Toast, the all-in-one digital technology platform for restaurants, has launched its new Menu Price Monitor, which provides monthly insights into menu pricing trends across the restaurant industry in the United States. Utilizing data from the Toast platform, which has over 140,000 restaurant locations as of March 31, 2025, this tracker offers a unique look at how prices on menus at restaurants change over time.
The Menu Price Monitor tracks price fluctuations for key food and beverage items, including beer, burgers, burritos, chicken wings, cold brew coffee, and regular coffee.
We dove into the current figures for beer, burgers, and chicken wings.
Beer Prices
According to the Menu Price Monitor, the median monthly price of beer on restaurant menus was $6.41, up 2.6% when compared to April 2024 and 0.2% compared to March 2025. Over the last two years, beer prices are up 5.8%.
Some of the factors that can affect the rising price of beer include:
- Increase in the price of the raw ingredients to make beer, including hops, yeast, and grains.
- Packaging and distribution costs, which can include labor, and the cost of materials like aluminum cans (there is currently a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum).
- Increased tariffs on imported beers
Burger Prices
The median monthly price of burgers on restaurant menus was also up at $14.31, an increase of 3.1% compared to April 2024 and 0.3% compared to March 2025.
The price of a burger can vary greatly from restaurant to restaurant and region to region, depending on how many upgrades are made to it in the form of the beef, cheese, vegetables, and even toppers like eggs. Here are some of the factors affecting the price of burgers today:
- Sourcing and processing meat can add significant costs for restaurants.
- Meat prices have risen in recent years due to droughts, supply chain issues, labor shortages, export demands, and more.
- Sourcing vegetables has also faced challenges in recent years. Seasonal and migrant farm workers are in short supply, and climate issues and drought have increased costs and limited production, driving up prices.
Chicken Wing Prices
The median monthly price of chicken wings on restaurant menus was $13.67, up 3.2% compared to April 2024 and .01% compared to March 2025.
A few years back, there was a large increase in the price of chicken wings due to supply chain disruptions from meat packing plants closing for COVID and increased demand. In recent months, we've dealt with an increase in a different chicken product—eggs—due to an avian flu outbreak.
The good news is the types of chickens used for chicken wings are different than those that lay eggs, and they are less susceptible to the bird flu, so prices have regulated. Still, certain factors can affect the price of chicken wings:
- Time of year: In December and February, when demand for chicken wings spike due to the holidays and the Super Bowl, prices tend to go up.
- Any impacts to the supply chain, as seen during COVID.
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