19 Restaurant KPIs to Track: Formulas & Benchmarks
Restaurant KPIs (key performance indicators) are the few numbers that show whether your restaurant is profitable, efficient, and earning repeat business.
If you track only five, make them prime cost, food cost percentage, labor cost percentage, net profit margin, and customer retention rate — and review the first three every week, not at month-end.
Below: 19 KPIs with formulas, examples, benchmarks, and a tracking routine.
What is a restaurant KPI?
A restaurant KPI is a measurable number tied to a business goal — profit, efficiency or guest loyalty — that you review on a fixed schedule and act on when it moves.
Every KPI is a metric, but not every metric is a KPI: covers or website visits are inputs, while prime cost or retention rate show whether the business is on track.
Before giving a number KPI status, ask:
- Does it tie to profit, efficiency, or loyalty?
- Can a manager move it within a month?
- Will you act when it leaves its range?
If not, keep it as a metric.
Restaurant KPI benchmarks at a glance
Compare these ranges with your last four to eight weeks.
KPI | Benchmark or target | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Positive every month | Weekly |
| Via food cost % and prime cost | Weekly |
| 28–35% of food sales | Weekly |
| ≤65% of sales (table service), ≤60% (quick service) | Weekly |
| Around 70% | Monthly |
| 3–5% on average | Monthly |
| Minimum covers target | Quarterly |
| About 30–35% of sales | Weekly |
| Industry average 5.5% a month | Monthly |
| Own baseline, by daypart | Weekly |
| Own baseline, by shift | Daily |
| Own baseline | Daily |
| Own baseline, by channel | Monthly |
| Own baseline, by server | Daily |
| +1 Yelp star ≈ +5–9% revenue (independents) | Monthly |
| Own baseline, by weekday | Weekly |
| Own baseline, month over month | Weekly |
| Rising trend | Monthly |
| Own baseline, before vs after changes | Monthly |
Financial KPIs
Cash flow
Cash flow is money coming in minus money going out in the same period. Even a profitable restaurant runs short when bills fall due before revenue arrives.
Keep it positive every month; if it dips, check timing — one-off payments, seasonal lows, slow card settlements — before cutting costs.
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
Restaurant COGS is the cost of the food and beverage ingredients used to make what you sold.
Judge it through food cost percentage and prime cost.
Food cost percentage
Food cost percentage shows how much of every food sales dollar goes to ingredients.
Most restaurants land between 28% and 35%, according to Johnson & Wales University. Above that, check in this order: supplier prices, portions, waste and comps, inventory counts, menu mix, menu prices. To find the dish behind the change, calculate food cost per dish.
Prime cost
Prime cost is COGS plus total labor cost — your two biggest controllable expenses in one number.
RestaurantOwner puts the ceiling at 65% of sales for table-service restaurants and 60% for quick service, with profits typically suffering as prime cost approaches 70%. At 68%, the example is over the line. Review it weekly: the same source notes restaurants commonly cut prime cost by 2–5% of sales after switching from monthly to weekly tracking. See the full prime cost formula guide.
Gross profit margin
Gross profit margin shows the share of revenue left after COGS to cover labor, rent, and overhead.
Johnson & Wales University (linked above) puts a typical margin around 70%, so 62% signals high ingredient costs.
Net profit margin
Net profit margin is what's left of every sales dollar after all costs, including rent, interest, and taxes.
The average small restaurant runs on a 3–5% margin, according to the National Restaurant Association. Compare restaurant margins by concept before judging yours.
Break-even point
Break-even point is the sales volume at which revenue covers all fixed and variable costs.
Recalculate it whenever rent, wages, or prices change.
Labor KPIs
Labor cost percentage
Labor cost percentage shows how much of your sales goes to wages, payroll taxes, and benefits.
RestaurantOwner.com (linked above) cites an industry average of roughly 30–35% of sales. A high number points to overstaffing or overtime; a very low one, to slipping service. Compare labor cost benchmarks by service style before setting a target.
Employee turnover rate
Employee turnover rate shows the share of your team that leaves in a period — each departure costs recruiting and training.
Separations in accommodation and food services averaged 5.5% of employment per month in 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the example restaurant loses staff almost twice as fast.
Dining room and kitchen KPIs
RevPASH (revenue per available seat hour)
RevPASH shows how much revenue each seat earns per hour you're open. The Cornell Center for Hospitality Research notes it captures more of a restaurant's real performance than average check or cost percentages alone.
Calculate it by daypart: a weak 3 p.m. calls for a promotion, a strong 8 p.m. for pricing or table-mix changes.
Table turnover rate
Table turnover rate shows how many times each table is seated during a shift or a day.
Faster turns only pay off if average check and ratings hold. See how to improve your restaurant table turnover rate.
Order accuracy rate
Order accuracy rate shows the share of orders that reach the guest exactly as ordered. Every error means a remake or a comp — and a delivery order can't be fixed tableside.
Log errors by source: server, kitchen, or packing. A kitchen display system removes handwritten tickets and re-keying by sending every order, including online ones, straight to the right station.
Guest KPIs
Customer retention rate
Customer retention rate shows the share of guests who visit or order again within a period.
UpMenu's study of 1,709 restaurants found that regulars with 10 or more orders spend about €420 a year, compared with around €31 for one-time customers — yet regulars made up only 7% of the customer base. A restaurant CRM shows who hasn't come back, so you can win them back.
Average check and spend per head (PPA)
Average check shows what a typical order is worth; spend per head — also called per person average (PPA) — shows what each guest spends.
Break PPA down by server and daypart to see who upsells well. Here are practical ways to raise your average check.
Average online rating
Average online rating is your mean star score across review sites, often the first number guests see.
Harvard Business School research by Michael Luca found one extra Yelp star led to 5–9% more revenue for independent restaurants. A Net Promoter Score survey captures guests who never post reviews.
No-show and cancellation rate
No-show and cancellation rate shows the share of reservations that never become seated guests.
Track it by weekday and party size. Deposits and automated reminders are the most direct fixes.
Online ordering KPIs
Online sales share
Online sales share shows how much revenue comes from online orders — website, app, and marketplaces combined.
A growing share means staffing, prep, and packaging must keep pace with off-premise demand.
Direct order share
Direct order share shows what share of online orders come through your own website and app instead of commission-charging marketplaces.
Michelangelo 301 took $863,166 in direct online orders in one year, saving an estimated $129,474 in commissions at an average 15% marketplace fee; 51% of those orders came through its branded app.
App customers also order more often: UpMenu's app study of 1,337 restaurants found they ordered 87% more often after a year.
Every order through a marketplace is an order you don't own. You don't know who the customer is, and you can't bring them back.
Online conversion rate
Online conversion rate shows the share of ordering page visitors who place an order.
How often to track restaurant KPIs
Most KPIs don't need daily attention:
- Daily: sales, covers, average check and PPA, table turnover rate, order accuracy rate
- Weekly: prime cost, COGS, food cost percentage, labor cost percentage, cash flow, RevPASH, no-show rate, online sales share
- Monthly: gross and net profit margin, employee turnover, customer retention, average online rating, direct order share, online conversion rate
- Quarterly: break-even point and the KPI targets themselves
RestaurantOwner describes a routine: close the week on Sunday, count inventory Monday morning, and review the prime cost report at a Monday afternoon managers' meeting. Restaurant analytics with sales, orders, and customer data in one dashboard make it a quick check.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start with five to seven — usually prime cost and its two parts: net profit margin and customer retention. A KPI nobody reviews is just a metric.
Cash flow and break-even point: you need to know how many covers keep the doors open and whether cash covers the next payroll. Add weekly prime cost from day one.
Table turnover, PPA by server, no-show rate, average online rating and front-of-house labor cost — numbers a FOH manager can influence within one shift.
Food cost percentage, order accuracy and kitchen labor hours, plus ticket times and food waste — waste logs often explain sudden food cost jumps.
About the author
CEO & Founder
Founder & CEO of UpMenu. Leads product development. Writes about restaurant technology, POS systems, and the economics of running a modern restaurant. Software engineer turned founder — building UpMenu since 2012, today used by thousands of restaurants in 47+ countries.