Houston Restaurant & QSR Construction
TCG designs and builds restaurants, fast casual, QSR, and fine dining across the Houston metro and Texas. From commercial kitchens and hood suppression to drive-thru pads and brand standards, we deliver through design-build and construction management.
Houston Restaurant Cost Estimator
Describe your restaurant, QSR, or hospitality project and get a preliminary cost estimate powered by TCG.ai, calibrated to Houston restaurant pricing.
Tell Us About Your Restaurant Project
Include concept (QSR, full-service, fine dining), square footage, ground-up or second-generation TI, drive-thru, location, and timeline.
Analyzing Your Houston Project
Our AI is evaluating construction costs using Houston metro market data…
Your Houston Restaurant Cost Estimate
Houston’s Restaurant & QSR Builder
Terrapin Construction Group builds restaurants, QSR, and hospitality across the Houston metro and Texas from our office at 825 Town & Country Ln, Suite 850, Houston, TX 77024. Our Texas restaurant portfolio includes Del Frisco’s Grille and Perry’s Steakhouse in The Woodlands, 3 Forks Steakhouse, El Pollo Campero QSR locations, and PF Chang’s. We deliver through design-build and construction management, with equipment procurement in-house.
Houston’s deep, diverse food scene spans national QSR rollouts to upscale steakhouses, and restaurant work lives or dies on the kitchen and the schedule. We coordinate commercial kitchens, Type I hood and fire suppression, grease interceptors, brand standards, and Houston Health Department and TABC permitting, and we keep multi-site rollouts on a repeatable program. See the high-end restaurant cost guide and the QSR cost guide.
Why Restaurant Construction Is Different in Houston
The kitchen is the project. Type I hoods and fire suppression, make-up air, grease interceptors, refrigeration, and heavy MEP concentrate the cost and the risk in the back of house. Our MEP engineers and equipment procurement team design and buy the kitchen as one coordinated package so it passes health inspection the first time.
Permitting and TABC. Houston Health Department plan review, grease and plumbing, and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission licensing for bar programs all sit on the critical path. We manage them in parallel and, for multi-unit operators, run a repeatable program across jurisdictions, exactly as we did across multiple El Pollo Campero and steakhouse locations.
Pad sites, wind, and flood. Freestanding and drive-thru pads need Gulf Coast hurricane wind design and FEMA flood compliance, plus site, utility, and drive-thru stacking work. We deliver the full pad, not just the box. Compare QSR and fine dining benchmarks.
How TCG Builds Restaurants in Houston
Our design-build and construction management teams handle concept through opening, with the kitchen and permitting coordinated up front.
Concept & Budget
Brand-standard design, site or second-generation assessment, and budgeting via preconstruction.
Kitchen & MEP
MEP engineering for Type I hoods, suppression, make-up air, grease, and refrigeration, with equipment procurement.
Permitting & TABC
Houston Health Department plan review, plumbing and grease, and TABC licensing managed in parallel.
Construction & Finishes
Dining, bar, and patio buildout with brand-standard finishes and slip-resistant commercial flooring.
Inspection & Opening
Health, fire, and final inspections, equipment startup, and a clean handoff to opening.
How Much Does a Restaurant Cost to Build in Houston?
Houston restaurant construction tracks the metro’s 0.90 to 1.00x national multiplier, with Texas right-to-work labor keeping trade pricing competitive. Cost is driven by concept and kitchen intensity: a second-generation QSR TI is a fraction of a ground-up fine dining build per SF.
Houston drivers include the commercial kitchen and hood suppression, grease and plumbing, brand standards, Health Department and TABC permitting, and pad-site hurricane and flood design. Run the AI estimator above, compare the high-end restaurant and QSR cost guides, or schedule a call.
Houston Restaurant Resources, Cost Guides & News
Curated reading for restaurant operators, franchisees, and developers planning restaurant and QSR construction in Houston and across Texas.
Houston Restaurant Construction FAQ
Common questions about building restaurants in the Houston metro. See our full FAQ page for more.
Houston QSR and fast casual run about $200 to $420/SF, full-service $280 to $500/SF, and fine dining $400 to $700/SF, with second-generation TI from $120 to $300/SF. Use the AI estimator or see the high-end restaurant cost guide.
TCG has built Del Frisco’s Grille and Perry’s Steakhouse in The Woodlands, 3 Forks Steakhouse, multiple El Pollo Campero QSR locations, and PF Chang’s across Texas. See our hotel and restaurant page.
Yes. We design and build Type I hoods and fire suppression, make-up air, grease interceptors, refrigeration, and heavy kitchen MEP as one coordinated package, with equipment procurement in-house so the kitchen passes inspection the first time.
Yes. Houston Health Department plan review, grease and plumbing, and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission licensing all sit on the critical path. We manage them in parallel and run repeatable programs for multi-unit operators across jurisdictions.
Yes. We deliver full ground-up pad sites including site work, utilities, drive-thru stacking, Gulf Coast hurricane wind design, and FEMA flood compliance, not just the building. Drive-thru pads typically run $350 to $600/SF.
Yes. Converting a second-generation restaurant or retail space is often the fastest path to opening. Houston restaurant TI typically runs $120 to $300/SF depending on existing kitchen infrastructure. See tenant improvement.
A Houston restaurant typically takes 4 to 8 months depending on ground-up versus TI and kitchen complexity, plus City of Houston permitting and Health Department review. Design-build compresses timelines 15 to 30 percent.
Yes. TCG runs multi-site restaurant programs with standardized kitchens, repeatable permitting, and construction management across jurisdictions, as we did across multiple El Pollo Campero and steakhouse locations in Texas.
No. TCG provides in-house architecture and MEP, and we also build from brand-standard prototypes and existing plans as a general contractor. Start with the free Houston restaurant estimator.
Build Your Houston Restaurant
From QSR drive-thrus to upscale steakhouses, TCG delivers the kitchen, the permitting, and the buildout as one design-build package across Texas. Let’s talk about your concept.
Schedule a Houston Consultation