Cost to open a restaurant in Tunisia: a 120 m² example in dinars

The cost to open a restaurant in Tunisia reaches 225,550 DT in our 120 m² example, and most of that is decided in the kitchen. A restaurant has to cook, wash, store and remove smoke, and each of those functions needs floor area and equipment. None of the amounts below is a market rate. They are assumptions for you to replace with quotes.

Amounts are in Tunisian dinars (DT), and a point separates the millimes: 19.040 DT is nineteen dinars and 40 millimes.

Floor area comes before the budget

In Tunis, the city’s health regulation for restaurants splits the premises into six zones. The text dates from 24 December 1993, and the link goes to an archived copy of the municipal page. It applies to the city of Tunis, so ask your own municipality what it enforces today.

Use this table as a filter. An 80 m² unit leaves only 40 m² of dining room. If your plan counts on 50 covers, that unit fails whatever the rent.

What does it cost to open a restaurant in Tunisia?

Assumptions for this example: bare premises, rent of 3,500 DT a month, a partly new kitchen, seven employees at opening.

For the till line, get one quote that includes the kitchen printers. Before buying, ask your accountant which tax rules apply to how your business records sales. Our guide to restaurant POS hardware in Tunisia has prices you can use as a first check.

Three works items that blow the quote

The same Tunis regulation contains three requirements that cost a lot and are hard to spot on a viewing.

The flue. The hood must connect to a duct that rises at least 3 metres above the highest roof within 25 metres. In a block of flats, that means running through or along several floors. Bring a technician before you sign, because the owner and the neighbours can stop the project.

The grease trap. Kitchen and dishwashing sinks must drain through a grease separator approved by ONAS, the national sanitation office. Each zone needs three hot-water sinks.

Height and walls. You need 2.80 metres of ceiling height, and walls tiled or coated with waterproof paint up to 1.80 metres. A low basement or an old shop with a false ceiling can fail here.

Add one recurring cost. In February 2026 the municipality of Tunis asked restaurants to sign a waste collection contract. Ask what your own commune requires.

Your cash reserve: 14,500 DT a month in this example

Three months of reserve comes to 43,500 DT. Your wage line must at least respect the minimum wage of 554.736 DT a month for 48 hours, and skilled kitchen staff cost more.

How many covers pay the bills?

Take an average spend of 28.000 DT excluding VAT and a food cost of 32%. Each cover leaves 19.040 DT of gross margin.

• 14,500 ÷ 19.040 = 762 covers a month
• 762 ÷ 26 trading days = 30 covers a day

That pays the fixed costs. It does not pay a loan or your own salary. A 3,000 DT monthly repayment adds 158 covers a month, about six a day. Do not start from an average food cost: run your five best sellers, whether ojja, couscous or fish, through the food cost formula or the food cost calculator (in French).

Stress test: what if you get half the covers?

Investors usually see the full-house case. Run the half-full one too. Say you plan 40 covers a day and only 20 come.

Our rule: if the restaurant cannot survive four months at half volume, lower the investment before you commit. Total your own lines in the opening budget calculator (in French). If your project is alcohol-free drinks with no kitchen, read how to open a cafe in Tunisia instead.

What foreign investors should check

The nationality and natural-person conditions are written for first-category cafes, and that 2004 document does not cover restaurants. We found no similar condition in the Tunis regulation, which is a hygiene text, so read that as a gap in our sources and not as legal clearance. You choose between a sole business and a company with your accountant. Three points are worth raising:

• The Finance Ministry’s page on tax IDs lists a trader’s card for foreigners among the possible documents.
• The industry promotion agency APII describes an online project declaration that, for individual projects, covers liberal professions and businesses created by foreigners.
• Foreign-investment conditions are outside the scope of this article. Get them from a Tunisian lawyer, in writing, for your own concept.

Comparing the plan with the first months

Your table says 32% food cost, and the first month will tell you the truth. With Tracer, recipes calculate the cost of each dish and the P&L shows where you stand against that number. Both are in the Starter plan, 99 DT a month billed annually.