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Pub, Hotel & Bar Equipment
A bar is a refrigeration and glassware operation before it is anything else. Under-counter fridges and keg systems hold the stock, a glasswasher turns glassware around fast enough to keep up, and an ice machine sized for summer keeps drinks moving. Commercial Kitchen Appliances supplies the bar and the bistro line behind it, ex-GST.
- Australia-wide delivery
- SilverChef finance available
- Manufacturer-backed warranty
- Granville showroom
Popular in this range
A selection from 92 products, priced ex-GST.
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Who this range is for
Pubs, hotels, taverns, wine bars and cocktail bars, plus the bistro kitchens behind them. In Australia a pub and a hotel are the same licensing animal, so this range covers both - bar service first, then the food offer that keeps people there.
How a bar and bistro is equipped
A bar is a refrigeration and glassware operation before it is anything else. Cold stock, clean glasses and enough ice are what determine service speed at 6pm on a Friday - not the cookline. Equip the bar properly, then size the bistro to the food you actually sell.
1
Bar refrigeration
The core of the operation. Stock has to be cold and within reach without the bartender turning away.
| Bar fridges | Under-counter glass-door refrigeration sited within arm's reach of the pour point. |
| Keg and beer dispensers | Keg refrigeration and dispensing for tap beer. |
| Wine fridges | Separate temperature band for wine by the glass. |
| Drink fridges | Additional glass-door refrigeration for packaged product. |
2
Glassware and ice
The two things that stop a bar dead when they run out.
| Glasswashers | Short, gentle cycles that turn glassware around fast enough to keep pace with the bar. |
| Glass and jug rinsers | Fast rinse at the pour point without a full wash cycle. |
| Ice makers | Size on summer peak. Ice is the single most under-ordered item in Australian bars. |
| Ice tubs | Point-of-use ice holding along the bar. |
3
The bistro line
Sized to the food you actually sell, not to the size of the dining room.
| Chargrills | The workhorse of a pub menu - steak, burgers and protein to order. |
| Deep fryers | Two smaller vats beat one large one: separate oils, and you keep frying while one recovers. |
| Combi steam ovens | Roasting, steaming and regeneration from one cavity - useful for function volume. |
| Hot bain maries | Holding for sides and sauces through a long service window. |
4
Warewashing and support
Pub kitchens generate more cookware than plates, which is what catches people out.
| Passthrough dishwashers | Higher racks-per-hour throughput for busy bistro service. |
| Inlet and outlet benches | Maintains one-way dirty-to-clean flow through the dishroom. |
| Stainless benches | Landing space either side of the grill and fryer. |
| Exhaust canopies | Sized to the bistro cookline, not to the room. |
Glasswasher vs dishwasher behind the bar
Most venues need both, and using one for the other's job is a common cause of slow service and chipped glassware. The difference is cycle length and wash intensity.
| Glasswasher | Dishwasher | |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle length | Short - built to keep pace with table turnover | Longer - needed to shift baked-on food residue |
| Wash intensity | Gentle, to protect glassware | Aggressive, for plates and cookware |
| Rack height | Sized for glasses and cups | Taller, takes plates, trays and pans |
| Siting | Under the bar, at the point of use | In the dishroom, on a dirty-to-clean bench run |
| Result if you substitute | Plates come out unclean in a glasswasher | Glassware chips and clouds in a dishwasher |
What drives the cost of a pub or bar fit-out
We have not published dollar ranges, because bar and bistro spend move independently - a wine bar with a small plates menu and a suburban pub doing 300 counter meals are different projects. What we can tell you is what moves the total.
On the bar side: linear metres of under-counter refrigeration, the number of taps and whether keg refrigeration is under-bar or in a coolroom, and ice capacity. On the bistro side: menu breadth, because each additional cooking method adds an appliance plus its share of extraction.
The two items most often under-bought are ice and warewashing. Both are cheap to size up at fit-out and disruptive to fix afterwards.
For a real figure, send us your bar layout and menu and we will quote it. Finance is available through SilverChef, with approvals up to around $65,000 in about five minutes.
Standards and approvals for pubs and bars
Gas. Bistro cooking equipment running on gas must be installed to AS/NZS 5601.1 by a licensed gasfitter, and certification is checked at inspection.
Extraction. Canopy sizing and airflow for the bistro line fall under AS 1668.2, with the canopy overhanging the cooking surface on every exposed side. Pub kitchens are often under-extracted because the canopy gets sized after the cookline is chosen rather than alongside it.
Temperature control. Under Food Standards Code 3.2.2, potentially hazardous food must be held at 5°C or below or 60°C or above, and anything cooked ahead for function service must be cooled from 60°C to 21°C within two hours and to 5°C within a further four. Food-contact surfaces must meet Food Standards Code 3.2.3.
Liquor licensing is separate from food-premises approval and is administered by your state liquor authority - it governs trading hours, service and layout rather than equipment, but it can affect bar design. Confirm fit-out details with your local council.
Pub and bar equipment FAQs
How much ice-making capacity does a bar need?
More than almost anyone estimates, and sized against summer peak rather than an annual average. Ice is the single most under-ordered item in Australian bars, and running short on a hot Friday means either capping the drinks list or buying bagged ice at a far worse cost per kilo than the right machine would have been.
Should keg refrigeration be under the bar or in a coolroom?
Under-bar is simpler and cheaper to install and suits a small number of taps. A dedicated keg coolroom makes sense once you run enough taps that changing kegs behind the bar during service becomes disruptive, and it frees valuable under-counter space for stock. The crossover point is usually about the number of taps and how busy the bar is.
Do I need a glasswasher if I already have a dishwasher?
If you run a bar, effectively yes. Glasswashers use short gentle cycles at the point of use, which is what lets glassware keep pace with table turnover; a dishwasher is built for plates and cookware and will chip and cloud glassware over time. Running the bar's glassware through the kitchen also means staff walking away from the bar mid-service.
How do I size the bistro cookline?
Count menu items by cooking method rather than sizing on seats. Work out how many dishes at peak need the grill, then the fryer, then the oven - the highest count tells you where to spend first. A pub with a fryer-heavy counter menu needs very different equipment from one built around roasts and a combi.
Why two smaller fryers instead of one large one?
Two vats let you hold different oils - keeping seafood separate from chips - and you can keep frying while one vat recovers temperature. A single large vat has more capacity on paper but no redundancy, so an oil change or a temperature drop stops frying altogether right when you need it.
Do I need extraction over the bar as well as the kitchen?
Generally not for the bar itself, since there is no cooking, though mechanical ventilation for the space as a whole still applies. The bistro cookline definitely does, assessed under AS 1668.2. If you add any cooking behind the bar - a grill for bar snacks, for instance - that changes the assessment, so raise it with your council early.
Supplying another kind of venue? We stock commercial kitchen equipment for every trade in Australian food service.
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