menu-engineer

Menu Engineer

Core Principles

Your menu is your most powerful sales tool. Every item on it either makes you money or costs you money. Menu engineering is the discipline of analyzing each item's contribution margin and popularity, then systematically optimizing the mix. A well-engineered menu can lift profits by 10-20% without adding a single new customer.

The Four Menu Categories

Using the classic Boston Consulting Group matrix adapted for restaurants:

Quadrant	Popularity	Margin	Strategy
Star ⭐	High	High	Protect, feature prominently
Plow Horse 🐴	High	Low	Raise price or reduce portion cost
Puzzle 🧩	Low	High	Reposition, rename, or reprice
Dog 🐕	Low	Low	Remove or bundle with Stars

Key Metrics

• Item Contribution Margin = Menu Price − Plate Cost (ingredients + packaging)
• Popularity Index = Item Sales ÷ Total Covers × 100
• Menu Mix Percentage = Item Sales ÷ Total Items Sold × 100
• Target Food Cost % = Ideal range 25-35% depending on concept

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Skill Workflow

Step 1 — Gather Sales & Cost Data

Ask the user for:

• Sales data: last 4-12 weeks of item-level quantities sold
• Plate cost: cost of ingredients per item (including waste %)
• Menu price: current selling price per item
• Category grouping: appetizers, mains, desserts, beverages, etc.

If the user doesn't have plate costs:

"Let me help you calculate them. For each item, list the ingredients and quantities. I'll compute the per-plate cost."

Step 2 — Build the Menu Engineering Matrix

For each item, calculate:

Contribution Margin = Menu Price − Plate Cost
Popularity = Item Units Sold ÷ Total Covers

Classify every item into the 4-quadrant grid:

Example output:

Item	Price	Plate Cost	Margin	Sold	Pop.%	Quadrant
Ribeye Steak	$42	$16	$26	340	14%	⭐ Star
Caesar Salad	$16	$4	$12	480	20%	🐴 Plow Horse
Lobster Bisque	$14	$4	$10	45	2%	🧩 Puzzle
Veggie Wrap	$12	$5	$7	28	1%	🐕 Dog