When starting a restaurant and choosing seating, there are many different things to consider. First, it's important to make your seating fit your menu. You wouldn't put elegant upholstered booths in a fast food establishment. You also wouldn't put cheap folding chairs in a five star restaurant. The first thing to consider is the look that you want to achieve along with how comfortable you want your customers to be. Of course it is always important to keep your taste in line with your budget.
It's best to have someone prepare a layout of whatever type of furniture you would like to use in order to maximize your space and seat as many customers as possible. A good combination is booths or banquettes on the walls with tables and chairs in between. This gives you a good balance to accommodate both small and large groups.
At this point in your planning, you will realize that all furniture is not created equal. Both in price and in durability. Some things to consider are metal chairs versus wood versus hard seat versus vinyl seat. Booths and banquettes are made in all different shapes and sizes. Your drawing will determine the lengths but you also need to consider finishing one or two ends; finishing the outside back on single booths; the height of the back of the booth (the two common standard heights are 36 and 42 inches floor to top of back); the inside back can be plain or have numerous designs such as channels, biscuits, and triangles. I frankly think the designs are nothing but dust collectors but they do make a booth look good. As you can see, there are many things to think about when choosing the seating for your new restaurant.