrooms and floors done every night they open. Kitchens, hoods and carpets run on weekly, quarterly or yearly cycles, depending on volume and what you cook.
Can restaurant cleaning happen overnight? Yes. Overnight and after-close service are standard for restaurants. We schedule around your closing time and your morning prep.
Do restaurants need different cleaning from offices? Yes. Grease, food-service floors and a hard close-to-open window make restaurant cleaning a different job. The restaurant cleaning service page lists what we cover.
After a busy season, the post-holiday restaurant and banquet cleaning checklist covers the reset that nightly cleaning skips.
Get a restaurant cleaning quote
Everest cleans restaurants, banquet halls and hotel kitchens in cities across Canada. Check our locations to find the desk nearest you, then get a free quote or book a free site assessment. Tell us your closing time, kitchen size and what you want covered, and we will send a written scope.
