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Restaurant GP calculator: food cost, gross profit and the price to charge
Cost a dish ingredient by ingredient. You'll see its food cost, its gross profit and the menu price that hits your target margin, with and without VAT.
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- VAT worked out for you
The dish
GP is worked out on the price without VAT, because the VAT isn't yours. Hot takeaway food is usually standard-rated; cold takeaway food can be zero-rated. See HMRC's VAT Notice 709/1.
Ingredients and packaging
Yield is the share you can use after trimming, bones or cooking loss. Chicken thigh trimmed to 90% means you pay for 100 g to plate 90 g.
Your target
Method
How the numbers are worked out
With a delivery app, commission is taken on what the customer pays. We assume you reclaim the VAT on the commission, so its cost to you is the commission rate × the price including VAT.
Which VAT rate applies to what you sell is HMRC's call, not ours: see VAT Notice 709/1: catering and takeaway food. Money is shown to the penny and percentages to one decimal place.
By Tahseen Dar, founder · Last updated
Worked example
Chicken tikka masala at £11.95
| Ingredient | Working | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken thigh | £9.00 ÷ 2000 g × 180 g ÷ 90% | £0.90 |
| Masala sauce (batch) | £3.00 ÷ 1000 g × 200 g | £0.60 |
| Basmati rice | £15.00 ÷ 10000 g × 80 g | £0.12 |
| Single cream | £2.00 ÷ 1000 ml × 25 ml | £0.05 |
| Container and lid | £14.00 ÷ 100 × 1 | £0.14 |
| Plate cost | £11.95 inc VAT = £9.96 ex | £1.81 |
£1.81 ÷ £9.96 = 18.2% food cost, so GP is 81.8%, or £8.15 a plate. Example figures, not supplier quotes.
The price for a 65, 70 or 75% GP
| GP target | Price ex VAT | Price inc VAT (20%) |
|---|---|---|
| 65% | £5.18 | £6.21 |
| 70% | £6.04 | £7.24 |
| 75% | £7.24 | £8.69 |
Same £1.81 plate: price = plate cost ÷ (1 − GP), then VAT on top. Prices are rounded up to the next penny, so the GP is never below the target.
How to build a recipe and see your food cost · 2:18
Watch
The same sums, kept up to date in WalnutPOS
Open Recipe, tap Create Recipe on the dish, and add each ingredient from your stock with how much one dish uses. Walnut works out what the dish costs to make and its margin against your menu price, and once you save, every one you sell takes those ingredients off your stock.
Read the written stepsQuestions
GP and food cost, answered
What's a good GP for a restaurant or takeaway?
Many UK restaurants aim for 65–75% gross profit on food, a food cost of 25–35%. It varies with cuisine, portion size and how much you sell through delivery apps, so compare dishes against your own average.
What's the difference between GP and markup?
GP (or margin) is the share of the price left after the ingredients. Markup is the profit as a share of the cost, so an 81.8% GP is a 450% markup.
Should packaging go in the plate cost?
For takeaway and delivery, yes. The box, lid and bag are part of what each order costs you. Add them as rows with the unit "each".
Is anything I type saved?
No. The sums run in your browser. "Copy link" puts your figures in the link itself so you can share it; we don't store them.
Keep every dish costed, not just this one
In WalnutPOS each recipe's cost comes from what you paid for your stock, and every sale takes the ingredients off your stock. Start on the £0 plan, or WhatsApp us and we'll help.
£0 plan: 1 location · reports show the last 24 hours · other limits apply. See every limit