Free tool
Menu price calculator
You know what the dish costs and the food cost percentage you want to run. This works the price back from those two figures, rounds it to something a menu would print, and shows what you actually keep.
Not sure what a portion costs? Cost the recipe first - the figure this needs is ingredients only.
Suggested menu price
₱180.00
Exact figure is ₱180.00, rounded up to a price a menu would actually print.
Gross profit per portion
₱126.00
Covers labour, gas, rent, and everything else before any of it is profit.
Food cost at that price
30.0%
Slightly under target, because rounding up always helps you.
Price including 12% VAT
₱201.60
Use this if your menu prices are displayed tax-inclusive. The percentage above is calculated on the pre-tax price, which is the correct base.
Treat this as a floor, not an answer. It is the lowest price that hits your target on ingredients alone. What the dish is worth to your customers, and what the restaurant down the road charges for it, both belong in the final decision.
Pricing from cost is a floor, not a strategy
Cost divided by target percentage is the least you can charge and still hit the margin you planned for. It is a genuinely useful number - it stops you underpricing a dish out of habit - but it knows nothing about your customers, so it cannot be the whole decision.
Two things pull the real price away from the floor. The first is perceived value: a bowl of pasta costs very little to make and carries a price far above its cost, while a steak carries a price close to it. Pricing every dish at one flat percentage means overcharging for the steak, undercharging for the pasta, or both. The second is the menu as a whole - a dish priced sensibly on its own can still look wrong sitting next to its neighbours.
The floor is only as good as the cost that feeds it, which is the part most menus get wrong. Cost per portion has to include the oil, the aromatics, and the trim you paid for but never plated. The food cost calculator builds that figure ingredient by ingredient, and once a dish is on the menu you can check the percentage it is really running as supplier prices move.
Common questions
How do you calculate a menu price from food cost?
Divide the cost per portion by your target food cost percentage written as a decimal. A portion costing 54 at a 30% target prices at 54 ÷ 0.30 = 180. The same arithmetic is often written as a multiplier - a 30% target is a 3.33× markup on cost.
What food cost percentage should I price at?
28-35% suits most full-service menus. Go lower on items with cheap ingredients and high perceived value, such as pasta, rice dishes, and drinks, and accept a higher percentage on steak and seafood where the protein dominates. Pricing every dish at one flat percentage leaves money on the table.
Should menu prices include VAT?
That depends on your market and what your customers expect to see. Either way, calculate the food cost percentage on the pre-tax price - VAT is collected on behalf of the government and was never yours, so including it in the base makes your food cost look better than it is.
Why round menu prices up?
Because 180 prints better than 178.43, and rounding down would push the dish past the target percentage you just asked for. Rounding up to the next 5 or 10 costs the customer very little and always moves the margin in your favour.
Is cost-plus pricing enough on its own?
No. It gives you a floor - the least you can charge and still hit your target on ingredients. What the dish is worth to customers, what nearby restaurants charge, and how the item sits next to the rest of your menu all shape the final number. Use the floor as a constraint, not as the decision.
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