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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 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, so the policy responds to the way you actually trade. Smaller venues without a full kitchen usually fit better under cafe insurance.
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
- Refrigeration breakdown and the stock spoilage that follows, unless the deterioration of stock extension is taken
- Fire damage where the flue and canopy have not been cleaned to the schedule the policy requires
- Injury to your own staff, which belongs to workers compensation rather than public liability
- Liability accepted under a contract beyond what the law would impose anyway
- Money left on the premises overnight above the limit stated in the schedule
- Cyber events and funds transfer fraud, which a property policy does not answer
FRS walks the site with you and checks the cleaning records, the money limits and the lease obligations, so the restaurant insurance policy lines up with how the kitchen 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:
- Call FRS as soon as the incident happens, before repairs are ordered
- Make the site safe, protect stock that can still be saved and photograph everything before it is cleared
- Report theft, a break in or malicious damage to police and keep the report number
- Do not admit liability to a customer, a neighbour or the landlord
- Pull together trading figures, wage records and supplier invoices for the lost income part of the claim
- 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.
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.