Restaurant Profitability Calculator for Menu Items

This tool shows which of your menu items actually make money once you account for how often they sell, and which popular ones are quietly costing you. Enter an item to get its numbers instantly, or add your whole menu to see the full picture.

Common questions

What is a good food cost percentage for a restaurant?

The common target is roughly 28 to 35 percent of menu price, but it varies by concept. A fast-casual spot with high volume and simple prep can run closer to 30. A fine dining restaurant with expensive proteins and lower covers might sit at 35 or above and still be healthy, because the margin per plate is higher in absolute dollars. The percentage is a guardrail, not a verdict. What matters is whether the margin per item, multiplied by how many you sell, adds up to enough gross profit to cover labor, rent, and everything else.

What is menu engineering?

Menu engineering is the practice of sorting your menu items by two things: how well they sell (popularity) and how much they earn per unit (contribution margin). Items land in one of four quadrants: Stars sell well and earn well, Plowhorses sell well but earn little, Puzzles earn well but don't sell, and Dogs do neither. The point is to decide what to feature, what to re-cost or re-portion, what to reposition, and what to cut, based on data rather than gut feel.

How do I calculate the profit on a menu item?

Menu price minus cost to make is your gross profit per item. Multiply that by units sold in a period and you get the item's monthly contribution, which is how much that dish actually puts toward covering your overhead. Food cost percentage is the cost divided by the price, times 100. Contribution margin percentage is the inverse: gross profit divided by price, times 100.

Why is my best-selling item not my most profitable?

That's the plowhorse problem. A dish that sells in high volume but carries a thin margin looks like a winner on your sales report while a lower-volume, higher-margin item quietly earns more per plate. Multiply a small margin by a lot of units and you get less total contribution than a bigger margin on fewer units. The best-seller keeps the kitchen busy, but the sleeper item might be paying more of the rent.