Food cost by cuisine
Average food cost percentage by restaurant type
Eleven formats, eleven plates, costed to the packaging. Every restaurant format has a different cost shape, and the arguments about which one is “good” are usually two people comparing numbers that were never comparable. So each page below does the same three things: states the segment's planning bands, costs one real plate line by line, and names the tracked commodities that plate is exposed to. The percentages in this table are summed from those line items, not quoted from anywhere.
| Format | The plate we costed | Food cost band | Plate cost | Menu price | Food cost | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sushi restaurant | Eight-piece salmon nigiri plate | 30–38% | $6.80 | $19.50 | 34.9% | $12.70 |
| Food truck | Carne asada loaded fries | 28–36% | $4.67 | $14.00 | 33.4% | $9.33 |
| Barbecue | Half-pound sliced brisket plate | 30–36% | $5.84 | $18.95 | 30.8% | $13.11 |
| Deli & sandwich shop | Turkey club with a side | 30–35% | $4.31 | $14.50 | 29.7% | $10.19 |
| Taqueria & Mexican | Three carnitas tacos | 26–32% | $3.67 | $12.50 | 29.4% | $8.83 |
| Diner | Two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast | 28–34% | $2.56 | $8.95 | 28.6% | $6.39 |
| Pizzeria | 16-inch pepperoni pizza | 18–24% | $4.31 | $21.00 | 20.5% | $16.69 |
| Ghost kitchen | Delivery chicken burrito bowl | 25–32% | $2.86 | $15.95 | 17.9%25.6% net | $13.09 |
| Coffee shop | 12 oz latte | 18–24% | $0.92 | $5.25 | 17.5% | $4.33 |
| Bakery | Butter croissant | 22–28% | $0.65 | $4.95 | 13.1% | $4.30 |
| Bar & pub | Well gin and tonic | 18–24% | $1.43 | $12.00 | 11.9% | $10.57 |
Line prices are inputs we chose — plausible mid-2026 wholesale figures for a mid-size US operator, not quotes, and not survey data. Swap yours in and the arithmetic still holds. The ghost kitchen row shows a second percentage because a delivery-only menu is judged on revenue after commission, not on the menu price.
These are the data pages. The guides are somewhere else.
Three of these formats already have a long-form guide on this site, and those guides make the argument: why a pizzeria's low percentage is a labour story, what a shifting milk mix costs a café with no price change, why a truck's low rent buys a higher food cost. The pages below deliberately do not repeat any of that. They hold the numbers — the bands, the costed plate, the commodity exposure — and link across to the argument.
Pizzeria
16-inch pepperoni pizza, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Taqueria & Mexican
Three carnitas tacos, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Sushi restaurant
Eight-piece salmon nigiri plate, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Barbecue
Half-pound sliced brisket plate, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Bakery
Butter croissant, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Coffee shop
12 oz latte, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Bar & pub
Well gin and tonic, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Deli & sandwich shop
Turkey club with a side, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Diner
Two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Ghost kitchen
Delivery chicken burrito bowl, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Food truck
Carne asada loaded fries, costed line by line.
See the numbers →
Where the bands come from, and what they are not
Every food cost, labour and prime cost range on these pages is a planning convention — the sort of number an operator budgets against and a lender expects to see — and not a research finding. We have not surveyed pizzerias. Treat a band as a sanity check on your own arithmetic: if your costed plate lands far outside it, either your format is unusual or a line is missing from the recipe card, and both are worth knowing.
The commodity prices these pages link to are a different kind of number entirely: measured monthly averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, published on the ingredient pages and weighted into the food cost index. Where a series is estimated rather than measured we render it as unavailable rather than publish it.
Your plate, not our plate.
Photograph your menu and every dish comes back costed from your own invoices — the same arithmetic as the tables above, with your supplier prices instead of ours. Free tier, no card.
Cost my menu free →