Food cost percentage = ingredient cost ÷ menu price × 100. To price a dish, turn it around: menu price = ingredient cost ÷ target food cost %. Enter each ingredient's portion and unit cost, add a waste allowance, and get plate cost, food cost percentage, and the menu price that hits your target. Free, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
| Ingredient | Qty | Unit | Cost / Unit ($) | Line Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.85 | |||||
| $2.64 | |||||
| $0.38 | |||||
| $0.42 | |||||
| $0.18 | |||||
| $0.70 |
Enter ingredient quantities used per portion and purchase cost per matching unit. This simplified model applies one yield to all ingredients: adjusted cost = ingredient cost ÷ (1 − loss rate). For precise costing, calculate each ingredient's yield separately. Labor, packaging, overhead, taxes, and payment fees are excluded; this is not net profit.
Plate cost = Σ(ingredient qty × unit cost) ÷ (1 − loss fraction) Food cost % = plate cost ÷ menu price × 100 Target price = plate cost ÷ target %
Two honest caveats about what a plate calculator can and can't tell you. First, the unit costs are the whole game — a food cost percentage computed from the prices you remember is fiction; supplier prices move weekly, and a two-point drift hides comfortably inside stale numbers (see purchase price variance). Second, this computes theoretical cost — what the plate should cost if portioning is exact and nothing is wasted beyond your waste factor. The gap between theoretical and actual (from real purchases and counts) is where money disappears, and closing it requires connecting recipes to real purchase prices and inventory — see COGS and food cost management software.
Replace the calculator's rows with these five, keep the 5% waste allowance, and set the menu price to $7.50 and the target to 25%.
| Ingredient | Qty | Cost per unit | Line cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brioche bun | 1 each | $0.55 | $0.55 |
| Eggs | 2 each | $0.25 | $0.50 |
| Bacon | 2 slices | $0.25 | $0.50 |
| Cheddar | 1 slice | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Chipotle mayo | 0.5 oz | $0.30 | $0.15 |
| Ingredients | $1.90 | ||
Plate cost = $1.90 ÷ 0.95 = $2.00 Food cost = $2.00 ÷ $7.50 = 26.7% 25% price = $2.00 ÷ 0.25 = $8.00
At $7.50 the sandwich leaves $5.50 after ingredients and runs 26.7%, above a 25% target. Hitting the target takes an $8.00 price, or about $0.13 out of the plate cost at $7.50.
The waste field applies one loss rate to every row. If you entered edible-portion costs, use it only for spillage, over-portioning, and remakes, so trim isn't counted twice.
Food cost percentage and the gross margin left after ingredients add up to 100%, so target food cost % = 100% − target gross margin %. To keep 75% of each sandwich's price after ingredients, target 25%.
Pick that margin from your own P&L. Add up everything else as a share of sales, plus the profit you want; what's left is the ceiling for food. With labor at 32%, rent and utilities at 10%, other operating costs at 18%, and a 10% profit goal: 100 − 32 − 10 − 18 − 10 = 30% for food and packaging.
Many operators plan around 25–35% across a full menu, but that's a rough range that varies by concept and item: espresso drinks usually run well under it, steak and seafood plates often over it.
Then check the dollars. A $16 steak plate at 38% leaves $9.92 after ingredients; a $6 latte at 15% leaves $5.10. The steak's percentage looks worse, but each sale leaves more cash.
To use this as a menu pricing calculator, read the price for your target food cost: plate cost ÷ target %, which is plate cost × 4 at 25% or × 3.33 at 30%. That's the lowest price that hits the target. Round up to a price you'd print and recheck: at a 28% target the $2.00 sandwich needs $7.14, and at $7.25 it runs 27.6%. If similar items nearby sell for less, change the portion or recipe, or accept a higher percentage on that item and make it up elsewhere.
Plate costs are theoretical. Actual food cost for a week or month comes from purchases and counts:
Food cost % = (beginning inventory + purchases − ending inventory) ÷ food sales × 100
With $6,200 beginning inventory, $14,800 in food purchases, $5,900 ending inventory, and $52,000 in food sales: $6,200 + $14,800 − $5,900 = $15,100 used, and $15,100 ÷ $52,000 = 29.0%.
Count on the same day each period at current unit costs; this period's ending inventory is next period's beginning. Purchases are food invoices received in the period, after credits, with beverages left out. A restaurant inventory template gives you the count sheet and totals the value.
Theoretical cost is each item's plate cost × the number sold, summed and divided by food sales. If the plates say 27% and the counts say 29%, those two points are waste, over-portioning, theft, unrecorded price increases, or counting errors.
Track supplier price changes and recipe costs with LineNow's restaurant food cost software. Free for 90 days, $100/month per business unit after.
