# costing saladbar/buffet



## shadowchef (Jan 5, 2007)

i am in the process of breaking down and costing my entire menu and i needed to know how one would go about breaking down the costing of a buffet. i have a basic lunch buffet of about 7 items and salad bar for both lunch and dinner. is there a method of costing out on paper with the rest of my menu the cost of this or is this one of those things that i just have to bite the bullet and do like an average guesstament for the day/week?

-Aaron.


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## kaylinda (Jul 30, 2004)

96 views and no answers, so I will jump in here. I speak from the experience of adding a buffet to our restaurant two years after opening. We have now been in business 6 1/2. 

1. People can only eat so much. (However, they can waste food.) But, that aside....if you are serving fair portions now that fill them up...they won't eat that much more than your menu. However!

2. Expect waste to go up...for not only what they waste...but what you will because of throwing away dried up food.

3. Prior to our buffet we ran 41.5%. We now run with the buffet 42.8%. This will vary greatly on how your restaurant is run. Number one...we are very small town....no food vendors to choose from....no playing around with vendors to get the best prices. One vendor only in this area. Two....my husband and I are the owners, cooks and dishwashers...therefore there is great control in our kitchen as far as waste goes.

4. I have found that months that we have more "parties"....our food cost is lower than months without. This is because there always has to be good food on the buffet. You are either selling it or throwing it away.

5. The other large buffet cost though is something people don't think about. It truly takes a person to keep your buffet looking great all night. Keep it wiped up....keep the pans changed etc. So...it's not only food cost...but payroll cost that goes up unless you have enough help already that they can jump in and get it done.

Hope this helps!


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## eds77k5 (Jun 13, 2002)

you need to break it down, same as a regular menu, how much does it cost to put out all the product on the buffet/salad bar,figure how much you make in dollars off of this product, if you do it daily or weekly or monthly figure out what it cost you to do it and divide by the amount you make from it, that will give you a general cost, at least you wont be guessing at it, hope that makes sense:chef:


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## steve a (Mar 13, 2006)

You have three options from which to choose:

Cost averaging - total cost of items offered on buffet divided by quantity of items.

High cost - cost based on the highest cost to you item.

Individually broken down (recipe-style). Tedious at best, but the most accurate.

Kay is correct in her observation of how much people will eat as opposed to how much they'll take. A _ballpark figure_ is 2.5 trips per person for an AYCE entree and sides buffet and 1.75-2.25 trips per person for salad only station.

Ciao,

Ciao,


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## shadowchef (Jan 5, 2007)

thanks to you all. this does help.

"A _ballpark figure_ is 2.5 trips per person for an AYCE entree and sides buffet and 1.75-2.25 trips per person for salad only station."

this helps as well. i think thats what i was looking for. started breaking it down already so this is good to know. thanks again

-Aaron.


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