Check a cafe or restaurant location before you sign

• How to check a cafe or restaurant location before you sign

  Five checks for a cafe or restaurant site before you sign: who lives there, what's nearby, what brings people past, rent and the street. Plus the red flags.

• Restaurant rent calculator: is the rent too high for your sales?

  Free rent calculator for cafes and restaurants, in any currency. See how much rent your sales can carry in a slow month, and how many trading days it takes.

• How to check foot traffic before you sign a lease

  Popular times on Google Maps can't see an empty shop. Here's a three-day street count you can do yourself, with a printable count sheet and how to read it.

Food areas we’ve checkedHow the check works