Opening a restaurant · Spain

Open a restaurant in Spain with the numbers done first

Foreign investors rarely fail on the concept. They fail because nobody built the economics before the doors opened. We act as your project manager, from feasibility through to the first service.

A 30-minute first consultation, free and with no obligation.

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Spain

Three things that surprise foreign investors

None of them appear in a generic business plan, and all three change the budget before a single wall is moved.

Licensing

There is no single Spanish licence

Spain has seventeen autonomous regions and each one runs its own regime. In Andalusia and the Canary Islands you can open on a responsible declaration; in Valencia a certified body can let you open the same day; in central Barcelona new restaurant licences are not granted at all, so you have to buy an existing one. Where you open changes what opening even means.

The site

The address decides the project

Most Spanish cities restrict new hospitality in saturated acoustic zones, street by street. A location that looks perfect can be one where a new licence will never be issued, or where the terrace you counted on can be refused on heritage grounds. This is checked before you sign, not after.

The market

Local prices are not published anywhere

Supplier pricing in Spain is negotiated, not listed. A foreign operator without local relationships routinely pays well above market for the same produce, and that difference lands directly on your food cost every single service. We negotiate as a local buyer, on your behalf.

The engagement

How we run your opening

We act as your project manager from start to finish, dealing with every external supplier — builders, licences, utilities, software, marketing — so you have a single point of contact. We do not run several openings at once. The person you speak to today is the person who will run your opening: there is no internal handover.

01

Project assessment

A free meeting to understand your idea and assess what the project actually needs. You leave with a tailored quote and a clear timeline of how we would approach the opening.

02

Feasibility and business model

We build a solid business plan, so you know whether the project stands up and under what conditions.

  • Total investment and payment schedule
  • Fixed and variable costs for the format
  • Revenue scenarios and break-even point
  • The real cost of the site cross-checked against what that format can turn over at that specific address
03

Menu and profitability

Every dish is created with its cost and its margin already defined. We do not design a menu and price it afterwards.

  • Menu design suited to the format and the neighbourhood
  • Supplier selection and price negotiation on your behalf
  • Dish-by-dish costing and selling prices set by margin
  • Standardised recipes and plating with technical sheets
04

Team and operations

The restaurant has to run on a system, not on somebody's memory.

  • Recruitment, from key roles to floor and kitchen staff
  • Training for both kitchen and front of house
  • Written processes for opening, service and closing
  • Systems that hold up when you are not there
05

Equipment and technology

We advise on machinery, tableware and furniture sized to the volume you actually expect, and connect you with our software partners — POS, time tracking, management — seeing their implementation through so everything works on opening day.

06

Project management through to opening

We coordinate the building works, licence transfers, utility connections and platform registrations, and we are present for the phases that require it: the works, supplier tastings, staff training and the first services.

The outcome

What you have on opening day

You do not need a hospitality background

Many of our clients are investors from other sectors. They bring capital and commercial judgement; we bring the hospitality knowledge, with real kitchen and floor experience behind every decision.

See the full service
Frequently asked

Opening a restaurant in Spain

What language will my project be run in?

The groundwork happens in Spanish: suppliers, builders, licensing offices, staff training and the first services all take place in Spanish, and handling that for you is a large part of what you are hiring. We run projects directly in Spanish, Italian and French. English-speaking investors normally have a Spanish-speaking partner or manager involved on their side. Tell us your situation in the form and we will be straight with you about whether we are the right fit.

Do I need to be resident in Spain to open a restaurant?

You do not need to be resident, but you will need a Spanish tax identification number and, in most cases, a Spanish company. The exact route depends on how you plan to hold the business, and it affects the project timeline, so it is one of the first things we map out.

I already have a site under offer. Is it too late?

We can join at any stage, and the earlier the better, because more decisions are still open. If you have a site in mind, tell us the address: the first thing we check is what regime applies there and whether the numbers for that specific location work with the format you have in mind.

Free first consultation

Planning to open a restaurant in Spain?

In 30 minutes we assess your project, judge its feasibility and tell you what it needs to work. No obligation.

If you already have a site in mind, send us the address. We check what applies there and whether the numbers work before you sign anything.

+34 604 93 54 71Phone
info@rima-consulting.esEmail

We reply within one working day.