Menu engineering calculator
Menu engineering asks two questions about every item: does it make money, and do people order it. The four possible answers each call for a different action, and the most common mistake is cutting a low-margin bestseller.
Use the yield-adjusted figure from the plate cost calculator.
All menu items across the same period, so the mix percentage means something.
The four quadrants, and what to do
The classic Kasavana–Smith framework sorts items on popularity and profitability. The labels matter less than the actions.
- Popular and profitable — protect it. Don't touch the recipe, don't move it on the menu, don't discount it. Keep the spec tight
- Popular but unprofitable — the biggest opportunity. Raise the price modestly, re-cost the ingredients, or trim the portion. Popularity gives you room that an unpopular item doesn't
- Profitable but slow — a merchandising problem, not a menu problem. Reposition it, rename it, describe it better, have servers mention it
- Slow and unprofitable — the cut candidate, with one caveat below
The caveat before you cut anything
Some items don't earn their place on their own numbers and still belong on the menu. A cheap children's dish that brings in a family of five. A vegetarian option that decides where a group of six eats. A signature item people associate with you.
Removing an item also doesn't recover its cost unless the ingredients leave with it. If a slow item shares everything with a fast one, cutting it saves nothing and narrows the menu for no gain.
Cut items whose ingredients are unique to them and whose absence changes nobody's decision to come.
Questions
Contribution margin or food cost percentage — which should I optimise?
Contribution margin, almost always. Percentage is a useful efficiency check, but you bank dollars. An item at 40% food cost contributing $14 beats one at 25% contributing $6, and the second one has to sell more than twice as often to match it.
How much can I raise a price without losing sales?
Small, infrequent increases on popular items are absorbed far better than large or frequent ones. The common approach is modest increases on your popular-but-unprofitable items, timed with a menu reprint so it isn't the only change a regular notices.
What period should I analyse?
A month minimum, and ideally a period without holidays or unusual weather. Compare the same period across years rather than consecutive months, since seasonality moves the mix considerably.