The numbers to know
| Benchmark | Figure | Source |
| Median food cost, full service (2024) | 32.0% of sales | National Restaurant Association |
| Median food cost, limited service (2024) | 32.4% | NRA |
| Median labor incl. benefits, full service (2024) | 36.5% (34.2% profitable / 42.9% unprofitable) | NRA |
| Prime cost target (food + labor) | 55–65%, ~60% | 7shifts, Restaurant365, Toast |
| Bar pour cost | 18–24% | BevSpot, Toast |
| Actual-vs-theoretical food cost gap | <2% good · >5% investigate | meez |
| Average restaurant net margin | 3–5% | Toast |
| Food-away-from-home inflation | +3.8% in 2025 · +3.6% forecast 2026 | USDA ERS |
How to use them together
Start with the recipe cost calculator for your top 20 sellers; that gives you a plate cost for each. Run each plate through the pricing calculator to see where it sits against your target. Put all of them, with a month of sales, into the menu engineering calculator to see which are Stars and which are Dogs. Then step back: the food cost calculator tells you whether the recipe cards match what left the walk-in, the prime cost calculator adds labor, and the break-even calculator tells you what all of it has to add up to.
Why a restaurant owner built this
Every food-cost calculator on the internet is a lead magnet for a POS or inventory subscription: three inputs, a number, and a "book a demo" button. The math is not hard, but the useful version needs yields, unit conversion, benchmarks with sources, and an honest word about what to do with the result. That version didn't exist, so it's here. The site is run by the owner of Rolling Oven, a wood-fired pizza and taproom business in Kentucky; every benchmark is cited and the calculators are the ones he uses.
What these calculators don't do
They don't replace inventory counts, a bookkeeper, or your POS mix report. They apply the standard formulas to what you enter and show the arithmetic. If your inputs are last year's invoice prices, the output is last year's answer. Re-cost quarterly; USDA has food inflation running around 3% a year, and the items you sell most move faster than that.