Menu costing for frequently changing menus

Quote food jobs faster without losing margin

MenuM8 helps caterers, cafes, street-food traders and independent restaurants turn ingredient prices, custom portion sizes, recipe variants and total labour time into clear reusable costings.

Respond to enquiries faster

Reuse proven costing templates

Adjust custom portion sizes

Compare recipe variants

Include labour and overheads

Start free trial See how MenuM8 helps

No card needed14-day free trialDemo data included

ThaiSo Catering food pod serving customers at an event — Built from real catering and street-food costing work.

Costing items, margins, overheads and labour in one viewIngredients + labour + margin

MenuM8 costing items table showing quantities, costs, markups, labour and cost summary

No card needed

14-day free trial

Demo data included

Mobile friendly

UK pricing

Before and with MenuM8

The problems that slow down food quotes.

Supplier prices, recipe variants, custom portions, labour time and allergens all need to stay aligned while you are trying to reply quickly.

Quoting problem

Before MenuM8

With MenuM8

Quotes take too long to pull together

Before MenuM8

Before

Rebuild spreadsheet tabs, copy formulas and check linked sheets before you can reply.

With MenuM8

Start from costing templates, then adjust portions, labour and selected menu items quickly.

Supplier prices keep changing

Before MenuM8

Before

Old prices can sit unnoticed inside recipes, variants and copied quote files.

With MenuM8

Update ingredient prices once and use those current numbers across products and costings.

Custom portion sizes change the numbers

Before MenuM8

Before

Every guest count, serving size or event format means another manual recalculation.

With MenuM8

Change quantities and portion assumptions without rebuilding the quote structure.

Recipe variants are hard to compare

Before MenuM8

Before

Copy recipes, swap ingredients and hope the duplicated calculations still line up.

With MenuM8

Compare variants using shared sub-products, reusable components and current input prices.

Allergen information is scattered

Before MenuM8

Before

Allergen notes end up split across recipes, menus, documents and memory.

With MenuM8

Keep allergens connected to inputs, products and menus as part of the costing workflow.

Fast quote workflow

Build the first costing carefully, then reuse the structure for the next enquiry.

Start from a template, adjust portion sizes, swap in recipe variants and track total labour time on the same costing. That makes it easier to factor staffing and overheads into the cost of executing the menu, not just the cost of ingredients.

Menu data, connected

Keep ingredients, recipes and suppliers in one costing workflow.

MenuM8 is built around the practical records food businesses already manage: ingredient inputs, recipe products, supplier details, allergens, units and tags.

Ingredient prices

Recipe components

Supplier records

Inputs

Keep ingredient prices and allergens current

Inputs hold the ingredient prices, units, allergens and tags that feed into every product and costing.

MenuM8 product components table showing recipe inputs, quantities, allergens and notes — Product components, quantities and recipe notes

Products

Build recipes from reusable components

Products can be finished dishes, prep items or sub-recipes, with quantities, notes, allergens and time carried through.

Suppliers

Connect purchase context to your costs

Supplier records sit alongside ingredient prices and purchase history, so cost changes stay traceable.

Experimentation

Test new dishes without losing sight of cost

When ingredients, prep recipes and menu items are connected, you can test variations, swap components and adjust portions while seeing the cost impact before anything reaches the menu.

From quote to job

Build the costing once, then reuse it when the work comes back around.

Costings can carry event metadata, tags, selected items, calculated total labour time and reusable templates, so each quote becomes a working document rather than a one-off spreadsheet.

Fast custom quotes

Build a costing from current prices, portion sizes, total labour time and selected menu items without rebuilding the maths from scratch.

Event details

Add custom fields for things like event date, guest count, venue or service notes.

Reusable templates

Start from a saved event or menu structure, then adjust quantities, portions and variants for the next enquiry.

Total labour time

Track cumulative prep and service time, then use it to factor staffing and overhead assumptions into the cost of executing the menu.

Operational outputs

Turn selected costing items into shopping lists, job sheets and customer-facing menus when the quote becomes a job.

Shopping lists

MenuM8 generated shopping list grouped by supplier for selected costing items

Job sheets

Menu generation

MenuM8 menu generator controls and preview grouped by menu sections

Used in a real catering business

ThaiSo Catering moved from fragile spreadsheets to systematic costings.

MenuM8 grew out of the practical work of quoting events, timing prep, weighing recipes and understanding how yields change after cooking. That discipline helped ThaiSo quote with better cost visibility and more confidence.

Read the ThaiSo story

Spreadsheet links broke

Linked sheets became hard to trust as recipes and ingredient prices changed.

Labour time mattered

Prep and service time had to be tracked so overheads were not ignored.

Yield changed the cost

Raw and cooked weights often differed, especially for meat, sauces and batch prep.

Built for real food businesses with frequently changing menus.

MenuM8 is strongest when your menu has enough ingredients, prep items, suppliers and allergens that a spreadsheet starts to slow you down.

Caterers

Quote events with ingredient costs, prep items and margins visible before you commit.

Street-food traders

Price rotating menus before a market, festival or pop-up service.

Cafes

Track cakes, specials, prep batches, allergens and changing supplier prices.

Independent restaurants

Keep recipes, suppliers, costs and menu prices connected as the menu changes.

Inspired by a real food business

Built from the day-to-day reality of food truck and catering work.

MenuM8 was inspired by the experience of running real food truck and catering operations, where supplier prices move, menus change, allergens matter and costings are often trapped in spreadsheets. The product is designed to feel closer to a kitchen notebook and a margin calculator than a heavy enterprise system.

Read our About page

Ready to cost your first menu?

Start with demo data, then build your first real costing in minutes.

Start free trial View UK pricing