How Restaurants Can Increase Average Order Value: Dine-In, Delivery and Catering

Guests spend more when the bigger order is the easy one: a menu that leads the eye to your best-margin dishes, a server who suggests one specific item, a bundle or a checkout prompt online, add-ons built into every catering quote. But a bigger check is only worth having if it also leaves more money after the cost of what was added. This page gives the tactics for each channel, then shows how to measure both numbers: the average order, and what each order contributes.

Average order value is one of the four levers in the guide to increasing restaurant revenue, and often the cheapest to pull, because the guest is already ordering.

How to measure average order value, and what it leaves you

Formula: Average order value (AOV) = net sales ÷ number of orders, for the same period and channel. Check average is the same measure for dine-in checks. Per-person average divides by covers instead of checks.

Worked example: $42,000 in net sales from 2,400 orders in a month is an AOV of $17.50.

AOV tells you what guests spend. It doesn't tell you what you keep. For that, track contribution per order next to it.

Formula: Contribution per order = average order value − the costs that rise with the order: food, packaging, marketplace commission, card processing and any extra labor.

Measure both separately for dine-in, your own online ordering, each delivery app and catering. A blended number hides what's happening. Catering orders are much larger than counter orders, so a good catering month can make a flat dine-in check look healthy, and a slow one can hide real progress at the counter.

How to increase check average for dine-in

Design the menu so the eye lands on your best margin

Put the dishes you earn the most on at the top of each section, give them a short description, and keep the items around them plain. Price format matters too. In a Cornell study at the Culinary Institute of America's St. Andrew's restaurant, guests given menus with numeral-only prices spent significantly more than guests whose menus showed a dollar sign or prices written out in words. The researchers note the result may apply only to lunch at that restaurant, so test it on your own menu and compare checks before and after.

Give servers one specific suggestion per course

"Anything else?" invites a no. A specific suggestion invites a yes: "Our margarita is made with fresh lime. Want one with the tacos?" or "The brownies came out of the oven an hour ago. One for the table?" Give each shift one drink, one starter and one dessert to suggest, choose them for margin, and track the attachment rate by server in your POS. Recognize the people who lift it.

Offer upgrades, not just add-ons

An upgrade raises the check without adding a course: double protein, a larger pour, a side swapped for a premium one, avocado on anything. List each upgrade with its upcharge on the menu and as a button in the POS, so servers can offer it without looking anything up. Price each one from its actual cost, so the upcharge covers the extra food.

Sell to the table, not just the guest

Groups order differently from individuals. For a party of four or more, suggest something the whole table shares: a starter platter, a pitcher, a family-style main. One shared item is an easier yes than four separate add-ons, and it lifts the whole check at once. Build two or three shareable items into the menu if you don't have them, and price them so they earn at least as much as the individual dishes they replace.

Make dessert and the second drink easy

Present dessert before clearing the plates, while the table is still sitting, and suggest one to share rather than one each. Offer the second drink when the first is two-thirds gone, not after it's empty and the table is thinking about the check.

How to raise average order value online and on delivery apps

Build bundles around occasions

Online, nobody suggests anything unless the menu does. Build one bundle per occasion, such as a family dinner, a lunch combo with a drink, or a game-day spread, and price it a little below the items bought separately so the value is obvious. Name it for the occasion, not the contents.

Prompt add-ons at checkout

Add one or two prompts that fit the cart: a drink with a bowl, a side with a sandwich, an extra sauce with wings. More prompts than that slow checkout and get skipped.

Offer sizes and paid modifiers

Give your best sellers a regular and a large size, and list paid modifiers such as extra protein, premium toppings or a side swap as clear optional choices on the item page. Don't pre-select paid extras. Guests who find a charge they didn't choose tend to complain, ask for refunds or leave a bad review, which costs more than the add-on earned.

Finish your photos and descriptions

A delivery menu is browsed, not read. According to DoorDash and SevenRooms' 2026 trends report, 55% of first-time orders on DoorDash came from consumers who were browsing, not looking for a specific restaurant. The same report found a 13% average sales lift from adding photos to more than half of menu items, and up to 6% more from adding descriptions to at least half. Bundles and add-ons need photos too, or guests scroll past them.

Set a free-delivery threshold on your own site

On your own ordering site, set the free-delivery threshold a few dollars above your current direct-order AOV. Guests who are close will add a drink or a side to reach it. Check that the delivery cost you absorb is less than the contribution from what they add.

Know which costs grow with the basket

Some of the cost of an order is the same whatever is in it: taking the order, printing the ticket, the handoff to the driver. A bigger basket spreads that part over more sales. The rest grows with the basket. Every added item needs its own food and often its own container, extra items take prep and packing time, and marketplace commission is a percentage of the check. As of October 2026, DoorDash's Marketplace plans charge 15%, 25% or 30% on delivery orders. The DoorDash commission calculator shows what each order keeps after commission.

If testing bundles and upsells across every app and location is more than your team can keep up with, Kutlerri.ai's 3P Sales Agent, currently in beta, works on bundles, upsells and cross-sells on delivery platforms, along with ranking, ratings, reviews and menu photos.

Worked example: how small attachments add up

Worked example: Say a fast-casual restaurant takes 2,000 orders a month at an $18.00 AOV across the counter and its apps. It makes three changes. The prices, costs and take rates below are illustrative assumptions, not benchmarks. "Added cost" is the food and packaging for the added items only.

In this worked example, AOV rises from $18.00 to $19.10, a 6.1% lift. On 2,000 orders a month that's $2,200 more in sales a month, or $26,400 a year. The added contribution is smaller: $0.71 × 2,000 = $1,420 a month, or $17,040 a year, and less again once you take out commission on app orders, card processing and the time to plate a dessert. The bundle line already nets out its discount. Before you launch a bundle, check that it contributes more per order than the bowl alone.

How to increase catering order value

Catering orders are large to begin with. Monkey's 2026 State of Catering report found that average catering order values reached approximately $416 in 2025, up just three percent from the year before. The same report found that marketplace orders carry average order values 6 to 8 percent lower than first-party orders, with lower margins for restaurants.

Price per person, in tiers

Offer three per-person packages at different price points, each a complete meal for a meeting. Tiers give a buyer a way to trade up without leaving your menu, and the top tier sets the ceiling for what a big order can be.

Set a minimum

Set an order minimum by dollars or headcount that makes every delivery and setup run worth the trip. Send smaller orders to pickup or your regular takeout menu instead of turning them away, so a small first order from a new office can still happen.

Put add-ons in every quote

Drinks, a dessert tray, plates and utensils, setup, delivery and an extra protein option should appear as line items on every quote, so the buyer only has to say yes. A catering quote template with these lines built in makes it a habit.

Sell direct when you can

Marketplaces charge 15 to 30% commission on catering orders, and, in the report above, their orders run smaller. A direct order also lets you suggest add-ons in conversation, which a marketplace checkout won't do for you. Direct orders aren't free to win, though: count the time spent quoting and following up, and card processing on the invoice.

Worked example: Say an office orders lunch for 25 people at $16 per person, a $400 order. The quote adds drinks at $2.50 per person ($62.50), a dessert tray at $3 per person ($75) and a $35 delivery and setup fee. The order becomes $572.50, about 43% more in sales, from one conversation. Each added line has its own cost (the drinks, the dessert, the driver's time), so price each one from what it costs you. These prices are illustrative.

To set your own per-person prices from food cost and a target food-cost percentage, use the calculator below. The guides to what catering costs per person and whether catering is profitable for restaurants cover pricing and margins in more depth.

Mistakes that raise the check but cut the margin

• Bundles discounted too deeply. If the bundle contributes less per order than the main item alone, every switch costs you money.
• Upselling low-margin items. An extra protein priced below its cost raises AOV and lowers profit. Recost every upgrade.
• A free-delivery threshold set too low. If the delivery you absorb costs more than the contribution from the add-on, you're paying guests to order.
• Pushy scripts. One suggestion per course reads as hospitality. Three reads as a sales pitch, and guests notice.
• Catering minimums that block first orders. A new office account that starts small can become a weekly order. Offer pickup below the minimum.

How to track whether it's working

1. Track AOV weekly by channel: dine-in, direct online, each delivery app and catering.
2. Track the attachment rate for each item you push: orders that include it divided by all orders.
3. Break AOV down by server and daypart (lunch, dinner, late night) to see who and when to coach.
4. Watch contribution per order next to AOV. A bigger check that leaves less after food, packaging and commission isn't a win.
5. Change one thing at a time and give it a few weeks before you judge it.

A bigger check works best alongside more guests and more visits. For the plays that bring them in without an ad budget, see how to increase restaurant sales without advertising.