Many restaurant owners assume that an inherited menu from a talented chef must be profitable. The reality? Beautiful dishes can be financial disasters if they're priced wrong or use expensive ingredients without proper cost controls. You can fix this without starting from scratch.
First, analyze your current situation
Before you change anything, you need to know where you stand. Take your 10 best-selling dishes and calculate the actual food cost of each one.
💡 Example:
Your inherited steak costs:
- Meat: €8.50
- Sides: €2.10
- Sauce: €1.40
- Butter/oil: €0.60
Total: €12.60 on €28.00 = 45% food cost
A food cost of 45% is way too high. Most successful restaurants keep it between 28-35%. This dish loses money with every single order.
Sort your dishes into 4 categories
Make a list of all your dishes and divide them:
- Keepers: Food cost under 33% and popular
- Price adjusters: Popular but food cost too high
- Recipe adjusters: Good margin but not popular
- Candidates for removal: High food cost and not popular
Tactic 1: Raise prices without guests noticing
For popular dishes with excessive food costs, you can raise the price. But do it strategically:
💡 Example:
Your steak with 45% food cost needs to reach 30%:
- Current price: €28.00
- Ingredients: €12.60
- New price: €12.60 ÷ 0.30 = €42.00 excl. VAT = €45.78
Raise to €32.00 (from €28.00). That's €4.00 more but still under the €45.78 you actually need.
⚠️ Heads up:
Don't raise everything at once. Spread increases over 2-3 months. Otherwise customers will notice and complain.
Tactic 2: Adjust recipes without losing quality
Sometimes you can replace ingredients or adjust portions without customers noticing:
- Meat: 200g steak down to 180g with more vegetables
- Fish: Replace expensive sea bass with cod
- Garnish: Less expensive microgreens, more standard vegetables
- Sauces: Less cream, more stock and herbs
Tactic 3: Apply menu engineering
Guide your customers toward the right dishes by organizing your menu strategically. This is a pattern we see repeatedly in restaurant financials - the most profitable items often hide at the bottom of sections:
💡 Example menu positioning:
- Place profitable dishes at the top of each category
- Use appealing descriptions for good margins
- Place loss-making dishes at the bottom or remove them
- Add a "chef's special" with good margin
Permanently remove problematic dishes
Some dishes can't be saved. Remove a dish if:
- Food cost above 40% and difficult to adjust
- Less than 5% of your customers order it
- Ingredients only used for this dish
- Preparation too labor-intensive for the margin
Communication with your team
Your kitchen team needs to understand why you're making changes. Explain that it's about business survival, not cutting corners on quality. Train them on new recipes and portion sizes.
⚠️ Heads up:
Don't change everything at once. Customers like familiarity. Adjust a maximum of 30% of your menu at a time.
Monitor the results
After each adjustment, track what happens to your revenue and food cost. Some changes work, others don't. Measure for at least 4 weeks before drawing conclusions.
How do you systematically approach an inherited menu?
Calculate food cost of all dishes
Add up all ingredient costs per dish and divide by the selling price excluding VAT. Multiply by 100 for the percentage. Start by focusing on your 10 best-selling dishes.
Sort dishes by profitability and popularity
Make four lists: keepers (low food cost + popular), price adjusters (high food cost + popular), recipe adjusters (low food cost + not popular), and candidates for removal (high food cost + not popular).
Adjust gradually over 2-3 months
Start with the biggest loss-making dishes. Raise prices by a maximum of 15% at a time, or adjust recipes. Never change more than 30% of your menu at once to avoid putting guests off.
✨ Pro tip
Start with your most popular dish that has the worst food cost percentage within the next 48 hours. If you save €2 per portion and sell it 50 times weekly, you'll recover €5,200 annually from just one menu fix.
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
Can I raise prices without warning customers?
Yes, that's standard practice in hospitality. Just print new menus and implement the changes. Customers expect occasional price adjustments. Keep increases under 20% at a time though.
What if customers complain about smaller portions?
Compensate with more vegetables or better presentation. Most customers don't notice 10-15% less protein if the rest of the plate looks full and attractive.
How do I know if a dish is really unpopular?
Look at sales data from the past 3 months. If less than 5% of your customers order it, it's a candidate for removal or major changes.
Can I use cheaper ingredients without losing quality?
Often yes. Replace ribeye with sirloin, or sea bass with cod. Test it yourself first and have your team taste it before putting it on the menu.
📚 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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