Industries
Restaurants
Ice for service, display and the kitchen
A restaurant uses ice in more places than most operators count — water service, the bar, oyster and seafood display, and chilling stock down in the kitchen. It’s worth adding those up separately, because the display side is the part that usually gets forgotten, and it needs flake rather than cube.
What suits a restaurant
- Crescent or full cube – for water service and mixed drinks. Clear, slow-melting, and it won’t clump together in the bin.
- Flake – if you display seafood or shellfish. It moulds around product without bruising it.
- Allow around 0.7 to 0.9 kg per cover, and count any display separately at roughly 0.5 kg per litre of bed.
Most restaurant machines sit in a hot kitchen, where you’ll get about a fifth less ice than the rated figure. Worth building into the sizing rather than discovering in February.