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Starting a restaurant in Europe costs €48,000–€130,000 in 2026, with first income after about 22 weeks and earnings of up to €6,800 a month working full time.
Last updated: September 2026 · sources at the bottom of the page
Full service premises with a kitchen and a room to fill.
| Money to start | €48,000–€130,000 | What you spend before the first customer pays: kit, stock, licences, launch. |
|---|---|---|
| Hours a week | 50–70 | What it takes to run it properly, from part time to full time. |
| Weeks to first income | about 22 | How long you pay in before any money comes back. You still need to live in those weeks. |
| Kept of every €100 | €11 | What stays with you after running costs, before you pay yourself for your hours. |
| Most it earns a month | €6,800 full time + | A realistic ceiling for you running it. It can grow further, but only by hiring or adding units. |
| Competition | high | Easy to enter, so plenty of people already do it. |
| Licence or qualification | needed | Count it in months, not weeks, and check the rules where you live. |
The figure above is what this earns in the shape described: you, running it. Past that it keeps going, but by hiring people or adding units, not by you working more hours. That is a different job from the one you would be starting, and worth knowing before you start it.
This has the thinnest margin and the longest wait of anything in the database, and most of the capital is spent before a single customer walks in. It is on this list because it can genuinely be large — but it is the one where the gap between a good month and a bad one is the difference between a wage and nothing.
These are the categories this business pays for in the first month. We go through the software side on the tools page.
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A site made for your a restaurant business, Google profile, domain and email, a QR poster and a 30-day launch plan built on the numbers above. Live in about a week.
Between €48,000 and €130,000 to begin. That covers premises lease and fit-out, commercial kitchen, food hygiene registration and licences and the rest of the setup. It does not cover your own living costs during the 22 weeks before the first income arrives, which is the cost most people forget.
Around 22 weeks to the first euro. Reaching the realistic maximum of €6,800 a month takes considerably longer, and assumes 70 hours a week.
Up to about €6,800 a month working full time. Of every €100 it takes, about €11 stays with you after running costs. Past that it can grow, but by hiring people or adding units rather than by working more hours.
Not really. This one produces nothing at reduced hours: it is full time or it is nothing. At 50 hours a week minimum, and 22 weeks before the first euro, there is no part-time version of it that pays.
Competition is high. Crowded markets are crowded because anyone can enter tomorrow, which is also why they tend to keep more of each euro but earn less in total.
Compare further: every business you can start with €50,000 · what it costs to start a business, across all 115 · all 115 ranked by startup cost
Where these numbers come from. Figures are rounded ranges for European markets; check the ones you are about to spend money on. Last checked September 2026.
These numbers are the average case. Whether this business clears your target depends on your money, your hours and how long you can wait. Put them in and see.
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