What do menu questions cost your restaurant?

How much server time goes to answering “is there nut in this?” Most restaurants have never put a number on it. The Menu Questions Calculator does. Enter guests a day, the share who ask, minutes per question, and locations. It returns the hours and the dollars those questions take each month.

With the starting values, 200 guests a day, 15% asking, 2 minutes each, and one location, that is 30 server hours and $510 a month. The hourly rate starts at $17, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 median for servers of $16.94 with tips included. Change it to your own rate if it differs. The share who ask is your own estimate, and the page says so, because no public study measures it.

Choose how many of those questions a menu that answers them could take off your staff, 25%, 50%, or 75%, to see the time it frees up. More settings adds training time for new hires and an upper bound on extra sales at busy times. Every figure has a card that shows how it was worked out.