# Menu Questions Calculator See what guests' nutrition and allergen questions cost a restaurant in server time each month, and what a nutrition menu frees up. **URL:** https://bettermenu.live/tools/menu-questions-calculator/ **Provider:** BetterMenu (https://bettermenu.live) **For:** Restaurant owners and operators **Price:** Free, no account required. **Last changed:** 2026-10-18 ## What it answers How much server time a restaurant spends answering guests' menu questions (what is in a dish, how many calories, does it have nuts) each month, and how much of that time a nutrition menu guests can check before they order would free up. With the defaults, one location spends about 30 server hours, $510 a month, and a nutrition menu answering half the questions frees up $255 a month. ## Inputs and defaults Guests, share who ask and minutes are per location. Every input is editable; the defaults are starting guesses, not claims about a restaurant. | Input | Default | Basis | | --- | --- | --- | | Guests a day | 200 | Your number | | Share of guests who ask | 15% | Your estimate. No public study measures it. | | Minutes per question | 2 | Your estimate, including a trip to the kitchen | | Locations | 1 | Your number | | Hourly rate | $17 | US median for waiters and waitresses, $16.94 an hour, May 2025, tips included (Bureau of Labor Statistics) | | Days open a month | 30 | Your number | | Front-of-house staff, each location | 12 | Your number | | New hires a year per 100 staff | 66 | Bureau of Labor Statistics hires rate for accommodation and food services, 5.5% a month in 2025, times 12 | | Menu training hours per new hire | 3 | Your estimate | | Share a nutrition menu answers | 50% (25%, 50% or 75%) | Your choice | | Turn guests away at busy times | No | Your answer; turns on the busy-time bound | | Share of questions at busy times | 40% | Your estimate | | Server minutes per extra guest | 6 | Your estimate | | Average check per guest | $20 | Your number | ## How it is worked out Working figures are kept to the cent at every step: each step multiplies the figures as printed and rounds once, half up, so every line of the math is true as printed. The headline figures are rounded to the dollar and the hour. ``` questions a day = guests x share who ask server hours a month = questions a day x minutes per question x days open / 60 server time a month = server hours a month x hourly rate (then x locations) frees up = server time a month x share a nutrition menu answers new hires a year = staff x hires per 100 / 100 training hours = new hires a year x training hours x locations (not in the total) busy times, only when turned on (an upper bound, before costs): minutes freed a day = questions a day x share at busy times x minutes per question x share answered more guests a day = minutes freed a day / minutes per extra guest extra sales a month = minutes freed a day x average check x days open x locations / minutes per extra guest ``` ## Worked example: the defaults, busy times on | Step | Math | | --- | --- | | Questions a day | 200 × 15% = 30 | | Server hours a month | 30 × 2 min × 30 days ÷ 60 = 30 hours | | Server time a month | 30 × $17 = $510 | | Time a nutrition menu frees up | 30 hours × 50% = 15 hours | | Worth | $510 × 50% = $255 | | New hires a year | 12 × 66 ÷ 100 = 7.92 | | Training hours a year | 7.92 × 3 = 23.76 | | At $17 an hour | 23.76 × $17 = $403.92 | | Minutes freed a day | 30 × 40% × 2 min × 50% = 12 | | More guests a day | 12 ÷ 6 min = 2 | | Extra sales a month (not profit) | 12 × $20 × 30 days ÷ 6 min = up to $1,200 | Extra sales are an upper bound ($1,200 a month here): they assume the freed minutes go to seating guests the restaurant would otherwise turn away. The calculator does not count allergen mistakes. ## Prefilled links `https://bettermenu.live/tools/menu-questions-calculator/?locations=8&guests=350&staff=30` opens the calculator with 8 locations, 350 guests a day and 30 staff at each. Other parameters are ignored. ## Questions and answers ### About this calculator **Will a nutrition menu stop the questions?** No. Some guests will always ask, and some questions need a person. A menu guests can check before they order answers part of them. You pick how much: 25%, 50% or 75%. **Is this money I actually save?** Not as cash unless you schedule fewer server hours. It is time your servers spend answering instead of serving. The $17 is about the US median for servers with tips included, so if you pay a lower cash wage, enter it under More settings. If you turn guests away at busy times, say so there and the tool adds an upper bound for extra sales. **Where do these numbers come from?** - Hourly rate: [Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey, May 2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes353031.htm), waiters and waitresses, median $16.94 an hour, tips included ([technical notes](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm)). - New hires: [Bureau of Labor Statistics job openings and turnover survey, Table 18](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t18.htm), accommodation and food services, 5.5% a month in 2025. - Share who ask, minutes per question, training hours and the busy-time inputs are your estimates. No public study measures them. ### Nutrition and allergens on restaurant menus **Do restaurants have to provide nutrition information?** In the US, only chains with 20 or more locations under the same name, selling substantially the same menu items, have to. They post calories for each standard menu item and keep written nutrition information on the premises for guests who ask ([FDA menu labeling rule](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-A/section-101.11)). **Do small restaurants have to provide nutritional information?** Not under the federal menu rule. A restaurant with fewer than 20 locations can register with FDA to follow it voluntarily. One exception applies to every restaurant: if the menu makes a nutrient claim such as "low fat", the restaurant must give nutrition information for that item on request ([FDA's rule on nutrient claims](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-A/section-101.10)). **Do restaurants have to list allergens?** The federal menu rule covers calories and nutrients, not allergens. California is different: since July 1, 2026, [SB 68](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB68) requires California chains with 20 or more locations to list the major allergens for each menu item, on the menu or through a QR code. In a [CDC study of 278 restaurants](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6615a2.htm), a third of servers interviewed had food allergy training. This calculator does not count allergen mistakes. **How do restaurants calculate calories?** Most work from the recipe. FDA accepts nutrient databases, cookbooks, lab analyses or other reasonable means, as long as the restaurant has a reasonable basis and keeps making the item the way it was analyzed ([FDA menu labeling rule](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-A/section-101.11)). BetterMenu works from your recipes and USDA data. **How accurate are restaurant calorie counts?** They must be accurate and consistent with the method used to work them out. The rule sets no percentage margin. Instead the restaurant has to prepare and portion each item the way it was analyzed, and show FDA its method and data on request ([FDA menu labeling rule](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-A/section-101.11)). **Do guests use nutrition information when eating out?** More than half of Americans (57%) use nutrition information when eating out at least some of the time, and 20% use it regularly, in [IFIC's 2025 Food and Health Survey](https://ific.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-IFIC-Food-Health-Survey-Full-Report.pdf) of 3,000 US adults.