Restaurant Pricing Calculator
Restaurants don't fail because the food is bad — they fail because the math is. This page answers the three numbers that decide it: what should this plate sell for, is my prime cost under control, and how many plates a day does the building itself eat? No POS reports, no spreadsheets — cost one plate, and get the price to print on the menu.
1Your restaurant settings
Set these once — they apply to every plate you price. A 30% food cost target is the full-service standard; the other 70% covers labor, rent, utilities, and your profit. The waste & comps line is what most operators forget: remakes, spoilage, staff meals, and comped tickets quietly eat 4–8% of sales.
2What does one plate cost you to put out?
Cost everything that leaves the kitchen with the order — protein, sides, garnish, and the "free" stuff: bread service, butter, the ramekin of sauce. The example below is a chicken parm plate; replace it with your own dish.
Check your prime cost — the number the whole industry watches
3Food + labor vs. sales
Prime cost is your food & beverage purchases plus your total labor (wages, payroll taxes, benefits), as a percent of sales. It's the one number that tells you in thirty seconds whether a restaurant is healthy. Full-service target: 60% or under. The best operators run 55%.
Your rent, measured in plates
4Fixed costs → plates per day
Rent, utilities, insurance, and loan payments get paid whether anyone walks in or not. Here's the most useful way to picture them: how many plates a day just to cover the building, before a dollar of profit.
Restaurant menu price guide
Use the calculator above for your real prices — your plate costs, not ours. But here's what common menu items typically sell for across most US full-service markets. Big cities run the high end or above it; small markets run the low end:
| Appetizers | |
| Chicken wings (10 pc) | $12–$16 |
| Mozzarella sticks | $9–$12 |
| Loaded nachos | $11–$15 |
| Entrées | |
| Chicken parm with pasta | $16–$22 |
| Burger & fries | $14–$18 |
| Pasta dishes | $15–$21 |
| Grilled salmon plate | $22–$30 |
| Ribeye steak | $28–$42 |
| Pizza | |
| 16" cheese pizza | $14–$19 |
| 16" specialty pizza | $18–$26 |
| Salads | |
| Entrée salad with protein | $13–$18 |
| Desserts | |
| Cheesecake slice | $8–$11 |
| Brownie sundae | $8–$12 |
| Drinks | |
| Fountain soda (free refills) | $3–$4 |
| Draft beer (pint) | $6–$8 |
| House cocktail | $12–$16 |
Notice the pattern: nobody sells a ribeye for $18. If your calculator result lands way below these ranges, your plate cost is probably missing something — the bread service, the garnish, the side that "comes with it."
Not every plate should hit 30%
The 30% food cost target is an average, not a rule for every item. Smart menus mix high-cost crowd-pullers with low-cost margin-makers — and the target also shifts by concept:
| By menu category | Typical food cost |
| Steaks & seafood | 35–40% |
| Chicken & burger entrées | 28–33% |
| Pasta & pizza | 18–26% |
| Appetizers & desserts | 20–28% |
| Fountain drinks & coffee | 5–15% |
| Bar (beer, wine, cocktails) | 18–24% |
| By restaurant type | Overall target |
| Quick service / counter | 25–30% |
| Casual full-service | 28–34% |
| Pizza | 20–28% |
| Fine dining | 30–38% |
This is why the steak can run 38% and still belong on the menu: it pulls people in, and the $3.50 soda riding along at a 8% food cost carries the margin. In the calculator above, just change the food cost target when pricing a drink, a dessert, or a pizza.
Menu engineering in one minute
Once every plate is costed, sort your menu by two things: how well it sells and how many contribution dollars it leaves behind (menu price minus plate cost). Every item lands in one of four boxes:
| Stars — popular and profitable | Protect them. Never cut the portion, feature them on the menu. |
| Plowhorses — popular, thin margin | Raise the price $1 or trim the plate cost. Your burger is usually here. |
| Puzzles — profitable, slow sellers | Rename, reposition on the menu, or have servers push them. |
| Dogs — unpopular and unprofitable | Cut them. Every dog complicates the kitchen and pads the food order. |
One warning: rank by contribution dollars, not food cost percent. A dessert at 22% food cost that leaves $6.20 behind is worth less than a steak at 38% that leaves $23. Percent keeps you honest; dollars pay the rent.
The pricing mistakes that sink restaurants
1. Copying the place down the street. Their prices are built on their lease, their supplier deals, and possibly their mistakes. A price you didn't calculate is a price you can't defend — and can't tell whether it's making or losing money.
2. Costing the protein and ignoring the rest of the plate. The side, the garnish, the bread basket, the butter, and the sauce ramekin add $0.80–$1.60 to most entrées. Cost the plate as it actually leaves the kitchen, not as it looks on the invoice.
3. Pretending waste and comps don't exist. Remakes, 86'd product, staff meals, and comped tickets run 4–8% of sales in most operations. If your pricing assumes every plate sells at full price, your real food cost will always beat your target — in the wrong direction.
4. Never re-costing the menu. Beef, cheese, and oil prices move constantly. Re-cost your top ten sellers every quarter. A plate that hit 30% in March can be at 37% by August without a single change to the printed menu.
5. Chasing food cost percent instead of contribution dollars. Cutting the ribeye because it runs 38% is how menus get boring and revenue shrinks. Percent is a health check; dollars per plate are what actually pay your fixed costs. Price for both.
Common questions
How do restaurants price their menu items?
The industry-standard method is food cost percentage: add up what everything on one plate costs you — protein, sides, garnish, bread service — then divide by your target food cost percentage. A chicken parm plate that costs $4.25 to put out, at a 30% target, is $4.25 ÷ 0.30 = $14.17 — rounded to a menu-friendly $14.95. The other 70% covers labor, rent, utilities, and profit. That's exactly what the calculator above does.
What is a good food cost percentage?
Most full-service restaurants run 28–35% overall. Quick service runs 25–30%, pizza can run 20–28%, and fine dining tolerates 30–38% on bigger checks. Individual items vary on purpose: steaks run 35–40% while pasta, pizza, and drinks run far lower and carry the margin.
What is prime cost?
Food and beverage cost plus total labor (wages, payroll taxes, benefits), as a percent of sales — the single most watched number in the industry, because it covers the two costs you can manage week to week. Healthy full-service restaurants keep it at or under 60%; the best run 55% or below. Over 65% is a serious warning sign. The checker above does the math from three numbers off your P&L.
What profit margin do restaurants make?
Typically 3–6% net for full-service and 6–9% for quick service. Margins that thin are exactly why plate costing matters: at 5% net, a plate underpriced by one dollar wipes out the profit on twenty dollars of sales.
Should I include waste and comps in pricing?
Yes. Kitchen waste, remakes, spoilage, staff meals, and comps quietly consume 4–8% of sales in most operations. If prices assume every plate sells at full price, real food cost will always run above target. The calculator above has a waste & comps field built in.
Do menu prices include sales tax?
In the US, almost never — menu prices are pre-tax and tax gets added at the register, so you don't bake it into the printed price the way many food trucks do. Just remember card fees are charged on the whole ticket including tax and tip, so your effective card cost per plate is slightly above the headline rate.