How to Price a Sunday Roast or Festive Menu for Margin

Start with the recipe, not the marketLink

Your competitor's price tells you nothing about your own cost base.

The most common mistake is checking what nearby pubs charge, copying the number, and hoping the maths works. That is backwards.

Your competitor's price tells you what customers may accept. It does not tell you whether your beef, labour model, rent or energy costs allow you to survive at that price.

Start with a full recipe cost for every dish, including meat with trim, bone and cooking loss, potatoes, vegetables, sauces, garnishes, packaging and expected waste.

A five-kilogram beef joint does not produce five kilograms of sellable portions. If the cooked joint yields 3.6 kilograms of usable meat, cost the meat against 3.6 kilograms, not five.

• Meat, including trim, bone and cooking loss
• Potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire puddings
• Stuffing, gravy, sauces and condiments
• Oil, butter, herbs and seasoning
• Garnishes and “free” extras
• Packaging if any part of the menu travels
• Expected waste and unusable yield

Calculate the true plate cost, then set your targetLink

Selling price excluding VAT = plate cost ÷ target food-cost percentage.

Create a costing sheet for each menu item. For a roast beef main, the true plate cost — beef after yield, potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, seasoning and a waste allowance — might land at £5.90.

That £5.90 is the number that matters. Do not use the wholesale price of the raw joint, and do not ignore waste because “the kitchen usually gets it right.” Small errors multiply across a busy Sunday: under-cost 120 roasts by 60p each and you lose £72 in one service.

Many independent operators work somewhere between 25% and 35% food cost, depending on concept, rent and labour model. For the £5.90 roast at a 30% target: £5.90 ÷ 0.30 = £19.67 excluding VAT, £23.60 including VAT, so a sensible customer-facing price of £24.

Calculate margin on the net sales value, then display the VAT-inclusive price customers actually pay. A “£24 roast” is not £24 of net revenue — at 20% VAT the net sales value is £20. Confirm treatment with your accountant, particularly where dine-in, takeaway and drinks are mixed.

Price the whole set menu, not just the mainLink

A costly starter and dessert given away for almost nothing wrecks the maths.

Set menus let you control the offer, but they also create a second trap: pricing the roast correctly, then giving away a costly starter and dessert for almost nothing.

Cost the likely guest journey. A soup starter, roast main and sticky toffee pudding might total £8.55 in plate cost. At a 30% target food cost, that produces £28.50 excluding VAT, £34.20 including VAT — a customer-facing price of £34.

Calculate the two-course price separately rather than simply subtracting an arbitrary £5. A practical structure could be two courses at £28 and three courses at £34. The six-pound step encourages dessert, which may cost £1.45 to produce while adding £5 net revenue to the bundle. That is not discounting — it is controlled upselling.

Use pricing psychology without cheap tricksLink

Shape demand once the underlying costs are already under control.

A small step from two courses to three makes the full menu feel like the obvious decision — but check the numbers first. A three-course price that looks attractive but carries a 40% food cost is not a success, it is a busy loss.

Include one premium option, such as a roast sirloin supplement or a sharing roast board, properly costed. It gives customers a reference point, making your standard roast look more reasonable.

Keep the menu narrow. Offering beef, pork, lamb, turkey, chicken and multiple fish alternatives means buying inventory for several demand forecasts — you will either run out of the popular option or carry waste on the rest. A short, focused menu is easier to execute, cost and sell.

Build inflation and labour into the review processLink

Food cost is only one part of the calculation.

Your menu price is not permanent. Foodservice input prices remain volatile across ingredients, energy, labour and finance. Review recipes at least quarterly, and volatile ingredients such as beef, poultry, eggs, dairy and cooking oil more often.

Do not apply a blanket percentage increase to every dish. Re-cost every recipe, identify where margin has collapsed, raise prices where the market can support it, and redesign dishes that no longer work.

Track contribution per cover: net menu price minus food cost minus variable labour minus other variable costs. A dish can hit its food-cost target and still be commercially weak if it consumes too much labour and energy. A roast that takes two kitchen staff six hours to prepare is not equivalent to a dish that takes one cook two hours.

Price festive menus as a different productLink

Rebuild the offer from current supplier prices, not last year's printed card.

A festive menu is not your standard Sunday roast with a sprig of rosemary. It carries different costs: more expensive seasonal ingredients, pigs in blankets and trimmings, welcome drinks, extra preparation time, longer table occupancy, higher staffing and deposit administration.

Cost the complete guest package. If a three-course festive menu costs £10.80 per guest at a 28% target food cost: £10.80 ÷ 0.28 = £38.57 excluding VAT, £46.28 including VAT — a suitable menu price of £46.50 or £47.

Demand may be stronger in December. That does not mean you can charge whatever you like. It means a peak trading period does not need the same pricing as a quiet Sunday in February.

A correctly priced menu is useless if customers cannot find it. Put the offer on a fast, mobile-friendly page showing the full price, available dates, deposit requirements, allergen information and a clear booking button. No hidden menu PDF, no buried booking button, no “message us for details.” Every extra click costs covers.

• Make sure your restaurant marketing
• and local SEO
• are pointing customers straight at the offer — or talk to HMRA