Why Your Restaurant Needs a Commercial Microwave

If you're not currently using a commercial microwave in your restaurant kitchen or have one that's underutilized, you may be missing out on valuable opportunities to speed up service and help cooks optimize their time. Maybe you've been turned off by some myths that persist about microwaves only producing sub-standard results, or maybe you're not sure how a commercial-grade microwave can be put to use in a kitchen dominated by gas equipment. We're about to give you eight solid examples of how a heavy-duty commercial microwave can open up new possibilities for your business.

Why Do Restaurants Use Microwaves?

1. Expand Your Restaurant's Menu

   With a powerful microwave in your lineup, you can start offering a whole range of dishes you couldn't before, whether it be a trendy dip you want to test or a brand new side dish to drive up dinner sales. Microwaves can be used to quickly heat individual portions of food as they're ordered, including dishes that have been prepared ahead of time. Steam cooking is another good use of microwaves. Some commercial-grade microwaves accommodate full-size plastic food pans so that you can prepare fresh steamed food such as seafood and vegetables without bulky equipment or costly plumbing.

2. Retherm Chilled Foods Fast

   Chances are, you're not cooking everything in your kitchen from scratch. There are bound to be items on your menu that you purchase pre-cooked, whether they come to you frozen or refrigerated. A commercial microwave can get those items from fridge to plate much faster than a water bath or steamer.

3. Defrost Frozen Foods Quickly

   If any of the foods you cook in-house by traditional means arrive frozen, you can save some time by defrosting them in a microwave, even if you don't want to cook them there. Not only is this method faster than slacking them in a refrigerator, but microwave defrosting can also help make the thawing process much safer because it's easier to cut the time food spends in the temperature danger zone, where bacteria grows fastest. You can also cut down on waste and keep a tighter control on inventory when you defrost individual portions as needed.

4. Serve Food Faster

   Speed is the main reason many restaurants use microwaves. Fortunately, many of the dishes that restaurants need the quickest do incredibly well in the microwave. Because they're mostly water, soups are among the easiest and most reliable foods to reheat in a microwave. Dips that accompany chips and bread are always popular appetizers, and they can go from the fridge to the table in less than five minutes. Shredded and ground meats that go into dishes such as mini tacos, nachos, pulled pork, and sliders reheat perfectly in the microwave, too. As long as it's used carefully, a microwave oven can help you serve customers as quickly as possible, increasing potential revenue without sacrificing quality.

5. Heat Food, Not Your Kitchen

   Unlike most cooking equipment – ranges and ovens especially – using a microwave oven doesn't create ambient heat in your kitchen. A microwave oven uses vibrating water molecules in the food to create heat, meaning only the generated heat works directly to warm or cook food. This can help maintain a more comfortable working environment for your staff and take a load off your HVAC system, keeping your utility costs in check.

6. Simplify Your Operations

   Modern heavy-duty commercial microwaves include features that make operating them as simple as pressing a button, even for multi-stage recipes. Many microwave models provide the option of programming procedures for hundreds of individual menu items that can include stages to defrost, cook, and hold foods. This ease of use can be an enormous timesaver in an industry where staff turnover is high and training time is limited.

7. Cut Your Electricity Bill

   Because it's so quick and efficient, a microwave uses significantly less energy to produce the same results as other equipment. On average, a mid-sized microwave uses less than a dollar's worth of electricity a day. Also, microwaves don't have to preheat like ovens, so they only use energy when they're actually cooking.

8. Microwaves Can be Installed Nearly Anywhere

   A commercial-grade microwave oven's low profile and light weight means it can be installed just about anywhere in your kitchen. Place one on virtually any countertop, underneath your prep area, or mount it on the wall above a work station. Unlike the majority of cooking equipment, microwave ovens never have to be installed under a range hood. Units with intuitive dial controls are also available for use in self-serve environments, such as convenience store snack stations and breakrooms.