Opening a restaurant or café in Algeria: premises, licence and hygiene

cap on drinking establishments per inhabitants of a municipality (Decree No. 75-59, art. 6)

1 per 1,000

longest closure the wali can order (Ordinance No. 75-41, art. 10)

6 months

stars for a restaurant classified as a "tourist restaurant"

1 to 4

year of the order setting hygiene rules for food service establishments

2025

A restaurant or café needs its own premises

Law No. 04-08 calls an activity carried on regularly in premises "sedentary" (art. 19). An individual who carries it on is domiciled at the address of those premises. Carrying on a sedentary activity without commercial premises is punished by a fine of 10,000 to 100,000 DA, then removal from the trade register if the situation is not put right within three months (art. 39).

What the texts say

The drinks licence

The 1975 decree sorts the licences by what you serve:

The same decree bars opening a new establishment serving drinks on site in a municipality that already has one per 1,000 inhabitants, unless it meets recognised tourism needs (art. 6). Decree No. 75-60 of the same date lets the wali set minimum distances by order around places of worship and cemeteries, hospitals, schools, youth facilities or barracks.

Hygiene: the 2025 order

The interministerial order of 7 May 2025 applies to every food service establishment. Establishments had six months from its publication, on 13 July 2025, to comply (art. 47). Some of the rules:

• Separate zones for receiving supplies, preparation, storing dishes, cleaning products, waste, changing rooms and toilets (art. 5).
• Customer toilets kept apart from the kitchen and dining room. Below 50 seats, staff and customers may share them (art. 6 and 7).
• An extractor hood with a filter in the preparation zone (art. 10), and a temperature recorder on refrigeration equipment (art. 8).
• Hot dishes held at +63 °C or more, cold preparations kept between 0 and +4 °C (art. 19 and 20).
• Frying oil filtered before each use and replaced as soon as its smell, taste or colour changes (art. 17).
• A posted programme for cleaning, disinfection and pest control (art. 31).

During an inspection, you show in particular (art. 46):

The "tourist restaurant" classification

Executive Decree No. 19-151 of 29 April 2019 organises tourist restaurants as a regulated commercial activity. To use this title, a restaurant applies to the wilaya's tourism directorate for a rating of 1 to 4 stars. The application includes a copy of the trade register extract, a hygiene compliance report from the health services and a fire safety compliance report from the civil protection service (art. 5). The wali grants the classification by order, after a wilaya board's opinion (art. 9). Displaying a rating plaque without a classification, or of the wrong category, counts as misleading advertising (art. 16).

The steps

1. 1

   Choose the premises

   Suitable commercial premises (kitchen, dining room, toilets), in an area where no order of the wali bars the activity.

2. 2

   Ask about the licence

   At the wilaya services and the CNRC office: activity code, licence, documents and timeframes.

3. 3

   Choose the legal form and name

   Sole trader or company. For a company, request the name certificate from the CNRC.

4. 4

   Draft the articles

   With a notary, for a company.

5. 5

   Register in the trade register

   The law allows registration without the licence, but operating waits for the licence (Law No. 04-08, art. 25).

6. 6

   Bring the premises up to standard

   Hygiene under the 2025 order, fire safety, medical certificates and training for staff.

7. 7

   Open

   With the licence in hand, then tax, NIS (statistical number), CASNOS (self-employed social security), and CNAS (employee social security) if you hire.

Penalties

• Carrying on a regulated activity without the required licence: fine of 50,000 to 500,000 DA, closure of the premises by the court, then removal from the trade register if not put right within three months (Law No. 04-08, art. 40).
• Operating without commercial premises: fine of 10,000 to 100,000 DA, then removal from the register if not put right within three months (art. 39).
• Administrative closure: by the wali for up to six months, by the Minister of the Interior for six months to a year; beyond one year, only a court can order it (Ordinance No. 75-41, art. 10 to 12).