Menu Engineering Explained
An introduction to menu engineering: combining profitability and popularity to make better menu decisions.
Two questions per dish
How profitable is it, and how often does it sell? Menu engineering combines both.
The four categories
Stars are profitable and popular. Ploughhorses are popular but less profitable. Puzzles are profitable but don't sell well. Dogs are neither.
Where the data comes from
Profitability comes from your costed recipes. Popularity comes from sales quantities — typically taken from your till reports for a set period.
Acting on it
Protect your stars, re-cost or re-price ploughhorses, reposition puzzles and consider replacing dogs.
Try the numbers yourself with our free food cost calculator.