Commercial Kitchen Tables

No, and buying the wrong one is a common mistake. A prep bench is working equipment: a stainless top on a stainless frame, sized to a kitchen line, built for food preparation. A kitchen table is furniture — a top on a base, for people to sit at.

If what you actually need is a work surface for the kitchen, that is a commercial stainless steel kitchen bench and the stands and shelving that go with it, such as kitchen bench overshelves. Commercial tops in that range are stainless steel, and 304 is the food-safety grade used in Australian kitchens.

A table that seats the biggest shift, chairs that can be wiped down, and somewhere to keep food and make a drink. The table is the easy part; the mistake is sizing it for the average shift rather than the full one, so breaks get taken standing up.

The rest of a staff area is usually a fridge, a microwave and hot water. Those sit in staff rooms, with commercial microwave ovens and commercial hot water urns alongside.

Laminate and compact laminate are the volume choice: they wipe clean, resist spills and come in the widest range of looks. Solid timber reads better and needs maintaining. Stone and composite tops are the most durable surface and the heaviest, which pushes you toward a heavier base.

Decide by service style. A cafe with fast turnover and constant wiping wants laminate. A dining room where a table is set once a night can carry timber. The options in each material are on the individual pages in cafe table tops.

By the top it has to carry and the floor it has to stand on. A small round top is happy on a single pedestal; a long rectangular top needs two pedestals or four legs so it does not tip when someone leans on the end. Heavier tops want heavier bases.

Check the base is adjustable at the feet, because very few commercial floors are flat. The whole range is in cafe table bases, and we can tell you which base suits a top if you give us both.

Round tables fit more people into a tight floor and are easier to walk past, which is why cafes with narrow rooms use them. Square tables are the most flexible because two of them make a four and four make an eight. Rectangular tables suit banquettes and long walls.

Most floors want a mix: rounds in the open, rectangles against the commercial cafe benches, squares where groups vary. Send us the dimensions and the covers you need and we will lay it out.

When the room has more than one job. A hall, a club room or a function space that is set for a seated meal one day and cleared the next needs tables that go away, and that is what commercial folding tables are for.

They are not a substitute for dining tables in a room with a fixed layout — a folding table is a compromise on looks and on rigidity. Pair them with commercial folding chairs so the whole room stores together.

Standard dining height for seated meals, counter or bar height where people perch at a window or a high table. The mistake is mixing heights by accident, so a chair does not fit under a table bought separately.

Take the height from the product page of the base and the thickness of the top, then compare it with the seat height of the chair you are pairing it with. Doing that once on paper saves a return.

Wipe down to the material, then tighten the fixings on a schedule. The joint between the top and the base is what loosens with use, and a wobbly table gets reported by customers before it gets reported by staff.

Check the feet at the same time. Worn or missing feet are the usual cause of a table that rocks on a flat floor, and they are cheap to replace from spares and accessories.

Yes, and often you should. It lets you put a heavy top on a base that suits the floor, replace a damaged top without buying a whole table, and keep one base across several looks. Cafe table tops and cafe table bases are listed on their own.

Check the fixing pattern matches before you order. If you are unsure, send us the two product pages and we will confirm the pairing. The rest of the room is in furniture.