Category
Money: guides for diner chains
Costs, prices and margins: what POS really costs and what each plate earns.
- 01
Food cost per plate: a diner owner’s guide to recipe costing
How to calculate food cost per plate for a diner menu, what a healthy food-cost percentage looks like, and how to use it to set prices per location. · 4 min
- 02
What a POS really costs a 3-location diner in 2026 (USA, UAE, Pakistan)
Published POS software prices compared for a 3-location diner with 2 registers each, in the USA, plus reference prices for the UAE and Pakistan. Checked October 2026. · 2 min
Other categories: Operations · Switching · All articles
FAQ
Money: quick answers
How do you calculate food cost per plate?
List every ingredient in the dish with its quantity, multiply each by its unit cost from your latest supplier invoice, add them up, and add a waste allowance (often 3–8%). That total is the plate cost.
What is a good food-cost percentage for a diner?
Many diners aim for roughly 25–35% across the menu. Breakfast items like pancakes and coffee run far lower, proteins like burgers and steaks higher. The menu-wide blend matters more than any single dish.
How much does restaurant POS software cost per month?
In the USA in October 2026, published plans for restaurants ranged from free tiers to several hundred dollars per location per month, depending on the vendor, plan and number of devices. Chains should compare the total for all locations and registers, not the headline price.
Why does the number of registers matter?
Some vendors charge per device. A diner with four tablets and a kitchen screen pays several device fees per location; per-location pricing doesn’t.
