If you’re passionate about cooking and great at it, you can earn from it by learning how to start a virtual restaurant from home. 

A virtual restaurant that you run from home allows you to serve your favorite dishes without the costs of running traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants.

You can embark on this exciting venture with just a food concept, a restaurant website, an enticing online menu, and an efficient online ordering system. Plus, we’re here to help!

👋 In this guide, we’ll show you how you can turn your home kitchen into a digital dining destination in no time.

We’ll walk you through the following:

• What is a virtual restaurant?
• What does a home virtual restaurant look like?
• The benefits of starting a virtual kitchen from home.
• How to start a virtual kitchen from home.

Let’s hit the ground running with what a virtual kitchen is.

What is a virtual kitchen/virtual restaurant?

A virtual kitchen, or a virtual restaurant, is a food business that only exists digitally to serve customers who order food online for takeout or delivery.

This means it doesn’t have a physical premise, storefront, or dining room where customers can dine.

Virtual restaurants are sometimes called ghost kitchens, dark kitchens, or cloud kitchens. They prepare food in commercial kitchen spaces but lack a traditional restaurant setting.

A virtual kitchen’s business model is built around its online menu, an ordering platform, and partnerships with delivery platforms. This virtual restaurant concept took the spotlight with the rise of food delivery app services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

📈 Since then, this business model hasn’t slowed down due to a steady increase in demand. Currently, 60% of Americans order food deliveries or takeout at least once per week, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

One of the standout advantages of a virtual restaurant is its flexibility. You can start a delivery-only restaurant in virtually any physical location. For instance, you can start your virtual brand right from your residence and offer delivery-only food service to nearby customers.

So now we know what a virtual restaurant is. Let’s take a look at how this business model would operate within a home setting.

What does a home virtual restaurant look like?

Put simply, a home virtual restaurant operates within your own home. All food preparations, packaging, order deliveries, and takeout services are handled here.

For all this to work, you need a restaurant website where you can showcase your food items in an online menu. For doorstep deliveries, customers can order through this website or delivery apps like Uber Eats, Grubhub, or Doordash.

A home virtual restaurant will have various requirements depending on the types of food you want to prepare to be practical and successful.

For instance, a talented baker requires a well-equipped home kitchen, a designated space for cake decoration, and a professional-grade oven.

If you make barbeque, you can utilize your backyard with a smoker and prep station for authentic BBQ cooking. 

A home virtual kitchen differs from commercial setups in several ways:

• Kitchen space and equipment: A home kitchen is usually smaller with limited specialized equipment than a traditional restaurant. Traditional restaurants tend to have a dedicated, spacious kitchen area with professional-grade equipment designed for high-volume cooking.
• Dining space: A home virtual kitchen lacks a physical dining space. Instead, the website you use is similar to what a storefront and dining room is in a commercial restaurant.
• Staffing: A single individual can typically do the job in a startup virtual kitchen. However, as your customer base grows, you’ll often need a small team to help with home operations.
• The menu size: Unlike commercial restaurants that offer more diverse menus to cater to a wide range of customers, your online menu will be limited. It will be based on food concepts around your favorite dishes and what you can prepare.
• Regulations and compliance: Your home kitchen must adhere to local health department regulations and food safety standards. These stands may vary by location. Commercial kitchens are usually subject to rigorous health and safety inspections and must comply with commercial kitchen regulations.

Starting your own home virtual restaurant has several benefits. Let’s have a look.

The benefits of starting a virtual kitchen from home

If you’re thinking about starting a virtual kitchen from home, here are some benefits you’ll enjoy.

Lower operating costs

Starting a home virtual restaurant comes with significant cost benefits. You’ll only need a small kitchen staff and delivery personnel, which is budget-friendly. 

Since you’re operating from your home, you won’t have the added expenses of renting a commercial space, paying extra utility bills, or managing lease costs. Also, you’ll save on expenditures related to the furnishing, decoration, interior design, and tableware typical in traditional existing restaurants.

You’ll also have substantial labor cost savings, especially if you have a compact kitchen team or are the sole cook.

📈 According to Global Market Insights, virtual kitchens can reduce labor costs by up to 25%, cut rent expenses by 20-40%, and trim marketing costs by 10-20% compared to traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants.

One of the most effective marketing strategies for your virtual kitchen is through social media. Starting an Instagram page to showcase your culinary creations or sharing your menus via WhatsApp groups can be a highly efficient way to reach and engage with potential customers.

Increased efficiency

Aside from the direct overhead cost savings, running a home virtual kitchen is more efficient than traditional restaurants. You only need to focus on making high-quality, delicious dishes that travel well and minimizing your turnaround time. 

One of the ways you can achieve this is by using your kitchen resources efficiently. Since you will save money on rent and staff, you can invest more in high-quality kitchen equipment that speeds up your production time.

You will have enough time to create a concise online menu for your new virtual restaurant. You can ensure your customers place and receive timely orders by implementing an effective online food ordering system.

📈 This is highly beneficial because 38% of customers expect to receive their food within 30 minutes after ordering. If you can do this, you’ll have enough time to take a breather between orders.

Lower risk and adaptability

The initial upfront costs required to set up a virtual restaurant are significantly lower than opening a traditional dine-in restaurant space. This affordability makes virtual kitchens an attractive and financially feasible choice for many restaurateurs.

Additionally, the adaptability of virtual kitchens is another significant advantage. If your customers don’t like a particular food menu item, you can swiftly adjust your offerings and provide something more in line with their preferences.

This adaptability allows you to respond effectively to the ever-changing demands of your market, enhancing your chances of success.

Faster setup

Launching a new restaurant is time-consuming, often taking entrepreneurs months or even years to get it up and running.

It involves securing a premise, obtaining licenses and permits, hiring (or training) staff, establishing supplier relationships, and designing an inviting restaurant interior, among other tasks. 

On the contrary, a virtual kitchen accelerates this setup timeline. It allows you to concentrate on essential elements that should keep your restaurant business up and running quickly.

So now we know all the benefits of setting up a virtual restaurant. In the next section, we’ll show you a step-by-step guide on how to start a virtual kitchen from home.

How to start a virtual kitchen from home

Setting up your virtual restaurant from home requires careful planning and execution. Key steps demand your full attention before you can start this venture from the ground up.

In this section, we’ll highlight important steps required to start a successful home virtual restaurant operation right from the comfort of your home.

Setting up your virtual restaurant with WordPress and WooCommerce

Step 1: Decide on your business concept and plan

Start with a clear and unique concept to set up a successful virtual restaurant. Determine the type of food you’ll prepare and who you want to serve it to (your target audience). This will become your vision, and it should clearly reflect the demands of your target market.

Next, you should create a detailed business plan that outlines everything there’s to know about your restaurant.

This should cover:

• Investigating what other food businesses are doing in your area.
• Defining your restaurant’s brand or identity.
• Listing all the food item(s) you’ll offer.
• Planning on how you’ll reach new customers, including social media strategies.
• Calculating how much money you’ll need to invest, etc.

A business plan is important because it helps determine if your restaurant idea is feasible. It enables you to identify areas requiring financial assistance and a team to help you.

Step 2: Location and kitchen setup

The location for your virtual kitchen will be your own residence. However, choosing the right space in your home where you’ll prepare and cook the food is important.

It can be an in-house kitchen, a food truck in your backyard, or the front yard. Additionally, you’ll need to set up a dedicated area for organizing and packaging your delivery orders.  

While a home virtual kitchen saves on overhead costs, it’s vital to comply with local health department regulations and maintain a clean and safe cooking environment. You can apply for a ServSafe food handler certification, which checks if you have basic food safety knowledge.

Make sure to check your local requirements in this area to make sure you’re complying.

Step 3: Create a website and an online ordering system

The success of a delivery-only restaurant is directly tied to having a professional website. Without one, it will be impossible for new customers to find you. You won’t be able to showcase your online menu & food prices, provide delivery services, and allow your customers to place their orders.

📈 Studies show that 35% of guest customers discover new restaurants through your restaurant’s website.

If you want one up and running quickly on WooCommerce, you will need the help of a WooCommerce plugin Orderable. 

Orderable is the go-to plugin for setting up an online ordering system for your home virtual kitchen quickly and easily.

What is the Orderable WooCommerce plugin?

Orderable is a WooCommerce plugin created to help you manage everything in a virtual restaurant efficiently. This WordPress plugin allows you to design good-looking menus and install an online ordering system for your restaurant.

With Orderable, you can provide delivery services to your customers with no additional fee charged. You get to keep all of your hard-earned money in your pocket.

You can do the following with the Orderable plugin:

• Create, customize, and showcase mouth-watering online food menus. Orderable allows you to organize your food items into a modern, menu-style layout. This will your customers to pick and choose what they want to add to their order.

• Manage and organize your orders as they come in. The Live Order View feature allows you to see who made an order, at what time they made the order, the order status, and when the customer expects their order. This page updates in real-time.

• Set up time slots for delivery of orders. This feature lets you allow your customers to select a time they expect to receive their order. You can also offer pickups from your home (However, this is optional).

• Set a maximum number of orders per day. This allows you to limit the number of orders you’re able to fulfill for each day. 
• Create a delivery zone where you’ll offer delivery services to your customers. Customers outside the defined delivery area (geographical location) may need to arrange alternative means to receive their orders. In addition, Orderable lets you apply an additional charge for local deliveries. 

• Upsell via product add-ons and order bumps. You can allow customers to add additional sauces or promote dessert items or sides. This will allow you to increase the average order value (AOV).

• You can notify your customers about the progress of their order through WhatsApp, SMS (via Twilio), or email. Keeping customers updated will improve their experience with your store and encourage them to buy from it again.

• Boost your store’s revenue by adding tip prompts during checkout. This way, happy customers can leave a tip and boost your profit margins.

• Schedule holidays where you won’t take new orders, make deliveries, or allow local pickups.

On top of this, the Orderable plugin installs WooCommerce for you, if you haven’t already done so. Both plugins work together to allow you to manage all online orders, payments, and product inventory efficiently.

Orderable makes this setup easy, and in just a few clicks, an online ordering system for your home virtual kitchen will be ready.

Step 4: Designing your online menu

The success of your virtual kitchen largely depends on your menu. For this, you should use high-quality food images that will easily grab your customer’s attention and cause them to buy.

You can achieve this effortlessly with the Orderable plugin. All you have to do is create a menu layout and add food products.

Orderable allows you to create flexible menu layouts for your products quickly to get your virtual restaurants up in no time. Its timed products feature lets you choose when certain products appear on your restaurant website. This is perfect for creating lunch or dinner menus.

You can add nutritional information about your food products, show allergen info (if any), and other product labels. The best part is you can update your online menu in real time.

Always consider adding dishes that travel well to your online menu. The last thing you want is your food to arrive soggy, cold, or unappealing due to packaging or travel time issues.

Step 5: Sourcing delivery

There are two options for this step. You can partner with third-party delivery services like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Grubhub, and Doordash. Alternatively, you can hire dedicated drivers to help you with delivery. 

Third-party delivery apps serve a wide customer base; you don’t have to hire drivers. However, these apps charge high commissions for each delivery, which can negatively impact your profit margins.

In addition, you’ll have to wait for their drivers to arrive at your kitchen before they can pick up an order and deliver it to your customers. This might also negatively affect your customer experience because of delivery delays.

We recommend hiring dedicated delivery drivers to help you with the delivery job. The drivers are reliable and can deliver orders quickly to your customer’s doorstep. Besides, negotiating fair prices with a hired hand is relatively easy.

Step 5: Launch, fulfill, and adjust

With your business plan ready, your kitchen set up, your website running, and the online ordering system in place, you’re set to launch your home virtual kitchen. 

When orders start to flow in, you can process and manage them on Orderable’s Live Order View page, marking them as complete upon order fulfillment.

Also, it’s crucial to continuously monitor and adjust your operations based on your performance and customer feedback. This will help you ensure consistent, high-quality customer service and improve where you are underperforming.

Learn how to start a virtual restaurant from home today

Starting a virtual restaurant from home is a cost-effective way to enter the restaurant industry and earn a primary income from your cooking skills. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants, this business model requires minimal overhead costs. It’s flexible, adaptable, low-risk, and easy to set up.

With a WooCommerce plugin like Orderable, managing your home-based restaurant’s operations has never been easier. This plugin allows you to add an online ordering system to your home virtual restaurant to streamline your operations effortlessly.