Should You get the Guacamole on Your Burrito? A Price Analysis of Favorite Restaurant Foods

The restaurant business is notoriously tough, and owners have a myriad of costs ranging from health permits to commercial rent. On average, 30 percent of a restaurants revenues go to labor costs, 30 percent goes to general overhead, and 30–33 percent is spent on ingredients. Making a decent profit in the restaurant industry is a high hurdle. When consumers eat out they pay for a lot more than just the food; it’s the excellent waitstaff, unique ambiance, convenient location, in addition to the delicious dish that makes for a memorable experience. In order to cover all of these costs and still make a slim profit (generally three-to-five percent), restaurants need to mark up ingredients on average 300 percent.

But some items offer dramatically different margins than others.

Plate IQ processes invoices for thousands of restaurants, and has unique access to the actual costs of the raw ingredients that go into our favorite foods. We decided to use our data to look at five common food…