Restaurant food cost percentage calculator

Food cost — what your supplier invoice doesn't tell you

Your POS shows you sold $18 dishes with $4.50 ingredient cost — a tidy 25% food cost. Reality is closer to 28-32% once you account for waste, theft, and recipe yield. Most owners only learn the gap from a quarterly inventory count that comes too late.

The full equation

true cost per dish = (raw cost ÷ yield %) × 1/(1 − waste% − theft%)
food cost % = true cost per dish ÷ menu price
ideal menu price = true cost per dish ÷ target cost %

Industry benchmarks (real data, not blogs)

• Quick service (QSR): 25-30% food cost, 6-8% labor for back-of-house
• Casual full-service: 28-32% food cost, 25-30% labor
• Fine dining: 32-38% food cost, 30-35% labor (premium ingredients)
• Bar / craft cocktails: 18-22% beverage cost
• Pizza: 20-26% food cost (one of the best margins in the industry)

What kills food cost margin

1. Yield neglect — buying "1 lb chicken breast" when 8 oz becomes plate. Your menu costing should multiply by 1/yield, always.
2. Comps and staff meals — every comped meal costs you the full true cost, not just raw cost.
3. Portion creep — line cooks add 10% extra cheese to be safe. Across 200 covers/night, that's $40 in dragged-down margin every night.
4. Spec drift — the salmon burger spec is 5 oz; the actual cook plates 6.5 oz. You sold 1.3x as much salmon as your spreadsheet thinks.
5. Bad supplier audit — you're getting charged for #1 grade and shipped #2. Quarterly weight checks on incoming product, not just price.

Pricing strategy from the math

Two paths to better margins:

• Raise prices, slowly — 5% price hikes on signature dishes rarely move volume. Test with a soft menu refresh.
• Reformulate, not re-price — swap an expensive protein on the side for a cheaper, equally satisfying one. Most diners don't itemize ingredients.

Don't try to fix margins by cutting portion size — diners notice and the Yelp tax is brutal.