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Restaurant food cost calculator

Enter one dish: what goes in it, what you paid for each ingredient, and the selling price. See the plate cost, food cost %, margin, and the price that hits your target. Free, runs in your browser, and needs no sign-up.

A free calculator. It is not the Restaurant Edition, which is coming soon.

Your dish

Dish name (optional)

Selling price ($)

Portions the recipe makes

Target food cost (%)

Flat costs per plate ($): sauce, garnish, container, oil

Round the target price

Units sold per week (optional)

What the dish makes

Plate cost

$0.00

Enter a selling price

Food cost %n/a
Margin per platen/a
Price to hit your targetn/a
Weekly food costEnter units sold
Weekly salesEnter units sold

Largest costs on one plate

Add ingredients below

Ingredients

Leave a row empty to skip it. Use the same kind of unit for the amount and the pack: weight with weight (oz, lb, g, kg), volume with volume (fl oz, cup), or each with each. Digits and one point for decimals, such as 1.50; commas are not read. Yield is the share you keep after trim and waste.

Ingredient 1

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 2

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 3

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 4

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 5

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 6

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 7

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Ingredient 8

Amount used

Unit used

Price paid ($)

Amount you paid for

Pack unit

Yield %

Estimates only, from the numbers you enter. Not tax, legal or accounting advice. Example numbers are fictional. Food cost counts ingredients and flat costs only. Labor and rent are not in this number; use the prime cost calculator for labor.

How the numbers work

Usable cost of an ingredient = amount used, at the price you paid per unit, divided by the yield (for example, 85% yield means you keep 85% of what you buy).
Plate cost = the sum of the usable ingredient costs, divided by the portions the recipe makes, plus the flat costs per plate.
Food cost % = plate cost divided by the selling price, times 100.
Margin per plate = selling price minus plate cost.
Price to hit your target = plate cost divided by your target food cost %, optionally rounded up.

A worked example

The example above: chicken 8 oz at $3.50 per lb ($1.75), rice 4 oz at $1.20 per lb ($0.30), vegetables 5 oz at $2.40 per lb ($0.75), and $0.60 of sauce, garnish and container. Plate cost is $3.40. At a $14.00 price, food cost is 24.29% and the margin is $10.60. To hit 30%, the price is $11.33.

What this does not count

Labor, rent, utilities and insurance.
Waste you do not record as yield loss, and spills or comped plates.
Sales tax and card fees.

Want this every week, without a spreadsheet?

The Restaurant Edition is planned to keep plate cost, food cost % and prime cost in one Windows app, with vendor price changes. It is coming soon, with no release date yet.

Get notified at launch What is planned