Inside the unit economics of an 18-seat tasting-menu restaurant in Mumbai
A spreadsheet anatomy of one of India’s smallest fine-dining rooms — what the food costs, what the rent eats, and where the margin actually comes from.
The restaurant we profile here is real. The numbers are anonymised at the operator’s request, but the structure — an 18-seat tasting-menu room in suburban Mumbai, two seatings nightly, six nights a week — is increasingly common.
Top-line
- Average cover: ₹3,800 (food + non-alcoholic beverage)
- Capacity utilisation: 76% averaged across the year
- Annual revenue: ~₹3.9 crore
Where the rupee goes
- Cost of goods (food + NAB): 30%
- Manpower: 28% (10 BOH, 6 FOH)
- Rent: 14%
- Utilities + consumables: 9%
- Marketing + ops: 5%
- Net margin: 14%
The headline takeaway: a small ticketed-menu restaurant can hit healthy margins, but it depends on holding utilisation above 70% — which in turn requires a no-show policy with teeth and a steady press cadence.
What breaks the model
- Walking the menu — if your COGS drifts above 35%, the model is gone.
- Over-staffing FOH for “hospitality theatre.” Most rooms this size run lighter than they think they need to.
- Skipping a beverage program. NAB pairings add roughly 18% to average cover at minimal cost.
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