Free tool
Menu engineering matrix without building the spreadsheet
This menu engineering matrix does the worksheet for you. Type the number sold, the selling price and the plate cost of each dish. It works out the contribution margin and the menu mix, sorts every dish into Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle or Dog by the Kasavana and Smith method, and draws the chart.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Nothing leaves your browser
1. Your dishes
One section of your menu, one period. Change the example or clear it and type your own. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
- 1
Margin $9.80
Menu mix 22.6%
Plowhorse - 2
Margin $13.50
Menu mix 16.7%
Star - 3
Margin $8.40
Menu mix 15.6%
Plowhorse - 4
Margin $16.00
Menu mix 5.1%
Puzzle - 5
Margin $15.00
Menu mix 5.9%
Puzzle - 6
Margin $6.60
Menu mix 14.0%
Plowhorse - 7
Margin $5.40
Menu mix 3.8%
Dog - 8
Margin $11.00
Menu mix 12.9%
Star - 9
Margin $9.00
Menu mix 3.2%
Dog
2. The two lines every dish is measured against
- Dishes counted
- 9
- Total sold
- 1,855
- Popularity benchmark
- 7.8%
- Average contribution margin
- $10.34
3. Your matrix, and what to do with each dish
↑ Contribution margin per dish
Popularity (menu mix %) →
- Star
Keep and feature
Popular, high margin
- 2Mixed grill
- 8Beef shawarma plate
Leave the recipe and the price alone. Give it the best spot in its section and make sure it never runs out.
- Plowhorse
Reprice or re-cost
Popular, low margin
- 1Shish taouk
- 3Kafta plate
- 6Chicken burger
It sells, so do not hide it. Test a small price rise, cost the plate again, or pair it with a high-margin side or drink.
- Puzzle
Reposition or rename
Not popular, high margin
- 4Lamb chops
- 5Grilled sea bass
It earns well when it sells. Move it to the top of its section, rewrite the name and description, and have your servers suggest it.
- Dog
Rework or remove
Not popular, low margin
- 7Halloumi wrap
- 9Mushroom risotto
Rework the recipe and the price, fold it into another dish, or take it off the menu if nobody would miss it.
A menu engineering matrix is a four-box chart that places every dish in one section of your menu by two numbers: how often it sells and how much it earns per plate. Michael Kasavana and Donald Smith published the method in 1982. Each box has a name and a next move.
This page is the working tool and the method behind it. For the idea itself and where it stops, read what menu engineering is
Menu engineering uses four formulas. Contribution margin is selling price minus plate cost. Menu mix % is a dish's number sold divided by the section's total. The popularity benchmark is 1 divided by the number of dishes, times 70%. The average contribution margin is total margin divided by total sold.
Two details trip people up. The 70% is a convention: on the example's 9 dishes an equal share would be 11.1%, and a dish is popular from 7.8%, which is about 144 sold. And the average margin is weighted by sales, so your best sellers pull the line towards their own margin. If you do not know a plate cost yet, work it out with the menu price calculator
Worked example: Shish taouk, 420 sold at $14.00, plate cost $4.20, on a section of 9 dishes.
- 1
Contribution margin
Selling price − plate cost
$14.00 − $4.20
$9.80
- 2
Menu mix %
Number sold ÷ total sold in the section
420 ÷ 1,855
22.6%
- 3
Popularity benchmark
(1 ÷ number of dishes) × 70%
(1 ÷ 9) × 70%
7.8%
- 4
Average contribution margin
Total contribution margin ÷ total sold
$19,181.00 ÷ 1,855
$10.34
Shish taouk sells 22.6% of the section, well over the 7.8% benchmark, so it is popular. Its $9.80 margin is under the $10.34 average, so it is low margin. Popular and low margin:
PlowhorseFeature your Stars and leave them alone. Make your Plowhorses earn more, through the price or the plate cost. Get your Puzzles seen and understood. Rework or remove your Dogs. Each group below has one move for each of the five things you control: menu position, description, price, portion and pairing.
Stars: keep and feature
Popular, high margin
- Menu position
- First or second line of its section, where the eye lands first. Give it the photo if you only have room for one.
- Description
- Leave the name alone. Regulars order it by name.
- Price
- Hold it. If you test a rise, make it small and watch the number sold for a month.
- Portion
- Keep the recipe and the plate exactly the same every night. A star is a promise.
- Pairing
- Suggest your best-margin drink or side with it. It already sells itself.
Plowhorses: reprice or re-cost
Popular, low margin
- Menu position
- Keep it easy to find, but not in the best spot. It sells from anywhere.
- Description
- Keep it short. It does not need more selling.
- Price
- Raise it in small steps and check the count after each one. Popular dishes often take a small rise without losing orders.
- Portion
- Cost the plate again. Trim the most expensive item on it, or swap a garnish, before you touch the main ingredient.
- Pairing
- Sell it as a combo with a high-margin side or drink, so the table's margin goes up even if the dish's does not.
Puzzles: reposition or rename
Not popular, high margin
- Menu position
- Move it to the top of its section, or box it as a house pick. Many puzzles are only hard to find.
- Description
- Rename it in plain words and say what it tastes like. A dish nobody can picture does not get ordered.
- Price
- Try a lower price only if the margin stays above your average. If the price is the barrier, a small cut can pay for itself.
- Portion
- Offer a smaller or a sharing size, so the first order feels like less of a risk.
- Pairing
- Have your servers suggest it by name, and put it in your set menu.
Dogs: rework or remove
Not popular, low margin
- Menu position
- Bottom of its section, no photo, no box. Stop spending your best space on it.
- Description
- Rewrite it once. If the count does not move in a month, the dish is the problem.
- Price
- If a few regulars insist on it, raise the price until it at least earns its place.
- Portion
- Simplify the prep, or use its ingredients in a dish that sells, so nothing is bought for it alone.
- Pairing
- Take it out of combos and set menus. Keep it only if it does a job, like your one vegan main or the kids' plate.
To build a menu engineering matrix, pick one section of the menu and one period, list the number sold, selling price and plate cost of each dish, then work out each dish's contribution margin and menu mix %. Set the two benchmarks and sort every dish into a quadrant. The tool above runs steps 3 to 6 as you type.
- 1
Pick one section and one period
Take one section of your menu, such as mains, and one period of at least four weeks. Compare mains with mains, never mains with desserts.
- 2
List the number sold for each dish
Pull the item sales report from your POS for that period and write down how many of each dish you sold.
- 3
Work out each contribution margin
Take the selling price without tax and subtract the plate cost, which is the cost of every ingredient on the plate at today's prices.
- 4
Work out each menu mix %
Divide the number sold of each dish by the total sold in the section. This is the dish's share of sales.
- 5
Set the two benchmarks
The popularity benchmark is 1 divided by the number of dishes, times 70%. The margin benchmark is the total contribution margin divided by the total number sold.
- 6
Sort every dish into a quadrant
At or above both benchmarks is a Star. Popular with a low margin is a Plowhorse. A high margin without the sales is a Puzzle. Under both is a Dog.
You do not need to build a menu engineering template. Fill in the table above and press Export the results as CSV. The file opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets as a finished worksheet: one row per dish with its numbers, its category and its next move.
Every column already worked out
Number sold, selling price, plate cost, contribution margin, menu mix %, total contribution margin, category and what to do.
The benchmarks under the table
Total sold, the popularity benchmark and the average contribution margin, each with its formula beside it.
Yours to keep
The page stores nothing. Export one file per section and per period, and you can compare this quarter with the last.
menu-engineering-matrix.csv9 dishes
| Dish | Sold | Margin | Menu mix | Category | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shish taouk | 420 | $9.80 | 22.6% | Plowhorse | Reprice or re-cost |
| Mixed grill | 310 | $13.50 | 16.7% | Star | Keep and feature |
| Kafta plate | 290 | $8.40 | 15.6% | Plowhorse | Reprice or re-cost |
| Lamb chops | 95 | $16.00 | 5.1% | Puzzle | Reposition or rename |
| Grilled sea bass | 110 | $15.00 | 5.9% | Puzzle | Reposition or rename |
Under the dishes: total sold 1,855, popularity benchmark 7.8%, average contribution margin $10.34.
Run the matrix every three months and before any menu change or reprint. Use at least four full weeks of sales from your POS, one section at a time, with plate costs at this month's ingredient prices. A shorter period lets one busy weekend decide where a dish lands.
The same period for every dish
A dish you added two weeks ago cannot be compared with one that sold all month. Leave it out until the next run.
Cost the plates first
If chicken or oil has gone up since you last costed, every margin in the matrix is wrong by the same mistake.
Change one thing, then run it again
Move a Puzzle up the page or reprice a Plowhorse, wait a full period, and see whether the dish moved.
One run of the matrix
- Section
- Mains only
- Period
- The last 4 full weeks
- Number sold
- POS item sales report
- Selling price
- Menu price, without tax
- Plate cost
- Recipe cost at this month's prices
- Next run
- In 3 months, or at the menu change
The matrix ranks dishes by two numbers and nothing else. It ignores labour and prep time, it is unreliable on small sales counts, and it only works one section at a time. Read every result with these five limits in mind.
It ignores labour and prep time
A Star that takes 20 minutes on the grill can earn less per hour than a Plowhorse plated in three. Contribution margin only counts ingredients.
Small numbers move a lot
A dish that sold 9 times is one large table away from another quadrant. Treat anything with a low count as not yet known.
One section at a time
Put starters and mains in one table and every starter looks low margin, because a starter's price is lower. Compare like with like.
Both lines are relative
The average always has dishes under it. Cut your Dogs, run it again, and the matrix will name new ones. A dish under the line can still be a good dish.
It cannot say why
A Puzzle may be badly placed, badly described, overpriced or simply not wanted. The matrix shows that it is slow. It has no idea of the reason.
Your sales data tells you what sold. It cannot tell you why a dish did not. tamr is a QR code menu with an AI waiter inside, and it shows you the questions your customers asked before they ordered, with the dishes that came up in each conversation. tamr does not see your orders, so it sits beside the matrix and does not replace it.
A Puzzle people keep asking about
If customers ask what is in a dish and then pick something else, the description or the price is the problem, and the conversation shows which.
Looked at, or never seen
tamr counts which dishes customers looked at and which they picked. A Puzzle that is seen a lot and rarely picked needs a different fix from one nobody scrolls to.
What they wanted and did not find
A dish that is not on your menu has no sales to count. tamr lists what customers asked for that you do not serve.
What is a menu engineering matrix?
A menu engineering matrix is a four-box chart that places every dish in one section of your menu by two numbers: how often it sells and how much it earns per plate. Popular, high-margin dishes are Stars. Popular, low-margin dishes are Plowhorses. High-margin dishes that sell slowly are Puzzles. The rest are Dogs.
What is the menu engineering formula?
There are four. Contribution margin is selling price minus plate cost. Menu mix % is a dish's number sold divided by the total sold in its section. The popularity benchmark is 1 divided by the number of dishes, times 70%. The average contribution margin is the section's total contribution margin divided by its total number sold.
What is the 70% rule in menu engineering?
The 70% rule sets the bar for a popular dish. If every dish in a section sold equally, each would have 1 divided by the number of dishes as its share. A dish counts as popular when it reaches 70% of that equal share. On a section of 10 dishes, the equal share is 10%, so the benchmark is 7% of sales.
What do stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs mean?
They are the four groups in the matrix. A Star is popular and high margin: keep it and feature it. A Plowhorse is popular and low margin: reprice it or cost the plate again. A Puzzle is high margin and slow: reposition or rename it. A Dog is slow and low margin: rework it or remove it.
Can I use this as a menu engineering template in Excel?
Yes. Fill in your dishes, then press Export the results as CSV. The file opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets as a finished menu engineering worksheet: every dish with its contribution margin, menu mix %, category and next move, and the two benchmarks under the table.
How often should I run a menu engineering analysis?
Every three months, and before any menu change or reprint. Use at least four full weeks of sales so one busy weekend does not decide a dish's fate, and cost your plates again first if ingredient prices have moved. Run each section of the menu on its own.
Is this menu engineering matrix free, and where does my data go?
It is free, with no sign-up and no email asked. The matrix is worked out in your browser, so the dishes, prices and costs you type are never sent to tamr or anyone else. Close the page and they are gone, so export the CSV if you want to keep the result.
Does tamr build the matrix from my sales?
No. tamr is a QR code menu with an AI waiter inside, and it does not see your orders or payments. It shows what sales cannot: the questions your customers asked before they ordered, which dishes they looked at and which they picked. Use the matrix for what sold and tamr for why.
Upload your menu as a PDF, a photo or a link. Your customers ask the AI waiter, and you read what they asked before they ordered. Free to start, no card.
