Enter what one plate actually costs you to make, and what it sells for. We'll tell you the food cost percentage instantly — and whether that's healthy for a typical restaurant.
Food cost percentage is simply: (Cost of Ingredients ÷ Menu Price) × 100. If a burger costs you $4.20 in ingredients and sells for $14.00, your food cost is 30% — meaning 30 cents of every dollar that dish brings in goes straight to ingredients.
Most full-service restaurants target somewhere around 28–35%, though it varies by category — beverages and bar items typically run lower, while premium proteins like steak or seafood often run a bit higher and get balanced out by higher-margin sides and starters elsewhere on the menu.
This calculator works fine for checking one dish. The real problem most operators run into is that ingredient prices change constantly — and nobody has time to re-run this math for every dish, every time a supplier raises a price. That's exactly what PlateCost automates: it recalculates every dish's food cost automatically the moment an ingredient price changes, across your entire menu.
No credit card required.