A satisfying restaurant experience doesn’t come together by accident. Every detail contributes to your guests’ experience. From the food and service to the décor and lighting, there are many aspects that will influence how your customers perceive your restaurant. Lighting in particular can have a greater impact than even many restaurateurs realize. To capitalize on that effect, here are a few restaurant lighting ideas and solutions for creating the perfect ambiance.

A study at Cornell University split up a fast food restaurant into two categories: one included bright lights and loud music more reminiscent of the typical fast food atmosphere. The other softened the lighting and added traditional dining elements like tablecloths and soft jazz music. The results were impressive: the “fine dining” customers ate less of their food while rating the quality of the food higher than the other half of the restaurant. This leads us to a few important restaurant lighting design elements:

But is it enough to install LED lights in a restaurant and call it a day? Let’s dig down into what can make LED lighting so effective for restaurants.

If you’re an all-day restaurant serving three meals, chances are that you have lighting needs that change almost on an hourly basis. LED lights allow you to easily change lighting intensity to suit the time of day. If you need strong lighting in breakfast hours so customers can read their morning newspaper, for example, LED lights can accommodate you.

Your restaurant lighting fixtures should be able to provide the soft, dimmer lighting required for the more intimate atmosphere of dinnertime hours as well. The key here is control. With LED lighting installed, you’ll be able to adjust the levels you need accordingly throughout the day, giving you the optimum solution for each meal.

While the LED lighting does most of the work—with more efficiency than classic bulbs—there are still more elements to restaurant lighting that you can add to enhance the effect. For example, a server lighting a candle to begin a meal can highlight the natural warmth—even if the majority is, in fact, created by LED lighting. No one believes that the restaurant is kept bright by candles, but it still creates a powerful association that promotes the fine dining experience.

For more on what LED lighting can do to enhance the way customers perceive your restaurant, contact US Lighting Systems today at info@uslightingsystems.com. Learn how you can save money while improving the quality and warmth of your restaurant’s ambiance, and talk with out lighting specialists to discover the best restaurant lighting ideas for your space.