Restaurant food cost calculator
Enter what a dish costs to make and either its menu price or your target food-cost %. Get the food cost percentage, gross margin, and the price you should charge — instantly.
Enter a dish cost and a menu price to see the food cost % and margin.
How to calculate food cost percentage
Food cost % = dish cost ÷ menu price × 100. A plate that costs €3.00 and sells for €12.00 runs at a 25% food cost, leaving €9.00 of gross margin. To price from a target instead, divide the cost by your target percentage: €3.00 ÷ 0.30 = €10.00 to land a 30% food cost.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good food cost percentage?
- Most full-service restaurants target 28–35%, with the industry median around 32%. Lower is better for margin, but pricing too aggressively can hurt perceived value.
- What's the difference between food cost % and gross margin?
- Food cost % is the cost as a share of the selling price; gross margin is the cash left after the cost (price minus cost). A 30% food cost is the same as a 70% gross margin.
- Why does my food cost keep changing?
- Ingredient prices move every week. That's why a one-off calculation goes stale — Frescost re-costs every dish automatically from the invoices you record.
Stop re-costing dishes by hand
Frescost reads your invoices, tracks every ingredient's price over time, and keeps each dish's food cost % current — automatically. No inventory counts.