Restaurant and café uniforms: what to order, and what it costs
A restaurant uniform is washed more often than any garment its wearer owns, gets flour, oil and heat on it daily, and is the first thing a customer sees. Here is what we make for cafés and restaurants in Pakistan and abroad, which fabrics survive service, and what a 50-piece order costs.
- 50
- Piece minimum, mixed sizes
- 7–10
- Days at our fastest
- Lahore
- Our own factory, one roof
- 97
- Countries we ship to
What a restaurant uniform has to survive
Daily industrial washing at 60°C, sometimes hotter. Grease, coffee, flour and sauce. Heat from ovens and grills. Constant movement — reaching, bending, carrying. Twelve-hour shifts. And through all of it, the garment has to look considered enough that a guest notices the brand and not the stain.
That rules out most of what a fashion brand would order. A 140 gsm fashion tee is transparent after ten washes. A DTG print softens into nothing. Light colours show every mark. The garments that work are heavier, darker and decorated with methods that survive the wash cycle — and they are exactly what we make.
The garments that work, front of house and back
Front of house: a 220 gsm piqué polo or a 270 gsm heavyweight tee in a dark or mid colour, with an embroidered chest logo. Polos read as smarter; heavyweight tees suit cafés and casual concepts. Both hold their shape through hundreds of washes.
Back of house: the same tee in black or navy, or a chef's-style top, with a small embroidered or screen-printed mark. Kitchens want breathability and darkness, not branding that shows dirt.
Aprons: a waxed or heavy canvas bib or waist apron with an embroidered logo is the single most-photographed item in a café uniform and the cheapest to add. Ours are cut and sewn in-house with adjustable neck straps and a pocket.
Caps and beanies: an embroidered dad cap or a knit beanie for kitchen staff. Hair covering that carries the brand.
Outerwear: a fleece quarter-zip or a bomber for staff on terraces or deliveries — the item guests ask to buy.
Fabric and decoration for service wear
| Item | Fabric | Decoration | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polo | 220 gsm piqué, cotton or cotton-rich | Embroidered chest logo | Holds shape, embroidery survives 60°C washing |
| Tee | 270 gsm heavyweight cotton, dark | Embroidery or one-colour screen print | Opaque, durable, hides marks |
| Apron | Heavy canvas or waxed cotton | Embroidered logo | Wipes clean, ages well, the hero item |
| Cap | Structured cotton twill | 3D puff or flat embroidery | Standard, hard-wearing |
| Fleece | 400–500 gsm cotton fleece | Embroidery | Terrace and delivery staff; sells as merch |
What a café uniform order costs
From our current rate sheet at the 50-piece minimum: an embroidered 220 gsm polo around $17.60 per piece; an embroidered 270 gsm heavyweight tee around $14.50; a canvas apron with embroidery quoted around $12–15; an embroidered cap around $11. A complete front-of-house set — polo, apron, cap — lands near $42 per staff member at 50 sets, falling with quantity.
A ten-table café with eight staff does not need 50 polos; it needs 50 pieces across the order. Twenty polos, twenty aprons and ten caps is one 50-piece order, provided each garment reaches the 30-per-colour batch. The calculator prices each item live.
The uniform that doubles as merch
The best café uniforms are the ones customers ask to buy. Rovo Assembly's case study on Sofi Bakery in Berlin — the same garments worn for service are sold on the wall — is the model. A heavyweight tee with a small chest mark and a larger back print works for both: dark enough for the kitchen, considered enough for the shelf.
We produce both from the same run. The staff set and the retail set are one order with one setup, which is how a café gets merch at uniform prices.
Restaurant uniforms from Lahore, for Pakistan and the Gulf
We make uniforms for cafés, restaurants and hotel food-and-beverage teams across Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, and we export hospitality uniforms to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where the hospitality sector buys in volume and reorders on a schedule. Everything is cut, sewn, embroidered and packed in our own unit in Lahore.
Minimum 50 pieces per order, 30 per colour; as fast as 7–10 days on stock garments, with reorders from the same specification indefinitely. Sizes mixed within the order, and staff names embroidered at a small per-piece cost.
Common questions
- What is the minimum order for restaurant uniforms?
- 50 pieces across the order — for example 20 polos, 20 aprons and 10 caps — with 30 per colour of any one garment. A café with eight staff usually orders two sets each plus aprons and reaches 50 easily.
- Which fabric is best for a café uniform?
- Dark 220 gsm piqué for polos, 270 gsm heavyweight cotton for tees, heavy canvas for aprons. Weight and dark colour are what survive daily washing and hide marks.
- Embroidery or print for restaurant uniforms?
- Embroidery for logos on polos, aprons and caps — it survives industrial washing indefinitely. One-colour screen print for larger back designs on tees. Not DTG or DTF, which soften under 60°C washing.
- Can you embroider staff names?
- Yes — individual names on the chest or apron at a small per-piece cost, from the same order.
- How long does a uniform order take?
- 7–10 days on stock garments from approved artwork. Cut-and-sew aprons 10–14 working days; a custom dye lot adds roughly 7–10 days.
- Can we reorder the same uniform later?
- Yes. Your artwork, thread colours and garment specification stay on file, and a reorder of 50 pieces runs at the same price or lower.
- Do you supply restaurant uniforms to the UAE and Saudi Arabia?
- Yes — hospitality uniforms are one of our regular exports to the Gulf. Shipping and duties are quoted with the order.
- Can the uniform also be sold as merch?
- Yes, and it is the smartest way to do it: the staff set and a retail set come from the same run, so the merch is produced at uniform prices.
Where this applies
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Price your staff uniform
Tell us how many staff, which garments and the logo, and we will quote the full set within a working day — or price each item live in the calculator.
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