ex-tax price = ingredient cost ÷ target ratio
Menu price
$16.00
$16.00 ex-tax
Targets: kitchen 25–35%, bar 18–24%. And this assumes your costs are current — yours move. See why ↓
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Menu price calculator — the right price, not the price from six months ago
A price set once stays on the menu while your costs move with every delivery. Three supplier hikes you don't pass on, and your best-seller feeds everyone except your margin. The method — food cost, markup, tax —, the traps, and a free calculator to check your prices in 30 seconds.
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Définition
A dish's menu price is deduced from its ingredient cost and the target ratio you want to hold: divide the cost by that ratio to get the ex-tax price, then add tax. Targeting 30% food cost in the kitchen means multiplying cost by a little over three.
Ex-tax menu price = ingredient cost ÷ target food cost ratio
The method
Price is deduced from cost
Start from a recipe's real ingredient cost, set the ratio you want to hold — 30% in the kitchen, less at the bar — and the menu price falls out. Tax is added at the end: it passes through your register, it isn't margin. It's the inverse of food cost, and the same work as the menu markup calculator.
What food cost ratio should you target?
In the kitchen
25–35%
Targeting 30% means multiplying cost by a little over three. A casual spot runs higher than fine dining — the right ratio depends on positioning.
Behind the bar
18–24%
A lower food cost, so a more ambitious price. It's the house's margin — as long as the pour served matches the spec.
The trap
30–50%
of profit that evaporates on a 5–10% net margin
The price you calculate today is only right today. Tomorrow the supplier raises butter, fish, gin — and the menu price doesn't move. Kitchens run 3–5% drift between theoretical and actual cost (Restaurant365, MarginEdge); a bar can lose up to 20% of its liquor stock to uneven pours (Sculpture Hospitality). A price set once a year on a cost that moves every week is wrong eleven months out of twelve.
This is exactly the leak Methodus plugs. See how ↓
The math
The gap is small. The leak isn't.
The gap between what you think a plate costs and what it really costs runs 5–20%. Drag your numbers and watch what it quietly takes off your margin.
You're leaking about
$18,000
Yearly revenue$600,000
Ingredient cost30%
Cost gap — perceived vs. real10%
Most venues sit around 10%.
Net margin7%
F&B runs thin — often 5–10%.
You're leaking about
$18,000
a year — ≈ 42.9% of your net profit.
Margin you already earned — you just can't see it yet.
Gap range: Sculpture Hospitality · Restaurant365
The fix
Methodus plugs the leak
Not another spreadsheet, not a binder in the office: an app the kitchen, the bar, and the floor use morning to night — and that does the data entry for you.
- 1
“The purchase prices are stale”
Your invoices are read automatically
Drop the supplier invoice — PDF, photo, even an email attachment. Methodus reads every line and updates your purchase prices. The hike shows up the same day, not at month-end.
- 2
“The specs sleep in a binder”
Every spec recalculates the moment a price moves
You see immediately which menu price no longer covers its margin — the day a purchase price moves, not at the next menu reprint. Recipe spec sheet template →
- 3
“No one can name the cost mid-service”
The whole team sees the same numbers
The line and the bar see what a plate or a glass costs, from their phones. The pour holds itself — no policing.
You stop chasing the drift: what used to evaporate every month becomes net profit again.
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In action
The suggested price, in the product
On a real recipe, Methodus prices the cost and suggests the price that holds your margin — recalculated the moment an invoice moves a cost.
Setting a price that holds
- 1
Start from the real ingredient cost
Quantities actually served, waste included, current purchase prices. A fair price starts with a fair cost: food cost calculator →
- 2
One spec sheet per recipe
Price attaches to a spec, not a memory. Without one, the recipe changes and the price doesn't know it. Recipe spec sheet template →
- 3
Recalculate when cost moves
Every invoice shifts a cost of goods. If the menu doesn't follow, margin leaks silently — check it: gross margin calculator →
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Start from the real ingredient cost, choose the ratio to hold (30% in the kitchen, for example), divide the cost by that ratio for the ex-tax price, then add tax. A dish with $5 of ingredients targeting 30% sells for $16.67 ex-tax, or $18.33 with 10% tax.
Work ex-tax first: tax passes through your register, it isn't margin. Set the ex-tax price from the cost and target ratio, then add tax (commonly 10% on food, 20% on alcohol in VAT markets) for the tax-inclusive price you display.
Roughly 30% in the kitchen (a price a bit over three times cost), 18 to 24% at the bar. A casual spot runs higher than fine dining: the right ratio depends on positioning, decided dish by dish.
As soon as a purchase cost moves. A price set once a year on a cost that changes weekly is wrong eleven months out of twelve. Ideally, recalculate the suggested price with every supplier invoice, spec by spec.
Who builds methodusmethodus is built by an operator. Nathaniel Gilliand, École hôtelière de Lausanne graduate, runs restaurants, bars and beach clubs. This is the tool he built to find the margin that was evaporating in his own P&L.
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A price that follows your costs
Methodus reads your invoices, recalculates the cost of every spec, and suggests the price that holds your margin — kitchen and bar. The menu stops lying.
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