Compact Catering Equipment for Kitchens Where Every Millimetre Counts.

Not every café, pub or takeaway has the luxury of a spacious kitchen. Sometimes you’re working with a narrow room, an awkward corner or a back-of-house area that barely seems big enough for the essentials.

But small kitchens can still turn out great food. The trick is choosing equipment that earns its place and still leaves staff room to work.

Whether you’re starting from scratch, adding another appliance or making better use of the space you have, Anglia Catering Equipment can help you find compact catering equipment that fits.

Start With Your Menu, Not Your Shopping List

Before measuring up for equipment, think about what you’ll actually be cooking.

A sandwich shop needs a different setup from a pub serving hot meals. A coffee shop might need an oven for pastries, a microwave for reheating and enough preparation space to put everything together.

Think about your busiest hour, too. Can staff get from the fridge to the preparation area without constantly crossing the kitchen? Is there somewhere to put finished dishes while the next orders are cooking?

Fitting it all in is only half the job. It has to work once it’s there.

Cooking Without Taking Over the Kitchen

You don’t necessarily need a full-sized cooking range to put together a good menu.

For simple hob cooking, the ACE Electric Hot Plate / Cooker Ring – Compact Countertop Unit is just 300mm wide. It sits on the worktop and gives you two independently controlled hotplates for soups, sauces, eggs and other pan cooking. If gas suits you better, the Atosa CookRite Two-Burner Boiling Top fits two burners into 400mm.

For breakfasts, burgers and other griddled favourites, the ACE 35cm Electric Griddle is just 350mm wide, with a choice of mild steel or chrome cooking surface.

Baking needn’t take over the worktop either. The Lincat LCOS Lynx 400 Slim Convection Oven is only 405mm wide, yet gives you 40 litres of oven space and plugs into a standard socket. Good for pastries, pies and rolls.

For quick reheating, the Panasonic NE-1864 Professional Microwave packs 1800W of cooking power into an 18-litre unit just 422mm wide. Need more output later? Two can be stacked on top of each other.

Think about what you’ll cook most often. An appliance that’s used throughout service is a better use of space than one that sits idle for most of the day.

Appliances That Do More Than One Job

The Blizzard BCC1 Compact Saladette is just 435mm wide, but combines 109 litres of chilled storage, a gastronorm ingredient well and a built-in cutting board.

For a sandwich shop, deli or takeaway, that puts ingredients and a preparation surface in one place, instead of several separate units competing for space.

The King Edward Vista Compact Baking Oven is 450mm wide and brings together a fan-assisted oven for jacket potatoes, two heated bain marie pots for toppings and an illuminated display area. There’s even a slide-out serving tray.

At 840mm wide, the Infernus INF-EFB3 3-in-1 Fryer, Chip Scuttle and Bain Marie isn’t tiny, but it puts frying, chip holding and heated sauces in one countertop unit. It needs three separate 13 amp electrical connections, so check your supply first.

If you need a dedicated fryer, the Infernus INF-161FS Free Standing Fryer is just 340mm wide, with a 16-litre tank. Because it stands on the floor, it leaves your worktop free, and there’s storage space underneath.

Combining jobs isn’t always the answer, though. If several things need doing at once during a busy service, make sure one appliance won’t hold everything up.

Keeping Ingredients Close to Hand

In a small kitchen, nobody wants to spend half the service walking backwards and forwards to the fridge.

Undercounter refrigeration helps, especially when the top doubles as a work surface.

The Prodis EC-2SS-LE Compact Refrigerated Counter is 900mm wide, with 240 litres of gross chilled storage under a stainless steel flat top. It’s bigger than most units here, but you get a fridge and a prep bench in the same space.

For bottled drinks, the Vestfrost M85 Compact Bottle Cooler is just 493mm wide, with 125 litres of gross capacity.

Think about where fridge doors will open, too. A unit might fit perfectly against a wall, but it’s not much use if opening it blocks the only walkway.

A Little Room for Preparation

Cooking equipment gets most of the attention, but don’t underestimate how much room food preparation needs.

The Robot Coupe R201 XL Food Processor is just 220mm wide, with a 2.9-litre bowl. It chops, slices, grates and mixes, saving time on everyday prep without needing a large machine.

Just don’t fill every inch of worktop with appliances. You still need somewhere to chop, assemble dishes and put things down.

Coffee, Ice and Clean Glasses

For a small café or bar, the counter needs just as much thought as the kitchen.

The Imperial Essence Slim Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machine is just 260mm wide. It makes more than ten different drinks from a touchscreen, with an output of up to 120 cups a day. It uses powdered milk as standard and can run from its own internal water tank, so you don’t need a mains water connection. If you’d rather plumb it in, an installation kit is available.

For ice, the Hoshizaki IM-21CPE is just 398mm wide and produces up to around 30kg of ice a day, with an 11.5kg storage bin built in. It needs a permanent mains water connection.

The Maidaid C40WSD Undercounter Glasswasher is 436mm wide and takes a 390mm rack. It plugs into a standard socket, but needs water and drainage within a metre of the machine.

Allow somewhere for dirty glasses to land and clean ones to go. Otherwise even the neatest little glasswasher ends up surrounded by clutter.

Don’t Forget the Essentials

When planning a small kitchen, it’s easy to concentrate on cooking equipment and forget about sinks, handwashing and storage.

The Moffat MWHBL/L / MWHBR/L Sink Cabinets are just 400mm wide, with a stainless steel sink built into a cabinet base. Useful when you need a sink without giving up much floor space.

A Moffat MWS1 Microwave Shelf lifts the microwave off the worktop, freeing up valuable prep space.

And a Craven Firmashelf 5000 Four-Tier Shelving Rack makes use of vertical space, keeping supplies organised and out of busy preparation areas.

Measure Twice. Buy Once.

Before ordering, get the tape measure out.

Width matters, but so do depth, height, door openings and the space needed for cleaning and maintenance. Check ventilation clearances and electrical, gas, water and drainage requirements as well.

Most importantly, leave enough room for people.

Can someone load the oven while another person prepares food? Can the dishwasher door open without blocking access? Is there a sensible route between storage, preparation, cooking and serving?

There’s no point fitting everything in if nobody can move once it’s installed.

Ready to Make It Fit?

A compact kitchen doesn’t have to mean a limited menu or a constant battle for worktop space. With the right equipment and some careful planning, even a small kitchen can work very hard.

Short on space? Let’s talk.

Browse our range at Anglia Catering Equipment or call 01379 641223 to discuss your requirements.

Fast Free UK Mainland Delivery. Please check individual product dimensions, specifications and installation requirements before ordering.