Your worst-performing dish can eat away at your profit without you even noticing. Picture this: you're celebrating another busy week, but one dish is quietly draining thousands from your bottom line. A quick ten-minute weekly check can expose these profit killers and transform your restaurant's financial performance.
Check your five best-selling dishes
Don't start with all 40 dishes on your menu. Focus on the five you sell most often. These have the biggest impact on your profit.
💡 Example:
Restaurant De Lepel sells these dishes most:
- Ribeye steak: 45x per week
- Salmon fillet: 38x per week
- Pasta carbonara: 32x per week
- Chicken schnitzel: 28x per week
- Vegetarian burger: 25x per week
Together these are 168 of 220 main courses per week (76%).
Pull up your POS system and identify which five main courses moved most last week. These dishes deserve your immediate attention.
Calculate the actual food cost per dish
For each of those five dishes, add up all ingredient costs. Everything counts: main ingredient, sides, sauce, oil, butter, spices.
💡 Example ribeye steak:
Menu price: €32.00 (incl. 9% VAT = €29.36 excl. VAT)
- Ribeye 250g: €8.75
- Fries 200g: €0.45
- Salad and tomato: €0.80
- Herb butter: €0.35
- Pepper sauce: €0.90
Total ingredient costs: €11.25
Food cost: (€11.25 / €29.36) × 100 = 38.3%
Use this formula: Food cost % = (Ingredient costs / Selling price excl. VAT) × 100
⚠️ Note:
Always calculate with the price excluding VAT. The price on your menu includes 9% VAT. Divide by 1.09 to get the price excl. VAT.
Spot the loss-makers immediately
Rank your five dishes by food cost percentage. The dish with the highest percentage is bleeding your profits dry.
💡 Example result De Lepel:
- Ribeye steak: 38.3% food cost (PROBLEM!)
- Salmon fillet: 35.1% food cost (Limit)
- Vegetarian burger: 31.2% food cost (Good)
- Chicken schnitzel: 28.7% food cost (Great)
- Pasta carbonara: 26.4% food cost (Excellent)
The ribeye is the culprit. At 45 portions per week, De Lepel loses €2.34 per portion = €5,460 per year on one dish.
Based on real restaurant P&L data, healthy food costs typically fall between 28% and 35%. Anything above 35% probably costs you money instead of making it.
Calculate the impact on an annual basis
For your worst performer, calculate its yearly damage. The formula: (Actual food cost % - Target food cost %) × Selling price excl. VAT × Number per year
💡 Ribeye loss calculation:
- Actual food cost: 38.3%
- Target food cost: 33%
- Difference: 5.3 percentage points
- Per portion: 0.053 × €29.36 = €1.56 loss
- Per year: €1.56 × 45 × 52 = €3,661 loss
This one dish alone costs €3,661 extra per year.
The numbers don't lie. One poorly performing dish can drain thousands without you realizing it.
Plan your action for next week
Now that you've identified your biggest money drain, take action. You have three options:
- Raise the price: Simplest solution, but verify your market will accept it
- Reduce portion size: Cutting ribeye from 250g to 220g saves €1.05 per portion
- Find a cheaper supplier: Sometimes you can shave 10-15% off purchasing costs
Pick one strategy and test it next week. Measure results and adjust accordingly.
⚠️ Note:
Don't shock customers with dramatic price jumps. Increases of €2-3 usually slip by unnoticed. €5+ will definitely get attention.
A food cost calculator tracks these percentages automatically, eliminating manual calculations. The system alerts you instantly if a dish becomes unprofitable due to supplier price hikes.
How do you identify your worst-performing dish? (step by step)
Select your top 5 best-selling dishes
Check in your POS system which five main courses you sold most last week. Note the number per dish. These have the biggest impact on your total profit.
Calculate the full ingredient costs per dish
For each dish, add up all costs: main ingredient, sides, sauces, oil, butter, spices. Don't forget anything that goes on the plate. Use current purchase prices from your suppliers.
Calculate the food cost percentage
Divide the ingredient costs by the selling price excluding VAT and multiply by 100. Formula: (Ingredient costs / Selling price excl. VAT) × 100. The dish with the highest percentage is your problem.
✨ Pro tip
Spend 8 minutes calculating food costs for your top 3 sellers, then 2 minutes ranking them by profitability. The worst performer gets fixed first - it's costing you the most money right now.
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 an acceptable food cost percentage?
A typical food cost for restaurants ranges between 28% and 35%. Anything above 35% usually becomes unprofitable, while below 25% may signal you're overpricing for your market.
How often should I check this?
Check your top 5 dishes every week. Suppliers regularly raise their prices, so what was profitable last month may be unprofitable now. Weekly monitoring catches problems before they compound.
What if my best-selling dish is unprofitable?
Then you have three options: raise the price, reduce the portion size, or find cheaper ingredients. Test one adjustment at a time and measure the result. Your bestseller should be your most profitable, not your biggest loss.
How do I calculate the loss on an annual basis?
Multiply the difference in food cost percentage by your selling price excl. VAT and the number of times you sell the dish per year. This shows the real financial impact and helps prioritize which dishes need immediate attention.
⚠️ EU Regulation 1169/2011 — Allergen Information — https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/1169/oj
The allergen information on this page is based on EU Regulation 1169/2011. Recipes and ingredients may vary by supplier. Always verify current allergen information with your supplier and communicate this correctly to your guests. KitchenNmbrs is not liable for allergic reactions.
In the UK, the FSA enforces allergen regulations under the Food Information Regulations 2014.
📚 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
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (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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