Menu engineering: Stars, Plow-horses, Puzzles and Dogs
Every dish sorted by how often it sells and what it earns per plate — with one suggestion each.
2 min read
Reports › Menu engineering answers “which dishes make me money, and what should I do about the rest?” It sorts every dish by two things — how often it sells and what it earns per plate — and gives each one a short fix.
The four groups
- Stars — sell well and earn well. Keep it prominent, never discount it.
- Plow-horses — sell well but earn little per plate. Nudge the price up 5%.
- Puzzles — earn well but don’t sell. Depending on whether guests even see them: Feature it and add a photo, Move it up its category and feature it, or Sharpen its photo and description.
- Dogs — sell little and earn little. Rework the recipe or retire it.
- Dishes sold without a plate cost show as Needs a cost — Add a plate cost to place it.
How a dish is placed
- Popular means the dish sells at least 70% of an even share of plates across your menu.
- Earning well means its margin per plate (price minus plate cost, in money — not a percentage) is at or above your menu’s average, weighted by what sold.
- Only settled checks count, costed at the time of sale.
Use it
- 1Open Reports › Menu engineering (or Open Menu engineering from the Profit page). Pick 30 days, 90 days or 12 months.
- 2Read the tiles — Total dish profit, Avg margin / dish, Money on the table and Dishes sold — and the chart, The matrix.
- 3The table lists what to fix first, top down: Dish, Group, Sold, Margin / plate, profit for the period and the Suggestion, with the monthly upside where it can be estimated. Filter to one group with the chips above it.
- 4Act from the row’s menu: Feature, Push via AI Host, Adjust price, Add cost, Open item or Edit recipe.
TipThe Profit page’s Menu performance section uses its own names for the same idea (Star, Popular loser, Hidden gem, Dead weight). Menu engineering is the one with a suggestion and an action on every dish.
More in Reports & analytics
All of Reports & analytics- The daily close, read like an ownerWhere the day’s money went — shifts, cash-up, variance — and how to hand it to your accountant.
- Why the Profit page is empty — and the ten minutes that fix itProfit needs a cost. Give your best-sellers a recipe and the page comes alive.
- Menu stats: what guests look at before they orderScans, views, busiest hours and where guests come from — the QR menu’s own numbers.
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