Restaurant Food Cost
Track food cost percentage and weekly profit on a menu item.
About Restaurant Food Cost
Food cost percentage divides ingredient cost by menu price, then weekly revenue, cost and profit scale by units sold. Food cost is the single most watched restaurant metric, and knowing it weekly keeps menu prices profitable.
Formula
Restaurant Food Cost
Food cost = ingredient cost / menu price x 100; weekly profit = (price - cost) x sold
- food cost
- Ingredient cost as a share of the selling price
Worked example
With the default values below, Restaurant Food Cost returns Food Cost of 42.1%. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Ingredient costminimum 0
- 8
- Menu priceminimum 0
- 19
- Units sold per weekminimum 0
- 120
Results
- Food Cost
- 42.1%
- Weekly Revenue
- $2,280.00
- Weekly Food Cost
- $960.00
- Weekly Profit
- $1,320.00
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Restaurant Food Cost
- 3Food Cost= 42.1
- 4Weekly Revenue= 2,280.00
- 5Weekly Food Cost= 960.00
- 6Weekly Profit= 1,320.00
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Restaurant Food Cost calculated?
Food cost = ingredient cost / menu price x 100; weekly profit = (price - cost) x sold Food cost percentage divides ingredient cost by menu price, then weekly revenue, cost and profit scale by units sold.
Why does Restaurant Food Cost matter?
Food cost is the single most watched restaurant metric, and knowing it weekly keeps menu prices profitable.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 3 inputs: Ingredient cost, Menu price, Units sold per week. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.