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Menu Price Calculator

Price a dish the right way: enter what it costs you and your target food cost, and get the menu price that hits your margin — plus a rounded "charm" price.

Setting one price by hand is quick. Re-pricing a whole menu as costs climb is the part that eats your night. Hand that to Lowboy and get back to the food and the room.

$12.00
suggested menu price
Rounded (charm) price$11.95
Gross profit / plate$8.40
Food cost at that price30%

How to price a menu item

Work backward from the food cost you want. If a plate costs you $3.60 and you're targeting 30% food cost, divide the cost by the target to get the price:

Menu price = plate cost ÷ target food cost %

$3.60 ÷ 0.30 = $12.00. That's your floor for hitting margin; from there you factor in what the market and your positioning will bear, and round to a psychology-friendly price like $11.95.

Don't have the plate cost yet? Build it with the recipe cost calculator, and read how to calculate food cost % for the full picture. To price your whole menu from live invoice prices — and get alerted when a dish drifts over target — see food-cost software.

FAQ

Common questions

How do you price a menu item? +
Divide the plate cost by your target food cost percentage. A $3.60 plate at a 30% target should be priced around $12.00, then rounded to a charm price like $11.95.
What is a charm price? +
A price ending in .95 or .99 that reads as cheaper than the round number. It's a small psychology lever on top of your margin-based price.
Should every dish have the same target food cost? +
No — vary it by category and role. Signature and high-volume dishes can carry a lower food cost, while a few premium items can run higher; the blended average is what matters.

See your real food-cost number — free.

Snap a menu and a few invoices. No login, no card. About 3 minutes.

Do the math: a kitchen spending about $50,000 a month on food that trims that by just 1% saves roughly $500 a month — about 3.4× the $149 plan. One caught price hike or one re-priced dish usually clears it.

Add the hours back, too — no spreadsheet nights, no manual invoice entry, no rebuilding the prep list when the menu changes.

Less time on the back office, more time on the food, your crew, and the reason you opened.

Get your free audit →
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