What Should Food Cost Be in a Restaurant?
There is no single right answer — it depends on your concept, check size, and how your labor percentage balances against it. Here are the benchmarks by restaurant type, why they differ, and how to evaluate your own numbers.
The short answer
For most restaurants, food cost should be between 25% and 35% of menu price. Below 25% and you are either pricing very well or cutting quality. Above 35% and you are leaving very little for labor, overhead, and profit. The exact target depends on your concept — see the table below.
Food cost targets by restaurant type
| Restaurant type | Target range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service restaurant | 28–35% | Higher check size allows more ingredient cost per dish. Wine and cocktails pull average food cost down. |
| Fast-casual / counter service | 25–30% | Simplified menus, controlled portions, and lower waste offset the lower price point. |
| Fine dining | 25–35% | Premium ingredients, but high average check and large wine program support the full range. |
| Bakery (café model) | 25–30% | Coffee margin (often under 20% food cost) balances higher food percentages on baked goods. |
| Bakery (production / wholesale) | 30–40% | No retail markup leverage; cost control matters more. |
| Bar / pub (food component) | 25–30% | Alcohol margin at 18–24% cost subsidizes food. Combined prime cost is the key number. |
| Food truck | 28–35% | Simplified menu reduces waste; lower overhead than a brick-and-mortar allows slightly higher food cost. |
| Catering | 25–35% | Fixed-price packages allow precise costing. Large events benefit from volume buying. |
| Ghost kitchen / delivery-only | 28–33% | No dining room, but platform commission (15–30%) eats into margin. Price accordingly. |
Why the right number depends on your other costs
Food cost percentage only measures ingredient spend against sales. It tells you nothing about labor, rent, or utilities. A restaurant with 30% food cost and 40% labor cost (prime cost of 70%) is in worse shape than one with 35% food cost and 28% labor cost (prime cost of 63%).
The practical target for prime cost (food + labor) in a full-service restaurant is below 60%. Fine dining and concepts with high labor requirements can survive at 65% with very strong check averages and high revenue per square foot. Above 65% prime cost, the remaining 35% has to cover rent, utilities, marketing, repairs, and profit — which is very tight.
Prime cost reference points
How to tell if your food cost is too high
Run through this sequence:
- Calculate your theoretical food cost. Cost every dish at current ingredient prices. If your theoretical food cost is already at or above your target, the menu is underpriced and needs a price increase before any operational intervention.
- Compare to actual food cost. Take an inventory count. Calculate actual food cost: (Opening inventory + Purchases − Closing inventory) ÷ Sales. If actual is 4+ percentage points above theoretical, the gap is operational: waste, over-portioning, spoilage, theft, or comps.
- Identify which dishes are over target. A blended food cost figure tells you there is a problem but not where. Dish-level food cost percentages tell you exactly which items to reprice or investigate.
The fastest way to lower food cost
If your food cost is above target because dishes are underpriced — which is the most common cause — the fix is a menu price increase. A $1.50 price increase on a dish that sells 40 covers per day is $1,800 per month. That is the impact of repricing one dish.
Guest resistance to price increases is real but often less than operators expect. The way to minimize it: increase prices gradually rather than all at once, lead with value (portion improvement, quality upgrade, new items), and be deliberate about which dishes you increase. A high-frequency item like a house salad or a burger gets scrutinized. A specialty item or a seasonal special has more price flexibility.
Find out which dishes are above target
Type a dish name and MenuPricer returns the estimated ingredient cost, suggested price, and food cost percentage. Free for your first 5 dishes.
Price My First Dish Free →Frequently asked questions
What should food cost be in a restaurant?
For most full-service restaurants, food cost should be between 28% and 35% of menu price. Fast-casual and counter-service operations typically target 25–30% because they have more control over portion size and less waste. Fine dining often runs 25–35% but compensates with higher average check size. The right target depends on your concept, labor percentage, and overhead — food cost cannot be evaluated in isolation from your full cost structure.
Is 30% food cost good for a restaurant?
30% food cost is generally considered healthy for a full-service restaurant. It leaves 70% of menu revenue available for labor, rent, utilities, marketing, and profit. Whether it is sustainable depends on your other costs: a 30% food cost with a 35% labor cost gives a prime cost of 65%, which is tight but manageable. A 30% food cost with a 45% labor cost leaves almost nothing for overhead and profit.
What causes food cost to be too high?
The two main causes of high food cost are: (1) underpriced menus — dishes priced before ingredient costs rose, so the food cost percentage has crept up without any operational change; and (2) operational waste — over-portioning, spoilage, theft, and comps. Underpricing is more common and is fixed by repricing. Waste is fixed by measuring the gap between theoretical and actual food cost, then investigating the largest discrepancies.
What is a good food cost for a bar or pub?
For food at a bar or pub, a food cost of 25–30% is typical. Bars benefit from high beverage margins — alcohol often runs at 18–24% cost — which subsidizes the food side and allows the combined operation to be profitable even with slightly higher food cost percentages on individual dishes.
What is a good food cost percentage for a bakery?
Bakeries typically target 25–35% food cost, depending on how much of their revenue comes from high-margin beverages like coffee and tea. A bakery that is primarily a coffee shop with baked goods as a secondary product can run lower food cost percentages because beverage sales have high margins. A pure production bakery selling wholesale typically targets 30–40% because retail markup is limited by competition.