Food cost percentage: formula and targets by restaurant type

Food cost percentage is the cost of the food you used in a period, divided by your food sales, times 100. A kitchen that used $21,000 of food to sell $70,000 runs a 30% food cost. Work it out for the whole kitchen each week or month. Then do the same for each dish as plate cost, to see which dishes need a fix.

How to calculate food cost percentage

Food cost percentage is the cost of the food you used, divided by your food sales. You measure it over a period, usually a week or a month. Count what actually left your storeroom, not what's sitting on the shelf that day. It's the food part of your cost of goods sold. Check it on a set schedule, not only when something feels off.

Plate cost for a single dish

Your food cost percentage for the whole kitchen can look fine while some dishes underneath it earn far less than others. Plate cost percentage isolates one dish. It shows which dishes need a fix, instead of averaging the problem away.

Food cost percentage by restaurant type

The targets RestaurantDoctorAI uses are for your combined cost of goods. That's the food and drink you used, divided by your food and drink sales. It's the same figure that goes into prime cost. If you sell drinks, a food-only number isn't comparable to these targets, so add the drink side in first.

Say the restaurant in the first example also used $6,000 of drinks to sell $30,000 of drinks. Its combined cost of goods is $27,000 ÷ $100,000, or 27%. That's the number to hold against the table below, not the 30% food cost.

The bar and lounge target is the lowest because drinks usually cost less per dollar of sales than food. Treat all of these as typical ranges, not a pass-or-fail line. One odd week, such as a slow week or a short-lived price spike, can push you outside your range. Watch the trend over several weeks instead. A supplier price rise that sticks is different: re-cost the dishes it touches that week, as in step 3 below.

For comparison, the National Restaurant Association's figures for 2024 put the median cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks at 32.0% of sales for full-service restaurants and 32.4% for limited service, meaning counter service. Those figures leave alcohol out.

If drinks make up half your sales or more, what you spend on drinks is a large part of that combined number. Track the drink side on its own with pour cost. See how to calculate bar pour cost for that version of the math.

The two quiet leaks behind a high number

When food cost keeps drifting up, two blind spots are often behind it. Both are easy to miss, because neither looks like an emergency at the time.

• Recipes you cost rarely, or never. You might set menu prices by feel, by what competitors charge, or by a plate cost you last checked when the menu launched. Every supplier price increase since then has gone straight into your margin instead of into your price.
• Waste you estimate instead of measure. Trim loss, over-prepped batches and plates sent back leave your kitchen the same way spoiled food does. But if nobody weighs or logs them, they never turn into a number you can act on.

Both leaks share the same fix: measure the thing you're currently guessing at. If you sell drinks and your combined number is high, check pours as well. An unmeasured pour raises cost of goods the same way unmeasured waste does.

How to lower a high food cost percentage

Start with the dishes and ingredients that move the most money for you, not the whole menu at once.

1. 01Pull last month's item sales report from your POS and list your 10 best-selling dishes.
2. 02For each one, weigh the ingredients the way the line actually plates them. Price them from your latest invoices, using the usable amount after trimming rather than the weight you bought. That's your real plate cost.
3. 03List the 10 ingredients you spend the most on. When one of them rises more than 5%, re-cost the dishes that use it that same week, not just when the menu changes.
4. 04Tape a waste sheet by the bins with four columns: item, amount, reason and initials. The chef signs it at close.
5. 05For each dish, multiply its profit per plate (menu price minus plate cost) by the number sold, and sort the menu by that total. Put the top earners first on your specials board and online menu.

None of these five steps needs new software or a big spend. They turn a number you're guessing at into one you're measuring. That's what makes the next price or portion decision worth trusting.

Common questions

What's a good food cost percentage?

It depends on your format. The targets RestaurantDoctorAI uses are for food and drink cost combined. They run from 26–32% of sales at quick service to 32–38% at fine dining. A bar or lounge runs lower, at 20–26%. Add your drink cost in before you compare. A number that stays above your range for several weeks is worth digging into.

Is my food cost too high?

Compare your combined food and drink cost with the range for your type of restaurant in the table above. If it sits above the top of that range for several weeks in a row, yes. The usual causes are the two quiet leaks: recipes that weren't re-costed after a supplier price rise, and waste nobody measures. One high week on its own is usually noise.

Is food cost percentage the same as prime cost?

No. Food cost percentage covers only the food you used. Prime cost is your food and drink cost plus total labor cost, divided by sales. It's the biggest share of your costs you can control week to week, and the first number to check when profit slips. See our guide to restaurant prime cost for the full formula.

How often should I calculate it?

Calculate the period number weekly or monthly from your inventory and purchases. Re-cost your best sellers any time a top ingredient rises more than 5%, rather than waiting for your next menu change.