Pizzeria opening hours most often fit into two services. The typical hours: from 11:30 to 14:00 at lunchtime, from 18:00 to 22:00 in the evening, six days a week as a median. That is what 1,534 pizzerias in 12 French départements (French administrative areas) show (OpenStreetMap, data as of 7 October 2026).
You are preparing to open your pizzeria. There is the menu, the oven, the premises, the team. And there is a question that looks simple: what time should you open, and what time should you close?
It deserves a closer look. Your opening hours are the first thing your customers read on your shopfront or on your online listing. They are also the hours when you pay your team and your oven is heating. Better to choose them knowing what pizzerias that are already open do.
This guide gives you those benchmarks. It does not tell you what to do: your hours depend on your neighbourhood, your customers and your team.
Typical pizzeria hours, lunch and evening
The typical lunch service starts at 11:30 and ends at 14:00, that is 2 hours 30 minutes of service.
The typical evening service starts at 18:00 and ends at 22:00, that is 4 hours of service.
These are median values. They tell you where the middle lies: as many pizzerias start or end their service before that time as after it. So it is not a time that everyone keeps to, it is a benchmark.
Source: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), data as of 7 October 2026, 1,534 pizzerias in 12 French départements. See the full source.
What you can take from this for your pizzeria:
- The evening service is longer than the lunch service. The typical evening service lasts 4 hours, the lunch service 2 hours 30 minutes.
- Opening time is not arrival time. Before opening, you have to heat the oven, take out the dough balls and prepare the toppings. Count this time in your days and in your team’s.
- Lunch is short. With two and a half hours of service, everything has to be ready before the first customer.
How many hours a week is a pizzeria open?
As a median, a pizzeria is open 39 hours a week. The differences are large: eight pizzerias out of ten are open between 20 and 84 hours a week.
The number of hours depends above all on the number of services per day:
| How it opens | Opening hours per week (median) |
|---|---|
| Evening only | 24 hours |
| Lunch and evening | 41 hours 45 minutes |
| Continuously, without a break | 84 hours |
Source: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), data as of 7 October 2026, 1,534 pizzerias in 12 French départements. See the full source.
Before choosing, do a simple calculation. Take your planned hours, add up the hours of the week, then add the preparation before each service and the clearing up after it. You get the real time you spend on the premises. Compare it with what you and your team can sustain, week after week.
To choose between one or two services a day, read our guide lunch and evening, or evening only.
On Friday evening, more than nine pizzerias out of ten are open
On Friday at 19:45, more than nine pizzerias out of ten are open at the same time: 1,484 out of 1,534 (96.7%).
Friday is also the day when pizzerias close least: only 2.6% are closed that day.
Source: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), data as of 7 October 2026, 1,534 pizzerias in 12 French départements. See the full source.
These figures are about opening hours, not sales. They say one simple thing: on Friday evening, your neighbours are open. If you close that evening, you will be among the few pizzerias that are closed.
To prepare for this service, read our guide to getting through the Friday-night service.
Choosing your hours when you are starting out
The typical hours are those of pizzerias that are already open. They are not a rule for yours. Ask yourself these four questions instead.
Who walks past your door at lunchtime? Offices, a school, shops, a building site? If there is nobody around at lunchtime, a lunch service risks keeping you busy without filling your tills. If there are people passing, it can carry your week.
Until what time do your customers order in the evening? Look at the neighbouring shops and at the time when the street empties. Closing later only helps if customers still come.
How many hours can you sustain? When you start, you will often be on your own or working as two. Hours that are too long wear you out before you have found your customers.
Which day should you close? Monday is the most common closing day, Friday the rarest. The figures are in our guide which day to close your pizzeria.
One last point: start simple. Clear hours that you keep to are better than long hours that keep changing. You can adjust them after a few weeks, when you know your customers.
To see these benchmarks brought together over a week, with the closing days, see the Starting a pizzeria section.
Planning your production from the very first service
Opening your pizzeria? Compare your planned hours with those recorded for 1,534 pizzerias in 12 French départements (OpenStreetMap, data as of 7 October 2026, sources), then declare your own in Pizza Planner Pro: your services for the week, day by day, and the baking capacity of each 15-minute slot.
Your opening hours are the first thing you declare. After that, Pizza Planner Pro regulates incoming orders for each service according to the capacity you declare for each 15-minute slot. To understand how, read our guide to organising your pizzeria’s production.
Frequently asked questions
What time does a pizzeria open in the evening?
The typical evening service starts at 18:00 and ends at 22:00. These are median values, recorded in OpenStreetMap for 1,534 pizzerias in 12 French départements on 7 October 2026. Some pizzerias open later: it is a benchmark, not a fixed time.
Should a pizzeria open at lunchtime?
No. Of the 1,534 pizzerias recorded, more than one in two (54.6%) opens for lunch and evening, but nearly one in four (23.6%) opens only in the evening. The choice depends on the lunchtime customers around you.
How many hours a week is a pizzeria open?
Of the 1,534 pizzerias recorded, a pizzeria is open 39 hours a week as a median. Those that open only in the evening are open 24 hours a week as a median, those that open for lunch and evening 41 hours 45 minutes.
Is Friday evening a service apart?
Yes, as far as opening hours go. On Friday at 19:45, 1,484 pizzerias out of 1,534 (96.7%) are open at the same time. It is also the day when they close least (2.6% closed).
How to read these figures
These figures are a Pizza Planner Pro analysis of OpenStreetMap data, the collaborative map of the world. We counted the pizzerias whose opening hours appear in OpenStreetMap, in 12 French départements: Paris, Rhône et Métropole de Lyon, Isère, Bouches-du-Rhône, Gironde, Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Puy-de-Dôme, Loire, Ain, Allier and Haute-Loire. That makes 1,534 pizzerias, recorded on 7 October 2026.
What you need to know to read them correctly:
- These are posted opening hours, not a measure of the number of customers or of sales.
- This is not the whole of France. Only the pizzerias of these 12 départements whose opening hours are filled in are counted.
- The times are local times, as they are posted.
The full mention of the source and its licence is at the bottom of this page.
Try Pizza Planner Pro free of charge for 15 days: your bank card is saved with our payment provider and is not charged during the trial. The monthly subscription then starts automatically; you can cancel it at any time, at no cost.