One component of any restaurant is the kitchen and its impact on the menu. How you manage your restaurant kitchen can also affect your bottom line. Planning your restaurant kitchen requires the right equipment and layout. Making sure you have the right food costs, menu prices, labor costs and reducing waste will all go a long way toward a successful restaurant.

1. How to plan your restaurant kitchen

One of the biggest investments in opening a new restaurant is the kitchen.

Commercial kitchens require industrial-grade equipment that can withstand a busy restaurant schedule. Restaurant kitchens should be designed and laid out so that food flows seamlessly from the prep area to the production line. Sometimes a new restaurant has a great location but little kitchen space, so you have to adjust your plans accordingly.

2. Keep your restaurant kitchen prep costs low

Prep costs are the costs associated with preparing food in the kitchen at the front of the house. Every restaurant has prep work, from chopping vegetables and cooking pasta to shocking chicken and plating desserts. With a menu that requires a lot of prep work, your labor costs - especially in the kitchen - will be higher. One way to keep labor costs (and wages) down is to buy foods that require less kitchen prep time. Keep in mind, though, that the cost of most preps is usually much higher than the cost of making them from scratch (same with cooking and catering).

To maintain profit margins, restaurants need to find a balance between prep time and labor costs and still incur good food costs.

3. How to price your restaurant menu

It's important to offer the right prices on your restaurant menu. Charge too little and you won't pay for the cost of the food.

Charge too much and you may risk customers dining at your competitors. So how do you know what to charge to make a profit? Food cost and portion control are two ways to help you price your menu correctly so you can make a profit, but be careful not to take yourself out of the local market. Another way to ensure a profit is to create a balance between expensive and inexpensive items.

4. When to use market prices on your menu

One of the biggest areas of concern in the restaurant business is the cost of food. It's constantly changing. One week's lettuce might be $10 a box, then the next week a drought in California causes it to go up to $50 a box. So if food prices go up and down, how do you keep food costs in line with your restaurant menu? One way is through market prices, where you can periodically adjust the prices of menu items to the current market.

5. Restaurant portion control

One of the reasons franchise chain restaurants are so successful is because their menu portions are controlled. Whether you enter the restaurant in New York or Montana, you get the same portion of the same food. Customers love that predictability. And by keeping portion sizes consistent, regardless of location, restaurant chains ensure healthy profit margins.

Even if you own a small independent restaurant, you should still keep a close eye on your portion control.