Food Cost Calculator
Add every ingredient that goes into a dish with its quantity and unit price, set how many portions it makes, and get the per-dish cost plus a suggested menu price at your target food-cost percentage. Save recipes to come back to later.
| Ingredient | Qty | Unit price ₹ | Cost |
|---|
Results and any AI-generated content from this tool are provided free, "as is", for general informational purposes only and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. Always verify the output yourself before relying on it — you use this tool and its results at your own risk.
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How food cost and menu price are calculated
Food cost is the raw ingredient cost of one dish. Add every ingredient
with its quantity and unit price, and this tool sums
ingredient cost = quantity × unit price across all rows to
get the total, then divides by portions to get
cost per dish = total ingredient cost / portions. The suggested
menu price uses the standard restaurant formula
menu price = dish cost / (target food-cost % / 100) — a lower
target food-cost percentage means a higher suggested price for the same
dish, because you're reserving more of the sale price for labour, rent, and
profit.
Worked examples
Example 1 — a chicken rice dish: 0.5kg chicken at ₹400/kg = ₹200, 0.2kg rice at ₹80/kg = ₹16, and ₹30 of spices and oil. Total ingredient cost = ₹246. Split across 4 portions, cost per dish = ₹61.50. At a 30% target food cost, suggested menu price = 61.50 / 0.30 = ₹205.00.
Example 2 — a simple pasta dish: 0.5kg flour at ₹40/kg = ₹20, and 0.2kg cheese at ₹350/kg = ₹70. Total = ₹90. Split across 2 portions, cost per dish = ₹45.00. At a tighter 28% target food cost, suggested menu price = 45 / 0.28 ≈ ₹160.71 — a lower target percentage pushes the suggested price up, even though the dish itself costs less.
What target food-cost % should I use?
Most restaurants and cafes target a food cost of 28-35% of the menu price, varying by cuisine and format — quick-service and high-volume items often run tighter (25-28%) while premium/plated dishes can sustain a slightly higher share (32-35%) because labour and presentation justify the price. Use the quick-select buttons above the field to try each preset instantly.
Saving and reusing recipes
Give a recipe a name and click Save to store it in your browser — it stays available (via the dropdown) even after closing the tab or reloading the page, so you can build out a full menu's costing over several sessions without losing work. Your current, unsaved working recipe is also remembered automatically between visits on the same device.
Once your menu pricing is locked in, put your menu and prices on a free BizGo business page so customers always see the latest version — see the box above to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Add every ingredient with its quantity and unit price — the tool sums quantity × unit price for each row, then divides the total by the number of portions to get cost per dish.
menu price = cost per dish / (target food-cost % / 100). At a 30% target food cost, a ₹61.50 dish suggests a ₹205.00 menu price.
Most restaurants and cafes target 28-35% of the menu price. Quick-service, high-volume items often run tighter (25-28%); premium plated dishes can sustain 32-35%.
Yes — recipes are saved in your browser's local storage under the name you give them, and remain available (via the Load dropdown) even after closing the tab, reopening the browser, or reloading the page.
Yes — every ingredient name is safely escaped before being displayed, so special characters (including HTML-like text) are always shown as plain text and can never run as code on the page.
