Dish cost calculator: find your minimum menu price with the ×4 rule
Enter the ingredients of your recipe and see right away what a portion costs and the lowest price it should have on your menu. Free, no sign-up.
•3 min read•Aris Alampourinos
The simplest rule in restaurants is also the oldest: a dish should sell for at least four times the cost of its ingredients. What is left pays rent, wages, energy and, in the end, your profit. The hard part is knowing the real cost, with trimming and cooking loss included.
The calculator below does that work. Three steps:
Enter the ingredients of a recipe with their purchase price excluding VAT and their yield (what is left after trimming).
Enter the quantity that goes into one portion.
See the minimum price incl. VAT on the right. Add your menu price too and you will see whether it is enough.
It starts with a Greek salad as an example. Replace the numbers with yours or press “Clear”.
The dish
The selling price is optional. Without it you only see the cost and the minimum price.
Recipe ingredients
Purchase price excluding VAT. Yield is the share left after trimming and cooking: 100% with no waste, 55% for a fish that loses almost half.
Extra costs per portion
Optional: packaging for delivery or takeaway, bread, sauces.
For each ingredient the tool first finds the real cost: the purchase price divided by the yield. If sea bream costs €9.00/kg and 55% is left after cleaning, the real cost is €16.36/kg. That is then multiplied by the quantity in the recipe.
The total of all ingredients, divided by the number of portions, plus any extras, gives the cost per portion. The minimum suggested price follows the trade rule of thumb, cost times four:
A ×4 multiplier equals a 25% food cost. Change it and the target changes too: ×3 means 33%, ×5 means 20%. The price is rounded up to the next 10 cents. It is a floor, not the final price: the final price also depends on your market, how popular the dish is and its role on the menu. If you are setting up a new venue, see our guide to opening a restaurant in Greece.
What the colours mean
Good: your price is at or above the minimum. Caution: it is slightly below the minimum. Over target: the price is too low for what the dish costs.
Frequently asked questions
Do I enter purchase prices with or without VAT? Without VAT. Input VAT on purchases is reclaimed, so including it inflates your cost.
Is my data stored anywhere? No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is sent to us. To keep a costing, download the PDF.
Why ×4? It is the practical rule in restaurants: the price should be at least four times the ingredient cost, so there is money left for rent, wages, energy and profit. You can set a different multiplier if a dish or your venue needs it.
Restaurant consultant with more than 25 years in the industry, from the dining room and the kitchen to management, financial direction and ownership of venues across Greece.
Want us to cost your whole menu?
We cost your whole menu on site and give you, in writing, the prices that leave a profit. We work in English.
