If you’re using restaurant management software, you’ve got access to tons of data about your dining concept or chain. But are you tracking the right restaurant metrics?
Restaurant data varies. You have customer data. Spending data. Operational metrics. Performance data. It’s a lot of data.
But how can you use all this data to make informed business decisions to streamline operations, increase restaurant sales, and grow your business?
In this article, we will cover the top restaurant metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) restaurant owners, managers, and operators need to track.
Why should restaurants review and track metrics?
Restaurant metrics allow business owners, F&B managers and directors, and other stakeholders to evaluate performance. The aim is to use this data to make decisions about growth, downsizing or upsizing, adding new venues,…etc.
For example, if a concept manages multiple restaurant locations, they would need to see the performance of each venue independently and in comparison with each other.
By tracking data such as inventory costs, guest satisfaction, and gross profit, they can see their best and least performing venues. Using the data, they can also identify areas of improvement and opportunities for growth.
Here are more reasons to measure restaurant metrics:
Gain clear insights: Metrics allow you to move beyond assumptions and get a factual overview of your restaurant's performance. The data shows you what's truly happening with sales, costs, and guest behavior.
Identify areas for improvement: Tracking data highlights underperforming areas, including slow-selling or high-cost menu items, inefficient staffing, or high food waste. Data helps you pinpoint issues and address them efficiently.
Increase profitability: Understanding and acting on key metrics leads to better cost management, increased foot traffic and sales, and improved customer retention. All of this contributes to a healthier bottom line.
Make informed decisions: Data-backed insights empower you to make strategic choices about pricing, promotions, inventory, staffing, and overall restaurant operations.
Optimize efficiency: By monitoring metrics like table turnover rate and labor costs, you can identify bottlenecks and streamline processes to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Enhance guest satisfaction: Tracking customer feedback through automated restaurant surveys helps you identify weaknesses and understand what guests value. This allows you to tailor offerings, improve service, and more to enhance the guest experience and increase guest loyalty in your dining concept.
Track progress towards goals: Metrics provide a benchmark to measure your progress against set targets so you can assess the effectiveness of your strategies and make necessary adjustments. This applies to all your strategies, from restaurant marketing strategies to performance strategies to cost optimization strategies, and so on.
General restaurant metrics
Let’s face it. If you think about it, you can get a ton of metrics, making measuring them an even bigger hassle.
That’s why we divided restaurant metrics into 3 main categories, namely general restaurant metrics, productivity metrics, and acquisition metrics.
In this section, we’ll cover the general metrics.
COGS
One of the most important restaurant metrics is the cost of goods sold (COGS), which helps you understand your restaurant’s profitability. It represents the direct expenses tied to the food and beverages you sell.
This includes the cost of ingredients and materials used to prepare your menu items. Tracking COGS is vital for understanding your profitability.
Here’s the formula for calculating COGS
COGS = Beginning Inventory (in a period or day) + Purchases - Ending Inventory (same period)
COGS are often affected by price fluctuations for ingredients, food waste, and inefficient inventory management.
We recommend reviewing your COGS on a quarterly or seasonal basis. This helps factor in changes in the prices of ingredients, especially for seasonal items.
Food cost percentage
The food cost percentage helps you evaluate how profitable your menu items are.
It tells you how much of every dollar earned from food sales goes directly towards the cost of ingredients used. For example, a 30% food cost percentage means that for every $100 earned in food sales, you spent $30 on the raw ingredients.
To calculate your food cost percentage, divide total COGS for a specific period by the total food sales during that same period. Then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.
Food cost percentage = Total COGS (in a period) / Total food sales (in the same period) x 100
EBITDA
EBITDA, which stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, is a key business metric. It looks at your brand’s core operational profitability.
EBITDA shows how much money the restaurant makes from its day-to-day business, selling food and drinks, before calculating financing costs (interest), government levies (taxes), the wearing down of assets (depreciation, like kitchen equipment), and the amortization of intangible assets.
By stripping away these non-operating factors, EBITDA provides a clearer picture of the underlying cash flow generated by the restaurant's operations.
Note: Make sure you don’t confuse EBITDA with gross profit metrics.
Gross profit
This is the amount of money your restaurant has left from its revenue after subtracting the COGS. This remaining money includes what you will use to pay recurring expenses like rent, utilities,…etc. and includes your profits.
Gross Profit = Total Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
For example, if your restaurant had total revenue of AED 100,000 and your COGS was AED 30,000, your gross profit would be AED 70,000.
Remember: Gross profit focuses on the profitability of your products (the food and drinks). While EBITDA focuses on the profitability of your overall operations before considering financing, taxes, and accounting for asset wear.
Gross profit margin
This is the percentage of your revenue that remains after accounting for the COGS. It shows how efficiently your restaurant is using its ingredients and managing its direct production costs relative to its sales.
Gross Profit Margin = (Gross Profit / Total Revenue) x 100%
Using the same example, your gross profit margin would be: (AED 70,000 / AED 100,000) x 100% = 70%.
Net profit margin
Your net profit margin represents the percentage of total revenue that remains as profit after all expenses have been deducted. This includes deducting the items that excludes: interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
The net profit margin is your "bottom line" profitability. It shows much of each revenue dollar ultimately becomes profit for the company after all costs are accounted for.
Here is the formula for calculating your net profit margin:
Net Profit Margin = (Net Profit / Total Revenue) x 100%
Inventory turnover ratio
This restaurant metric refers to how often a restaurant sells and replaces its stock. A high turnover ratio is a positive indicator, meaning you have good menu engineering tactics and you’re controlling waste.
A low turnover ratio can mean overstocking or some dishes aren’t selling as well as you expect. This metric measures this efficiency. Here’s the formula.
Inventory turnover ratio = COGS / Average Inventory Value
For example, if your COGS amount to $20,000 and your average inventory is $5,000. Then your inventory turnover ratio is $20,000/$5,000 = 4 (inventory sold/replaced 4 times that month).
Note that while a high inventory turnover is a good thing, a very high turnover means risking running out of items and losing sales.
Menu item profitability
It’s one thing to review your restaurant’s revenues at the end of each month. But reviewing the profitability of each menu item can enhance your menu engineering efforts to boost your bottom line.
It allows you to pinpoint which dishes staff can recommend to guests and control restaurant costs.
Menu item profitability is a vital restaurant metric that reveals the profit generated by each dish or drink. It's calculated by subtracting the direct costs (primarily food costs, and sometimes labor) from the selling price.
Here is the menu item profitability formula:
Menu Item Profit = Selling Price - Direct Costs
Tracking this metric empowers restaurants to identify their most profitable and least profitable items.
This enables restaurant owners to make strategic menu decisions such as pricing adjustments, changing items, and even removing underperforming dishes.
Employee turnover rate
Your employees play a role in your profitability, guest satisfaction, and overall restaurant performance.
The restaurant industry is one of the highest industries in terms of employee turnover. This includes staff who leave and those who were fired. Research suggests the average cost of replacing a restaurant employee is $5,864.
In addition, 51% of restaurant owners say their biggest challenge is “hiring, training, and retraining staff.”
Various factors affect employee turnover such as better pay, proximity to their home, lack of professional growth opportunities, among others.
In a fast-paced restaurant, employee training can hurt operating efficiency, damage guest relationships and the guest experience.
Important restaurant performance metrics
Break-even point
This critical financial metric indicates the minimum amount of revenue needed to ensure your concept covers its total costs (fixed and variable costs).
In other words, it’s how much you need to sell per day or per month to cover costs. The break-even point doesn’t factor in profits. If you break-even, it means you have covered your costs but haven’t made a profit.
The break-even point is considered a financial and sustainability metric for restaurants.
The formula for the break-even point looks like this:
Break-Even Point (in units) = Total Fixed Costs / (Selling Price per Unit – Variable Cost per Unit)
Here’s an example. If your restaurant or bar has monthly fixed costs of $10,000, the average meal sells for $20, and the average variable cost per meal is $5.
To break even, they need to sell: $10,000 / ($20 - $5) = approximately 667 meals per month.
Table turnover rate
One of the most important customer analytics in your restaurant in your the table turnover rate.
Table turnover measures how many times each table is occupied by different groups of guests during a specific period. A faster turnover generally means serving more customers and generating more revenue.
This metric helps managers, business owners, and investors understand how efficiently the dining concept uses its seating capacity during busy periods.
A higher rate can indicate strong demand and efficient service. However, it's crucial to increase table turnover without making guests feel rushed.
Here’s the formula for the table turnover rate:
Table Turnover Rate = Total Number of Guests Served / (Number of Tables x Time Period in Hours)
Further reading: 10 Money-Making Revenue Management Strategies for Restaurants in 2025
Average covers
This F&B metric indicates the average number of customers served per day, per shift, or per service (breakfast, brunch, lunch,…etc.).
By tracking your average covers, you can identify peak hours and days, traffic patterns, and more. This allows you to improve staff allocation, inventory management, and profitability.
For example, if you know Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays are your busiest days, you can increase staff on those days. Average covers can also help with inventory management on busy days.
Similarly, peak days can include Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and even Halloween. For many restaurants, Monday is the slowest day of the week.
The formula for average covers involves dividing total sales by the total number of guests served.
Average Covers = Total Sales / Total Number of Customers Served
You can also measure average covers per server. Average cover is the same as average revenue per seat.
Further reading: 12+ Tips to Prepare Your Restaurant for Peak Seasons
Average check per table
This restaurant spending metric shows you how much guests in a group are spending in your dining concept. It looks at the check or transaction per group of guests at a table. It can be measured daily, weekly, monthly, on a seasonal, or annual basis.
The formula: Average check per table = total value of checks (including taxes and tips) / number of guests served
It’s important to measure your restaurant’s average check per table along with the average check size.
Average check size
Unlike the average check per table, the average check size looks at the revenue generated per customer. Also known as average ticket size, this restaurant metric can be measured accordingly:
Average Check Size = Total Revenue / Total Number of Guests
Both metrics are valuable for different aspects of restaurant management and analysis. You might see a high average check per table due to larger group sizes, even if the average spend per person isn't high.
Conversely, a restaurant with many solo diners might have a lower average check per table but a decent average check size.
Average customer headcount
This metric looks at how many guests you served during a period of time, often a shift or specific number of hours. It helps you identify busy hours and slow days or periods.
It’s best to track your average customer headcount alongside the average revenue per seat. This helps you forecast revenues and cash flow.
RevPASH
Another important restaurant and profitability metric is RevPASH or revenue per available seat hour.
RevPASH measures the revenue generated for each seat in your restaurant per hour. It’s closely related to table turnover as the higher the turnover, the higher the value generated per seat hour.
However, like table turnover, you want to make sure guests don’t feel rushed or uncomfortable.
To calculate your RevPASH, you’ll need your total revenue or sales during a specific period, seating capacity in your concept, and number of operational or opening hours.
Here’s the RevPASH formula:
RevPASH = Total Revenue / (Number of Seats x Opening Hours)
Ratio of reservations
This metric isn’t common for all venues. However, it’s a core metric for high-end and hotel dining concepts, where reservations make up a large portion of revenues.
Reservation ratio isn’t a single, standalone metric. It’s often divided into 2 categories. That said, it helps you understand the percentage of diners who made a reservation versus those who walked in.
One common way to calculate it is the Reservation Percentage of Total Covers, whose formula looks like this:
Reservation Ratio (%) = (Number of Guests with Reservations / Total Number of Guests Served) x 100
This shows how much your restaurant relies on pre-booked guests.
Another approach is the Reservation Percentage of Available Tables. Here’s the formula:
Reservation Ratio (%) = (Number of Tables Occupied by Reservations / Total Number of Available Tables) x 100%
This indicates how much of your seating capacity is filled by reservations. The ideal ratio for your restaurant will depend on your specific business model and location.
One way restaurants can increase reservations is by sharing accessible, flexible reservation and cancellation policies. If you’re using a restaurant reservation management system, you can use the reservation widget to build your restaurant CRM, boost online bookings, among other perks.
Ratio of cancellations
This restaurant metric looks at the percentage of bookings that cancel their reservation. It’s important to measure the ratio of cancellations within a specific time frame, like a single day or shift, or even week.
A high number of cancellations is worth investigating as it can heavily impact your revenues, walk-in guests, and overall profitability.
If guests don’t cancel but don’t come to your venue, they are considered no-show guests.
Historical sales
Your historical sales show how your concept performs over time. You can track your sales on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis to spot trends and patterns.
This sales metric measures your current performance against past performance to show you if you’re improving or not. It can also help you forecast needs, improve performance and marketing strategies, and uncover ways to optimize costs.
Restaurant acquisition metrics
Lastly, the following restaurant metrics focus on expenses related to customer acquisition.
Customer acquisition cost
This is a common metric in all types of businesses. In the F&B industry, the customer acquisition cost (CAC) measures the total expenses, mainly marketing expenses, incurred to acquire a new customer.
Your CAC is critical to understanding the effectiveness of your restaurant’s marketing campaigns.
To calculate CAC, to divide marketing and sales expenses over a period of time by the number of new customers acquired during that time.
CAC = Total Marketing & Sales Expenses / Number of New Customers
If a restaurant spends $1,000 on marketing each month and acquires 100 new guests, their CAC would be $10/customer.
No-show rate
Your no-show rate indicates the percentage of guests who made a booking but did not show up for it.
It’s important to keep this metric low, otherwise you risk turning away walk-in guests and losing revenues and sales.
The formula for calculating the no-show rate in a restaurant is:
No-Show Rate (%) = (Number of No-Show Reservations / Total Number of Reservations Made) x 100%
Make sure you identify the reasons for guests who cancel or don’t come. Consider collecting reservation deposits to reduce your no-show guests and last-minute cancellations. This ensures you collect a portion of your revenues in advance.
Wrapping it up
Understanding and tracking these top 21 restaurant metrics provides a comprehensive overview of your business's health. From the cost of ingredients to guest satisfaction to revenue-generation and profitability.
Regularly monitoring these figures empowers you to make data-driven decisions, optimize operations, enhance profitability, and ultimately create a more sustainable and successful restaurant business.
However, it's crucial to distinguish between measuring metrics, which involves collecting raw data, and actively reviewing restaurant reports.
Reports may include your daily sales report, POS reports, among other types of reports. Both reports and metrics help you uncover buying behavior, seasonal sales trends, and others.
Nada Sobhi
Operations
