5. Standard Chicken Breast Entrees
A plain, roasted chicken breast offers the worst value-to-cost ratio on a dinner menu. Chicken is incredibly cheap at the grocery store and remarkably easy to prepare at home. Restaurants rely on safe, unadventurous chicken dishes to subsidize the more expensive ingredients on their menus. When you order the chicken, you are funding the profit margins for the entire kitchen. Spend your restaurant budget on labor-intensive dishes like slow-braised short ribs, handmade pastas, or complex curries that require hours of preparation and a pantry full of specialty spices.
