Find the dishes that make you money — and the ones that don't.

Menu engineering is a method for analysing a menu by two dimensions at once: how popular each item is and how much contribution margin it makes. Plotting items on that grid sorts them into four groups — Stars (popular and high-margin), Plowhorses (popular but low-margin), Puzzles (high-margin but under-ordered), and Dogs (unpopular and low-margin). Each group calls for a different action, which is what makes menu engineering more useful than looking at either sales or margin alone. It's a structured way to decide what to feature, reprice, reposition, or remove.

Stars are your winners — feature them prominently and protect their quality and margin. Plowhorses sell well but earn little, so look for ways to trim their cost or nudge the price without hurting demand. Puzzles are profitable but overlooked, so give them better menu placement, descriptions, or server recommendations to lift sales. Dogs sell poorly at thin margin and are candidates to rework or cut. The point isn't to act mechanically but to give each item the attention its position warrants, which the worksheet lays out for your whole menu.

A ready-to-use spreadsheet (Excel & Google Sheets): every dish classified into Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles, and Dogs from its contribution margin and popularity, with totals — delivered instantly after checkout. AI-assisted, human-built; not financial advice.