What is a healthy food margin in a restaurant?
Do you know if your restaurant dishes actually make money? Many restaurant owners think they're profitable but lose money on every plate served. Your food margi...
What is a normal food cost for a fine dining restaurant?
Fine dining food costs eat into profits faster than most restaurateurs realize. Most fine dining establishments maintain their food cost between 28% and 35%, wi...
What is a normal food cost for a café with small dishes?
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...
What is a normal food cost for a lunch business?
Food cost in a lunch business typically runs between 25% and 32%, which beats most full restaurants since lunch dishes tend to be simpler. But most lunch operat...
What is a normal food cost for a bistro?
You're running a popular bistro with decent foot traffic, but somehow the numbers don't add up at month's end. The likely culprit? Most bistro owners wing their...
What is a healthy food cost for a restaurant?
A neighborhood bistro selling €22 pasta dishes needs exactly €6.05 in ingredients to hit a 30% food cost target. Most restaurant owners miscalculate this figure...
How do I calculate food cost when there are often leftovers?
Leftovers and waste make food cost calculation tricky. You buy ingredients for 100 portions, but only sell 80. Your actual cost per portion jumps higher than ex...
How do I calculate food cost when I give away a lot to staff?
Free staff meals are like invisible leaks in your kitchen's financial plumbing. Your chef grabs a daily steak, servers snack on appetizers, and suddenly your fo...
How do I account for complimentary bread or garnish in my food cost?
Nearly 73% of restaurants underestimate their true food costs by ignoring complimentary items. Bread baskets, garnishes, and other 'free' offerings aren't actua...
How do I account for cooking loss in my food cost?
A 250-gram raw ribeye shrinks to just 175 grams after grilling – yet most restaurant owners still calculate costs using the raw weight. This oversight inflates...
How do I account for trim loss in my food cost?
Trim loss can dramatically inflate your food cost without warning. Most restaurant owners calculate based on purchase price per kilo, overlooking that processin...
How do I calculate food cost when there's waste in the kitchen?
Kitchen waste costs restaurants far more than most owners realize. A kilo of onions might cost €2, but after peeling you're left with just 900 grams - meaning y...
How do I calculate the effect of VAT on my selling price?
I'll admit it – VAT calculations confused me for years as a restaurant owner. Most of us make the same mistake: calculating food costs using VAT-inclusive price...
How do I calculate my margins excluding VAT?
While most restaurant owners celebrate healthy margins on paper, they're often looking at inflated numbers that include VAT. The tax you collect from customers...
How do I calculate my margins including VAT?
78% of restaurant failures stem from poor financial management - and margin miscalculations top that list. Most owners think they're profitable when they're act...
How do I calculate cost price when working with liters?
Most restaurants struggle with liquid cost calculations because they purchase by the liter but serve by the portion. Converting from bulk liquid purchases to in...
How do I calculate food cost when working with individual items?
A single carbonara dish uses 2 eggs from a 30-piece tray, but how do you calculate the exact cost per portion? Individual items like eggs, onions, and peppers r...
How do I calculate cost price when working with kilo prices?
Twenty years ago, most chefs tracked ingredient costs by invoice line items. Now, calculating with kilo prices cuts through the complexity and gives you direct...
How do I calculate the cost price per portion for catering?
Most caterers wing it with pricing and wonder why their profits vanish on big events. But smart operators know that accurate portion costing separates profitabl...
How do I calculate the cost price of a buffet in my restaurant?
I'll admit it - I used to guess at buffet pricing and wondered why my margins kept shrinking. Buffets are trickier than regular dishes because guests control th...
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