Figures from the UKHospitality × Christie & Co Benchmarking Report (2022 edition, covering roughly 4,800 outlets across 54 hospitality companies) — the largest published UK dataset. Presented here as targets to price against, not as this year's numbers.
The working answer, if you just need a number: aim for a food cost of 30–35% of the ex-VAT selling price, which is a food gross profit of 65–70%. That range is where the big UK survey data actually sits, segment by segment, and it's the range most operators budget to.
Gross profit percentage is (net selling price − cost) ÷ net selling price, where the net selling price is the menu price with VAT stripped out (divide the inc-VAT price by 1.2 at the standard rate). A £14 dish is £11.67 net; if the plate costs £3.85, the GP is £7.82 — 67%, not the 72.5% you'd get by dividing into the £14. Costing against the VAT-inclusive price flatters every dish by 5–7 points and is the single most common reason a menu that "runs at 70%" produces mid-50s in the accounts.
Run your own numbers on the free GP calculator — it does the VAT stripping for you.
| Segment | Food GP | Food cost equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation-led | 69% | 31% |
| Community local pubs | 68% | 32% |
| Food-led pubs | 68% | 32% |
| High street venues | 66% | 34% |
| Nightclubs | 66% | 34% |
| Wine bars | 66% | 34% |
| Casual dining | 65.9% | 34.1% |
| Whole survey | 67% | 33% |
Every segment lands inside 65–70%. Nobody's secretly running restaurant food at 80% GP, and a menu below 60% has a pricing problem, not a personality.
Survey-average food GP moved from 63.8% (2017) to 64.2% (2018) to around 67% (2022). Treat the 2022 jump with care: it was measured while the temporary hospitality VAT cut (which ended April 2022) was still boosting margins. The structural, repeatable level for UK food GP is the mid-60s; budget for that and let anything better be upside.
Most "UK food cost percentage" pages online are US content with the dollar signs swapped. Three claims worth un-learning:
Tied pubs in the survey ran a wet GP of 61.2% against 68.9% free-of-tie — nearly 8 points surrendered on drinks through the tie. Food showed no such gap (67.3% tied vs 67.1% free). If you're tied, food is the margin lever the tie can't touch, which is a genuine strategic reason to grow the food side.
A benchmark is a sanity check, not a pricing method. Cost each dish properly (pack price ÷ yield × quantity, per portion), price it to your target GP on the net figure, then check the menu's blended GP lands in the 65–70% band. Individual dishes can and should sit outside it — a 60% GP dish that sells forty covers a night out-earns a 72% dish that sells three.
Track where you actually land, weekly, with the Weekly GP & Food Cost tracker — or cost the menu dish by dish with the Food Cost & Menu Pricing template.