Open Pantry Blog

An AI restaurant manager is back-of-house software that reads your supplier orders, invoices, stock counts and POS sales, shows where money leaked and drafts the fix for a person to approve. Here's what it does in a normal week, the data it needs, and what it should never do on its own.

To reduce food waste in restaurants, log every discard with a dollar value and a reason, order perishables to a forecast rather than a fixed par, and prep to the covers you expect. Waste then becomes a weekly dollar line you can sort, fix item by item and watch fall.

Actual food cost runs higher than your recipes because recipes count only what should have been used, while actual cost counts everything that left the shelves: unrecorded price rises, waste, heavy portions, poor yields, count errors, transfers and comps. Calculate both over the same dates, then check item by item.

Restaurants stop losing money on short deliveries by checking each delivery against the order at the door, matching the invoice to what actually arrived before paying, and sending a supplier credit request the same day with evidence. Then track every request until the credit note appears on the statement.

Catch supplier price increases by comparing the price per unit on every invoice line with the price you last paid, converting pack sizes so you compare like with like, and costing the weekly impact on each dish. Then decide whether to reprice, swap, re-spec or negotiate, and update the recipe card.

Order what you expect to use before the next delivery, plus a small buffer, minus what is on hand and already on order, rounded up to the pack size. Par levels suit steady staples; forecast ordering suits perishables, functions and seasonal swings. Here is the formula, a worked example and how to split your list.

Bookings and functions should reshape orders and prep before the week starts. Take sales history for a normal day, scale it to booked covers plus your usual walk-in rate, then plan each confirmed function from its menu and guest numbers, on its own order and prep timeline back from service.

A faster restaurant stocktake comes from better count sheets, not faster counters: list lines in shelf order, count mixed units on one line, count high-value lines weekly and everything monthly. Blind counts and recounting only the outliers keep the number accurate while cutting the time it takes.

In a bar stocktake, count each product on one line in whatever units you see: cartons, inners, single bottles and open bottles in tenths. Store the conversions on the product, compare what you used with what the till sold, and you get pour cost per drink and a list of drinks earning below target.

A restaurant GP drop almost always comes from supplier price rises, a shift in sales mix, waste, poor yield or a count error. Split the drop into dollars for each cause until they add up to the total, then fix the biggest one you can act on this week. Here's how, with a worked example.

Most restaurant inventory software can work with your POS, because every POS records what was sold item by item. Sales arrive through a direct integration or a daily sales report, and the real work is matching each POS item and modifier to a recipe so sales turn into ingredient usage.

No, your suppliers do not need to join the same platform for you to order online. A good restaurant ordering platform emails a clear purchase order to any supplier, reads invoices you forward or photograph, and adds live prices and catalogues only where a supplier happens to be connected.

Stop over-ordering by deciding who can order what, setting a dollar limit above which an order needs a manager's approval, and giving each venue a weekly budget tied to forecast sales. Let routine orders go straight through and flag only the unusual ones, so approvals never hold up service.

AI ordering is safe for a restaurant when the AI drafts the order and a person approves it before anything reaches a supplier. Look for a reason and a confidence level on every line, spend limits, role permissions and a log you can undo, and run it beside your own ordering first.

Compare each venue against its own target and menu, not against the other venues' raw food cost %. Use a short weekly list (food cost vs target, GP dollars, variance, waste and labour %) on the same cut-off, then compare the same dish's plate cost across venues to find where money leaks.

A restaurant stops typing supplier invoices by capturing them: forward the email or photograph the docket, let software read every line, and check only what doesn't match the order and delivery. Approved bills then go to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks as drafts, so nobody keys the same invoice twice.

Plan an afternoon for the basics of restaurant inventory software setup, about a week plus a stocktake before food-cost numbers mean anything, and a few more weeks to add recipes, top sellers first. Setups that drag on for months usually stall on typing products, pack sizes and recipes by hand.

Write a prep list from forecast sales: estimate portions per dish, break them into components, subtract what is already prepped and still good, round up to batch sizes, then split the list by station and time. Functions get their own timeline worked back from service, so they never crowd out daily prep.

A restaurant manager should check five numbers every morning: yesterday's sales against a normal day, deliveries and credits outstanding, price rises on yesterday's invoices, waste and low stock, and orders waiting for approval, plus any GP warnings. Food cost %, labour % and GP per dish belong in the weekly review.

For most single venues, restaurant management software cost is easy to justify if it moves food cost by a fraction of a point. On $900,000 of food sales, one point is $9,000 a year, so a $2,400 subscription pays for itself at roughly 0.3 points. Here's the maths and when it isn't worth it.

The best restaurant food costing software in Australia prices recipes from what your suppliers actually charge, re-costs every dish when a price moves, and handles sub-recipes, yields and sales. The 2026 shortlist is Restoke, Loaded, MarketMan, Apicbase and Open Pantry, from a one-off $99 to $250 a month, plus free calculators.

To calculate food cost percentage, divide a dish's ingredient cost by its menu price ex GST and multiply by 100. In Australia, divide the menu price by 1.1 first: a $6.60 plate on a $29 menu price is 25.0%, not 22.8% (illustrative). Most Australian venues aim for 28–32% across the menu.

Menu costs update automatically when three things are joined up: a live supplier price list, recipes built from those products rather than typed-in figures, and a menu that reads its cost from the recipes. Change a price at the source and every dish using that ingredient recosts, with the dishes past their target listed for repricing.

M&J Chickens has partnered with Open Pantry to launch an online ordering system and mobile app for its foodservice customers. Venues can browse the M&J range, see pricing before ordering, reorder favourites in seconds and set recurring orders, while keeping the same products, delivery schedule and payment terms.

Melbourne's leading wholesale food and beverage suppliers include Bidfood Australia, PFD Food Services, Melbourne Food Distributors, Australian Fine Foods, The Food Company, M&J Chickens, Del Re National Food Group, Toscano's Wholesale, Biviano Direct and Procal Dairies, each covering different categories from fresh produce and poultry to dairy, deli goods and gourmet imports.

Smart menu pricing starts with knowing your food cost percentage, usually targeted between 25 and 35 per cent, then checking gross profit margin, accounting for hidden costs such as labour, utilities and waste, balancing price against customer perception, and engineering the menu around the dishes that are both popular and profitable.

To order from M&J Chickens online, sign in at mandjchickens.theopenpantry.com with the credentials emailed by Open Pantry, browse or search the M&J catalogue, add items and quantities, save regulars as favourites, then review the cart, choose a delivery day and submit. Delivery and payment terms stay as they are.

Restaurants grow profit in 2025 by combining twelve levers: paid search and social advertising, local SEO, website SEO, social content, influencer partnerships, menu engineering, upselling, faster table turnover, off-premise sales, technology and AI, customer psychology, and a customer database with loyalty marketing.

Setting up a production kitchen runs from defining the production scope and securing licences to choosing a site, designing a one-directional layout, buying commercial-grade equipment, building storage and food safety procedures, hiring and training staff, setting up inventory and procurement, managing waste, pilot testing and planning for scale.

Five commercial kitchen layouts suit different operations: zone-based for high-volume kitchens with diverse menus, assembly line for streamlined high-output menus, open kitchen for chef-driven venues, galley for compact spaces and food trucks, and island for kitchens that depend on teamwork and supervision.

The most common menu costing mistakes are missing minor ingredients, inconsistent portions, ignoring waste and spoilage, letting ingredient costs go stale, leaving out labour and overheads, pricing on food cost alone, and skipping menu engineering. Each has a practical fix restaurants can apply.

Open Pantry has integrated with Triniteq, connecting Open Pantry's recipe costing, real-time stock monitoring and cost reporting with Triniteq's PowerEPOS point-of-sale system, so restaurants can price menu items accurately, avoid running out mid-service and cut manual data entry between the two systems.

Kitchen efficiency comes from seven areas: a layout that limits unnecessary movement, quality equipment, documented standard operating procedures, tight inventory management, clear communication between front and back of house, performance monitoring, and technology such as kitchen display systems and digital recipe management.

Restaurants can turn quiet hours into revenue with eight tactics: off-peak promotions, special events, online ordering and delivery pushes, loyalty rewards tied to slow periods, opening the room to remote workers, local business partnerships, targeted marketing, and menu items available only off-peak.

Six health trends are reshaping restaurant menus: plant-based eating, gluten-free and allergen-friendly dishes, low-FODMAP options, functional foods such as probiotics and turmeric, sustainable and ethically sourced ingredients, and personalised nutrition that tailors meals to individual dietary needs.

A recipe cost calculator works out what a dish actually costs by adding every ingredient at its purchase price, a standardised portion size, an allocated share of overhead and labour, then applying your target profit margin to suggest a selling price that protects the dish's contribution.

Costing a menu takes eleven steps: list every ingredient, standardise portions, allocate overheads, account for labour, set a profit margin, calculate the selling price, check it against competitors, monitor costs, adjust for seasonal produce, minimise waste, and use software to keep the figures current.

A prep sheet is a document listing every task, ingredient and quantity a kitchen must ready before service. It sets priorities, assigns responsibility, keeps preparation methods consistent between staff, reduces food waste and helps dishes reach the pass on time during busy periods.

Five statistics are shaping the Australian food industry: beef prices tracked low on the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator, plant-based demand heading toward AUD 3 billion by 2030, wine and dairy exports of AUD 2.8 and 3.4 billion, AUD 60 billion in agricultural production, and AUD 13,500 average household food spend.

Automated ordering uses technology to place and track supplier orders without manual entry. Used well it improves order accuracy, links to inventory so stock levels drive reordering, supports par levels and tailored recommendations, and needs regular monitoring of processing times, stock turnover and supplier performance.

Food cost control comes down to five rules: cost your menu with software, buy only what you need, track inventory automatically, compare supplier prices before ordering, and join a buying group. Applied together they cut waste, protect margins and steady a restaurant's profit.

Menu costing starts with food cost percentage: add beginning inventory and purchases, subtract closing inventory, then divide by food sales. Compare that figure with your ideal food cost, work out the cost per serving, and divide it by the ideal percentage to set a menu price.

The ten dining trends to watch in 2024 run from edible insects and feral-animal meat to hotel bars, trolley service, seaweed, retro Australian dishes, kindness on the floor, metaverse marketing, interactive food experiences and the fast-growing non-alcoholic drinks market.

Open Pantry, Restoke and MarketMan solve different problems. Open Pantry is free for venues to order, with Menu Profit Manager at a one-off $199 and Restaurant AI Manager at $250 a month; Restoke runs $139 to $219 per site per month; MarketMan starts at $249 and rises to $449 a month.

Understanding Australia's food and beverage landscape means four things: the culinary diversity of its regions and native ingredients, the trends reshaping demand, the local supplier ecosystem, and the food safety regulations set out in the Australian Food Standards Code.

Restaurant inventory management means recording, tracking and reporting how ingredients and supplies move through the kitchen. Done well it prevents loss and protects margin; done badly it is a leading cause of restaurant failure, with up to 10% of food never reaching a customer.

Restaurants choose a wholesale supplier on trust and reputation first, then quality ahead of price, past experience with that supplier, service and communication, packaging, and flexibility. Chefs interviewed by Open Pantry rate honesty about stock and price changes above almost everything else.

Delve into the success story of Bar Group Hospitality as we explore how the implementation of Open Pantry’s Restaurant Pro Suite (now Restaurant AI Manager) revolutionized operations at their esteemed establishment, Huskisson Hotel.

We asked one hundred chefs in Melbourne to vote for their favorite suppliers in the following product categories. They had to decide based on the price, quality and service offered by each brand.The results provided insight into the supplies that covet the most from all over Australia. Let's see the outcomes for each category

Perhaps you’ve been a chef for years and are no stranger to the unforeseen costs that crop up and leave you feeling underpaid and overworked. Or maybe you’re just starting out and are researching all of the best practices for running your new venue. Either way, we’ve put together our top ten recommended ways to save money, both in and out of the kitchen, to help you run a thriving, successful venue.