How long does a commercial kitchen deep clean take?

It depends on size and condition, and condition varies far more than size does. A kitchen that has been deep cleaned on a rotation is a fraction of the work of one that has not been touched in a year. Any contractor should give you a realistic time estimate along with the written scope, so you can plan the closed window around it.

Do we need to empty the kitchen first?

Food, small equipment and anything loose on surfaces should be cleared or covered. Shelving and dry store get significantly better results if they are emptied, so it is worth agreeing in advance who is doing that and when.

Is hood cleaning included in a kitchen deep clean?

No. Extraction is a separate service — the hood canopy, filters and accessible ductwork need different access and different equipment, and the required frequency is usually set by your insurer or local fire code rather than by how the kitchen looks.

Restaurant Kitchen Deep Cleaning Checklist

September 1, 20266 min read

Use this as a scope document. Whether the work is done in-house or by a contractor, the value is in having the list written down with a frequency against each line — that is what stops the awkward items being permanently deferred.

Cooking line and equipment

Range tops, burners, grates and drip trays
Fryer exteriors, baskets and surrounds; oil disposal areas
Grill and griddle surfaces, splash guards and back panels
Oven exteriors; interiors on the agreed rotation
Salamanders, holding units and heat lamps
Equipment sides and backs — the surfaces nobody sees
Under and behind equipment wherever it can be moved safely
Gas connections and legs, cleaned around rather than disturbed

Walls, splashbacks and high surfaces

Degrease all wall surfaces around the cooking line
Splashbacks and stainless wall cladding, finished streak-free
Reachable ceiling-adjacent surfaces and pipework runs
Light fittings and diffusers within safe reach
Vents, grilles and reachable ductwork faces
Door frames, push plates and handles

Preparation and storage

Prep tables, including undersides and leg bases
Shelving and racking, emptied where practical
Dry store floors, shelving and door seals
Walk-in and reach-in refrigeration: floors, shelving, seals, handles
Freezer floors and door gaskets
Container and utensil storage areas

Sinks, warewashing and drains

All sinks, taps, splash areas and underside plumbing
Dishwasher exterior, door seals, racks and surrounds
Hand-wash stations, soap and towel dispensers
Floor drains, drain covers and the surrounds
Grease trap area and access surrounds — servicing itself is a specialist job

Floors

Full floor clean including under and behind moveable equipment
Floor-wall junctions, coving and baseboards
Grout lines, treated where mopping is no longer recovering them
Thresholds, door tracks and the corridor to the bin store
Anti-slip matting, lifted and cleaned both sides

Waste and back of house

Bin interiors and exteriors, including lids and foot pedals
Bin store floor and walls
The route between kitchen and bin store
Recycling and glass storage areas
Staff areas, lockers and welfare space

The items most often missed

In practice these are the lines that separate a genuine deep clean from a thorough regular one:

The sides and backs of equipment, and the gaps between adjacent units
Undersides of prep tables and shelving
Floor-wall junctions and the coving behind equipment
Door seals and gaskets on refrigeration
The bin store and the route to it
Reachable ductwork faces and vent grilles
The legs and bases of everything that stands on the floor

Extraction — the hood canopy, filters and duct runs — is deliberately not on this list. It is a separate specialist job with its own access requirements and its own required frequency, and it should be scoped and quoted on its own.

Want this handled?

Likti provides kitchen cleaning across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. We scope the work on site and give you the price in writing before anything starts.

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