What is your formula when it comes to how much to charge for a restaurant dish?

On a good day it should be broken down into 1/3's.

1/3 of the cost should be food.

2/3 should be your wages and running costs.

The remaining 1/3 should be your profit.

Create a spreadsheet with all of your "overhead" costs for the month:

-Rent/lease

-Food/Beverage

-Utilities

-Wages/Labor rates (of everyone- herself included!)

-Insurance/Fed. & State/Taxes/SS

-Business expenses

-Miscellaneous

Once you get the total for the month, then you break it down by weeks in the month, then the amount per day. The bottomline is: How much does she need to earn each day/week/month/year to cover these basic expenses? Then, you take your menu and start adding in dollar amounts. Make a few worksheets so you can make changes. Overall, I think her best bet is to get involved with a basic Accounting Class or with an Accountant. It will be well worth the money spent. That being said, restaurants are the number one business failures in the country. If they make it one year, it's usually a miracle. By no means does that mean your mom doesn't have what it takes, it just reflects the business climate/stats that she is up against. So, that being said her financial skill set must be that much more in tune. Sadly, alot of great restaurants start up with great food and love and end up in heart break and great financial loss. So, make sure she gets a good foundation before she gets started. Also, have her sit through a few episodes of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay...wow, that's an education in itself of what not to do. Good luck.

I always did double the cost and take off 1/3, then adjust there for market value and competitors, whether is was a loss leader or main item, etc. The appetizers and booze are the big profit margins, lesser on the main meals.

Cost of ingredients + 33% is the standard formula. If you are working efficiently, 33% will cover all overhead. This applies to almost all manufacturing and food service businesses.

You want to do a search online for "food cost analysis". There's a lot of info out there. She needs to figure in what she paid for ingredients, her time, the expenses required, i.e. electricity, labor, etc. There's a lot involved. Here's one site to get you started:

http://www.foodreference.com/html/artfoodcost.html