Food cost for café dishes typically sits between 20% and 35%, but most café owners are flying blind on their actual numbers. They're estimating ingredient costs instead of calculating them, bleeding money on every toastie and bitterbal without realizing it. The difference between guessing and knowing your food cost can make or break your café's profitability.
What is a normal food cost for café dishes?
Cafés serve simple dishes with wildly different margins. Here's what you should expect:
- Fried food (bitterballen, croquettes): 20-28%
- Toasties and sandwiches: 25-35%
- Soups: 15-25%
- Salads: 30-40%
- Warm snacks (nachos, wings): 25-35%
- Appetizers: 20-30%
? Example: Ham and cheese toastie
Menu price: €6.50 (incl. 9% VAT)
- Bread: €0.40
- Ham: €0.80
- Cheese: €0.60
- Butter: €0.15
- Garnish: €0.25
Ingredient costs: €2.20
Sales price excl. VAT: €6.50 / 1.09 = €5.96
Food cost: (€2.20 / €5.96) × 100 = 36.9%
That's way too high for a toastie. Smart café owners keep this around 30%.
Why cafés often have higher food costs
Cafés face unique challenges that push food costs up:
- Smaller portions: Fixed costs like garnish and plates hit harder on tiny dishes
- Convenience factor: Customers pay for speed and location, not just ingredients
- Limited buying power: You can't order 50kg of cheese like restaurants do
- Fresh products: Bread and toppings spoil fast, creating waste
⚠️ Watch out:
Always calculate using the price excluding VAT. Too many café owners use the menu price including VAT, making their food cost look artificially low.
How does your type of café affect food cost?
Traditional brown café:
- Focus on fried food and simple warm snacks
- Food cost often 20-30% (cheaper ingredients)
- Higher margins thanks to simplicity
Eating café:
- Extensive menu with fresh ingredients
- Food cost usually 28-35%
- Salads and fresh dishes kill your margins
Grand café:
- Premium ingredients and fancy presentation
- Food cost often 30-40%
- Customers pay for atmosphere and quality
? Example: Bitterballen (10 pieces)
Menu price: €8.50 (incl. 9% VAT)
- Bitterballen (purchase): €1.80
- Frying oil: €0.20
- Mustard: €0.15
- Garnish: €0.10
Ingredient costs: €2.25
Sales price excl. VAT: €8.50 / 1.09 = €7.80
Food cost: (€2.25 / €7.80) × 100 = 28.8%
Signs that your food cost is too high
From tracking this across dozens of restaurants, these red flags always signal trouble:
- Busy but broke: Your café's packed but you're not making money
- Food cost above 40%: You're hemorrhaging cash on most dishes
- Flying blind on costs: You guess ingredient prices instead of calculating them
- Stale pricing: Haven't updated menu prices while suppliers keep raising theirs
How to improve your food cost?
Audit your bestsellers:
Start with your top 5 dishes. They generate 70% of your food revenue. Calculate exactly what they cost and what profit they deliver.
Weigh your portions:
Most cafés are way too generous with portions. An extra 50 grams of cheese per toastie costs you €520 annually at 100 toasties weekly (cheese at €10/kg).
? Example: Impact of portion size
You serve 300g fries per portion, but calculate with 250g:
- Extra per portion: 50g × €2/kg = €0.10
- At 200 portions/week: €0.10 × 200 × 52 = €1,040/year
Weighing portions saves you €1,040 annually
Update prices regularly:
Suppliers bump prices 2-3 times yearly. If you don't follow suit, your margins vanish. Review cost prices every 6 months minimum.
Tools to track food cost
Excel works but eats up hours. Digital tools like KitchenNmbrs automatically calculate food cost per dish and alert you when margins drop dangerously low.
Benefits of digital tracking:
- Real-time profitability insights per dish
- Automatic recalculation during price changes
- Complete menu overview at a glance
- Easy price experimentation
How do you calculate the food cost of your café dishes?
Gather all ingredients and prices
Make a list of all ingredients for one dish. Including garnish, sauces and everything that goes on the plate. Look up the current purchase prices from your supplier.
Calculate the cost per portion
Work out how much each ingredient costs per portion. With cheese at €12/kg and 80g per toastie: €12 / 1000g × 80g = €0.96. Add up all ingredient costs.
Calculate your food cost percentage
Divide the ingredient costs by your sales price excluding VAT and multiply by 100. Formula: (Ingredient costs / Sales price excl. VAT) × 100 = Food cost %.
✨ Pro tip
Track your 3 bestselling dishes weekly for the next month. These items drive 60% of your food revenue, so even small improvements here create massive profit gains.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a healthy food cost for a café?
Should I include VAT in my food cost calculation?
How often should I check my food cost?
Why is my café's food cost higher than restaurants?
Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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