Category: 📈 Sales & Menu | Reading time: 10-12 min
You have 45 dishes on your menu. Do you know which 5 make you money, which 10 lose you money? You don't. Because you look at the menu as a "food list", but in reality the menu is a sales tool.
Menu engineering — evaluating each dish by 2 metrics: how much it sells (popularity) and how much profit it brings (profitability). When you combine these two metrics, 4 categories emerge — and every dish of yours is in one of these 4 categories.
In this article, I teach you this system from scratch. No MBA needed. Just a calculator and Excel.
Menu Matrix — 4 Categories
This system is adapted for the restaurant sector based on the famous Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix. Each dish has 2 indicators:
- Popularity: Sold a lot or a little?
- Profitability (contribution margin): How much profit remains per serving?
Based on these two indicators, 4 categories:
| High Profit | Low Profit | |
|---|---|---|
| High Sales | ⭐ Star (Star) | 🐴 Horse (Plowhorse) |
| Low Sales | 🧩 Puzzle (Puzzle) | 🐕 Dog (Dog) |
⭐ ULDUZ — Best Seller + High Profit
This is the menu’s hero. Must be protected. Do not increase its price (for now), do not reduce its quality, keep it in a visible spot on the menu.
🐴 AT — High volume, low margin
It’s popular, but it brings you little money. Strategy: either reduce its food cost (cheaper ingredients, portion optimization), or increase its price slightly, or combine it with a high-margin side dish (combo).
🧩 PUZZLE — Sells Little + Earns a Lot
It makes money, but no one orders it. Strategy: increase its visibility — put it in a better spot on the menu, have the waiter recommend it, stick a "chef's choice" label, promote on social media.
🐕 DOG — Low sales + Low profit
It neither sells nor earns. Strategy: kill. Remove from menu. It takes up space, causes food stockpiling, slows down the kitchen. Don't be sentimental — don't say "but this is our classic". If it doesn't sell and doesn't earn — it has no place on the menu.
Step by step: How to analyze the menu?
Step 1: Collect sales data
Extract the sales count of each dish from the sales report of the last 3 months. If you have a POS system — this is automatic. If you don't have a POS — you must count manually (but I'm serious, get a POS).
Step 2: Calculate the contribution margin for each dish
Contribution Margin = Selling price - Food cost
Example:
- Chicken Sac: Selling price 18₼, Food cost 5.39₼ → CM = 12.61₼
- Ground meat kebab: Selling price 14₼, Food cost 6.80₼ → CM = 7.20₼
Step 3: Calculate the averages
- Average popularity: Total number of sales of all dishes ÷ number of dishes
- Average CM: Average of the CMs of all dishes
Step 4: Place each dish in the matrix
| Dish | Sales (month) | CM (₼) | Popularity | Profitability | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Saj | 320 | 12.61 | High | High | ⭐ Star |
| Minced Kebab | 280 | 7.20 | High | Low | 🐴 Horse |
| Veal Medallion | 45 | 18.50 | Low | High | 🧩 Puzzle |
| Vegetable Gratin | 22 | 4.30 | Low | Low | 🐕 Dog |
Now each dish has a strategic plan.
Menu design — where does the eye look?
The second part of menu engineering is visual placement. Research shows that the human eye looks first at certain points on the menu:
Single-page menu: The eye starts in the middle, then goes to the upper right, then to the upper left.
Bifold menu: The eye first looks at the upper center of the right page — this is called the "golden triangle." Put your highest-margin items here.
Trifold menu: The eye first looks at the upper part of the center panel.
Practical rules:
- Place the most profitable items where the eye first touches — upper right or upper center.
- Highlight with a box. Draw a thin frame around the highest-margin item — the eye automatically goes there.
- Add a "Chef's recommendation" label. This is ideal for items in the puzzle category — profitable but low-selling; the label increases sales.
- Don't write prices in a straight column. If prices are written in a straight column on the right, people look for the cheapest. Write the price at the end of the item description, without a period — directs attention to the dish, not the price.
- Don't put a currency symbol (₼). Research shows that a currency symbol reminds people of "I'm spending money." Just write the number: "18" — not "18₼."
Upselling — Server Sales
The third pillar of menu engineering is server sales. The menu is set up correctly, but if the server says "What would you like?" and waits — half the engineering is lost.
What should the server do?
- Actively recommend signature dishes. "Our chef's special today is veal medallion, I highly recommend it" — this sentence is a sales sentence.
- Offer dessert and drinks — TO EVERY TABLE. Not "Would you like dessert?" — "Our cheesecake is excellent today, shall I bring a sharing portion?" — specific, descriptive, and calls to action.
- Offer combos (combination). "You ordered kebab — would you like a drink on the side? Our ayran is homemade" — cross-selling (cross-selling) that is.
Menu Size — "More" Is Always "Bad"
Restaurants in Baku operate with menus of 60-80 dishes. This is a disaster. Why?
- Stock bloated: Storing ingredients for 80 dishes = large warehouse, many refrigerators, lots of waste
- Kitchen slows down: The chef can't remember 80 dishes, quality drops
- Customer confused: Choice paradox among 80 dishes — too many options = inability to choose = dissatisfaction
- Food cost increases: Ingredients of low-selling dishes spoil
Ideal menu size:
| Restaurant type | Ideal number of dishes |
|---|---|
| Fast-casual | 15-20 |
| Casual dining | 25-35 |
| Fine dining | 12-20 |
| Cafe | 15-25 |
| Kebab shop / specialty concept | 10-15 |
📝 DOGAN'S NOTE: "When I see a menu with 80 dishes, I know that restaurant has 'a bit of everything' but none of it is 'good.' The best restaurants work with 20-30 dishes — and each one is perfect. Less but good > many but average."
Menu update calendar
You prepare the menu once and forget about it? Big mistake.
| Frequency | What to do |
|---|---|
| Every week | Check sales data — what increased, what decreased? |
| Every month | Update food cost — if prices changed, recalculate menu matrix |
| Every 3 months | Do menu analysis — remove dogs, introduce puzzles, try new dishes |
| Every 6 months | Seasonal menu update — spring/winter menu |
| Once a year | Full menu audit — design, pricing, category balance |
MENU ENGINEERING CHECKLIST
| # | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calculate the food cost for each dish (from the recipe card) | ☐ |
| 2 | Calculate the contribution margin for each dish | ☐ |
| 3 | Collect sales data from the last 3 months (from the POS) | ☐ |
| 4 | Build the menu matrix: Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles, Dogs | ☐ |
| 5 | Remove Dogs from the menu | ☐ |
| 6 | Move Puzzles to a more visible spot on the menu | ☐ |
| 7 | Optimize the food cost of Plowhorses or increase their price | ☐ |
| 8 | Give waitstaff a list of "items to sell" | ☐ |
| 9 | Place the most profitable dish in the golden triangle of menu design | ☐ |
| 10 | Write prices without currency symbols and not in a column | ☐ |
💡 DK Agency: Is it difficult to do menu analysis yourself? The DK Agency Toolkit has a menu matrix template — enter the sales volume and food cost, and the system automatically categorizes the dishes. We also offer consulting services for menu optimization, pricing strategy, and waitstaff sales training.
📧 info@dkagency.com.tr | 🔧 dkagency.com.tr/aletler | 🌐 dkagency.com.tr/aletler/marketinq-ocagi
JIM SULLIVAN
“Every waiter is a seller — either selling consciously, or losing unconsciously.”
📖 Source: Multiunit Leadership
GREGG RAPP
“The menu is the restaurant's most powerful sales tool — but most business owners use it as a food list.”
DONALD BURNS
“Restaurant owners are in love with designing menus, but they don't know which dish on the menu makes money. It's like loading a gun and shooting blindfolded.”
📖 Source: Your Restaurant Sucks!