Pan-Seared Salmon Fillet Cost Calculator
Restaurant entrée - 6 oz salmon with two sides. Mid-tier dining food cost. Prefilled with US average ingredient costs. Edit any quantity or price to match what you actually pay, and the math updates as you type.
How much does it cost to make Pan-Seared Salmon Fillet?
About $6.58 of ingredients for one plate at 2026 foodservice prices, a 27.4% food cost at $24. The 6 oz of salmon is $4.80 of it, 72.9%, so how the fish is bought, pre-cut portions or a whole side cut in house, sets the margin.
Where the money goes
| Atlantic salmon fillet | 72.9% · $4.80 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetable side (asparagus/broccoli) | 13.4% · $0.88 | |
| Starch side (potato/rice) | 9.1% · $0.60 | |
| Butter + lemon + herbs + oil | 4.6% · $0.30 |
What 24 of them return at different prices
| Your price | Food cost % | Over ingredients, each | Over ingredients, 24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $18.00 | 36.6% | $11.42 | $274.08 |
| $24.00 US average | 27.4% | $17.42 | $418.08 |
| $30.00 | 21.9% | $23.42 | $562.08 |
Ingredients only. Labor, packaging, fuel, and stall or platform fees come out of these figures.
Six ounces of farmed Atlantic salmon is $4.80 of the plate. That price is for skinless, pre-cut portions delivered by a distributor, at 80 cents an ounce, $12.80 a pound. The sides are cheap by comparison: 4 oz of asparagus or broccoli costs 88 cents, 5 oz of potato or rice 60 cents, the butter, lemon, herbs, and oil 30 cents, $1.78 together. With the fish at 72.9% of the plate, a cheaper side dish barely moves the number, and the fish is where the money is.
The cheaper way to buy salmon is a whole side, the full fillet off one half of the fish, at around $8 a pound delivered. It has to be skinned and trimmed in the kitchen, and the thin tail and belly do not make a clean 6 oz portion, so a side yields about 65-75% of its weight as portions. At 70% the usable fish costs about $11.43 a pound, 71 cents an ounce, and the plate drops from $6.58 to $6.04, a 25.2% food cost. The saving depends on two things. The trim has to go into salmon cakes, a salad, or a special instead of the trash. And the portions have to come out even: one 7 oz piece cut by eye from the side costs $6.75, 28.1%, more than a pre-cut 6 oz portion.
Then there is the species. The calculator prices farmed Atlantic salmon, which is what a menu usually means when it just says "salmon". Wild salmon is a different dish with a different price. Skinless sockeye portions at about $1.20 an ounce make the plate $8.98, a 37.4% food cost at $24, and king costs more still. Seafood plates often run 33-35%, a few points above the rest of the menu, so wild sockeye at $27 (33.3%) is a defensible price. Selling it at the farmed price as a free swap is how a salmon entrée loses its margin.