Let’s play a quick game. Look at the most popular item on your menu. Now answer honestly: how much money do you actually make every time someone orders it?
If your answer was “uhhh… some?” — welcome, friend. You’re in very good company. Most small restaurant and bar owners price their menu the same way people pick paint colors: by vibes, by what the place down the street charges, and by a little bit of hope.
Hope is lovely. Hope is not a pricing strategy.
The sneaky math that eats your profit
Here’s the thing nobody tells you when you open: a $14 burger can be a money-maker or a money-shredder, and you can’t tell which just by looking at it.
Beef went up. Brioche buns went up. That fancy aioli you swore by? Also up. Meanwhile your menu price has been sitting there, unchanged since 2023, smiling at customers like nothing happened.
Every one of those little increases quietly nibbles your margin. One nibble is fine. A hundred nibbles is a closed sign.
Meet the magic number: food cost %
Pros use one simple idea: what slice of the menu price goes to ingredients?
- Kitchen: many places aim for around 30%. So if a dish costs you $3 to make, it should sell for about $10.
- Bar: drinks often aim for around 20% (called “pour cost”). A cocktail that costs you $2 should sell for about $10.
The formula is almost suspiciously easy: cost ÷ target % = price. That’s it. No spreadsheet sorcery required.
Every place is a little different, so treat these as starting points, not laws carved in stone.
“Cool, but I don’t want to do math at 11pm”
Totally fair. After a double shift, the last thing anyone wants is a calculator and a pile of invoices.
So we built one that does it for you. 🎉
→ Try the free Menu Price Calculator
Here’s what it does:
- Kitchen mode: list your ingredient costs, say how many portions the recipe makes, and pick your target food cost.
- Bar mode: enter the bottle price, bottle size, your pour, and any mixers or garnish.
- Instant answer: you see your cost per serving, a suggested menu price (rounded to a clean number), and your profit per plate or glass — live, as you type.
- Copy summary: one tap to paste the results into a note, text, or your menu planning sheet.
No sign-up. No credit card. No “enter your email to see results.” Just answers.
A real-life example (with a cocktail, obviously)
Say a bottle of tequila costs you $24 and holds about 25 oz. You pour 1.5 oz per margarita and spend about 40 cents on lime, salt and mixer.
Plug that into Bar mode and boom: your margarita costs roughly $1.82 to make. At a 20% pour cost, you’d price it around $9.25. If you’ve been selling it for $7… well, now you know where your profit went. (It went to Margaritaville.)
Your 5-minute homework
- Pick your top 3 sellers — food or drinks.
- Grab a recent invoice for their ingredients.
- Run each one through the calculator.
- Circle any item where the suggested price is way above what you charge.
- Fix just one this week. Small changes add up fast.
That’s it. Five minutes, three items, and you’ll know more about your margins than most of your competitors do.
The bottom line (literally)
You didn’t get into this business to do math. You got into it to make great food, pour great drinks, and see happy faces. Let the calculator handle the numbers so you can get back to the fun part — and actually get paid for it.
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