Managing food portions in your restaurant: 5 foolproof methods

Restaurant owners, food portion management is an art that can make all the difference between a restaurant's success or failure! Serving too large a portion can lead to reduced margins and food waste, while serving too small a portion can leave customers hungry and damage your restaurant's reputation. To avoid these pitfalls, it is crucial to master the right methods to manage the portions of the dishes on your restaurant's menu.

Right away, we'll walk you through the most effective ways to determine ideal portion sizes, control costs and meet your customers' expectations. With these 5 tips, optimize your restaurant's profitability without sacrificing the quality of your food!

1. How to make your menu and dishes in the right quantities?

It is important to regularly evaluate the quantity and cost of each dish to ensure that the selling price is appropriate. 

Determine the amount of food per person

How much meat should you put in a burger? 150g? 200g? And how many fries should I put on the side? The standard portion should be determined according to several factors:

• the concept of your restaurant, 
• the type of dish,
• the cost of the ingredients 
• and presentation.

The final objective is to satisfy your customers, while avoiding losses and food waste. Thus, you will be able to determine the quantity of food in each plate in a fair way, while maintaining an optimal profitability and answering your customers' expectations.

To determine the standard portions for each dish on your menu, also take into account the eating habits of your clientele when choosing portions. Is your clientele mainly made up of active, healthy women? Or are they all high school and college students? Make sure you adjust the quantities accordingly. The ultimate goal is to find the right balance between quantity, taste and cost.

Calculate the cost per serving

You need to calculate the cost per serving of each dish. In order to establish the selling prices of your dishes in a restaurant, it is necessary to know the production costs of each dish, including the cost per portion of each dish. The cost per serving is the sum of the ingredient costs for a single serving of a dish. 

To calculate the cost per serving, you need to add up the cost of the raw materials in your dish, so you know how much the dish costs. This will help you determine the final price.

For example: determine the cost per portion of a kebab: 150g of meat = €2.10, 1 patty = €0.25, 1 tablespoon of sauce = €0.15, 2 slices of tomato = €0.40, 1 leaf of salad = €0.10, onions = €0.10. In this example, the cost per portion of the kebab is €3.10.

It is important to regularly re-evaluate the quantity and cost of each serving to ensure that the selling price is appropriate.

Calculate the ideal margin

Once you have established the overall cost of preparation, you should calculate the margin. This calculation allows restaurateurs to maximize profits by setting menu prices that cover general expenses (rent, staff costs, equipment, gas, electricity, etc.). If you do not have a pricing history or are starting your restaurant, it is advisable to set prices based on the industry average, which is usually between 25% and 35%, and then compare your current food cost margin to your ideal target once you have sufficient sales data, such as after your first month of operation. 

Selling price = (cost per serving + cost of payroll + fixed costs) + margin

Note: Prices may need to be revised if the cost per serving increases or if expenses increase. For example, it is legitimate to re-price or re-adjust portions when raw material costs rise sharply, as they do during periods of inflation.

👉 To go further: How to set menu prices for your restaurant?

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2. Choose your suppliers carefully

Working with the right suppliers on a daily basis is critical to ensuring the quality of the food served in your restaurant and maintaining profitability.

To do this, start by contacting several available suppliers in your area. Find out about their reputation, the origin of their products, their professionalism, their certifications, etc. Compare several suppliers and don't hesitate to use the competition!

Compare the prices they offer for the same products. Make a comparative list. Don't overlook their availability and reliability: you need to have a relationship of trust with them. Make sure your suppliers are able to provide you with sufficient quantities of products in a timely manner. Product availability is essential to maintain good portion control and avoid stock-outs.

This will allow you to choose the most suitable suppliers for your needs to easily control portions and offer consistent quality dishes to your customers.

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3. Choose appropriate utensils and containers

To avoid dosage errors in the kitchen, it is recommended touse measuring containers and tools such as scales, measuring spoons, measuring cups, etc. 

Weighing food is an accurate method of determining serving sizes. Simply weigh all the ingredients that make up a portion of the dish and divide the total by the number of servings provided. Similarly, measuring tools such as tablespoons, measuring cups and measuring cups can be used to determine the precise amounts of ingredients needed for a serving.

Pans can be used to measure the size of certain portions, such as muffins, pancakes or patties. By using a standard size pan, you can determine the exact size of each serving.

Your food should be served in proper containers to control each portion. This is especially true for restaurants offering take-out and delivery. For on-site dining, consider the presentation of each dish. If you use a large plate to present a dish, you will inevitably have to increase the amount of food to fill the space. Conversely, a small plate will require less food. These examples show that presentation plays a key role in portion control.

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4. Set up recipe cards

It is important to create data sheets for each menu item, indicating the exact quantities of each ingredient used to prepare it. Data sheets are documents that describe the ingredients, method and steps involved in preparing a dish. This sheet can also indicate the costs of each ingredient to better control costs and margins. 

Using these sheets, you can determine the amount of each ingredient needed for a specific serving size, which will allow you to calculate the serving size.

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5. Train staff in good practices

And yes, the best way to learn is often to do! Schedule kitchen training sessions to teach your teams preparation techniques and show them how to present dishes in the right quantities.

It is important to train your kitchen staff to follow the technical sheets and use the correct amount of ingredients when preparing the dishes. Indeed, if your cook puts 170 g of meat in each kebab, while you had planned 150 g per portion in the calculation of the selling price, you will lose money... Encourage your employees to work together and to take responsibility for achieving your restaurant's objectives. 

Our final tip? Give your employees the opportunity to suggest ideas and improvements for the development of dishes. Creativity and team spirit can boost your restaurant and stimulate innovation!

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Case study: how Anthony, an Ankka franchisee, arrived at the perfect portion thanks to Innovorder?

Like all restaurant owners, Anthony, manager of a salad bar, is extremely concerned about preserving his margin.

One day, he realized that his employees were putting unnecessary pressure on themselves by disproportionately filling customers' plates in front of them. Not only did this create a lot of waste, but it was also an avoidable loss of profitability for his store.

Faced with this situation, he decided to delegate the order taking to his customers:

• By installing ordering kiosks, its customers compose their own salads and free up the time of the assemblers, who can concentrate solely on preparation in the kitchen. 
• In the kitchen, he has installed production screens, synchronized with his terminals, to facilitate the preparation of salads.

Now, food preparers no longer feel pressure from customers and can adhere strictly to the standard portions. After a few days, he saw a drastic reduction in waste in his restaurant, a sharp increase in profitability, and a gain in productivity due to the reorganization of his business.

👉 Going further: why did Anthony hire his own delivery person?