Melba
Partly replaceablefrom €49/montheditor verdict · 0 votes
Kitchen ERP to track recipes, recipe cards, stock, purchasing and cost prices.
Recipe cards and cost-price calculation are a data model that can be rebuilt; keeping purchase prices up to date and consolidating several sites is the work that justifies the subscription.
What you lose
- Integration with your till and your accounting.
- Automatic update of supplier prices.
- The vendor's help with setup.
Existing alternatives to Melba
- YokitupFree
Free plan: recipe cards, allergens and cost prices; full plan at €159/month per site.
- COS KitchenFree
Free, unlimited food-cost calculator for restaurants, with PDF export.
- RestoMaestroSmaller vendor
Cost of goods and margin per dish calculated from scanned invoices, from €19 excl. VAT/month.
The prompt to build it yourself
Build me a kitchen ERP: recipes, stock, purchasing and cost price, for my venue, to replace a subscription. Stack: web app (Next.js or Node/Express) with SQLite, hosted on my small server, usable on phone and computer. No mandatory paid service, no telemetry. Core of the tool: - Recipe cards with sub-recipes and cost price per portion. - Purchasing and goods receiving with prices excl. VAT updated in the recipes. - Inventory, stock gaps and a cost-of-goods report per period. Requirements: - Units and conversions (kg, g, L, cl, piece); purchase price excl. VAT per product and per supplier, with a history of changes. - Recipe card per dish: ingredients, weights, losses and yield, cost per portion, selling price incl. VAT, margin in euros and as a percentage. - VAT configurable per product (for example 10% for catering, 20% for alcohol): to be validated by my accountant, hard-code nothing. - Allergens: the 14 mandatory allergens ticked per ingredient, and automatically carried onto each recipe card (decree 2015-447). - CSV import and export (products, suppliers, recipes) so I am not locked in. Out of scope: the till, accounting and multi-venue. README: installation, database backup, and a reminder that the VAT rates and allergen declarations are to be validated with my accountant and my suppliers.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Melba be replaced by a custom-built tool?
- casevibecode verdict: Partly replaceable. Recipe cards and cost-price calculation are a data model that can be rebuilt; keeping purchase prices up to date and consolidating several sites is the work that justifies the subscription.
- What is Melba used for?
- Kitchen ERP to track recipes, recipe cards, stock, purchasing and cost prices.
- What alternatives to Melba already exist?
- Yokitup (free), COS Kitchen (free), RestoMaestro (smaller vendor). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
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