Microwave ovens cook, defrost, self-steam, and reheat foods.  Operators mostly use them with other types of cooking equipment to speed production and help keep ambient kitchen temperatures low. 

Commercial microwave ovens can differ significantly from their household counterparts in terms of durability, technology, controls, and capacity.

Taverns, casual-theme restaurants, banquet halls, hospitals, nursing homes and hotels use microwaves to defrost and rapidly bring foods back to the proper serving temperatures.  Many operators locate their microwaves near a form of refrigeration.  This allows them to take pre-portioned and packages food items and bring them up to a proper serving temperature in such a manner that minimizes the customers wait times.  Convenience-store foodservice operations employ microwaves to prepare frozen packaged products.  Some end-users also use microwaves to steam seafood and vegetables.  In general, microwave ovens tend to work well with any foods that are high n moisture. Microwave ovens do not require hoods, which can translate into a cost savings for the operator.

Instead of holding food items at a specific temperature for extended periods of time, operators can pre-portion and package them and use their microwave ovens to rethermalize them in a relatively short period of time.  Thus, minimizes the risks associated with holding foods and helps provide a hotter, fresher product to the customer.