Price every dish for profit.

List what goes on the plate, and see the dish's food cost, its food-cost % at your price, and the price that hits your target.

Works in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or saved.

Ingredients for one plate
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Use the same unit for "Used" and "You buy" (grams, ml or pieces). Yield is the share you can use after peeling, trimming or cooking loss.

Price and target
Food cost of one plate — Ingredients — plus extras
At your price, food cost is — You keep — a plate before rent, staff and other costs. Your target is —.
Price for your target — — with GST · food cost — · you keep — a plate
Exact price for the target
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How to work out food cost

Food cost % = cost of the ingredients on one plate ÷ the menu price (before GST) × 100. A dish that costs ₹70 to make and sells for ₹250 has a food cost of 28%.

Cost each ingredient by what you actually use. If you buy paneer at ₹400 a kilo and use 150 g, that's ₹60. For vegetables and meat, allow for yield: if 15% of an onion goes in peel and trimming, only 85% is usable, so each usable gram costs more than the price on the bill.

What food-cost % should you aim for?

Many Indian restaurants aim for 25 to 35% across the menu. Some dishes run higher (premium meat and seafood) and others much lower (beverages, breads, rice). What matters is the mix: price high-cost dishes for margin in rupees, and make sure your best sellers sit comfortably under your target.

Tips that protect your margin

  • Re-cost when prices move. Dairy, oil, onion and tomato prices swing through the year. Check your top 10 dishes every month.
  • Standardise portions. A recipe card and a scoop size do more for food cost than any price rise.
  • Count wastage and staff meals. If they aren't recorded, they show up as a mystery gap between your theoretical and actual food cost.
  • Watch the ending. ₹239 reads cheaper than ₹240 to most guests, and one extra plate a day covers the difference.

In QRkey, recipes link each dish to its ingredients, so stock comes off as you sell and the recipe screen shows each dish's ingredient cost next to its price. Read Food costing: price your menu for profit for a full walkthrough.

Questions

Should I calculate food cost on the price with or without GST?

Without GST. GST isn't your income: you collect it for the government. Work out food cost on the price before GST, then add GST to get the price guests pay.

What is yield and why does it matter?

Yield is the share of what you buy that ends up on plates. Chicken on the bone, prawns and leafy vegetables can lose 20 to 40% in cleaning and cooking. Ignoring yield makes dishes look cheaper to make than they are.

Is my recipe saved?

No. Everything stays in this page and is gone when you close it. Use Print to keep a copy.

More free tools

Numbers every owner should know.

Aggregator commission calculatorSee what aggregators cost you each month, and what you keep when regulars order directly.Open the tool Break-even & profit calculatorThe daily sales and covers you need to break even, and your profit at the covers you expect.Open the tool GST bill calculatorTaxable value, CGST and SGST, round-off and the bill total, laid out like a real bill.Open the tool QR code generator for tablesA QR code for your menu or ordering link, and printable table cards with table numbers.Open the tool

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QRkey works out food cost, GST, commissions and profit from your real orders, so you see them every morning without a spreadsheet.

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