Cost & pricing
Plate Cost & Menu Price Calculator
What does this dish cost me, and what should it be priced at?
Cost a recipe from your invoices. Enter each ingredient as the pack you buy and the amount the recipe uses. Keep the units consistent within a row; the calculator does not care whether that unit is pounds, ounces, or each.
Your numbers
A worked example is already loaded. Replace any field with the figures from the source named beside it.
The answer
Food cost
18.9%
$4.53 of cost on a $24.00 plate
- Plate cost$4.53
- Gross profit per plate$19.47
- Ingredient cost before waste$4.20
- Trim and waste allowance$0.34
- Price to hit your target$15.11
Food and beverage cost, % of sales
Operator survey- Full-service restaurant (median)32%
- Limited-service restaurant (median)32.4%
- Full-service, $2M+ annual sales (median)31%
- Full-service, under $2M annual sales (median)33.7%
Reported by operators to an industry association and published as a median.
The association reports this as food and non-alcohol beverage cost. A bar-led venue with a large spirits programme will not match this line.
Source: National Restaurant Association, 2025 Restaurant Operations Data Abstract (2024 data, 900+ operators) — overall food-cost medians (2025)
03 Show the arithmetic
04 What the answer leaves out
- Pack size and amount used must share a unit within a row. Mixing pounds and ounces in one row will give a wrong answer.
- Food cost percentage does not tell you which dishes make the most money. A high-cost steak can out-earn a low-cost pasta on gross profit per plate.