Restaurant menu price calculator
What should this item cost, at your target food cost percentage?
Enter a plate's ingredient cost and a target food cost percentage to see a suggested menu price and the gross profit it leaves per item.
One menu item
One input among several
Food cost is where pricing starts, not where it ends
A price set purely off a target food cost percentage ignores labour intensity, what competitors charge and what guests will actually pay for that specific item. It's a defensible starting point, not a final answer — especially on items with unusually high or low labour to prepare.
Questions
What operators ask about this
How do you price a menu item off its food cost?
Divide the plate's ingredient cost by your target food cost percentage. A $4 plate cost at a 30% target food cost suggests a $13.33 menu price — below that, food cost on that item runs above target; above it, below target.
What target food cost percentage should I use?
It varies by format and item — a format-wide average target, often somewhere between 28% and 35%, is a reasonable starting point, but a genuinely fair price should also account for what the market will actually bear for that specific item.
Does this account for labour cost per item?
No — this calculator prices off food cost alone, the most common simple method. A fuller approach would also weight labour intensity per item, which this quick version doesn't attempt.
Related
Other ways to look at this
Ready when you are
See your own food cost, by category
Twenty minutes, screen shared. We connect one of your locations live and count its invoices against inventory by category.