Food Cost Percentage Calculator

Most full-service restaurants aim for a Food Cost % between 28% and 35%, though the right number depends heavily on your concept -- a steakhouse with expensive proteins often runs higher, while a pizza or pasta-heavy menu can run lower. Enter your own Target Food Cost % to see the Ideal Menu Price that would hit it for this specific dish.

They measure the same dollar spread against different bases: Gross Margin divides Gross Profit Per Plate by Menu Price, while Markup divides it by Ingredient Cost. For any dish with a nonzero ingredient cost, Ingredient Cost is smaller than Menu Price, so Markup comes out as a larger percentage than Gross Margin, even though both describe the identical dollar amount.

In dollar terms, yes, for a typical plate -- Menu Price is usually the larger of the two numbers, so a given percentage change in price moves Gross Profit Per Plate more than the same percentage change in ingredient cost. That doesn't mean cutting costs is unimportant, just that a price adjustment tends to have outsized leverage on the bottom line.

Daily Covers is the number of times you expect to sell this specific dish per day, and the calculator multiplies it by Gross Profit Per Plate to estimate Daily Gross Profit, then by 30 for a rough Monthly Gross Profit. More covers only means more profit when the dish is priced above its ingredient cost -- if Ingredient Cost exceeds Menu Price, Gross Profit Per Plate is negative and more covers scales up the daily loss instead. It's an estimate only -- it assumes the dish sells at a constant daily rate and doesn't account for weekday/weekend swings or seasonality.