Happy diners, of course, are the key to your successful enterprise, but if you overlook restaurant public liability insurance, those same diners can become a very expensive nightmare.
As the owner of the business, you could be held liable for anything that happens to your clients, members of the public, or their property and possessions whilst in your restaurant.
Their claims for damages can range from the relatively minor and innocuous to crippling claims that can threaten the very survival of your business.
Examples of some of the public liability risks you could encounter are probably too numerous to mention, but may include everything from the dry-cleaning bill for clothing inadvertently splashed by one of your delicious sauces to a major fall that results in one of your guests needing emergency treatment and a long stay in hospital.
In any one of these - or the numerous possibilities in between - you could be faced with a claim for compensation.
Restaurant public liability insurance, therefore, typically provides you with a financial indemnity against such accidents or events.
Most such policies recognize the potentially very high sums at stake and therefore provide for cover for claims of up to £5 million.
But the potential losses are even greater than this and, so, many a business may choose to arrange restaurant public liability insurance for up to £10 million.
Sad as it might be to admit, the fact is that we live in an increasingly litigious age - customers and members of the public are more likely than ever before to consider suing any business or individual whom they think to have been at fault for an accident or mishap.
There are many such instances where the claim will not be substantiated and the restaurant involved can show that it has not been in any way liable.
It is not just the size of the claim itself, of course, that can impose a heavy burden on the business, but the cost of defending any such disputed claim in the courts and the hefty legal costs incurred by engaging the appropriate legal team of representatives.
Restaurant public liability insurance is typically designed to cover these costs, too.