Start free
Glossary

Menu Engineering

The discipline of analyzing dishes by popularity × margin to optimize the menu.

Definition

Menu engineering plots every dish on a 2×2 of popularity (units sold) and contribution margin (revenue minus plate cost). Each dish becomes a Star, Plow Horse, Puzzle, or Dog, and each quadrant has a playbook. Forkcast surfaces this matrix from POS + recipe data.

Tags

menu-engineering
Related terms
Star (Menu Engineering)
A dish with high popularity AND high margin — the ideal.
→
Plow Horse
A dish that sells well but earns thin margin.
→
Puzzle
A dish with high margin but low popularity.
→
Dog (Menu Engineering)
A dish with low popularity and low margin.
→
← Back to glossary
We use minimal first-party cookies to keep the dashboard signed in and to measure aggregate usage. We do not sell or share your data. See our Privacy Policy and DPDP statement.
Menu Engineering — Indian HORECA glossary | Forkcast