Free tool
Food cost percentage calculator for restaurants
Food cost percentage tells you what share of a dish's selling price goes to the ingredients that make it. Enter a plate cost and menu price below to see the percentage, the profit per order, and the price that would hit a target you choose.
Food cost calculator
| Food cost % | 30.0% |
|---|---|
| Gross profit per dish | 10.50 |
| Price for target food cost % | 16.07 |
What food cost percentage means
Food cost percentage is the plate cost divided by the menu price, shown as a percentage: a dish that costs 4.50 to plate and sells for 15.00 has a food cost of 30%. The remaining 70% covers labor, rent, other overhead, and profit — it isn't all margin.
Plate cost means the raw ingredient cost for one serving, including garnish and any sauce or side that comes with it. It doesn't include labor to prepare it, packaging, or waste — those get handled separately, usually as a percentage added on top of the raw ingredient total.
A worked example
A dish costs 4.50 to plate. At a 15.00 menu price, here's how the numbers break down, and what price would hit a 28% target instead:
| Menu price | Food cost % | Gross profit |
|---|---|---|
| 15.00 | 30.0% | 10.50 |
| 16.07 | 28.0% | 11.57 |
| 12.00 | 37.5% | 7.50 |
Target ranges by category
There's no single right number — it depends on labor cost, portion size, and what the category can bear on a menu. These are common starting ranges, not rules:
| Category | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Entrées (protein-led) | 28% – 35% |
| Pasta and grain bowls | 20% – 28% |
| Alcohol (liquor) | 14% – 20% |
| Beer and wine | 20% – 30% |
| Non-alcoholic beverages | 8% – 15% |
| Desserts | 15% – 25% |
A restaurant with high labor cost, like one with a lot of scratch cooking, usually needs a lower food cost percentage to leave room for profit. A concept with lower labor cost, like a bar built around pours and simple plates, can often run a higher food cost percentage and still come out ahead.
Getting plate cost right
The calculator is only as good as the plate cost you put into it. A few things that commonly throw it off:
- Using an old invoice price instead of what you're paying now — ingredient costs move, especially for proteins and produce.
- Forgetting garnish, sauces, and sides that come standard with the dish, not just the centerpiece ingredient.
- Costing a recipe's full batch yield but applying the total to a single portion instead of dividing it out.
- Not accounting for trim loss and waste on ingredients like whole cuts of meat or produce that gets peeled or cored.
Recalculating as costs change
A calculator gives you one dish at one moment. Ingredient prices move throughout the year, and a menu with dozens of items needs its costs kept current, not recalculated by hand every time a supplier changes a price. Barley's recipes cost every recipe from your linked inventory items, so a price change updates the food cost for every dish that uses it automatically.