It's the behind the scenes that cause a lot of the markup. There might be only two or three food service providers in your area. Food Service Company A has the same prices as Food Service Company B and C. There is no real competition to force prices down for restaurants.

If you are a franchise restaurant, you have to pay franchise fees, buy your all products from the franchise, work within the certain parameters, etc. There is no real way to find ways to drive down prices since your prices are set by the franchise through the prices of the product, corporate oversight, etc.

So I'm stretching it a bit because at the end of the day this really does apply to more than restaurants, but the other commenter had it right.

Things like rent, insurance, etc go into the cost for well above the plate. So the ingredients are one thing, but you have to make up the cost of rent, paying the staff when there's low customer volume, all the insane amount of costs that go into running a business. That server has to make up for the cost of printing menus and delivering them by mail.

None of this is the servers fault, who should get a fair wage, but it all adds up in a way that makes it hard for the owner. In fact, the person who sold them the grills, refrigerators, and all the other equipment, knows exactly and empirically how hard it is and sets their prices accordingly.

And it's not like that company's delivery drivers, techs, and fabrication workers also don't deserve a wage. Or the Tyson folks that are plucking the chicken delivered.

The issue is, at the end of the day, those companies probably should be less profitable. But instead of accepting that, we put all of the companies that make all the stuff that run that restaurant into bigger companies that are now part of mutual funds, and they sell it out knowing they can grab it back if it goes under.

So you might be able to get away with making a few plates and some money, but trying turning it into something that will let you pay your rent and put your kids into a school. "Bob's Burgers" is pretty true to life.

This is how to tell someone you haven't checked grocery prices lately without actually telling them you haven't checked grocery prices lately. A box of mediocre pasta alone is going to cost you $1.75. A jar of Preggo will run you another 2.50. So 4.25 for an I hate life spaghetti and marinara meal.

The sauce they make probably doesn't come out of a jar of reconstituted tomato paste and dried seasonings either.

If you buy decent ingredients you are looking at $3 for the pasta and $9 for the sauce. Or $12 for an "ok for a home cook" spaghetti meal with no protein.

Restaurant serving sizes (for better or worse) are usually 2x+ larger than you would serve at home. Rent isn't free for the restaurant either. Or labor. Or utilities. Or equipment. Etc. General rule of thumb is that a restaurant needs to charge 3x raw food costs to cover expenses.

So your I hate life pasta would need to be priced at $6.50 and your ok for home but not something I would be happy with getting at a restaurant pasta would need to be priced at $18.