Menu price calculator
Turn a dish's cost into a menu price using your target food cost percentage. The table shows the same dish priced at several targets so you can compare. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
| Food cost % | Menu price | Gross profit per plate |
|---|
Don't know the dish cost yet? The Recipe Cost Workbook keeps one ingredient price list for every recipe, handles kg/g, l/ml and dozen, and adds labor, packaging and overhead. $12, instant .xlsx download. Pricing a whole menu? The Menu Pricing Workbook ($9) compares up to 50 items: price at your target margin, plus profit, margin and markup at your current price.
How it works
Menu price = dish cost ÷ target food cost %. Gross profit per plate = menu price − dish cost.
Worked example (the values above): a dish that costs $3.60 to make, at a 30% food cost target, is $3.60 ÷ 0.30 = $12.00, leaving $8.40 per plate. At 25% it would be $14.40; at 35%, $10.29.
The right target depends on your labor, rent and prices nearby, so treat the result as a starting point. More in how to calculate food cost percentage, or cost the dish with the free recipe cost calculator. See also more calculators.