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- Appetites have been curtailed: restaurants are reducing menus and simplifying recipes due to rising costs
Appetites have been curtailed: restaurants are reducing menus and simplifying recipes due to rising costs
Restaurateurs faced optimization: they began to review the menu of their establishments, removing some of the expensive and difficult dishes to prepare in order to contain rising costs. We are talking about at least a 17-20% reduction in positions, Izvestia has learned. Against the background of a shortage of chefs, rising food prices and rising other costs, the profitability of this business continues to decline, despite the increase in revenue. In these conditions, the owners of establishments are forced to seek a balance between economic efficiency and the expectations of guests, optimizing the assortment and formulations without significantly increasing prices. At the same time, people continue to visit restaurants, including for the sake of exclusivity and novelties. About how the restaurant industry is changing and what is being offered to guests today is in the Izvestia article.
Why are restaurants reducing their assortment
Restaurateurs have begun to reduce the number of menu items and simplify some dishes due to rising costs, Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia (FRiO), co-owner of the Meat &Fish restaurant chain Sergey Mironov told Izvestia. Some establishments have reduced about 17-20% of their positions over the past year, mainly expensive and niche dishes, the co-owner of a large restaurant chain confirmed.
Natalie Dmitrenko, co-owner of the Honest Fish chain, also speaks about the regular revision of the assortment. According to her, the company is looking for new recipes, sauces and technological solutions that allow it to keep prices down despite the rise in food prices and rising labor costs.
The menu optimization is confirmed by Marina Kotvitskaya, Executive Director of the Mokkano roll delivery network. According to her, restaurants today analyze the relevance of each position, assess the burden on the kitchen and the economics of cooking.
One of the key reasons is the shortage of qualified chefs, Sergei Mironov believes. According to his estimates, today colleges produce only 0.1–0.2% of such specialists from the market demand. This situation reduces the efficiency of institutions due to limited resources and the hiring of insufficiently qualified personnel, as well as increases the cost of the payroll of existing staff. As a result, in order to increase profitability, some restaurants are forced to reduce some of the menu items, the expert noted.
In the first half of 2026, total operating costs increased by 8-12% compared to the same period a year earlier, Marina Kotvitskaya said. According to her, the most noticeable impact on the business economy was fiscal changes, due to which some restaurants switched from the patent taxation system to a simplified one.
At the same time, certain product categories continue to rise in price. So, since the end of 2025, the cost of masago caviar has increased by about 66%. Some market participants are already replacing this ingredient with artificial analogues, she noted. At the same time, the Mokkano chain does not plan to use cheaper substitutes. Instead, the company removed some of the dishes with masago caviar from the menu, keeping it in the most sought-after positions, including California rolls.
In January – May, the turnover of public catering amounted to 2.4 trillion rubles, according to Rosstat data. At the same time, its growth rate slowed by more than three times compared to the same period a year earlier (6.5% versus 20%). Despite the increase in market turnover, the profitability of the restaurant business continues to decline. According to a June study by the NKR rating agency, the industry's turnover increased from 2.87 trillion rubles in 2023 to 5.27 trillion rubles in 2025, while the average profitability over the same period decreased from 8.9% to 7.9%.
Nowadays, most restaurateurs have to find a balance between the economics of their business and the expectations of their guests on a daily basis, Natalie Dmitrenko confirmed. According to her, a significant increase in prices can lead to a loss of customer loyalty, while the refusal to review the cost worsens the financial results of institutions.
The average check in cafes and restaurants in January – June, according to the analytical center "Check Index" of the OFD Platform, amounted to 1,512 rubles, which is 9% more than in the same period a year earlier. At the same time, the number of purchases increased by only 2%. The situation in Moscow is worse than in Russia as a whole: the average check in establishments increased by 7% (to 2,170 rubles), while the number of purchases decreased by 8% year-on-year, according to the Check Index.
Why doesn't everyone agree with such measures?
However, Sergey Mironov considers reducing the menu to be a controversial strategy. In his opinion, guests come to the restaurant for a variety of choices, so the disappearance of familiar dishes can negatively affect attendance. At the same time, his network relies on finding less expensive but high-quality ingredients, he said.
However, not all market participants agree that restaurants are massively reducing their menus. So, the Teremok chain, on the contrary, continues to expand its range, introducing new, including more expensive, dishes, its founder Mikhail Goncharov told Izvestia. According to him, the personnel shortage is no longer the key problem of the industry, and the growth rate of costs has noticeably slowed down compared to previous years. At the same time, the chain not only retains its existing menu positions, but also uses higher-quality ingredients for a number of dishes and increases the portion size.
Valeria Pozharskaya, CEO of the sushi and roll delivery network, holds a similar position. According to her, the company continues to expand the menu, including through more expensive items. At the same time, new dishes are introduced taking into account the cost targets. The main optimization of the product range, according to her, was carried out about two years ago.
By the end of 2026, the turnover of the restaurant market will exceed 6 trillion rubles, the NKR predicts. The main growth drivers will remain the regional expansion of network operators, the further development of delivery services, as well as the growth of domestic tourism, the agency's analysts believe.
Visitors still expect new tastes and unique offers from restaurants, experts say. Reducing the product range by itself cannot become a universal way to increase efficiency, says Sergey Mironov. Rather, it's about finding a compromise between the cost of food and the willingness of restaurants to maintain the quality of food at a decent level, Natalie Dmitrenko agrees.
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