Restaurant Menu Engineering: A Guide
Menu engineering analyzes each dish’s profitability and popularity to guide pricing, placement, and which items deserve promotion versus removal from the menu entirely.
The Four Menu Engineering Categories
Classic menu engineering sorts dishes into stars, plow horses, puzzles, and dogs based on their combination of profit margin and sales popularity.
- Stars: high popularity, high profitability — promote these
- Plow horses: high popularity, low profitability — consider repricing
- Puzzles: low popularity, high profitability — reposition or promote
- Dogs: low popularity, low profitability — consider removing
Calculating Contribution Margin
Contribution margin, the profit left after ingredient cost, is a more useful pricing metric than food cost percentage alone since it accounts for actual dollar profit per dish.
Using Menu Placement Strategically
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Menu Engineering Quadrants
| Category | Popularity | Profitability | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | High | High | Promote and maintain |
| Plow horses | High | Low | Consider repricing |
| Puzzles | Low | High | Reposition or promote |
| Dogs | Low | Low | Consider removing |