Restaurant name ideas

A restaurant’s name sets an expectation before the menu does. Diners should be able to guess roughly what they’ll eat, and roughly how it will feel, from the name alone.

Ways to name a restaurant

  1. Lead with the cuisine

    Naming the food answers a diner’s first question before they ask it. It suits a restaurant that does one cuisine and does it well.

  2. Call it a kitchen

    “Kitchen” sounds homely and unfussy. It promises food cooked with care rather than a formal night out.

  3. Borrow a city’s style

    Some dishes are known by where they come from. A city in the name tells pizza lovers which style to expect.

Before you settle on a name

  1. Search the business names register

    ASIC won’t register a name that is identical or nearly identical to one already registered. It ignores plurals, “the” and spacing when it compares names, and against other business names it also ignores word order and counts names that sound the same as one name.

    Checking a name with ASIC (opens in a new tab)

  2. Look for trade marks

    Registering a business name doesn’t give you exclusive rights to it. Only a trade mark does, so search the trade mark register as well.

    Australian Trade Mark Search (opens in a new tab)

  3. Settle the domain at the same time

    business.gov.au suggests registering a domain that reflects your business name, even before you have a website. If the .com.au you want is already held, its holder may be willing to sell it.

    business.gov.au (opens in a new tab)

Restaurant names for sale on Dotto

General information, not legal advice. Dotto isn’t connected with ASIC, IP Australia or business.gov.au; we link to their pages so you can check with them directly. Their pages were last checked on 17 October 2026.