Location & lease
A great cook survives a bad menu. Nobody survives a bad lease.
Quick answer
A good restaurant spot has visible foot traffic, parking, a hood-ready kitchen or landlord help, and rent under 10% of projected sales. Never sign before checking zoning, hood feasibility, and having a lawyer read the lease. A former restaurant space saves months and often $80,000 or more.
What makes a spot right for Asian food
Watch the block at lunch on a Tuesday and at dinner on a Saturday. Both, not one.
- Anchors that pull your crowd: H Mart, 99 Ranch, universities, hospitals, office clusters
- Lunch concepts need offices and speed; dinner concepts need parking and patience
- Delivery drivers need somewhere to stop. A spot with no pickup parking quietly loses app orders
- Gas capacity and hood feasibility: wok cooking pushes more heat and smoke than the pizza place the space was built for
- Look for the second Asian business on the block. One is a pioneer; two is a destination.
Second-generation spaces: the honest shortcut
A former restaurant space comes with the costly invisible parts: hood, grease trap, gas line, floor drains, sometimes a walk-in. One question to answer before you celebrate: why did the last place close? Rent, crime, no parking. Those problems transfer with the keys. A tired owner or a bad concept does not.
- Have the hood, HVAC and grease trap professionally inspected before signing
- Equipment left behind is negotiable, usually worth less than the landlord thinks
Lease clauses that decide your future
Rent gets the attention. Clauses do the damage. A commercial lease lawyer costs a few hundred dollars and reads two hundred leases a year.
- TI allowance: landlord money toward your build-out; everything is negotiable in an empty space
- Personal guarantee: push for a 'good guy' clause or a cap, so one bad year doesn't follow your family
- Exclusivity: no second noodle shop in the same plaza
- CAM charges: the quiet extra rent; ask for last year's actual numbers
- Renewal options at defined rent: your build-out only pays off if you can stay
Where to actually find spaces
Browse these to learn your market's prices, then get a tenant-rep broker. The landlord pays their fee, not you.
LoopNet
BiggestThe largest commercial listing site in the US. Filter for 'restaurant' to find second-generation spaces with hoods in place.
Visit siteCrexi
Fast-growingCleaner interface, strong in growing metros, listings often show more documents up front.
Visit siteCityFeet
City-focusedUseful in dense urban markets where storefront turnover moves fast.
Visit siteThe best spaces often never hit a listing site. Tell your suppliers and your community network you are looking.
Common questions
How big should my first restaurant be?
Smaller than you think. Plan roughly 28 to 32 square feet per seat plus a kitchen at about a third of total space. A 1,600 sq ft spot seats around 40, which one strong wok line can feed.
Is a food hall or mall stall a good first step?
Often, yes. Lower build-out, built-in traffic, shorter commitment, and the operations lessons transfer directly. Margins are thinner because of percentage rent, so read the deal carefully.