As we mentioned earlier, restaurants acoustics are a casualty of rooms with tall ceilings, large rooms, lack of sound absorption, and crowds of people. We know how to improve acoustics in a room. Here are the steps to take to get your restaurant acoustics and soundproofing under control:

1. Soundproof the Kitchen
2. Improve Acoustics in the Dining Area
3. Limit Particularly Loud Noise Sources
4. Try Sound Masking with background Noise

Step One: Soundproof The Kitchen

Probably the loudest area of any restaurant is the kitchen. And frankly, as someone who’s washed their fair share of dishes, you know that when the kitchen is loud and boisterous, business is booming. So as an owner or an employee, it can be a good sign to walk into a loud kitchen, it can even be energizing and motivate you to continue to do good work! But for restaurant patrons, it’s a huge distraction. Rather than try to get your kitchen staff to somehow cook quieter, find ways to seal the kitchen from the dining area and keep the sound from getting through. Start by soundproofing the kitchen door if you have one and any walls that face the dining area.

All kitchen layouts are different, so we recommend checking out our article on how to soundproof a room. These soundproofing principles can also be helpful if your restaurant is suffering from street noise or loud neighbors. For more targeted needs like how to soundproof a wall shared with your dining hall, read our expert advice.

Step Two: Improve dining area Acoustics

Your focus in the dining area should be to find ways to absorb the sound bouncing off of the many hard surfaces in a restaurant. The most effective way to do this is to install acoustic panels on the walls and ceiling. We love the PolyZorbe™ Vivid acoustic panels because of the color choices! Alternatively, you can hang one of our acoustic clouds from the ceiling or consider BlocknZorbe™ acoustic baffles for absorption with no fibers to worry about.

A sneaky, but effective way to improve the acoustics in your dining area is with the use of BlocknZorbe™ diffusion panels to make your space feel bigger and more open while reducing reverberation. Place them in any trouble spots that might have a lot of noise build-up.

If you’re worried about tinkering with the aesthetics of your space, there’s a good answer: use “hidden absorption”. Install acoustic material anywhere it can’t be easily seen, like underneath all your tables. With a little framing around this under-table absorption, it’s protected from children’s picking fingers and your customers won’t be able to see it unless they are laying on the floor. While a bit less performance than acoustic panels on the wall, the hidden absorption will still make a big difference. And you can also choose much cheaper materials, because it doesn’t matter if they look good.

In addition, you can find ways to incorporate thick, sound absorbing decor throughout your space like rugs and curtains. Wood, glass, and concrete may be great for your design, but they’re terrible sound absorbers. Find ways to incorporate carpet in high traffic areas, and curtains on walls or windows close to seating areas. Using thick, but soft materials are key to sound absorption. Thin materials won’t do much, but are still better than regular concrete or hardwood.

Step Three: Identifying Loudest noise sources

Try to sniff out what objects are creating noise in the restaurant, even small things can add up to contribute to a noisy environment. If you’re able to, move loud machinery like ice machines, drink machines, blenders, etc away from patrons or in a different room entirely. If you play TVs or loud music for bar patrons, try to separate that space from diners. This has the added benefit of having a restaurant with two unique environments that people can choose from.

Even take a look at the furniture. People are constantly shifting their seats and getting up, so use floor protectors and furniture pads so chairs and tables slide around easily. Check tables regularly so they don’t wobble and rattle. Even tablecloths can be helpful! Although they are too thin to absorb sound from people, they will lessen the noise as silverware, plates, and glasses clink and are moved around.

Step Four: background noise

Ok so this last tip may sound counterintuitive, but you should find a way to create background noise. I know we just gave you a bunch of tips on how to get rid of noise, but hear us out. When you play background sounds at a low steady level, it can actually have a masking effect on intrusive noise. This is why white noise is often used in office spaces, or to help people sleep. The background sound you use should be bland and steady and shouldn’t exceed 60 decibels (and could even be less than 50 db in a more quiet restaurant). When done right, people won’t even notice the background sound. There also are complex noise systems you can install, but your typical high quality audio system will work just fine for most restaurants.

Eating at a restaurant is the perfect sensory experience. The smells from the kitchen, the feeling of breaking open fresh bread, of course the taste of the food, and yes, even the sounds around you. But when one of these senses is negatively affected, it can drag down the entire experience. We’ll let you continue to be the experts in delicious cuisine, but as the chefs of sound, we’re always here to help you find ways to create a dining experience that’s as pleasing to the ear as it is to the taste buds.

Quick Tips to Restaurant noise reduction

So you've made it through our help on dealing with different areas of your restaurant. If you have questions or have a restaurant that is dealing with a lot of noise issues, here are the quick tips to reducing the noise levels:

1. Use acoustic panels in the walls of the dining areas
2. Use acoustic materials to cover the ceiling as well
3. Keep loudest noise sources as far from the dining area as possible
4. Look into soundproofing entryways and exits, doors specifically