Tax on restaurant food usually runs between 6% and 10% of your pretax bill, but the real answer depends on the address of the restaurant and what you order. Five states charge no sales tax at all, so a meal there is untaxed. In cities that stack a separate meals tax on top of an already high combined sales tax, the total can push past 13%. Alcohol often carries an extra tax that food doesn’t.
The Base Sales Tax on Your Meal
Every restaurant tax bill starts with the general sales tax, which combines a statewide rate with additional rates from counties, cities, or special districts. As of January 2026, combined state and local sales tax rates run from 0% in Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon to 10.11% in Louisiana. Tennessee (9.61%), Washington (9.51%), Arkansas (9.46%), and Alabama (9.46%) round out the top five.
Alaska has no statewide sales tax but lets local governments impose their own, so a restaurant meal in some Alaskan cities still carries a small tax. At the low end, a handful of states set their combined rates below 6%, including Wyoming (5.56%), Wisconsin (5.72%), and Maine (5.50%).
Restaurant food is almost always subject to the full combined rate. Many states exempt groceries in whole or in part, but those exemptions do not extend to prepared meals. A loaf of bread at a supermarket may be tax-free while a sandwich at the deli next door gets the full rate.
City Meals Taxes That Stack on Top
In some cities, the general sales tax is only the starting point. About a quarter of the 50 largest U.S. cities impose a separate meals tax, sometimes called a hospitality tax or food-and-beverage tax, that applies only to prepared food and drinks at restaurants. These levies typically fund convention centers, tourism promotion, or local infrastructure.
Among major cities that impose them, the surcharges range from about 0.5% to 5.5%, with most falling between 1% and 4%. When a city adds a 3% meals tax on top of a combined sales tax already over 8%, the total on your dinner check can easily clear 11%.
Not every state authorizes local meals taxes, so this extra layer hits unevenly. If you eat out often in a city that has one, the cost adds up over a year.
Why Restaurant Food Is Taxed When Groceries Often Aren’t
The line between prepared food, taxed at the full rate, and groceries, often exempt or taxed at a lower rate, is where most of the confusion lives. Most states use two main tests: whether the food is sold heated, and whether the seller provides eating utensils.
Food sold hot is almost always classified as prepared food, no matter where you buy it. A rotisserie chicken from a grocery store hot case is taxable the same way a restaurant entrée is. The utensil test works similarly. If the seller hands over plates, forks, napkins, or straws with the food, the sale looks like a ready-to-eat meal and the rate reflects that.
The gray area shows up with cold sandwiches, pre-packaged salads, and grocery deli items. A cold sub from a sandwich shop is prepared food in most states, but the same sub wrapped in plastic at a supermarket may not be. The classification can flip across a county line.
How Alcohol Changes the Math
Ordering a cocktail, wine, or beer with your meal almost always raises the tax on that portion of the check. Alcoholic beverages are universally subject to the full general sales tax, even in states that reduce or eliminate the tax on food. On top of that, some states impose a separate excise tax or mixed-drink tax on alcohol served by the glass at restaurants and bars.
These supplemental alcohol taxes vary. Some states fold the excise tax into the wholesale price, so you never see it as a line item. Others charge a visible percentage on top of the menu price. Where a by-the-drink excise applies, the combined tax on a cocktail can run several percentage points higher than the tax on your entrée.
If you are watching the total, the tax on a round of drinks can be meaningfully higher than the tax on the food half of the same check.
Delivery Fees, Service Charges, and Auto-Gratuities
Delivery fees, service charges, and automatic gratuities can all be taxable, and the rules are messier than most people expect.
Mandatory Service Charges and Auto-Gratuities
A mandatory service charge or automatic gratuity is generally treated as part of the total selling price of the meal, which means it gets taxed at the same combined rate as the food. The IRS classifies automatic gratuities as service charges rather than tips. A voluntary tip that you add yourself is not part of the taxable sales price.
Delivery Fees
When a restaurant delivers its own food, the delivery charge is usually folded into the taxable total. The logic is that the delivery is inseparable from the sale of prepared food.
Third-party platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats create a murkier situation. Some states treat the platform’s delivery fee as part of the food transaction and tax it in full. Others classify it as a separate logistics service that falls outside the prepared food tax. The split often depends on whether the state considers the platform an agent of the restaurant or an independent service provider. If the tax on a delivered meal looks higher than what you would pay dining in, the delivery fee being pulled into the taxable base is usually the reason.
How to Find Your Exact Rate
Because the tax on restaurant food is set by the specific combination of state rate, local rate, and any meals tax at the restaurant’s address, the only reliable way to find your exact rate is to look it up by location. Most state revenue department websites have a tax rate lookup where you can enter a street address and get the combined rate. Your restaurant receipt should also show the rate applied, though it may not break out each layer separately.
As a rough guide: no sales tax state, you pay nothing. Typical mid-range state without a meals tax, expect roughly 6% to 8%. High-tax state or a city with an additional meals tax, budget for 9% to 13% or more on your food and drink total.