Free Restaurant and Bar Tool

Food Cost Calculator

Enter what a plate costs you to make and what it sells for. You get food cost percentage, profit per plate, and the price that hits your target.

Food cost —
Profit per plate —
Price at 30% —
Price at 33% —

This is your ideal food cost, the plate at a perfect portion. Your real number comes from counting inventory against sales, and it runs higher. That gap is the money worth chasing.

What Good Looks Like

Healthy food cost by category.

These are the ranges a well-run kitchen aims for. They are targets, not laws. Center-plate proteins carry a higher food cost and earn it on the ticket, pasta and fried items run lean, and where you land depends on your menu and how tight you portion.

CategoryHealthy food costMargin on the plate
Steak and seafood entrees35% to 45%55% to 65%
Chicken and pork entrees28% to 35%65% to 72%
Pasta, pizza, fried apps18% to 28%72% to 82%
Salads, soups, sides20% to 30%70% to 80%
Whole kitchen, blended28% to 35%65% to 72%

A number inside the range is not the same as money in the bank. A calculator gives you the ideal. What you actually spend to put the plate out is a different figure, and the only way to see it is to count. Bar Cop reads your count against your sales and prices the gap in dollars, per category, so a high food cost tells you which station to look at.

The Math

How food cost is calculated.

Step One

Plate cost

Cost every ingredient on the plate. For each one it is the buy price divided by the pack size, times the portion you put on the plate. An 8 ounce pour of a 30 dollar gallon of sauce is not a rounding error when it sells forty times a night. Add them all up and that is your plate cost.

Step Two

Food cost percentage

Divide the plate cost by the menu price and multiply by 100. A 4 dollar 50 plate at 15 dollars runs a 30 percent food cost. To go the other way and price to a target, divide the plate cost by the target as a decimal: 4.50 divided by 0.30 is a 15 dollar price.

The Catch

Ideal is not actual

This math assumes an exact portion every time with nothing lost. Real kitchens trim, over-portion, and let product spoil. Your real food cost comes from counting what came in against what sales say went out. The distance between the two is what you lost.

Straight Answers

The food cost questions.

What operators ask when they are costing a plate and setting a price.

What is a good food cost percentage?
A whole kitchen blended together usually aims for 28 to 35 percent, with a target around 30. It moves by category: steak and seafood entrees run 35 to 45 percent, chicken and pasta 25 to 33 percent, and appetizers and sides lower. These are targets, not laws. Your right number depends on your menu and your prices.
How do you calculate food cost percentage?
Divide the plate cost by the menu price and multiply by 100. Plate cost is what every ingredient on the dish costs you added together. A plate that costs 4 dollars 50 to make and sells for 15 dollars runs a 30 percent food cost.
How do I price a plate to hit a target?
Divide the plate cost by the target as a decimal. To hit a 30 percent food cost on a plate that costs 4 dollars 50, divide 4.50 by 0.30, which is a 15 dollar menu price. This calculator shows you the price at 30 and 33 percent as you type.
Why is my real food cost higher?
This gives you the ideal food cost, what the plate should cost if every portion is exact and nothing is wasted. Your real food cost comes from counting your inventory against your sales, and it is almost always higher because of trim, waste, over-portioning, spoilage, and comps. The gap between the two is the money worth chasing.
What goes into a plate cost?
Everything that leaves the kitchen on the plate. The protein and the sides, but also the garnish, the oil it was cooked in, the sauce, and the bread that comes with it. The small things are what people leave out, and they are usually a point or two of food cost.
How often should I re-cost my plates?
Any time a vendor price moves on a main ingredient, and a full pass at least quarterly. A plate costed a year ago is a plate priced off last year's invoices, and the drift is almost always in one direction.
Does waste belong in food cost?
Yes. Anything that came in the door and did not get sold is part of what your food cost you: trim, spoilage, the plate that went back, the staff meal. Costing only what reached a customer is how a kitchen shows thirty percent on paper and thirty-six in the bank.
Should I cost a plate or a period?
Both, and they answer different questions. A plate cost tells you whether that dish is priced right. A period cost tells you whether the kitchen actually ran the way the recipes say. When the two disagree, the gap is the part worth chasing.
Does a comped meal change my food cost?
It raises it, because the food went out and no sale came back. That is not an argument against comping, it is an argument for logging it, so you can tell the difference between food you gave away on purpose and food you cannot account for.
What food cost should a bar kitchen run?
A bar kitchen usually runs a little higher than a full restaurant on the same menu, because volume is lower and prep waste is spread over fewer covers. The number that matters is your own trend rather than somebody else's benchmark.
Run Your Real Numbers

Cost your whole menu.

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