What is a good food cost percentage?

What is food cost percentage?

Food cost percentage is the share of your food sales that goes to buying the food. For the whole restaurant it is food cost divided by food sales. For a single dish it is plate cost divided by menu price.

How do you calculate food cost percentage?

For one plate

Divide the plate cost by the menu price. A plate that costs $6.50 and sells for $24 has a food cost of $6.50 ÷ $24 = 27.1%. If you need the plate cost first, see how to calculate plate cost.

For the whole restaurant

Take your beginning inventory, add what you purchased, and subtract your ending inventory. That is the food you used. Divide it by your food sales for the same period. With $8,000 of beginning inventory, $22,000 of purchases and $7,500 of ending inventory, you used $22,500 of food. On $70,000 of food sales, that is 32.1%.

What food cost percentage is normal for a restaurant?

There is no single right number. Concepts built on inexpensive ingredients with a high markup, such as pizza and pasta, tend to run toward the low end. Steakhouses and seafood restaurants tend to run higher because the main ingredient is expensive. Full-service restaurants broadly land around 28% to 35%. What matters most is that you know your own number and that it holds still.

Why is your food cost percentage higher than it should be?

• Vendor prices rose and menu prices did not.
• Portions drifted above the recipe.
• Waste, spoilage and over-prep.
• Recipes that were never costed, or were costed with old prices.
• A menu mix that leans toward your highest-cost dishes.
• Comps, staff meals and mistakes that never get recorded.

The gap between the food cost your recipes predict and the food cost your inventory says you actually used is where waste and portioning problems show up. A small gap means the kitchen is cooking to the recipe. A large one is worth chasing.

How do you set a menu price from a target food cost?

Divide the plate cost by your target percentage. A $6.50 plate with a 30% target needs a menu price of $6.50 ÷ 0.30 = $21.67, which most owners round up to $22.

Look at dollars as well as percent. A $24 plate at 27.1% leaves $17.50 after food cost. A $9 appetizer at 22% leaves $7.02. The lower percentage is not the better plate if it leaves less money behind.

How often should you check food cost percentage?

Weekly, not at month-end. A price rise you see this week is one you can still react to. By the time the monthly numbers arrive, you have already sold a month of plates at the old margin. Most of those rises start at the vendor, which is why tracking vendor price increases and food cost percentage belong together.

How does EROS help with food cost percentage?

EROS shows every plate's food cost percentage against the target you set, shows which plates are off target, and suggests a menu price that gets them back. When a vendor raises a price, the plates that use that ingredient move with it, so the number you are looking at stays current.