What Is the Ideal Food Cost Percentage (and Why It Isn't a Single Number)

"But what's the right food cost?" is probably the question every operator asks sooner or later. The short answer is: it depends. The useful answer is that there is a healthy range — roughly between 28% and 35% on food — but that number shifts quite a bit depending on the kind of venue you run.

The trouble with chasing "the ideal percentage" is that it makes you stare at an abstract figure instead of your actual business. A cocktail bar and a family trattoria with the same overall food cost can be in completely different situations. Let's look at how to read this number without being fooled by it.

The benchmark range (and why it's only a starting point)

For table-service restaurants, an overall food cost between 28% and 35% is considered healthy. Below that threshold you're usually doing very well on ingredients; above it, the margin starts to tighten and it's worth understanding why.

But be careful: that range applies as the average of the whole venue, not dish by dish. Inside an overall food cost of 32%, a coffee at 10% and a sea bass at 40% coexist perfectly well. It's their combination — weighted by how much of each you sell — that produces the final number.

That's why the 28-35% range is a starting point, not a target. It tells you whether you're on the right playing field; the real work comes after — knowing your number and what makes it up.

How it changes by category

"Healthy" food cost isn't the same for everyone. It shifts with what you sell:

• Drinks and coffee: very low food cost. An espresso at €1.50 costs you 15-20 cents in beans: that's a food cost of around 12-18%. A well-built cocktail rarely goes above 20-25%. This is often where the fattest margin in the venue hides.
• Starters and small plates: in between. Ingredients are cheap relative to the selling price, and many simple starters sit comfortably below 30%.
• Pasta and grain dishes: generally generous. Pasta, rice and sauces cost little and carry low food costs, often under 20%.
• Meat and fish: here it climbs. A fresh fish or a prime cut of meat can push food cost to 38-45% or more, and that's normal. The margin in euros can still be excellent, but the percentage looks scary if you view it alone.

The lesson is simple: a balanced menu mixes low-food-cost dishes (which lift the average) with high-food-cost dishes (which may drive experience and check size). Looking at one category's percentage out of context leads to bad decisions.

Why there's no magic number

Picture two venues with the same overall food cost of 33%.

The first is a trattoria that lives on pasta and wine: high margins on food, but a city-center lease and a lot of front-of-house staff. The second is a steakhouse that leans heavily on meat: higher food cost per dish, but big volumes and a lean dining room.

Same 33%, two different economies. The number on its own doesn't tell you whether you're making money — it only tells you that when you read it in the context of your venue: rent, labor, volumes, type of offer.

That's why the goal isn't to hit a value copied from a textbook, but to know your normal range and notice right away when you step outside it.

The warning signs

There are, however, thresholds that — regardless of the type of venue — deserve an immediate look:

1. A dish above 65% food cost. Here the margin is so thin that a little waste or a generous portion is enough to run that dish at a loss. It needs to be repriced or reworked right away.
2. Margin below zero. If the cost of ingredients exceeds the selling price, you lose money every time you serve that dish. It happens more often than you'd think, when suppliers push prices up and your menu stays frozen.
3. Overall food cost creeping up month after month. A 30% that becomes 33% and then 36% in a few months is an alarm: cost increases not passed on to the menu, growing waste, or portions out of control.

A concrete example: a fish dish sold at €18 whose food cost has risen to €12 because of a supplier increase has a food cost of 67%. It leaves you €6 of gross margin, which — between prep time and trim — can easily evaporate. That dish is talking to you: either raise the price, change the recipe, or take it off the menu.

How to read your average food cost

Your venue's average food cost is calculated by comparing, over a period, how much you spent on ingredients and how much you took in:

Average food cost % = (ingredient purchases ÷ food revenue) × 100

If in a month you spent €9,000 on ingredients and took in €28,000 from food, your average food cost is 32%. You're in the healthy range. But the number alone isn't enough: the next question is why it sits at that level. Are the meat dishes pushing it up? Is it kitchen waste? Are the drinks — which should be pulling it down — earning little because they're discounted too heavily?

Average food cost is the fever: it tells you something is off, not what. To find out what, you have to go down to the individual dish.

Keeping it monitored over time

Food cost isn't a photo, it's a film. Suppliers change prices, seasons shift costs, the menu evolves. A healthy venue checks its range regularly and adjusts course before the margin thins out — not at year-end, when it's already too late.

Doing it by hand, dish by dish, every time an invoice arrives, is the part nobody wants to do. AFLUYO reads your real supplier invoices, calculates the food cost and margin of every dish, and updates the numbers when prices change — so you see right away when a dish steps outside your healthy range. Try it free for 7 days, no card required.