Multi-Cuisine Restaurant Complex: Five Dining Halls Around a Pool
Restaurant interior design gets hard when one building has to hold five cuisines: this destination restaurant by Kenania gives each hall its own character around a central indoor pool while one kitchen line serves them all.
A destination restaurant on two floors, planned as five dining halls, each with its own cuisine and its own interior, arranged around a central indoor pool. The challenge was to give every hall a distinct character while keeping one building, one kitchen line and one service flow.
The Malaysian hall and the pool
The central hall wraps around the pool under a timber-beamed roof with stone walls. Tables sit on the water’s edge, a bar runs along one side and lounge seating fills the corners. It is the hall guests see first and the one that sets the mood for the rest.
Chinese and Japanese
Red lanterns, dark timber screens and a koi motif on the ceiling define the Asian hall, with a sushi bar and an open kitchen as the focal point and booths along the wall for privacy.
Australian, European and Middle Eastern
The Australian hall is relaxed: blue armchairs, timber floor, planted screens. The European hall uses green banquettes, pale timber tables and a water feature. The Middle Eastern hall brings lanterns, striped cushions and arched windows. Each hall has its own lighting scene but shares the same floor level and service corridor.
Planning
Cutaway 3D plans and a building section were produced for every hall so the client, the kitchen consultant and the contractor could see seat counts, service routes and the pool structure in one drawing.
Restaurant interior design starts in the kitchen
Before any mood board, the plan fixes the service flow: where deliveries arrive, how the kitchen line reaches each hall without crossing guest circulation, where the pass, the dish return and the bar stock sit. On this project the five halls wrap the pool on two floors, so the kitchen sits behind the central hall with a service corridor to the others and a dumbwaiter to the upper floor. Every hall gets a waiter station and a route to the washrooms that does not pass through another hall’s dining room.
Only then does the character work begin, and it is done with three variables per hall: ceiling, lighting and one signature material. That discipline keeps five interiors within one budget and one contractor.
Acoustics, air and the pool
An indoor pool in a restaurant is a mood and a problem. The water reflects light beautifully and also bounces sound, so the central hall has a timber-beamed ceiling with absorbent infill, soft furnishings in the lounge corners and a stone wall that breaks the echo. Ventilation is sized for the humidity, and the halls that open onto the pool have their own air handling so the Japanese counter does not smell of chlorine.
What the client receives
Concept boards per hall, 3D visuals, the full plan with the service flow, reflected ceiling and lighting layouts, furniture and finish schedules and the drawings the fit-out contractor prices from. That package is the difference between restaurant interior design that photographs well and a restaurant that turns tables.
Scope
- Concept and interior design for five themed halls and the entrance
- Seating layouts with cover counts per hall
- Ceiling, lighting and finishes per hall
- Coordination with kitchen and pool consultants
- Photorealistic 3D visuals and cutaway plans
Kenania designs restaurants and cafés across the Gulf and Malaysia, with fit-out drawing sets prepared for authority approval. See the Dubai fit-out page for scope and fees.
Related projects and services: restaurant interior design
More restaurant interior design work from Kenania, and the services behind it:
- Hotel lounge, banquet hall and private dining — three hospitality moods on one floor
- Royal Lounge bar interior design in Kuala Lumpur — a bar interior in the same market
- Interior finishes for the Gulf climate — materials that survive humidity and traffic
- Fit-out design in Dubai — restaurant fit-out drawings for authority approval
Reference: kitchen and service layouts follow the food-premises requirements published by the Malaysian Ministry of Health, the authority for restaurants in this market.
Planning a similar restaurant interior design project? Send the plan and a short brief for a scoped proposal.
