Why restaurants lose money without realizing it

A restaurant rarely fails because of one big mistake. It fails because of a hundred small ones that nobody measures.

Start with portioning. A dish costed at 28% food cost can drift to 34% within a month if the line plates by feel instead of by weight. Nobody notices, because the P&L only shows the total.

Then look at prep. Over-prep is a decision to throw away money at the end of the night. Under-prep is a decision to lose sales at peak. Both are invisible unless you track them daily.

Scheduling is the third leak. Labor is not expensive — labor in the wrong hour is expensive. Compare hourly sales to hourly labor for two weeks and the pattern becomes obvious.

The fix is not a new system. It is a short list of numbers, reviewed at the same time every week, by the same person, with the authority to change something.