Restaurant Food Cost Calculator
Cost a recipe per plate and find the menu price that hits your food-cost target.
Menu prices set by looking at what the restaurant down the road charges are guesses. This calculator costs a recipe ingredient by ingredient, adds wastage and accompaniments, and produces the price that delivers the food-cost percentage your business model needs — including a separate price for delivery platforms.
Recipe and pricing
Result
Fill in the fields above and your result will appear here.
What the Restaurant Food Cost Calculator does
Food cost percentage is the standard control in restaurant operations: the cost of ingredients as a share of the menu price. Indian casual dining typically targets 28–35%. The remainder has to cover rent, salaries, utilities, taxes and profit.
Two things distort the figure if left out. Wastage — peels, trimming, spoilage, spillage — routinely adds 5–12%. Accompaniments served free with a dish are real cost that rarely appears in the recipe card.
How to use this tool
- Enter each ingredient with the quantity used in one batch and the rate you pay per kilogram, litre or unit.
- Enter how many portions that batch yields — this is where portion control shows up in the numbers.
- Set your wastage percentage. If you have never measured it, 8–10% is a reasonable starting assumption.
- Add accompaniments and, for delivery orders, packaging cost per plate.
- Set your target food-cost percentage and the platform commission if you are pricing for delivery.
Formula and method
Batch cost = Σ (Quantity × Rate)
After wastage = Batch cost × (1 + Wastage %)
Cost per plate = After wastage ÷ Portions + Accompaniments + Packaging
Menu price = Cost per plate ÷ Target food cost %
Delivery price = Menu price ÷ (1 − Platform commission %)
Dividing by the target percentage is what makes the target correct. Multiplying the cost by three to reach a "33% food cost" gives 33.3% — close, but the division is exact and works at any target.
Worked example
Example: paneer dish, batch of 4 portions
| Ingredient cost per batch | ₹300.50 |
| After 8% wastage | ₹324.54 |
| Per plate (÷ 4) | ₹81.14 |
| Plus accompaniments ₹12 | ₹93.14 |
| Menu price at 30% food cost | ₹311 |
| On a platform at 25% commission | ₹415 |
The delivery price is not greed — at ₹311 on a platform taking 25%, the effective food cost would rise to 40% and the dish would stop covering its share of overheads.
What your result means
Food cost below 30% gives comfortable room for overheads. Above 38% makes profitability very difficult unless volume is high and rent is low.
The ingredient share column shows where cost actually sits. Negotiating the rate on the one ingredient that is half the cost beats squeezing five small ones.
The delivery price should be visibly separate from your dine-in price. Most Indian restaurants now price delivery menus higher, and customers broadly accept it.
Important considerations
- Recost your recipes when input prices move. Vegetable and oil prices in India swing enough to shift a 30% food cost to 38% within a season.
- Portion control is the difference between the recipe card and reality. If the kitchen serves 15% more than specified, your food cost rises by the same proportion.
- Not every dish needs the same food-cost percentage. Beverages and desserts usually run much lower and can subsidise a signature dish that runs higher.
- GST on restaurant service is charged at a concessional rate without input tax credit in most cases, which means the GST you pay on ingredients is a cost rather than a credit.
- Delivery platform commission, packaging and the discounts platforms require together often exceed 35% of the listed price. Price for it explicitly.
Limitations of this tool
- It costs ingredients only. Gas, electricity, kitchen labour and equipment depreciation are overheads recovered through the food-cost percentage, not itemised here.
- Yield loss during cooking — moisture loss in meat, for example — is captured only through the wastage percentage, which is an approximation.
- It prices one dish at a time and does not model menu engineering across a full card.
Frequently asked questions
What food cost percentage should a restaurant target?
Indian casual dining commonly targets 28–35%. Quick service can run lower, fine dining higher because other costs differ. What matters is whether the remaining margin covers your actual rent, salaries and utilities.
Should my delivery price be higher than my dine-in price?
Almost always, yes. A platform commission of 20–28% plus packaging has to come from somewhere, and absorbing it turns profitable dishes into loss-makers. Most Indian restaurants now run a separate delivery menu price.
How do I account for wastage?
Measure it for a week: weigh what you buy against what reaches the plate. Most kitchens find 5–12%. Using a measured figure rather than an assumed one is usually worth more than any price change.
Does this include labour and rent?
No. Those are covered by the gap between food cost and menu price. If your food cost is 30%, the remaining 70% must cover labour, rent, utilities, taxes and profit — use the break-even calculator to check that it does.