Standardize serving sizes for cost consistency
Set standard portion sizes for every dish and calculate the cost impact when portions drift up or down by even a few grams.
Two cooks on the same line will plate the same dish differently — by 10-30 grams, every time. Across a month, that drift adds up to lakhs in inconsistent food cost and customer experience. The cook who plates generously is liked by guests but kills your margin. The cook who skimps is cheap but generates complaints. Without standard portions, both your cost and your customer experience are uncontrolled variables.
Portion control is the boring discipline that separates restaurants that scale from restaurants that struggle. Chains succeed because every portion is identical — across cooks, shifts, and outlets. Independents lose 4-8% of margin to portion drift without realizing it. Fixing this does not cost money. It costs a portion scale, a printed standard, and ten minutes of staff training.
Standard portion entry for every dish
Cost impact calculator (what does +10g cost per month?)
Tolerance band — acceptable variation per portion
Portion audit log — measure actual vs standard
Per-cook variance tracking (anonymous)
Plate cost projector — what would standard portions save?
Visual portion guide cards for the kitchen
Recommended scoop/ladle sizes for common dishes
Enter the dish and define its standard portion in grams
Set the cost per gram for the main ingredient
Spot-check actual plated portions against the standard
FixMenu shows the monthly cost impact of drift
Adjust portions or retrain — whichever the data points to
Re-audit monthly to keep the discipline alive
For mains, ±5% of standard weight is acceptable. ±10% means the kitchen needs portion guides or retraining. ±20% means there is no standard at all — every cook is doing their own thing.
Standardizing portions before opening a second outlet
Training a new line cook in their first week
Investigating why food cost spiked last month
Resolving a customer complaint about inconsistency
Building a kitchen operations manual
Run Portion Control on your real menu data. Upgrade to Pro for advanced features.