How to price your cafe menu in Nepal (food cost %)
Good menu prices start with one number: what each dish actually costs to make. Here is how to work out your cost per plate, set a sensible food-cost percentage, and avoid the pricing mistakes that quietly eat your margin.
Start with cost per plate, not a guess
Most pricing goes wrong because it starts from “what feels right” or from copying the cafe next door. The honest starting point is the cost per plate: add up the cost of every ingredient that goes into one serving — the coffee, milk, and cup in a cappuccino; the flour, filling, and oil in a plate of momo. That ingredient total is your raw food cost for that dish. You cannot price well until you know it, because every other number is built on top of it.
The food-cost percentage formula
Food-cost percentage is simply your ingredient cost divided by the selling price. If a dish costs Rs 60 in ingredients and you sell it for Rs 200, your food cost is 30%. Most cafes and restaurants aim for a food cost somewhere around 25–35%, which leaves room for rent, staff, gas, and profit — but the right target depends on the item. Drinks and high-margin snacks can run lower; a signature dish with premium ingredients may run higher and still be worth keeping for what it does to your reputation.
- Food cost % = ingredient cost ÷ selling price
- A common target band is 25–35% — but set it per item, not one number for the whole menu
- Cheap-to-make drinks subsidise pricier signature dishes
- Price to the menu as a whole, not dish by dish in isolation
Why your cost per plate keeps changing
Ingredient prices in Nepal move — vegetables seasonally, dairy and gas with the market. A price you set in Asar can be wrong by Mangsir if you never revisit it. The cafes that hold their margin are the ones that keep recipe costs current: when the price of milk goes up, every drink that uses milk should reflect it. Doing this by hand across a full menu is tedious, which is why most owners stop — and that is exactly when margin slips away unnoticed.
Let the system do the arithmetic
This is where recipe-based stock earns its keep. If you set each dish’s recipe once, software like TableSathi can deduct ingredients automatically on every sale and show your real cost per plate ingredient by ingredient — updated as your purchase prices change. Combined with sales data, it tells you not just which dishes sell, but which actually make money once ingredient cost is counted. That is the number you price from, and the one that catches the popular item quietly losing you a few rupees on every order.
Common questions.
What is a good food cost percentage for a cafe?+
Many cafes and restaurants aim for a food cost in the region of 25–35% of the selling price, but treat that as a band rather than a rule. Drinks and simple snacks often sit well below it and carry the menu, while a premium signature dish might run higher and still earn its place. The goal is a healthy blended food cost across the whole menu that leaves enough margin for rent, staff, gas, and profit — so set targets item by item and judge the menu as a whole.
How do I calculate cost per plate?+
List every ingredient in one serving of the dish and the quantity of each — for example 120g flour, 80g filling, and a measure of oil for a plate of momo — then multiply each quantity by its current purchase price and add them up. That total is your cost per plate. The fiddly part is keeping it current as prices change, which is why many cafes set the recipe once in software that recalculates the cost automatically whenever purchase prices are updated.
Should I raise prices when ingredient costs go up?+
Usually yes, but selectively. When a core ingredient like milk or cooking gas rises, the dishes that lean on it lose margin first, so those are the ones to review — not the whole menu at once. Small, occasional adjustments on the affected items protect your margin without shocking regulars. The risk is doing nothing: ingredient prices drift up steadily, and a menu priced a year ago can be quietly unprofitable on its busiest items.
Run your cafe the simpler way.
Orders, kitchen tickets, billing, and stock in one place — built for cafes in Nepal.