Menu engineering sorts every dish on your menu by two things: how much it sells and how many dollars it leaves you each time it sells. That gives four groups: stars (sell a lot, leave a lot), plowhorses (sell a lot, leave little), puzzles (leave a lot, sell little) and dogs (neither). You protect the stars, fix the cost or price of the plowhorses, make the puzzles visible, and drop or rework the dogs. All you need is one month of sales and the cost of each plate.
What you need
- Units sold of each dish in a month. From your till, your tickets or your notebook. A normal month, without long holidays.
- The cost of each plate, from its card. If you do not have it yet, start with how to cost a plate.
- The price of each dish before tax.
Compare only dishes from the same section. Mains with mains; starters on their own table. A burger competes with fish and chips, not with a side of wings.
The two sums
Contribution per plate = price before tax − plate cost. It is what each plate leaves to pay wages, rent and your profit. It is contribution margin applied to the menu.
Then two cut-off lines:
- Popularity: the average units per dish (total units ÷ number of dishes). A dish that sells at or above that average is popular.
- Profitability: the weighted average contribution (total contribution ÷ total units). A dish that leaves at or above that average per plate is profitable.
Each dish then lands in one box:
| Leaves more than average | Leaves less than average | |
|---|---|---|
| Sells more than average | Star | Plowhorse |
| Sells less than average | Puzzle | Dog |
Worked example: the mains at a burger and bistro place
One month of sales for the six mains. Prices before tax; costs from the plate cards.
| Dish | Sold | Price | Cost | Contribution | Total contribution | Food cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic burger | 520 | $17.00 | $4.60 | $12.40 | $6,448.00 | 27.1% |
| Fried chicken sandwich | 460 | $15.00 | $5.40 | $9.60 | $4,416.00 | 36.0% |
| Fish and chips | 300 | $18.00 | $7.10 | $10.90 | $3,270.00 | 39.4% |
| Pork belly bowl | 160 | $19.00 | $5.30 | $13.70 | $2,192.00 | 27.9% |
| Steak frites | 140 | $28.00 | $11.20 | $16.80 | $2,352.00 | 40.0% |
| Mushroom risotto | 95 | $17.00 | $5.90 | $11.10 | $1,054.50 | 34.7% |
| Total | 1,675 | $19,732.50 |
Cut-off lines
- Popularity: 1,675 ÷ 6 = 279 plates
- Profitability: 19,732.50 ÷ 1,675 = $11.78 per plate
Classification
- Classic burger: 520 sold (above 279) and $12.40 (above 11.78). Star.
- Fried chicken sandwich: 460 sold, $9.60. Plowhorse.
- Fish and chips: 300 sold, $10.90. Plowhorse.
- Pork belly bowl: 160 sold, $13.70. Puzzle.
- Steak frites: 140 sold, $16.80. Puzzle.
- Mushroom risotto: 95 sold, $11.10. Dog.
Look at the food cost column. Steak frites has the highest food cost on the menu, 40%, and it also leaves the most dollars per plate: $16.80, against $9.60 for the chicken sandwich at 36%. If you had cut dishes by food cost percentage, you would have cut the steak. Percentages do not tell you which dish carries the business; dollars and units do.
What to do with each group
Stars: protect them
The burger pays for a large part of the month. Do not shrink the patty, do not put it on discount, and watch the price of beef and buns every week, because any rise shows up on 520 plates. If you ever need to raise its price, do it carefully and in small steps.
Plowhorses: fix the cost or the price
They sell themselves but leave little. Two routes:
- Raise the price a little. If the chicken sandwich goes from $15.00 to $16.50 and still sells 460, you make 460 × 1.50 = $690 more a month. Even if sales dropped 10% (414 plates), it would leave 414 × 11.10 = $4,595.40, more than today's $4,416. When and how to do it is in when to update menu prices.
- Bring the cost down without anyone noticing. Check the portion, the side, the fryer oil. In fish and chips, the fish and the oil are the heavy lines.
You can also pair them with something that leaves a lot: a house lemonade or a side of slaw. See drinks, sides and extras.
Puzzles: make them visible
They leave a lot, but people do not order them. Before touching the price, make sure they are seen:
- Put them where the eye lands first on the menu or the chalkboard.
- Have servers recommend them with one concrete sentence.
- Check the name: "slow-roasted pork belly bowl" says more than "pork bowl".
If steak frites goes from 140 to 200 plates a month, that is 60 × 16.80 = $1,008 more contribution. If it still does not move after a month of being visible, the price may be too high for your crowd; try a small cut and run the numbers again.
Dogs: drop or rework them
The risotto sells little and leaves little. It also takes fridge space and prep time. If you drop it and those 95 guests order another main that leaves $11.78 on average, contribution becomes 95 × 11.78 = $1,119.10, about $65 more, and the kitchen gets simpler.
But do not drop it blindly. If it is your only vegetarian main, the table of six with one vegetarian may go somewhere else. Then the risotto is worth keeping, or reworking: a cheaper mushroom mix, a different price, and another month of tracking.
Common mistakes
- Mixing sections. Starters always sell fewer than mains; putting them together condemns them all.
- Using old cards. If plate costs are out of date, the classification is wrong. Check the cards first.
- Deciding on one week. A week with a big party or a holiday distorts everything.
- Looking only at the menu. The mix of dishes you sell changes your total margin; the guide to product mix shows how to work it out.
How often to repeat it
Rerun the table every three months, when you change the menu, or when a key ingredient moves a lot in price. The menu price calculator lets you test quickly what price a plowhorse needs to leave more. To see how the menu fits with the rest of the numbers, read how to make a restaurant profitable.
Do it with the calculator
Put each main's recipe into the food cost calculator with its grams and prices to get the cost per plate. With that cost, the price before tax and the month's units, you can build the table in this guide in a spreadsheet.
Frequently asked questions
How many months of sales do I need for menu engineering?
One normal month is enough to start. Avoid months with long holidays or a one-off event. Repeat it every three months or whenever you change the menu.
Do I compare starters and mains in the same table?
No. Compare dishes within the same section: mains with mains, starters with starters, desserts with desserts. A guest chooses between dishes that do the same job.
Why not use food cost percentage to decide what to drop?
Because a percentage does not pay bills; dollars do. A dish with a high food cost can leave you more money per plate than one with a low food cost, if its price is higher.
Should I drop every dish that comes out as a dog?
Not always. If it is your only vegetarian main, or a dish that keeps a group of regulars coming, you can keep it on purpose. What matters is knowing what it costs you to keep it.