Food cost calculator
Enter what a dish costs to make and what it sells for. Get the food cost percentage, the margin, and the price you'd need for a 25-35% target.
30%
Food cost
70%
Gross margin
$9.80
Dollars kept per plate
Inside the 28-35% range most full-service restaurants target.
Menu price needed to hit a target food cost
$16.80
at 25% food cost
$14.00
at 30% food cost
$12.00
at 35% food cost
How food cost percentage works
Food cost percentage is the share of a dish's selling price that goes to ingredients. The formula is plate cost divided by menu price, times 100. It's the single fastest way to tell whether a dish is pulling its weight, and the number this calculator gives you above.
The catch is that the number is only as fresh as your ingredient prices. Cost a dish in January and by summer the same recipe can quietly run several points higher, because suppliers reprice weekly and menus don't. That's why a calculator is the starting point, and keeping costs current is the real work.
How do I calculate food cost percentage?
Divide what the ingredients on the plate cost you by the menu price, then multiply by 100. A gyro plate that costs $4.20 to make and sells for $14.00 runs a 30% food cost.
What is a good food cost percentage for a restaurant?
Most full-service restaurants target 28-35%. Fast casual often runs lower, and steakhouses or seafood concepts run higher. The right number depends on your concept, your rent, and your labor, so treat 28-35% as a starting range rather than a rule.
How do I price a menu item from its food cost?
Divide the plate cost by your target food cost percentage. If a dish costs $5.00 and you want a 30% food cost, the menu price is $5.00 divided by 0.30, which is $16.67, and most menus would round to $16.50 or $17.
What's the difference between food cost percentage and gross margin?
They're two views of the same split. A 30% food cost means a 70% gross margin: 30 cents of every menu dollar buys ingredients, 70 cents is left to cover labor, rent, and profit.
Why does my food cost keep changing even when my menu doesn't?
Because supplier prices move constantly. A dish costed in January can be several points more expensive by June without a single recipe change. That's the problem Tapd exists to solve: it re-costs every dish automatically as each new invoice arrives.
This calculator goes stale the day your supplier reprices.
Tapd reads your invoices and keeps every dish's food cost and margin current automatically, so you never re-do this math by hand.
See it in action