Recipe Cost & Food Cost Calculator for Restaurants
Cost a dish the way your kitchen buys and uses its ingredients: purchase packs, yield after trimming and cooking, packaging and VAT. You get the cost per portion, food cost %, gross profit and the menu price that hits your own target, and you can compare dishes side by side or download the recipe card. It's free, there's no sign-up, and nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
Example: chicken shawarma plate
Example numbers — replace with your own
Recipe card
- Total ingredient cost
- SAR 8.88
- Misc allowance
- SAR 0.00
- Total recipe cost
- SAR 8.88
- Packaging & extras per portion
- SAR 1.50
- Cost per portion
- SAR 10.38
- Net selling price (excl. VAT)
- SAR 30.43
- Food cost %
- 34.10%
- Gross profit per portion
- SAR 20.06
- Price to hit your target (excl. VAT)
- SAR 34.59
- Same price incl. 15% VAT
- SAR 39.78
Above your target by 4.1 points
Cost per portion = total recipe cost ÷ portions + packaging. Food cost % = cost per portion ÷ net selling price × 100.
Where the cost goes
- Boneless chicken thigh, marinatedSAR 5.28 · 59.5%
- Frozen friesSAR 1.32 · 14.9%
- Arabic breadSAR 1.00 · 11.3%
- Garlic sauce (made in-house)SAR 0.60 · 6.8%
- PicklesSAR 0.40 · 4.5%
- TomatoesSAR 0.28 · 3.1%
Dish comparison
Kept on this page only. Nothing is saved, so the list clears when you refresh or leave.
Cost a dish, then add it here to compare it with others side by side.
Use stock counts and sales from the same dates, for example the first and last day of the month.
Results
- Cost of goods sold
- —
- Food cost %
- —
Cost of goods sold = opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory
Food cost % = cost of goods sold ÷ food sales × 100
Calculated in your browser. Nothing you enter is saved or sent.
How to use it
- 01
Start from the example or clear it. Name the dish and enter how many portions the recipe makes.
- 02
For each ingredient, enter the purchase pack as you buy it: pack size, unit and price from your latest supplier invoice. The calculator shows what that works out to per kg, litre or piece.
- 03
Set the yield %: the share that's usable after trimming or cooking. Leave it at 100% for items with no loss, such as bread or ready-made sauces.
- 04
Enter the quantity this recipe uses, in g, kg, ml, L or pieces. Weight converts to weight and volume to volume; a row with mismatched units is flagged and left out of the total.
- 05
Add packaging per portion, a misc allowance if you don't list every pinch of spice, the menu price (tick the box if it includes 15% VAT) and your own target food cost %.
- 06
Add the dish to the comparison, cost the next one, and download the recipe card as a CSV file. For your whole kitchen over a week or a month, switch to the period tab.
The formulas
Cost per usable unit
Cost per usable unit = pack price ÷ pack size ÷ yield %
A 10 kg box of chicken thigh costs SAR 220, so SAR 22.00 per kg as bought. At a 75% yield, a usable kg costs 22 ÷ 0.75 = SAR 29.33.
Line cost
Line cost = quantity used ÷ pack size × pack price ÷ yield %
180 g of that chicken: 0.18 ÷ 10 × 220 ÷ 0.75 = SAR 5.28. The quantity is converted to the pack unit first, so you can enter grams for a pack bought in kilos.
Cost per portion
Cost per portion = (ingredient cost + misc allowance) ÷ portions + packaging
A recipe with SAR 60.00 of ingredients that makes 10 portions, with a 3% misc allowance and SAR 1.50 of packaging: 60 × 1.03 ÷ 10 + 1.50 = SAR 7.68 a portion.
Food cost %
Food cost % = cost per portion ÷ net selling price × 100
If the menu price includes VAT, net price = price ÷ 1.15. A plate that costs SAR 12.00 and sells for SAR 46.00 including VAT: net price 46 ÷ 1.15 = SAR 40.00, food cost 12 ÷ 40 = 30%, gross profit SAR 28.00 a portion.
Menu price for your target
Net price = cost per portion ÷ target food cost %
The same SAR 12.00 plate with a 25% target: 12 ÷ 0.25 = SAR 48.00 before VAT, or SAR 55.20 on the menu with 15% VAT.
Food cost % for a period
Cost of goods sold = opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory
Food cost % = cost of goods sold ÷ net food sales × 100. Example: 20,000 + 45,000 − 18,000 = SAR 47,000 used. With SAR 150,000 of food sales, food cost is 31.3%.
Three inputs that make a recipe cost accurate
Yield %
Most raw ingredients lose weight before they reach the plate: chicken and meat cook down, vegetables are peeled and trimmed. Cost 180 g of cooked chicken at the raw price and you undercount it. Yield fixes that. Weigh what you get from a known raw weight once, then use that percentage every time you cost the dish.
Prep items and sub-recipes
Sauces, marinades and doughs you make in-house are costed once, then used like any other ingredient. Cost the batch as its own recipe, then enter the batch cost and batch size as the purchase pack in every dish that uses it. When something in the sauce gets dearer, re-cost the batch and update its price in those dishes.
Misc allowance
Oil, salt and spices are hard to weigh per portion. Instead of listing each one, add a small allowance as a percentage of ingredient cost. Base it on what those items really cost you over a month compared with your ingredient spend, and leave it at 0 if you list everything.
What to do with the number
Compare dishes, not just the total
Cost every main dish and add it to the comparison, then look at food cost % next to how often each one sells. A handful of high-cost, high-volume dishes move the overall number far more than the rest of the menu.
Compare branches on the same menu
When one branch runs well above the others on the same recipes, the gap is in portions, waste or receiving, not in supplier prices. That tells you where to look first.
Revisit prices when supplier costs move
Update the pack price and check whether the margin still works before you change the menu. The ingredient breakdown shows which items drive the cost, and the target price shows how far the menu price would need to move.
Check portions and waste
The recipe card gives you theoretical cost: what the recipe should use. The period calculator gives you actual cost from stock. A widening gap between the two points to over-portioning, waste or loss that isn't recorded.
Set a target that fits your concept
Targets vary by concept: a burger restaurant, a fine-dining room and a coffee shop run very different food cost percentages. Set yours from your own menu and history rather than a generic number.
Frequently asked questions
What is yield % and why does it matter?
Yield % is the share of what you buy that ends up usable in the dish. If 1 kg of raw chicken gives you 750 g after trimming and cooking, its yield is 75%, so every usable kilo really costs a third more than the invoice price. Leave yield out and protein-heavy dishes look cheaper than they are, which pushes menu prices too low.
How do I cost a sauce I use in many dishes?
Cost it once as its own recipe: list what goes into a batch and note how much the batch makes, for example 2 litres of garlic sauce for SAR 24. Then add the sauce to each dish as an ingredient with a pack size of 2 L, a pack price of SAR 24 and the quantity that dish uses. The same works for marinades, doughs and spice mixes.
Should I price including VAT?
Work out your margins on the price without VAT, because the 15% you collect isn't your revenue. Your menu can still show prices including VAT: tick the box and the calculator divides by 1.15 to get the net price, then gives you the target price both before and after VAT.
Further reading
Why Your Restaurant Food Cost Is Too High
Restaurant food cost too high? Five causes explain almost all variance: portion drift, waste, supplier prices, unrecorded loss and menu mix. Find yours.
How to Track Daily Restaurant Profit
You need three numbers every day: net sales, labour cost and food cost. Here is how to calculate prime cost daily instead of waiting for a month-end P&L.
Track food cost for every branch automatically
DataGrid brings your sales, purchases and stock into one place and shows food cost for every branch, updated automatically every day, with an AI Advisor that points out which branch moved and why.