Food cost software for independent restaurants
Recipe costing, live margins, and clean Excel exports — know the real cost and food cost percentage of every dish in 15 minutes. No POS. No demo call.
< 15 min
To your first food cost %
$12
Monthly price
Unlimited
Recipes & ingredients
Never
Demo call required
Your Excel food cost sheet is 18 months old
Most independent restaurants cost their menu in a spreadsheet that was last updated a year and a half ago. Supplier prices drift silently, portions creep, and margins shrink a few points every year without anyone noticing which dishes are the problem.
FoodCost replaces that fragile spreadsheet with live recipe costing. Import your ingredients, build your fiches techniques once, and every dish stays accurate as prices move — with cleaner exports than your own spreadsheet ever produced.
See the recipe costing templateEverything you need to control food cost
Recipe costing & fiches techniques
Build costed recipes with sub-recipes, yield/trim loss, allergens and photos. Get cost per portion, suggested price and margin on every dish.
Instant cost propagation & alerts
Change one ingredient price and every affected recipe recalculates instantly — with an alert when a dish crosses your target food cost. The reason to leave Excel.
Profitability dashboard
Rank every dish by margin and food cost %, spot your least profitable items, and see menu-wide averages at a glance.
Excel & PDF exports
One-click profitability reports, a full recipe book, and printable technical sheets — formatted and ready for your accountant.
Try it now — cost a dish in seconds
Add a few ingredients below to see the cost per portion, food cost percentage and suggested price. It's the same engine that powers the full product.
Results
Total recipe cost
$0.00
Cost per portion
$0.00
Suggested price
$0.00
Food cost %
—
Gross margin
—
Status
Add prices
How it works
- 1
Add your ingredients
Enter or import your ingredients with purchase prices and units. Start from a 300-item starter library if you like.
- 2
Build your recipes
Compose dishes from ingredients and sub-recipes with quantities. Costs compute live as you type.
- 3
Watch your margins
See food cost %, margin and status for every dish — and get alerted the moment a price change pushes one over target.
Affordable, self-serve, bilingual
| Price | Self-serve signup | FR + EN | Built for 1 location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FoodCost by PixPlat | $12/mo (public) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| meez | Not public — demo required | No | EN only | Group-focused |
| Octogone | Not public — demo required | No | FR + EN | Ops suite |
| MarketMan | Public (varies) — inventory-led | Partial | EN | Chains |
Competitor pricing is shown as published where public, or labelled “not public — demo required” where it is not. Re-verified quarterly; last checked 2026.
Average food cost percentage by restaurant type
| Restaurant type | Typical food cost % |
|---|---|
| Quick-service (QSR) | 28–32% |
| Casual bistro | 30–35% |
| Fine dining | 32–40% |
| Pizzeria | 20–30% |
| Café / bakery | 25–35% |
| Bar (beverage) | 18–24% |
Working ranges from industry benchmarks — verify against your own numbers. Last updated 2026.
Built with independent operators
We publish testimonials only from real beta users. Reviews will appear here as our first restaurants share their results.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good food cost percentage?
Most restaurants aim for a food cost between 28% and 35%. Quick-service and pizzerias often run lower, fine dining a little higher. The right number depends on your concept, labour costs and pricing power.
How do I calculate food cost percentage?
Divide the cost of the ingredients in one portion by the dish's menu price, then multiply by 100. For example, a $3 plate cost on a $10 dish is a 30% food cost.
What is the difference between food cost and food cost percentage?
Food cost is the dollar amount of ingredients in a dish. Food cost percentage expresses that amount relative to the selling price, which is what you use to compare dishes and set prices.
Does the calculator handle unit conversions?
Yes. Buy an ingredient in kilograms or litres and use it in grams or millilitres — the calculator converts within the same measurement type automatically before costing.
What is yield or trim loss?
Yield is the usable percentage of an ingredient after peeling, trimming or cooking. A 90% yield means 10% is lost, so the cost of the usable portion rises accordingly.
Can I use this calculator for free?
Yes, the calculator is completely free with no signup and no ads. Create a free trial account only if you want to save recipes and track every dish over time.
Can I export my results?
Yes. Use the Download PDF button to save or print a clean summary of your costed recipe to share with partners or your accountant.
How is this different from a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet cannot recalculate every recipe when a supplier price changes. The full FoodCost app propagates a price change across all affected dishes and alerts you when one crosses your target.
Resources & tools
Know the real margin of every dish
Start your 14-day free trial — full features, no credit card required, and your data is always exportable. $12/mo after that, cancel anytime.
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