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RestaurantDoctorAI

Methodology

How we grade your restaurant

Your grade and every dollar figure come from fixed formulas, held against published industry figures for your type of restaurant. Here's how they work, where the targets come from and what they can't tell you. AI helps write the paid report's words. It never sets a number.

Last reviewed: Spotted a mistake? Email support@restaurantdoctorai.com

12 questions about how you run things

Your type of restaurant picks the targets, and your sales range sets the scale. Every other answer is held against what a well-run restaurant of your type does, and becomes one of these findings:

Leak
Costing you money now, with a dollar range.
Opportunity
Sales you could add, with a dollar range.
Watch
A blind spot to keep an eye on. Some come with sales you could add.
Healthy
Nothing to fix.

  • Your baseline

    1. What kind of restaurant do you run?
    2. About how much do you sell in a typical month?
    3. What's your prime cost: food, drink and labor costs as a share of sales?

  • Kitchen & food cost

    1. How often do you update recipe costs with current supplier prices?
    2. How do you track kitchen waste and spoilage?
    3. How do you control drink pours?

  • Labor & overhead

    1. When a shift gets slow, what happens to staffing?
    2. What share of sales goes to rent, property costs and utilities?

  • Delivery

    1. How much of your sales come through DoorDash, Uber Eats or similar apps?

  • Guests & revenue

    1. How full is your dining room across the week?
    2. How do you bring guests back?
    3. What's your average rating on Google and Yelp?

  • No AI in the free check. Your free grade is worked out in your browser, by the same code that scores the paid report.

The targets for your type of restaurant

Your first answer picks one row. Every figure is a share of your sales, and the free calculators use the same targets.

  • Quick service

    Prime cost, at most
    60%
    Food and drink cost
    26–32%
    Labor
    26–31%
    Rent and utilities
    6–10%
    Drinks' share of sales
    5%

  • Fast casual

    Prime cost, at most
    60%
    Food and drink cost
    28–33%
    Labor
    27–32%
    Rent and utilities
    6–10%
    Drinks' share of sales
    8%

  • Full service / casual dining

    Prime cost, at most
    65%
    Food and drink cost
    30–34%
    Labor
    30–35%
    Rent and utilities
    7–12%
    Drinks' share of sales
    20%

  • Fine dining

    Prime cost, at most
    70%
    Food and drink cost
    32–38%
    Labor
    34–38%
    Rent and utilities
    7–12%
    Drinks' share of sales
    30%

  • Bar, taproom or lounge

    Prime cost, at most
    57%
    Food and drink cost
    20–26%
    Labor
    25–32%
    Rent and utilities
    7–12%
    Drinks' share of sales
    55%
Prime cost
Food and drink cost plus labor. It's a ceiling: at or under it is healthy.
Food and drink cost
What you buy from suppliers for the food and drink you sell.
Labor
Your total payroll: wages, salaries and your costs on them, such as payroll taxes.
Rent and utilities
Rent, property charges and utilities together.
Drinks' share of sales
Not a target: what we assume for your type, to size the bar's estimate.

How the grade is worked out

The grade measures how much money looks to be leaking, against your sales. First the leaks become risk points, then the points become a letter.

Risk points
the middle of your profit-leak estimate, as % of sales
+ 0.4 for each point your own prime cost runs over its target

An estimated prime cost adds nothing: it's built from the same leaks, so it would count them twice.

  1. AStrongUnder 1.5 points
  2. BHealthy1.5 to under 3 points
  3. CLeaking3 to under 4.5 points
  4. DBleeding4.5 to under 6 points
  5. FCritical6 points or more
  • When your own numbers put prime cost over its target, the grade is never an A.
  • The grade covers costs. Your rating changes the sales you could add, not the letter, and a restaurant rated below 3.5 stars is never called Strong.

Each area's letter

The free result also gives Prime cost, Kitchen & food cost, Labor & overhead and Delivery a letter of their own. An area is an A when nothing in it is leaking. Otherwise its letter comes from the middle of its own estimate, as a share of sales: B under 0.7%, C under 1.6%, D under 3%, F at 3% or more. That's stricter than the whole restaurant's scale, since each area is one part of it.

Prime cost gets its letter from its points over target, and is at least a C whenever it is or may be over. Delivery gets no letter if you don't use the apps, and Guests & revenue gets none at all: it's sales you could add, not a leak.

Worked example: the restaurant in our sample report
Type
Full service / casual dining
Sales ($60,000 – $120,000)
$90,000 a month
Profit leaks found
4
Together, as % of sales
1.9–4.2%
Risk points (the middle)
3.05
GradeC · Leaking

Its prime cost is estimated from its answers, so it adds no points. Its report shows $1,730–$3,820 a month in profit leaks, and $1,530–$3,690 a month in sales it could add.

How the dollar figures are estimated

Every figure is a range, low to high, because it comes from multiple-choice answers rather than your books.

  1. Start from one sales figure

    Each sales range uses one working figure a month:

    The sales figure used for each sales range
    Your answerSales we use, a month
    Under $25,000$15,000
    $25,000 – $60,000$42,500
    $60,000 – $120,000$90,000
    Over $120,000$150,000

    “Under $25,000” has no middle, and a restaurant that small is rarely near the top of it, so it uses $15,000. Outside the US, the same figures are in your currency.

  2. Give each answer its range

    Each answer that points to a leak, or to sales you could add, counts for a range, as a share of your sales. For a full service / casual dining restaurant, for example:

    “Only when the menu changes”
    Leak0.6–1.3% of sales
    “Everyone works their scheduled shift anyway”
    Leak0.8–1.7% of sales
    “Packed on weekends, quiet midweek”
    Opportunity1–2.5% of sales you could add

    The bar's ranges grow with how much of your sales is drinks, the last column of the targets.

    Every answer and its range, for a full service / casual dining restaurant

    What's your prime cost: food, drink and labor costs as a share of sales?

    Under 58%
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    58% – 64%
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    65% or more
    WatchNo dollar figure
    I don't track it regularly
    WatchNo dollar figure

    How often do you update recipe costs with current supplier prices?

    Monthly or live, with software
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    Once or twice a year
    Leak0.3–0.7% of sales
    Only when the menu changes
    Leak0.6–1.3% of sales
    Rarely
    Leak0.9–1.6% of sales

    How do you track kitchen waste and spoilage?

    A daily log the chef signs off
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    A rough estimate during weekly inventory
    Leak0.15–0.4% of sales
    Only when a big batch or case goes bad
    Leak0.3–0.8% of sales
    We don't track it
    Leak0.5–1.2% of sales

    How do you control drink pours?

    We don't serve alcohol
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    Measured pours, plus weekly pour-cost checks
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    Spot checks when bottles run out early
    Leak0.22–0.44% of sales
    Free pours, no pour-cost checks
    Leak0.44–0.88% of sales

    When a shift gets slow, what happens to staffing?

    We cut staff based on sales per labor hour
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    Everyone works their scheduled shift anyway
    Leak0.8–1.7% of sales
    Overtime is common
    Leak0.5–1.2% of sales
    We're short-staffed
    WatchNo dollar figure

    What share of sales goes to rent, property costs and utilities?

    Under 8%
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    8% – 12%
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    More than 12%
    WatchNo dollar figure
    I'm not sure
    WatchNo dollar figure

    How much of your sales come through DoorDash, Uber Eats or similar apps?

    None
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    Under 15%
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    15% – 35%
    Leak1–2% of sales
    More than 35%
    Leak1.6–3.2% of sales

    How full is your dining room across the week?

    Steady all week
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    Packed on weekends, quiet midweek
    Opportunity1–2.5% of sales you could add
    Busy lunches, slow dinners
    Opportunity1–2% of sales you could add
    Hard to predict week to week
    Watch0.5–1% of sales you could add

    How do you bring guests back?

    Loyalty or email list with automatic campaigns
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    We collect some emails but rarely use them
    Watch0.4–0.8% of sales you could add
    Social media and walk-ins only
    Opportunity0.8–1.6% of sales you could add
    Paid ads, but no guest list of our own
    Opportunity0.8–1.8% of sales you could add

    What's your average rating on Google and Yelp?

    4.5 – 5.0 stars
    HealthyNo dollar figure
    4.0 – 4.4 stars
    Watch0.3–0.8% of sales you could add
    3.5 – 3.9 stars
    Opportunity1–2.5% of sales you could add
    Below 3.5 stars
    Opportunity2.5–5% of sales you could add

  3. Cap the totals

    Leaks overlap: fixing one often shrinks another, so they can't simply be added up. All profit leaks together are capped at 5.5% of sales at the low end and 8% at the high end, and all sales you could add at 4% and 6%. When a total reaches its cap, every figure under it is scaled down to fit.

  4. Count habits at half when prime cost is on target

    If your own prime cost answer is at or under the ceiling for your type, the food, drink and labor habit leaks count at half, and the report says so: “Your prime cost is within target, so this is counted at half.”

  5. Turn the shares into dollars

    Each range is applied to the sales figure and rounded, and the figures under each total are fitted so they add up to it exactly.

  6. With your real numbers

    In the report with your real numbers, the sales you type in replace the working figure, and the costs you type in decide those findings instead of your answers. When a cost runs over its range, 25–50% of the points over are counted as recoverable: a planning assumption, since no restaurant wins back every point. Delivery is never sized at more than half of what the apps actually kept.

What the AI does, and what it never does

The free check uses no AI. In the paid report, Google's Gemini writes the words around the figures. The figures come from the formulas on this page.

The AI writes

  • The one-line verdict at the top
  • A short summary
  • The paragraph on your prime cost
  • A title and a short explanation for each of your biggest leaks
  • Why each fix in your plan suits your restaurant, and what it goes after

The AI never

  • Sets your grade, a dollar figure, a target or a percentage
  • Picks your fixes or writes their steps: those come word for word from a playbook of standard restaurant fixes, chosen by code for your answers
  • Sees your email address or payment details
  • Touches the free check

How every draft is checked

Before anything the AI writes goes into a report, code reads it against fixed rules:

  • Every figure must be one the code gave it, written exactly as given.
  • No sentence over 22 words, and none of the 24 jargon terms on a banned list.
  • Nothing your answers rule out, such as calling staff idle when your labor cost is inside its range.

A draft that breaks a rule is written again. If a part still breaks one, that part is replaced with plain wording built from your numbers, so no report goes out with a broken rule. What Google receives is listed on our service providers page.

How the formulas are tested

  • The grade and the estimates

    Automated tests score thousands of random sets of answers. They check that every total equals the figures under it, no total passes its cap, and a worse answer never gives a better grade or a smaller estimate.

  • The calculators

    Each one is checked against examples worked out by hand, and most also on thousands of generated numbers. Where a calculator and the paid report work out the same figure, they must give the same answer.

  • The check on the AI

    Its tests feed it drafts that break each rule, to make sure every one is caught, and check that the plain wording that replaces a broken part keeps every rule.

What the check can't know

Your books
It works from multiple-choice answers, so every figure is an estimate: a range, not a measurement.
Your restaurant up close
It can't see your menu, your prices, your lease, your team or your local market.
Norms outside the US
The targets are US industry benchmarks. They run close to the norms in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; anywhere else, treat them as a rough guide.
What you'll win back
Recoverable money is a planning assumption. No restaurant recovers every point.
What every report says
This diagnostic is an operational benchmarking assessment for managerial decision support. It is not an audit opinion, tax advice or legal counsel.

Sources

Named in plain text, without logos: listing an organization doesn't mean it endorses us.

Behind the targets and the estimates

Used to set and check the targets for each type of restaurant, and the delivery figures.

Behind the calculators

The plate cost calculator and the menu calorie counter copy their food figures from these public datasets, and never retype them.

In the guides and the blog

Each guide and blog post links the sources behind its figures, right where it uses them.

Changes

  1. This page: how the check grades, where the targets come from, what the AI does and what the check can't know.

  2. The first free calculators, built on the same targets as the check.

  3. Every rate checked against published sources, including the National Restaurant Association's latest figures. Waste, recipe costing, overtime and fixed shifts now count for less, and counter-service targets and rent ranges match today's medians. Every draft the AI writes is checked before it goes in a report, and the costs you type in decide those findings instead of your answers.

  4. The report with your real numbers: type in last month's sales and costs, and the report uses them.

  5. Owners outside the US can pick their country, with figures in their own currency.

  6. First version of the check, with totals capped so the estimates stay believable.

See where your restaurant stands

12 questions, free, with no POS or bank logins.

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