Restaurant Feasibility Study Consultant in Riyadh

By Ralph Homer, founder of Praxis Model · 33 years and more than 300 restaurant projects · Updated October 18, 2026 · اقرأ بالعربية

In short. Praxis Model prepares restaurant and cafe feasibility studies for investors opening in Riyadh: Olaya and King Fahd Road, KAFD, Hittin and the Boulevard, Al Malqa, Al Yasmin and the northern districts, Diriyah and the city's malls. You get a complete study of your concept, your location and your numbers, with a clear verdict, delivered in seven days. One location costs USD 3,999 (about SAR 15,000) at our founding price.

Scope, price and timeline

Praxis Model is a restaurant feasibility study consultancy for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the six GCC markets. Fixed, published prices from USD 3,999. Delivered in seven days. Built for bank, investor and landlord submissions.

Most feasibility work in the Gulf is priced after a call and delivered in weeks. Ours is priced on this page and delivered in days.

Who it is for

You have a concept and a budget, and you are close to signing something in Riyadh: a lease on a street unit in Olaya or Hittin, a pad in the northern districts, a unit in a lifestyle centre, or a franchise contract. Before that signature, you want to know whether the restaurant will make money, how much it will really cost to open, and how long the cash has to last.

Our clients are usually one of three people. A Saudi investor with capital and a concept for the capital. A Gulf operator with a proven restaurant in Dubai, Doha or Kuwait who wants Riyadh next. Or a foreign group entering the Kingdom through Riyadh, who needs the numbers before the structure.

Why a national study, or a free template, is not enough here

Riyadh has rules the rest of the Kingdom does not: a five-year rent freeze, its own commercial signage guide, and a municipality that inspects district by district. It is also the most crowded market in Saudi Arabia. A template, or a study written for Saudi Arabia in general, gets these lines wrong, and they are the lines that decide whether a site pays.

That is why we start with the concept and work outward. The menu decides the equipment, the equipment decides the floor area you lease, the floor area decides the parking a standalone site must provide, and the seats multiplied by the average bill decide the sales the site has to deliver.

How we prepare a restaurant feasibility study in Riyadh

1. The concept first. The idea, the menu and the guests, before a single riyal is committed.
2. The site, at every hour. Weekday lunch in Olaya and KAFD, evenings in Hittin and on Prince Mohammed bin Saad Road, weekends in the malls, and the summer months when the terrace empties. Who passes your door, and when.
3. The capital budget. Fit-out, kitchen, the Balady and civil defence licences, signage, deposits, pre-opening salaries, marketing, working capital and contingency. Our rule: a 5 percent contingency on the build, and working capital for three months of fixed costs.
4. Sales. Covers and average spend by time of day and by season, Ramadan, summer and Riyadh Season included, built from your menu and your seats rather than from hope.
5. Costs. Food, staff, Saudization, levies and iqamas, rent, utilities and delivery commissions, line by line.
6. Break-even and payback. The monthly sales that cover your costs, when you reach them, and when the money comes back.
7. The verdict. Go, or Go with Conditions. When the answer is no, we say so plainly, with what would have to change.

Opening a restaurant in Riyadh: the rules we price

Rules change, so we check them live for every study. This is what the official and published sources said when we last checked, on 18 October 2026. Ownership, the investment licence, Saudization and levies follow national rules, set out on our Saudi Arabia page; below is what Riyadh adds.

Licensing and inspection

• The municipality. The Riyadh Region Municipality licenses food outlets and inspects them sector by sector. In July 2026 a Central Sector campaign on cloud kitchens and fast-food restaurants issued 43 violations, from degraded frying oil to expired licences and trading outside the licensed area. An earlier district sweep in Manfouha shut 231 establishments.
• One rulebook for food outlets. Since August 2025 national requirements sort outlets into five categories (restaurants with and without service, cafes, cloud kitchens, and kiosks in malls and markets), require building-code compliance for electrics, ventilation and drainage, and forbid trading outside the licensed boundary. Seating on a public sidewalk needs its own Balady permit.
• Signage. Riyadh has its own regulatory guide for commercial signage on Balady, separate from the rest of the Kingdom. We read the current edition for your site before the facade is drawn.
• Late hours, music and shisha. Trading between midnight and 5:00 needs a 24-hour permit, reported in July 2026 at up to SAR 100,000 a year with municipality and police approval. Live shows need a General Entertainment Authority permit, and tobacco and shisha need a separate Balady licence.
• Menus. Since July 2025 SFDA rules require calories, a salt icon and caffeine content on menus, delivery apps included.
• Parking. The ministry's restaurant requirements ask a standalone restaurant for one space per 25 square metres of built area and fast food for one per 50; mall units need none. That edition dates from 2019, so we check it against the newest version for every study. A 400 square metre standalone needs about 16 spaces, and in the northern districts that decides the plot.

Delivery

• Riyadh is the delivery market. The Riyadh region took about 44 percent of the Kingdom's delivery orders in 2025, according to a General Authority for Competition study. The same study found in-app menu prices running 20 to more than 80 percent above restaurants' own apps, and the authority treats pricing below average variable cost as predatory.
• Couriers. The Transport General Authority issued the executive regulation for commercial motorcycle delivery in August 2026, moving the sector from a trial regime to a full framework. A delivery-led concept carries its commission and courier costs line by line in the study.

Climate

• The terrace is a winter number. Average daily highs reach 42.7 to 43.6 degrees from June to August, against 20 to 24 degrees from December to February. We size outdoor covers on the cooler months, not on a March photograph.

What restaurant space costs in Riyadh, and the rent freeze

Rent decides most Riyadh budgets, and since September 2025 the capital has a rule that changes the rent line itself. The latest published benchmarks:

Earlier Knight Frank readings put the mall average at SAR 2,795 to 2,845, so we quote the dated figure and price your unit from its own offer. Asking rents are what landlords advertise, not what tenants sign. The best lifestyle schemes are close to full and mostly let to local brands, so a newcomer often waits for new supply or takes a street site.

The rent freeze. From 25 September 2025, for five years, total rent cannot rise on residential or commercial leases inside Riyadh's urban boundary, new or existing. Escalation clauses signed before that date still apply; leases signed after it cannot escalate. A vacant unit that was let before is fixed at its last Ejar contract, while a unit never let before sets its first rent freely. Landlords can challenge the fixed rent after major renovations, or where the last lease ended before 2024, and fines reach 12 months' rent. For a restaurant, the freeze rewards a long Ejar-registered lease on a previously let unit, and protects far less on a new build.

Our rule on rent: 12 to 15 percent of sales is the norm, and 20 percent is the absolute maximum, only for a very prime site. Above that, the restaurant works for the landlord. You can test your own numbers with our free restaurant break-even calculator.

Financing in Riyadh: what Monsha'at routes and the banks ask for

• Three routes, all national. Monsha'at's own guide for small food outlets lists bank products run with Monsha'at, Kafalah loan guarantees, and Social Development Bank finance for Saudi-owned small and micro enterprises. We found no funding programme for Riyadh restaurants alone.
• No approved-consultant rule. We found no published rule that a restaurant licence, or any of these routes, needs a feasibility study from an approved or accredited consultant. A study sold as "guaranteed" or "approved" is a marketing claim, not a regulatory status.
• Banks set their own test. Ask your bank which format and reviewers it accepts before you commission any study.

We build every study to be read by a lender: sources and uses, a monthly profit and loss, cash flow and break-even, with every assumption written down. We never arrange financing and we take no fee from any bank or fund. The study is yours to present, and the Investor Edition gives you a presentation version for exactly that meeting.

The Riyadh market in four numbers

• About 18,000 restaurants and cafes in Riyadh, according to the data platform Mukatafa (February 2026). Across the Kingdom outlets doubled to more than 112,000 between 2021 and 2024, while average revenue per outlet fell from SAR 1.4 million to under 0.9 million.
• 44 percent of the Kingdom's delivery orders came from the Riyadh region in 2025.
• 100 million metro journeys in under nine months; the Qasr Al Hokm, KAFD, stc and National Museum stations alone carry more than 29 percent of riders.
• 10 weeks of Riyadh Season from 21 October 2026, centred on Boulevard City, Boulevard World, VIA Riyadh and The Groves.

Two things temper the growth story. Riyadh hotels were the weakest market in the Kingdom through August 2026, with occupancy down 10.8 points as business travel fell during the 2026 regional conflict. And new supply is arriving: Westfield Riyadh, 220,000 square metres and about 94 percent pre-leased, moves into operation in the fourth quarter of 2026, with The Avenues Riyadh and Diriyah Square to follow. We test whether your concept has room on its own street, not just whether the city is growing.

The four questions investors ask us first

• What kind of concept? Any food and beverage concept: a specialty coffee shop, a quick-service counter, casual dining, fine dining, a cloud kitchen, a drive-through or a mall kiosk. Sales are built from your own menu, seats and dayparts.
• Which district? Olaya and King Fahd Road, Tahlia, KAFD, Hittin and the Boulevard, Al Malqa, Al Yasmin, Al Narjis, Diriyah and Bujairi, the lifestyle centres and the main malls. The study is built for your exact site, its rent and the trading pattern around it.
• Is it for a bank, investors or your own decision? All three. The same study serves your own go or no-go and a submission to a bank, an investor or a landlord.
• Saudi investor or foreign group? Both. A Saudi or GCC owner and a foreign investor walk through different doors, with different costs and timelines, so we price your door before we price your kitchen. For the legal structure itself you will need a lawyer; our guide to local partners and sponsors in 2026 explains the options.

What the study contains

Every study is built from the ground up for your concept and your site. No templates with your name pasted on top. It covers nine sections:

1. Company at a glance. The concept, the site, the people and the plan on one page.
2. Sources and uses. Where the money comes from and exactly where it goes.
3. The capital budget. Every line it takes to open: build-out, kitchen, licences, deposits, pre-opening salaries, launch marketing, working capital and contingency.
4. Sales, engineered. Covers, average spend and seasonality, Ramadan and summer included, built from the menu and the seats, not from hope.
5. The cost engine. Food, staff and Saudization, rent, utilities and every other cost, line by line.
6. Profit and loss. Month by month for the first year.
7. The five-year view. Growth, cash and returns over five years.
8. Break-even. The sales you need each month to cover your costs, and when you reach them.
9. The thesis. Our verdict and the reasons for it.

How it works

1. The conversation. We start with what you want to achieve and the risks you carry, not the numbers you want to hear.
2. The analysis. We test your concept against the market, the numbers, the competition and what has actually happened to restaurants like it in the Gulf.
3. The report. You receive the study within seven days, with a direct recommendation and the next steps.
4. The meeting. We walk you through it and answer your questions. Most investors have plenty, and we take the time to answer them properly.

Prices

A feasibility study is the cheapest money you will spend on a restaurant. It costs a fraction of one month’s rent on a good Riyadh site, and it is the only point where every mistake is still free to fix.

Commission your study ›

Why Praxis Model

I have spent 33 years opening and running restaurants and advising the investors behind them, with more than 300 projects across the Gulf and beyond. Saudi investors have sat across the table from me for most of those years. I know which line in a budget goes wrong first, which lease clause hurts in year two, and why a concept that queues around the block in Dubai can sit empty on a Riyadh street.

Our studies are built on that experience, and on a simple rule: make every mistake on paper, never with your money.

You can read how much it really costs to open a restaurant in Saudi Arabia, how a KAFD restaurant compares with DIFC, our feasibility studies for Jeddah, or see a full sample study before you commission one.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a restaurant feasibility study cost in Riyadh?

USD 3,999 (about SAR 15,000) for one location at our founding price (standard price USD 6,999). Studies covering two or more locations cost less per site.

How long does a feasibility study take?

Seven days from the moment we have your information.

Does the Riyadh rent freeze cover restaurant leases?

Yes. From 25 September 2025, for five years, total rent cannot rise on commercial leases inside Riyadh's urban boundary. Escalation clauses signed before that date still apply, a unit let before is fixed at its last Ejar contract, and a unit never let before sets its first rent freely.

Do I need an approved consultant for a restaurant feasibility study in Riyadh?

We found no published rule that says so, either for the licence or for Monsha'at's funding routes. Lenders set their own document lists, so ask your bank which format and reviewers it accepts.

How many parking spaces does a standalone restaurant in Riyadh need?

The ministry's restaurant requirements ask for one space per 25 square metres of built area for a standalone restaurant and one per 50 for fast food, with none extra inside a mall. That edition dates from 2019, so we check the current version for every site.

Do you cover Diriyah, KAFD and the northern districts?

Yes. We work across Riyadh and the rest of Saudi Arabia, including Jeddah, the Eastern Province, Makkah and Madinah, and in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

Is my concept kept confidential?

Always. We never name or show a client’s concept, numbers or location to anyone.

Commission your study · See a sample study · thesis@praxismodel.io

Praxis Model is a financial feasibility specialist for GCC hospitality. Prices shown are founding prices in US dollars and may change; riyal amounts are approximate at the fixed rate of SAR 3.75 to the dollar. Rules, fees and rents are summarised from the official and published sources listed above as of 18 October 2026, are not legal or tax advice, and are checked again for every study. Client work is confidential: we never name or show a client’s concept, numbers or location.