Food cost percentage calculator
Two ways round. One dish, from its plate cost and menu price. Or a whole month, from your stock and your purchases.
Nothing to sign up for and no email asked. Both are pre-filled with plausible figures for a 20-cover bistro.
| GP % | 4.5% |
| Gross profit a plate | £0.31 |
Plate cost divided by menu price. Arithmetic on the two figures you typed, nothing else.
| Food used | £21,800.00 |
| GP % | 70.5% |
| Gross profit | £52,200.00 |
Opening stock plus purchases minus closing stock is the food you used. Divide that by net food sales.
A monthly percentage tells you there is a problem. It never tells you which dish. We name the dish.
Cost my whole menu — $29 →30% food cost is the target. It is not the answer.
A monthly food cost percentage is a scoreboard. It tells you whether the month went well. It cannot tell you what to change on Tuesday, because it is one number for forty dishes.
That is the gap between what a bookkeeper gives you and what a kitchen needs. Both are real. Only one of them names the sea bass.
The two sums, written out
Three things that quietly ruin it
- —Gross sales instead of net. VAT inflates sales and flatters the percentage by about a fifth. Use net.
- —Drink mixed in with food. A 20% drink cost drags the blend down and hides a 40% food problem.
- —Staff food and wastage ignored. It was bought and it was used. Leaving it out makes the kitchen look better than it is.
Questions people ask
What is a good food cost percentage for a restaurant?
Most UK and Irish independents run food at about 30% of net sales, so a 70% GP. Anything past 35% is usually worth investigating dish by dish.
Do I include drinks in food cost percentage?
No. Keep food and drink separate, because drink runs a much lower cost percentage and hides a food problem when the two are mixed.
Should sales be net of VAT?
Yes. Use sales net of VAT and purchases net of VAT, or the percentage comes out wrong by roughly a fifth.
Costing a single plate from pack prices? Use the dish cost calculator.
One percentage a month, or every dish, ranked worst first.
Photograph your menu and a few invoices. We draft a recipe for every dish and send back your plates, worst first.
Every dish figure we send is an estimate, shown with the invoice lines and the portions we drafted. If we cannot make a useful report from your invoices, we refund without being asked.