What is menu engineering?
Last updated 1 min read
TL;DR
Sorting every dish by how often it sells and how much it earns, to decide what to promote, re-cost or cut.
Your best-seller might be your least profitable dish. Your most profitable one might be hidden at the bottom of the menu. Menu engineering puts both numbers side by side so you can see it.
How it works
Every item gets two scores: how often it sells, and the margin it makes. Split each at the middle of your menu, and every dish lands in one of four groups:
| Higher margin | Lower margin | |
|---|---|---|
| Sells more | Star | Workhorse |
| Sells less | Opportunity | Low performer |
The idea comes from a 1982 study by Michael Kasavana and Donald Smith, who called the groups stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs.
What to do with each group
- Stars — popular and profitable. Keep them prominent and consistent; do not tinker.
- Workhorses — popular, thinner margin. Check the recipe cost, the portion and the price. A small change here moves a lot of money.
- Opportunities — profitable but slow. Move them up the menu, describe them better, or have staff recommend them.
- Low performers — neither. Rework them or retire them, and free up the kitchen.
Why it matters
A menu is a sales tool. Most businesses grow by selling more of the right things, not by adding dishes — and every extra dish adds stock, prep and wastage.
Common mistakes
- Engineering without costed recipes. Without an accurate food cost for each dish, the margin axis is fiction.
- Using too short a period. One week of a special or a bank holiday skews it. Use at least a month.
- Cutting every low performer. A dish a few loyal customers come in for can earn its place.
Tracking it in DUMA
The Menu engineering report places every costed item in one of four groups — Stars, Workhorses, Opportunities and Low performers — by setting its margin against how many it sold, split at the menu's median for each. Items without a complete recipe cost are left out rather than guessed.
Questions and answers
How often should I do menu engineering?
Every time you change the menu, and at least every season. Run it after re-costing recipes, so the margins are current.
Does menu engineering work for shops?
Yes — sort products by units sold and margin the same way. The groups tell you what to reorder, promote or discount out.
Should I use margin percentage or cash margin?
Both are used. The original method uses cash margin per dish; margin percentage is easier to compare across cheap and expensive items. DUMA uses margin percentage.