Menu Scan -- LocalRestaurantGrowth.com

Yield % -- What It Means and How to Get the Number

Yield % is the percentage of a purchased ingredient that is actually usable after prep. If you ignore it, your food cost calculations will be lower than reality.

Real examples:

Carne Asada -- Buy 10 lbs. After trimming fat, usable meat is 9 lbs. Yield = 90%. If you paid $8.50/lb, effective cost is $9.44/lb.

Shrimp (shell-on) -- Buy 1 lb. After peeling and deveining, usable shrimp is about 0.75 lbs. Yield = 75-80%.

Avocado -- Buy 12. Two are overripe. Usable = 10. Yield is 83%.

Rice, beans, tortillas, sauces -- 100% yield. No waste in prep.

Questions to ask the owner or kitchen:

When you break down a case of carne asada, how much do you trim off?
Does your shrimp come peeled and deveined, or do you prep it in-house?
When you cut avocados for service, how many do you toss out of a case?
Do you use whole chicken or specific cuts?

When in doubt use 100% and note it as an estimate. You can always update it with real kitchen data later.

New Restaurant Analysis

Enter restaurant details below. Title updates as you type.

Restaurant Information

Restaurant Name

Reporting Period

Net Sales ($)

Total Transactions

Full Payroll / Labor Cost ($)

POS System

Two reports required per period: (1) Sales Summary / Activity Report -- upload below left, auto-fills the financial fields above. (2) Sales By Item / Product Mix -- upload below right, feeds the item analysis. Both must cover the same date range.

Upload Reports

1 -- Sales Summary / Activity Report

Upload Sales Summary CSV

CSV, XLS, or XLSX -- auto-fills Net Sales, Transactions and Labor

2 -- Sales By Item / Product Mix

Upload Product Mix CSV

CSV, XLS, or XLSX -- SpotOn, Shift4, Toast, Square supported

Manual Item Entry

Item Name

Qty Sold

Avg Price ($)

Category

Item	Qty	Avg Price	Total Revenue	Category

No items loaded yet.
Upload a CSV, enter manually, or load demo data.

Bulk Ingredient Library

Start with the top proteins. Ask the owner what they pay per pound for their main proteins. These typically drive 50-70% of food cost. Get invoice pricing when possible.

Ingredient Name

Purchase Unit

Cost per Unit ($)

Yield % -- ask the owner

Ingredient	Unit	Cost/Unit	Yield %	Effective Cost/Unit

No ingredients yet.

Save your work. Download recipes to Excel anytime. Re-upload the file later to restore all saved recipes -- even on a different device or after closing the browser.

Recipe Cost Builder

Sequence: Select a menu item, add each ingredient with its portion per plate, then Save Recipe. Cost the top 20 items by volume first -- they cover 70-80% of revenue.

Menu Item

Menu Price ($) -- auto-filled

Ingredient

Portion per plate (in purchase units)

Ingredient	Unit	Portion	Cost for This Plate

Select a menu item above to start building its recipe.

Saved Recipes

Menu Item	Menu Price	Food Cost/Plate	Food Cost %	Rating

No recipes saved yet.

Load items on Tab 1 then run the analysis.

Business Snapshot

Net Sales

Avg Ticket

Active Items

menu line items

Labor Cost %

Prime Cost %

Operational Flags

2x2 Quadrant -- Volume vs Margin

Where a recipe is saved, actual food cost % drives the margin score. Otherwise, price tier is used as a proxy.

Profit Champions

High volume, high margin -- protect and promote

Silent Killers

High volume, low margin -- review and reprice

Pricing Review

Low volume, high margin -- promote or reposition

86 Candidates

Low volume, low margin -- consider removing

Recommended Price Calculator

Enter food cost per plate and target FC%. The tool calculates the recommended menu price, then adds the cash discount surcharge to give you the final menu price.

Menu Item (optional)

Food Cost / Plate ($)

Target FC %

Current Menu Price ($)

Cash Discount %

Full Item Analysis

Item	Qty	Price	Revenue	FC/Plate	FC%	Category	Flag	Action

Print / Save as PDF -- client leave-behind, branded and clean.
Export to Excel -- 5-tab working file including Pricing Recommendations with CD-adjusted prices.

Menu PDF Analysis

What this does: Upload the restaurant's printed menu as a PDF scan or image. Claude will analyze pricing relative to likely ingredient costs, flag items that appear underpriced, identify value tier opportunities, and recommend items for repricing or removal. This supplements the product mix data with visual menu context.

Restaurant Name

Concept Type

Food Cost Target

Upload Menu PDF or Image

PDF, JPG, or PNG -- scanned menus work fine

Additional context for Claude (optional)

Information

Yield % -- What It Means and How to Get the Number

Menu Scan -- v0.1

New Restaurant Analysis