Menu Pricing and Seasonal Planning
Cost every plate, price from a target, and plan for the slow months while the busy ones are still paying the bills.
Many menus get priced by looking at the place down the street and rounding to a friendly number. That works until your beef supplier raises prices twice in a year and the dish you are proudest of quietly stops making money.
Start with plate cost
Plate cost is everything on the plate: protein, sides, sauce, garnish, and the bread basket or chips that go out with it. Use the price you pay per usable ounce after trimming, not the case price. A brisket that loses 40% in trimming and cooking costs far more per served ounce than the invoice suggests.
Pricing a dish from a target
- 1
Write the recipe
List every ingredient and the portion in ounces or units.
- 2
Cost each line
Use current invoices and your real yield after trim and cooking.
- 3
Divide by your target
A $4.20 plate at a 30% target food cost points to a price of $14.
- 4
Check the market
See what guests expect to pay. Adjust the portion or garnish if the target price feels too high.
- 5
Set a review date
Re-cost top sellers whenever a main ingredient moves more than a few percent.
Try it
Pricing & Margin
Try your plate cost and target margin to see the price, or enter a price to see your margin and markup.
Charge at least
$33.33
Gross margin
40.0%
profit ÷ price
Markup
66.7%
profit ÷ cost
Where each sale goes
Gross margin covers only direct costs. Your overhead and your own pay still come out of it.
Margin is not markup
A dish that costs $4.20 and sells for $14 has a 70% margin but a 233% markup. Mixing the two up is the most common pricing mistake in small kitchens.
Seasonal menus that help the numbers
Seasonal menus are good marketing, and they can be good math. In-season produce often costs less and tastes better. A smaller fall or winter menu cuts waste and prep time when traffic slows. Seasonal specials also give you a natural moment to test a new price without reprinting the whole menu.
Owner story
Grace does about 70% of her yearly sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day. For years she spent freely all summer and borrowed in February. Now she moves 10% of every summer deposit into a separate account and plans winter around it: a short menu, four open days a week, and staff kept to her core cooks. Last winter she covered every bill without a loan.
Illustrative composite, not a real customer.
Planning the slow season
- 1Pull last year's sales by week to see when the dip starts and how deep it goes.
- 2List the fixed bills that keep coming: rent, insurance, loan payments, utilities.
- 3Estimate the gap between slow-season sales and those bills.
- 4Set a percentage of busy-season deposits to save until the gap is covered.
- 5Plan the slow menu, hours, and staffing to shrink the gap further.
If you still need help, decide it early. Financing arranged in a calm month on clear numbers usually costs less than financing arranged in a panic. See seasonal cash flow and building a cash cushion for the full playbook.
Quick check
A dish has a $5.40 plate cost and your target food cost is 30%. What price does the math point to?
Words to know
- Plate cost
- The total ingredient cost of one serving as it leaves the kitchen.
- Food cost percentage
- Plate cost divided by menu price.
- Yield
- The usable share of an ingredient after trimming and cooking.
Finished reading?
Track your progress through Restaurants & Food Service.
Related lessons
From Hobby to Business: When Your Side Hustle Gets Serious
How the IRS tells a hobby from a business, why the difference matters for your taxes, and the first moves to make when your side hustle starts to grow up.
Separate Your Money: Business Banking From Day One
Why mixing personal and business money costs you at tax time, weakens your liability protection, and makes lenders nervous, plus the simple setup that fixes it.
Pricing for Profit: What to Charge
Three ways to set prices, how to make sure your own pay is built in, and the markup versus margin mix-up that quietly drains profit.