Blog
Practical advice for your business's profitability: food cost, margins, accounts and VAT, reviews.
- August 12, 2026
Nearly half of restaurant owners don't calculate food cost (and it's not your fault)
If you set prices by gut feeling or by looking at the place next door, you're not alone: nearly one in two owners does the same. Why it happens and how to break the habit without becoming an accountant.
- August 10, 2026
Menu engineering without a consultant: doing it yourself with software
Menu engineering doesn't have to mean an expensive, one-off consultancy. Here's how to do it yourself, automatically and always up to date, with food cost and margin software.
- August 3, 2026
Free food cost Excel template (with ready-made formulas)
Download the free Excel template to work out the food cost of your dishes: ingredient cost, food cost percentage and margin, with ready-made formulas and a worked example.
- July 21, 2026
Menu engineering: designing your menu to make more money
Menu engineering means designing your menu around what each dish sells and earns, not by guesswork. The 4-category matrix, how to act, and layout tricks.
- July 21, 2026
Ideal food cost percentage: the healthy ranges
What food cost percentage is healthy? The ranges by type of venue, the warning signs, and how to read your average food cost, with concrete examples.
- July 21, 2026
How to reduce food cost without cutting quality
Reducing food cost doesn't mean cutting quality. Here are the practical levers: portions, suppliers, waste, menu engineering and pricing, with worked examples.
- July 21, 2026
How to Price a Dish (Without Guessing)
From food cost to the right price: the multiplier method, psychological pricing, positioning, and how to raise your menu prices without scaring off customers.
- July 21, 2026
How to Calculate the Food Cost of a Dish (Step by Step)
The food cost formula, a worked example dish by dish, and the mistakes to avoid. Learn to work out what each plate really costs you to make.
- July 17, 2026
How to fight supplier price increases
Supplier price increases erode your margin in silence. How to spot them, monitor prices, renegotiate, switch suppliers and reprice before they bite.
- July 17, 2026
How to reply to a negative Google review
A bad review does less damage than the wrong reply. The right structure, the 4 mistakes to avoid and 3 ready-made examples to adapt.
- July 17, 2026
How much does it cost to open a bar (without loss)
Startup costs, monthly fixed costs and break-even for a bar. Why margins matter more than revenue, and how to keep them under control from day one.
- July 17, 2026
Which dishes actually make you money
The best-selling dish isn't always the most profitable. Learn how to find the dishes that make you money and what to do with the ones losing it.
- July 17, 2026
How to get customers coming back to your bar: 12 ideas
Getting noticed is half the job; getting them back is the other. 12 concrete ideas to stand out and fill the bar even on the slow days.
- July 17, 2026
VAT for small businesses: the simple guide
How to handle VAT for a small business without stress: what it is, how to keep income and costs in order and reach your accountant with numbers ready.
- July 17, 2026
How to calculate food cost (with examples)
What food cost is, the formula, a worked example and which percentage is healthy. Learn to calculate it and bring it down without cutting quality.
- July 17, 2026
How to read a supplier invoice without losing margin
How to read a supplier invoice line by line: quantity, pack format, net vs gross, VAT and how to work out the real unit cost of every product.