A Guide to Our Restaurant Linen: From Restaurant Tablecloths to Tea Towels

From crisp white napkins to pristine staff uniforms, the subtle details are crucial when maintaining a luxurious, fine dining experience.

While today’s fine dining experience is continuously evolving, what remains the same in the most successful restaurants is exceptional service, perfect execution, and precise attention to detail.

Here are some subtle details you can implement in your restaurant to take it to the next level.

Why Do You Need Linen in Your Restaurant?

Overlooking subtle details can be costly for your restaurant. Replacing high-quality linen for a cheaper alternative can reduce your restaurant's appeal as a fine dining experience, which can cost you in the long run.

So what are the benefits of hiring high-quality linen for your restaurant?

Elegance

Using durable, well-made linen aprons and uniforms can help to create a sense of cohesion in your restaurant. When the staff looks professional and clean, it boosts the overall elegance of the restaurant.

Fresh, white table linen also has a timeless elegance which is implemented in all of the best fine dining restaurants.

At London Linen, we provide high-quality tablecloths in a variety of colours, so that you can find one that matches the style and feel of your restaurant.

Hygiene

During the restaurant's busy rush hours, staff tables may be only wiped briefly, which makes the table an unhygienic surface for cutlery. Using table cloths helps to eliminate this risk of bacteria for guests.

Pristine table cloths replaced between every sitting demonstrate a high standard of cleanliness, which is a crucial factor in ensuring guests are safe and comfortable in your facility.

Noise Reduction

One element that sets fine dining restaurants apart from their competitors, is the ambience of the restaurant itself. While the food and service might be exceptional, if guests cannot hear each other talk over the clattering of plates and cutlery, their dining experience could be tarnished.

High-quality table linen can soften and absorb noise, leaving your guests able to properly hear each other and any ambient music you may be playing in the background.

Convenience

Outsourcing your linen and laundry responsibilities can free up your restaurant's precious free time so that you can put more time into preparing your delicious dinners and providing quality service to your diners.

What Luxury Linen Products Are Available for Restaurants?

There is a wide array of linen products available for restaurants to hire and improve the overall quality of their restaurant.

Table Cloths

Table cloths not only increase the hygiene of your restaurant during busy times, but they can also protect your expensive table from stains and damage.

If you are running a particularly busy restaurant, table cloths can save you some time in between serving guests.

We have a range of luxurious table linen available for hire at London Linen so that you can elevate your guests’ fine dining experience.

Cloth Napkins

Cloth napkins create a premium feel that far exceeds the look and quality of paper napkins.

Not only are you improving the look of your restaurant, but you are also helping to protect the planet. Paper napkins are used once and then thrown away, creating a huge amount of waste and damage to the environment.

At London Linen, we offer a selection of durable, luxurious cloth napkins which enhances your diner eating experience.

Available in rich cream satin, summery blue pinstripe, sleek grey, and classic white and blue, there is a style to suit every restaurant.

Bar Cloths

Sticky surfaces and puddles of spilled alcohol can be off-putting for guests expecting an exceptional fine dining experience.

While paper napkins may help to clear up spillages, lots are required to clean up a singular accident and they must be thrown away after one use.

Not only are bar cloths extremely absorbent and useful for mopping up spillages on the bar, but they also provide several other uses:

• Glassware - Due to the soft, smooth material used for bar cloths, they are ideal for wiping down glassware, without causing any scratches
• Cleans/polishes utensils - During busy restaurant times, a bar cloth can come in handy for cleaning or polishing utensils. Sometimes dishwashers do not fully remove all of the bacteria and food from utensils, so giving cutlery an extra clean with a bar cloth can ensure complete hygiene in your restaurant
• Brings back shine on plates - Bar cloths are not only designed as a cleaning material but they can also be used to maintain the shine and “brand new” look of your plates. Polishing your plates can achieve a glossy finish and prevents contamination
• Removes dust - Dust quickly gathers on glassware, which can be easily removed by a swipe of a bar cloth

Chef Aprons

Aprons are an important aspect of the chef's uniform for many reasons:

• Food hygiene - Aprons are an additional layer of protective clothing that prevents food contamination from occurring in the kitchen. They are a crucial step in ensuring that all germs, hair, dust, etc stay within the apron and off of customers' plates
• Safety - Working around multiple ovens, hobs, and other heating equipment can make for uncomfortably hot working environments for chefs. Aprons act as protective clothing which prevents you from getting burned on hot appliances.
• Convenience - Another advantage of wearing an apron is the number of pockets that aprons typically provide. As a chef working in a sometimes chaotic kitchen, it is handy to have the necessary equipment available to use at any point.

At London Linen, we provide a variety of chefs' aprons in a variety of colours and styles, so that you can match your staff's uniform to the style of the restaurant.

Chef Jackets

Alongside the apron, chef’s jackets are also a crucial part of the chef’s uniform. Not only does the jacket look smart and create a professional impression for your diners, but it also offers lots of benefits:

• Protection - Chef’s jackets are usually double-breasted as this provides an additional layer of protection from heat or hot splashes. The material is often made from heavy cotton or a polyester and cotton mix as this allows breathability and helps to further protect the chef
• Professionalism - Chef jackets signal that the wearer is a professional that takes his / her career seriously
• Cleanliness - Due to the nature of the job, it is more than likely that a chef will spill food down their clothes. A traditional chef’s coat is double-breasted, with two rows of buttons down the front. This means that if you spill something on yourself, but find that you need to leave the kitchen, you can simply unbutton the jacket and switch the stained layer with the fresh, clean layer

We offer a range of professional chef’s jackets at London Linen, available in both long and short sleeves.

Tea Towels

A tea towel is essential for any kitchen, however, the different possible uses of tea towels are often overlooked.

• Oven glove alternative - Kitchens are often fast-paced environments to work in. Constantly putting on and taking off oven gloves can be time-consuming, so tea towels act as a quick and easy tool to safely remove food from ovens. They are also often used for quickly grabbing hot pans.
• Cleaning spillages - One of the most common uses for tea towels is removing any spillages or accidents that occur in the kitchen. More effective than paper towels, tea towels are an eco-friendly way of keeping the kitchen clean
• Covering cooking food - Another use for tea towels in the kitchen is for covering food so that it remains hot and concealed from any cool air.
• Drying hands - Chefs are continuously washing their hands at work to prevent any bacteria on dishes or contamination of food. Rather than drying your hands on your already dirty apron, it is a more hygienic option to dry them on a fresh tea towel.

At London Linen, we offer high-quality tea towels in a range of colours and styles so that you can create a cohesive style in your restaurant.

London Linen: Chef Clothing in London

Are you looking for high-quality linen products to elevate your restaurant?

At London Linen, we provide a range of luxurious linen products and services including professional chef aprons and tablecloth rental.

Established in 1975, we are a team of experienced linen experts serving hotels, kitchens, and restaurants throughout the UK. 

We are committed to delivering exceptional customer service to every one of our customers, to ensure that every requirement has been met.

If you are interested in our wide range of products and services, please get in touch with a member of our friendly team here today!