Restaurant & hospitality relocation
Restaurant movers who
plan from your reopening
A closed restaurant costs more per day than the move does. We start from the date you intend to serve again, fix the window around your trades, and set the kitchen down where it needs to be connected.
- Google, 90+ reviews
- 5.0Google, 90+ reviews
- Liability insurance
- $2MLiability insurance
- Operating since 2017
- 9 yrsOperating since 2017
Boss Moving has run commercial relocations across Metro Vancouver since 2017 — 500+ moves, 5.0 on Google across 90+ reviews, $2M liability insurance and WorkSafeBC compliant. A restaurant move is scoped at a walkthrough and quoted as one number, because a kitchen is not something you can price from a floor area.
What we move, and what we deliberately do not
We move the equipment: ranges, ovens, fryers, mixers, cold tables, prep counters, shelving, walk-in panels, bar fit-out, dining furniture, glassware and dry goods. Heavy, unbalanced and usually going through a doorway built for people, which is a crew-and-equipment problem rather than a strength problem.
We do not disconnect or reconnect gas, water or refrigeration, and we do not certify anything. Those are licensed trades and they should be yours — the people who know your equipment and will stand behind the connection. Being straight about that line matters more on a kitchen than anywhere else we work, because a mover who implies otherwise creates a gap that only shows up at inspection.
What we do instead is make your trades' job schedulable: the move window is fixed first, and the disconnection and reconnection slots are booked either side of it at both addresses. See our commercial moving overview for the wider service, or office relocation if the site is workspace rather than kitchen.
How a restaurant move runs
Six steps, working back from the reopening
A walkthrough that starts with the reopening date
Every other decision follows from the day you intend to serve again. A coordinator walks the kitchen, the front of house and the new site, lists what is being taken against what the outgoing lease says stays, and works backwards from your reopening to a move window. Restaurants are quoted from that walk, never from a square-footage rule, because two rooms of the same size differ enormously once you count the line.
Your trades booked around our window, not after it
Gas, water and refrigeration connections are the work of licensed trades, and that is not us. What we do is fix the move window first and give your plumber, gas fitter and refrigeration tech a time to work to on both ends. The delay that hurts a restaurant reopening is almost never the truck — it is a disconnection booked for the wrong morning.
The line stripped down and protected
Once your trades have disconnected, we take the heavy items down to what will actually move: shelving off the walls, tables and prep counters apart where they come apart, glassware and smallwares packed rather than left in a stack. Stainless is blanket-wrapped because it scratches on sight, and everything that opens is strapped shut before it goes near a dolly.
Heavy items on the right equipment, in the right order
Ranges, ovens, fryers, mixers, cold tables and walk-in panels are heavy, unbalanced and frequently going through a door built for people. They travel on appropriate equipment with the crew sized to them, and they load in the order they need to come off, so the new kitchen is built in the sequence your trades can then work through.
Placed where it goes, not left in the middle of the floor
Equipment is set in position to the plan from the walkthrough so your trades can connect it without moving it again, and the front of house is put back as a room rather than a pile. Dry goods and smallwares are labelled by station, which is what makes the first prep shift possible rather than an afternoon of opening boxes.
The old site cleared
We clear and sweep behind us, which is usually what the outgoing lease requires and what a landlord inspects for. Anything you have decided not to take is grouped rather than scattered, so a disposal or resale pickup is one job instead of three.
What We Handle
Closed days are the cost
A restaurant that cannot serve is not just idle — it is paying rent and staff against nothing. The window and the reopening date are fixed first and the logistics are built to fit them, rather than the other way round.
Heavy and awkward kitchen equipment
Ranges, ovens, fryers, mixers, cold tables, prep counters and walk-in panels. Moved on appropriate equipment by a crew sized to the item, blanket-wrapped, and set in position rather than dropped inside the door.
Your trades, coordinated
Gas, water and refrigeration connections are licensed work and we do not do them. We fix the move window and schedule around your plumber, gas fitter and refrigeration tech at both addresses so nobody waits on anybody.
Front of house and smallwares
Dining furniture, bar fit-out, glassware, china and dry goods packed and labelled by station. Certificates of insurance to your landlord or building at no charge, at both ends.
Quoted After a Walkthrough
There is no price on this page, deliberately. A restaurant relocation is scoped in person and quoted as a custom rate agreed before the work starts — not billed against the hourly residential rates published elsewhere on this site, which describe a different service entirely.
The walk produces the heavy-item list, the access constraints at both doors, the sequence your trades need and the reopening date everything is aimed at. Those four things are what a real number is built from, and you get it before you commit.
What is never charged on any move: stairs, elevator use, fuel or mileage. Protective equipment — blankets, straps, tape and dollies — comes with the crew and leaves with them. Certificates of insurance are provided at no charge.
Frequently Asked Questions — Restaurant Moving
Do you move commercial kitchen equipment?
Yes — ranges, ovens, fryers, mixers, cold tables, prep counters, shelving and dining fit-out. What we do not do is the connection work. Gas, water and refrigeration are licensed trades, so your equipment needs to be disconnected by your own people before we lift it and reconnected by them after we set it down. We move the equipment and we schedule around those trades at both ends; we do not disconnect, reconnect or certify anything ourselves.
Do you handle walk-in coolers and other heavy appliances?
We move walk-in panels and heavy appliances as physical items, with the crew and equipment sized to them. A walk-in is normally taken down in panels by whoever services it, or by your refrigeration contractor, and we move the panels and the condensing unit rather than the assembled box. The same split applies to anything that is plumbed, gassed or gas-vented: the trade breaks the connection, we move the item.
How fast can you relocate a restaurant?
It depends on the size of the kitchen and, far more, on your trades. The move itself is usually the shortest part — the constraint is the disconnection at one end and the reconnection and any inspection at the other, and those are booked, not rushed. That is why the walkthrough starts from your reopening date and works backwards. A realistic sequence, agreed in advance and with your trades holding their slots, gets you open sooner than a fast truck does.
Can you work around our reopening schedule?
That is the whole basis of how a restaurant relocation is planned. You give us the day you intend to serve again, and the window, the load order and the placement plan are all built to hit it. Where a single window is too tight, we split the move — dry goods, front of house and storage first while you are still trading, then the kitchen in the closed window — so the shortest possible period is the one where you cannot open.
Do you move after we close, or on a day we are shut?
We operate seven days a week and after-hours and weekend windows are normal for commercial work rather than an exception we surcharge for. For a restaurant the useful window is usually a closing day or the gap between services, and that is what we plan to. Our booking line is open 7am to 10pm every day if you want to talk the timing through before committing to a date.
How much does a restaurant move cost?
It is quoted after a walkthrough rather than off an hourly card, and there is no price on this page for that reason. Commercial kitchens vary too much for a published figure to mean anything — the count of heavy items, how much is built in, whether a walk-in is coming, how much front of house there is, and what each site allows for access. The walkthrough turns that into a relocation budget you can hold your landlord and your trades to, agreed before anything starts.
Are you insured for a commercial kitchen move?
Boss Moving carries $2M liability insurance and is WorkSafeBC compliant, and we provide certificates of insurance to landlords or building managers at both addresses at no charge. That pairing is normally what a commercial landlord asks for before a truck is allowed at the loading door. Items of unusual value are worth naming at the walkthrough so they are recorded before the day rather than discussed after it.
Book a restaurant walkthrough
Tell us the site and the date you plan to reopen, and a coordinator will arrange the walk. This form reaches the commercial desk, so you get a scoped quote rather than an hourly estimate. Or call (604) 726-9828 directly.