Food cost,
per dish.
The universal restaurant ratio. Move the sliders to model your menu — every other margin number flows from this one.
What the customer pays for the dish
Raw materials per portion — protein, carbs, oil, spices
The small line most operators forget — garnishes, salads, sauces
What this dish costs you
Ingredients + garnish
Industry target: 28–32% QSR · 30–35% casual · 35–40% fine dining
68.8% of menu price — before labor, rent, utilities
Healthy
This dish sits in the target band for most service formats. Watch ingredient inflation — a 5% spike in raw material costs flips this to tight.
68.8% gross margin gives you headroom for ~30% labor + ~15% rent and still leave ~10–15% operating margin.
Food cost % isn’t one number. It’s a menu of decisions.
The industry rule of thumb says 30–32% food cost. That’s a starting line, not a target. A QSR running at 28% with a focused menu is more profitable than a casual restaurant running at 35% with a sprawling one — even though the casual operator charges 3× more per cover.
What actually matters is the spread between this dish and the others on your menu. Your top-3 sellers should sit at the lower end of your target band (smaller margin per dish, but volume makes the math); your high-margin specials should sit at the lower 25–28% to fund the spread.
The dial most operators sleep on: garnish. We routinely see operators model their a rice bowl at 30% food cost using the raw grain/protein number, then add sides, raita, and salad and quietly slide to 34%. The calculator above forces that accounting honestly.
Want to fix the underlying problem?
Restronaut builds custom digital systems for F&B operators — including inventory-to-recipe costing dashboards that update in real time.