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Restaurant insurance needs to fit the way your kitchen actually runs, from a family dining room to a busy venue with a bar. Your council registers the premises under the Food Act, and insurers often add conditions of their own, such as regular cleaning of the exhaust canopy and ducts, which can affect a fire claim if missed. Fortis Risk Solutions compares package wordings, checks spoilage, glass and food poisoning cover, and makes sure the certificate of currency shows the limit your lease asks for. If a kitchen fire or customer injury turns into a claim, we help you lodge it. Have your lease ready. Call 03 7046 3766 or send an enquiry.
What Restaurant Insurance Covers
Restaurant insurance covers the building fit-out, kitchen equipment, stock, staff-related risks and the legal liability that comes with feeding the public, for cafes, restaurants, takeaway shops and licensed venues. It is a package of sections chosen to match how a venue trades, not a single policy.
The risks in a restaurant are specific. A deep fryer or flue fire can close a kitchen for months. A refrigeration failure over a long weekend can spoil thousands of dollars of stock. A customer who slips on a wet floor, or who has an allergic reaction to a dish, can bring a claim years after the meal.
Most landlords of hospitality premises require proof of public liability insurance before handing over the keys, and a liquor licence carries its own conditions. A well-built restaurant package answers both with one certificate of currency, alongside the business interruption insurance that keeps wages and rent paid while repairs are done.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges restaurant cover for venues across Australia as part of our business insurance range, from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn. We look at the venue, the menu, the opening hours and the lease before we go to insurers. We want your policy to reflect how you actually operate, not how a generic restaurant operates. Smaller venues without a full kitchen usually fit better under cafe insurance. This package is part of our hospitality and tourism insurance group.
Restaurant Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
What Restaurant Insurance does not cover
A restaurant insurance package brings property, liability and lost income into one policy. It still leaves out the things an operator is expected to control. Typical exclusions are:
- Wear and tear, gradual deterioration and rust on plant and equipment
- Mechanical or refrigeration breakdown, and the stock spoilage that follows, are not automatically covered and need machinery breakdown and deterioration of stock cover added to the policy
- Fire damage caused by a flue or canopy that has not been maintained or cleaned in line with the insurer’s requirements
- Injury to your own employees, which generally falls under workers compensation rather than public liability insurance
- Additional liability you agree to under a contract that goes beyond your normal legal responsibility
- Money left on the premises overnight above the limit stated in the schedule
- Cyber incidents and funds transfer fraud, which generally need separate or specialised insurance cover
FRS takes the time to understand how your restaurant operates, including the kitchen setup, equipment, insurance limits and lease obligations, so the restaurant insurance policy reflects the way your business actually runs.
How Restaurant Insurance premiums are set
Restaurant insurance is rated on the kitchen, the trading pattern and the lease. Two venues on the same street price very differently once the cooking method is known. The key factors:
- Annual turnover and the split between dine in, takeaway and delivery
- The sums insured for fit out, plant, stock and glass
- Cooking method, particularly deep fryers, char grills and solid fuel
- Flue and canopy cleaning frequency, and whether the records are kept
- Fire protection, suppression over the cook line and back to base alarm monitoring
- Building construction, neighbouring occupancies in a strip or centre, and trading hours
- Claims history, the excess chosen and the indemnity period set for lost income
A liquor licence and late night trade also lift the liability rate. FRS presents the cleaning records and the suppression detail with the submission, because underwriters price an unverified kitchen at the top of the range.
How to claim on Restaurant Insurance
A restaurant claim usually means closed doors, so the income side matters as much as the repair. Get the trading records together early. The FRS process for a restaurant insurance claim:
- Notify: Call FRS as soon as the incident happens, before repairs are ordered
- Make safe and photograph: Make the site safe, protect stock that can still be saved and photograph everything before it is cleared
- Report: Report theft, a break in or malicious damage to police and keep the report number
- Do not admit liability: Do not admit liability to a customer, a neighbour or the landlord
- Gather the trading records: Pull together trading figures, wage records and supplier invoices for the lost income part of the claim
- We lodge and manage: FRS lodges the claim, briefs the assessor and pushes for interim payments so wages and rent keep being met
Lodge the first notification on our make a claim page.
Restaurant Insurance compared with Cafe and Bakery Insurance
| Question | Restaurant | Cafe and Bakery |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Fit out, plant, stock, liability and lost income for a licensed dine in venue | The same structure, sized for a smaller counter service site |
| Who buys it | Operators with a full kitchen, table service and late trade | Cafes, bakeries and takeaway shops trading daytime hours |
| Typical trigger | A kitchen fire, a slip claim, or closure after damage nearby | An oven or fryer fire, glass breakage, refrigeration failure |
| Sits with | Liquor liability and management liability | Retail strip shop cover |
The rating question that separates them is the cook line and the alcohol. A bakery running ovens without a deep fryer sits in a different bracket to a licensed kitchen. If your venue is closer to the counter service end, cafe and bakery insurance is the better fit.
Terms used on this page
Short definitions of the insurance terms used above.
- Certificate of currency: a one-page document from the insurer confirming the policy is in force, the limit and the period. Landlords and councils ask for it.
- Deterioration of stock: an optional section that pays for food that spoils after a refrigeration breakdown or, on some wordings, a power failure.
- Indemnity period: the maximum number of months the business interruption section keeps paying after an insured event. Set it on the rebuild time, not the repair time.
- Sum insured: the most the policy pays for an item or section. If it is set below the real value, a claim can be reduced in proportion.
- Excess: the amount you pay yourself on each claim before the insurer pays the rest.
Restaurant Insurance - Client Case Studies
Cases from the Fortis Risk Solutions broking team. Client names have been removed.
Client case: Property Damage, Stock and Business Interruption After a Cyclone
The client situation: A restaurant located inside a shopping centre was forced to temporarily close after a cyclone in Queensland caused a prolonged power outage to the centre. The loss of electricity caused refrigerated and frozen food stock to spoil and prevented the restaurant from trading.
The incident happened just 6 weeks after the restaurant opened. We had provided holistic risk advice prior to the opening, and they had taken the necessary insurance to protect their operation.How the policy responded: Its Business Insurance policy included cover for Business Interruption arising from damage and loss of stock from storm damage affecting utility services, allowing the cyclone-related power outage and the resulting loss of income and gross profit to be recovered under the policy.
The restaurant claimed approximately $2,368 for spoiled stock and subsequently $1,384 a week of lost Gross Profit for 13 weeks until they fully recovered from the cyclone, a total indemnity of $23,989 including cleaning costs and other additional increased costs of working.How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: We advise on risk before a venue opens, not after the first loss. Utility failure and stock spoilage were on this policy because we raised them at the start.
Client case: Success Story: Insurance for a National Restaurant Group
The client situation: A successful chain restaurant brand operates nationally in all major capital cities, with 17 directly owned restaurants and 12 franchised restaurants, a number that has grown steadily since the pandemic. Including their central kitchen, they have more than 200 direct employees and more than 350 indirect employees and contractors.
How we handled the case: We helped the franchisor review the insurance of all their directly owned restaurants and manage the policies as a group, to make sure each restaurant’s policy follows the group operating guideline and satisfies the insurance requirements of the lease agreement where necessary.
We also provided suggestions and a template for the insurance clauses in their franchise agreement, subject to their management decision and legal adviser review.
By doing so, we gave this reputable restaurant business confidence that when an unexpected insured incident happens, their overall operation will not be affected. If anything goes wrong at a franchisee restaurant, the franchisor does not need to worry about the sustainability of that restaurant or about damage to the brand and its reputation.
We also arranged Management Liability Insurance for the franchisor group, covering Employment Practices Liability (EPL) including sexual harassment, Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) issues, statutory liability such as fines and penalties from regulatory bodies, and internal crime such as employee theft.How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: A group needs one broker who sees every venue. We keep the policies consistent across sites, so a gap at one restaurant does not become a problem for the brand.
Every policy is different and the outcome of a claim depends on its terms. As your broker, Fortis Risk Solutions compares insurers and policy wording before you buy, and lodges and manages the claim for you when something happens. Talk to us about your own cover.
Restaurant Insurance FAQs
Public and products liability is the base, because landlords, councils and event organisers ask for it and because customer injury and food-related claims are the most common. On top of that most venues hold a business insurance package for the fit-out and equipment, with food spoilage cover, glass cover and business interruption added. A venue with a liquor licence adds liquor liability. Workers compensation is separate and compulsory for any business with employees.
Yes, under the products liability section, provided the claim arises from food you prepared or sold. The policy pays compensation and legal defence costs. It does not replace good food handling: insurers will look at compliance with the Food Standards Code and your council registration when a claim is assessed, so keep temperature logs and cleaning records.
Only if the policy includes a deterioration of stock or food spoilage section. Standard property cover pays for damage to the fridge, not the food inside it. A dedicated spoilage section responds to equipment breakdown and, depending on the wording, to power failures outside your control. We check which triggers are included before you buy.
It replaces the gross profit you lose while the venue cannot trade after an insured event such as a kitchen fire, and it pays the fixed costs that keep running: rent, wages, loan repayments and utilities. The indemnity period matters. A commercial kitchen rebuild can take six months or more once council approvals and equipment lead times are counted.
Yes. Customers still enter the shop, delivery drivers carry your food, and products liability covers the meals themselves wherever they are eaten. Vehicles used for deliveries need commercial motor insurance, because a personal car policy usually excludes business use. If staff use their own cars, ask us about the liability gap that leaves.
Hospitality policies differ in the exclusions that matter most: deep fryer conditions, flue cleaning requirements, spoilage triggers and liquor wording. As your broker, FRS helps you disclose the kitchen and trading hours accurately, structure sums insured for fit-out and stock, compare specialist hospitality insurers and act as your advocate at claim time. Venues with several staff should also review management liability insurance for employment disputes, and any venue taking online orders should look at cyber insurance for card data.
Restaurant cover is easy to buy and harder to compare. Two sections separate one policy from another. Products liability should respond to a food poisoning or allergy claim, with a limit your landlord accepts. Spoilage cover should pay for stock lost when refrigeration fails, and you should check whether a power cut from the street counts. After those, look at how business interruption is calculated while the kitchen is closed. We compare the wording across insurers for venues around Melbourne.
Related reading
Related pages
Related industry pages: Hotel and Hospitality Property Insurance
Talk to a broker about Restaurant Insurance
Call 03 7046 3766 on weekdays between 9:30am and 6pm, email admin@fortisrisksolutions.com.au, or send an enquiry and a broker from our Box Hill or Hawthorn office will come back to you about restaurant insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.