How to price a menu
Pricing is part maths, part psychology. Get it right and margin takes care of itself; get it wrong and even a busy restaurant struggles. Here's a practical way to price your menu.
Menu & pricing · 6 min read
Start from cost
Cost every dish, then set a starting price from your target food-cost percentage: dish cost ÷ target percentage. A dish costing 4.00 at a 30% target starts around 13.30. This gives you a disciplined floor for every item.
Then adjust for value and the market
- Check each price against what guests expect to pay for that item.
- Some dishes can carry a higher margin (drinks, sides); others are value anchors.
- Look at comparable venues, but price for your own positioning, not theirs.
Use a little psychology
- Avoid long, aligned price columns that invite price-shopping.
- Keep prices clean and unobtrusive next to the dish description.
- Place high-margin items where the eye naturally lands.
Balance the whole menu
Don't price each dish in isolation. Aim for a healthy blended margin across the menu, using menu engineering to feature profitable favourites and rework the items that drag.
Key takeaways
The short version
- Start each price from cost and a target food-cost percentage
- Adjust for perceived value and your positioning
- Avoid price columns that invite comparison
- Carry higher margins on drinks and sides
- Manage the blended margin across the whole menu
FAQ
Questions, answered
Divide the dish's ingredient cost by your target food-cost percentage. A 4.00 dish at a 30% target starts around 13.30 — then sanity-check against the market.
No. Aim for a healthy blended margin; drinks and sides often carry more, while some dishes act as value anchors.
Yes. Avoiding aligned price columns and placing high-margin items where the eye lands measurably affects what sells.
Put it into practice
Menulisa brings ordering, POS, kitchen, inventory, and reporting together so the ideas in this guide are easy to act on.