Menu price calculator
To price a dish, divide what it costs you by your target food cost, then add VAT and round up. This does that for you and shows the food cost you actually land on after rounding — because the rounding always moves it a little.
Put this on your menu
£14.50
Rounded up to the nearest 50p from £14.40
Net price, ex VAT
£12.08
Actual food cost
29.8%
Gross profit, cash
£8.48
Now sense-check it against your market. If £14.50 is more than your guests will pay, the answer is to change the dish — not to quietly accept a worse food cost.
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Cost first, market second
Pricing a dish by looking at what the pub down the road charges means you have inherited their cost base, their supplier deals and their rent — none of which are yours. Start from your own cost, then sense-check against your market.
And rank your finished menu by cash gross profit, not percentage. The kitchen banks pounds.
Questions
- How do I work out what to charge for a dish?
- Divide the dish cost by your target food cost to get the net price, then add VAT and round up. A dish costing £3.60 at a 30% target gives £12.00 net, £14.40 with VAT, so £14.50 on the menu. Then sense-check that against what your guests will actually pay.
- Why round the price up?
- Because £14.50 reads as a price and £14.37 reads as a mistake. This calculator rounds up to the nearest 50p, which is how menus are priced in practice, and shows you the food cost you actually end up with after rounding.
- What target food cost should I use?
- Most UK kitchens aim for 25–35% on food and 18–25% on drinks. Lower is not automatically better: rank dishes by cash gross profit too, because a dish at 35% returning £13 pays more wages than one at 25% returning £4.
- What if the price comes out too high for my market?
- Change the dish, not the target. Re-spec it, adjust the garnish, or renegotiate the main ingredient. Quietly accepting a worse food cost is how a menu ends up with dishes that sell well and make nothing.
Repricing a whole menu?
David AI holds every recipe and re-costs the lot when a supplier price moves, so you find out the same day rather than three months later. The software is free.