This menu engineering calculator sorts your menu items by two questions: how much each plate earns after its ingredient cost, and how often guests order it compared with the rest of the menu. Enter units sold last month, the menu price and the plate cost for each item, and every item lands in one of four boxes (star, plowhorse, puzzle or dog) with a suggested action. Prices are read as VAT-inclusive, the way most restaurant and cafe menus in Saudi Arabia show them, and you can switch that off.
How the menu engineering matrix works
Michael Kasavana and Donald Smith published the method in their 1982 book on menu analysis, and it is still the best-known way restaurant managers analyse a menu. Each item gets two numbers:
CM = Price excl. VAT − Plate cost · Mix % = Units ÷ Total units
Two cut-offs then come from the menu itself, one for profit and one for popularity. The profit cut-off is the weighted average contribution margin: total margin ÷ total units sold. The popularity cut-off is 70% of the share each item would have if all sold equally: on an eight-item menu the equal share is 12.5%, so the cut-off is 8.75%. The authors chose 70% because items never sell evenly, and you can change it in advanced mode if you want a stricter or looser cut-off.
Contribution margin, not food cost percentage
Contribution margin is what stays from the pre-VAT price once the ingredients are paid for, and it is what pays rent and wages. The method measures profit in riyals per plate rather than food cost percentage, because an item with a lower cost ratio can still leave fewer riyals. In the example the honey cake costs 34.5% of its pre-VAT price and the latte 26.8%, yet the cake leaves SAR 13.67 per slice against 11.45 for the latte. To cost a plate from its ingredients and see its food cost percentage, use the food cost calculator.
Stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs: what to do with each
| Class | Popularity | Margin | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star | High | High | Leave the recipe and portion alone, give it the best spot, and keep it out of discount deals. |
| Plowhorse | High | Low | Cut cost with a tighter portion or a cheaper ingredient, raise the price slightly, or sell it with a higher-margin add-on. |
| Puzzle | Low | High | Move it on the menu, rewrite its description, add a photo, have the cashier suggest it, or test a slightly lower price. |
| Dog | Low | Low | Drop or rework it, unless it serves a group of guests or uses an ingredient other dishes need. |
Analyse each menu section on its own
Setting a coffee against a main course tells you little: the main will always show the higher margin and the coffee the higher popularity. That is why the authors apply both cut-offs within each section. In advanced mode you give each item a category, the cut-offs are worked out per category, and you pick which category the matrix shows.
Where the menu analysis figures come from
Units sold per item come from the POS item sales report for one period, usually a month, after taking out complimentary and refunded items. Plate cost comes from the recipe card at current supplier prices. Enter the selling price as it appears on the menu and leave "Menu prices include 15% VAT" ticked if your prices include it; the calculator divides by 1.15 first. If your items already sit in a spreadsheet, copy the columns into "Paste your table", or upload the file itself as CSV or Excel and it is read on your device.
Common menu engineering mistakes
- Working out margin from the VAT-inclusive price, which makes every item look more profitable than it is.
- Mixing sections in one analysis, so every drink turns into a plowhorse and every main into a puzzle.
- Analysing Ramadan or a big promotion month on its own and then basing a whole year's decisions on it.
- Dropping a dog that children order or regulars come in for, without looking at what it does to the rest of the order.
- Raising a star's price because it sells well, so demand drops and the menu loses its largest source of margin.
What to do with the result
Download the matrix and table as a PDF for the meeting with your chef, or as an Excel file whose margin, mix and class formulas recalculate when you enter next month's figures. Change one thing per item, its price, position or portion, and run the analysis again a month later to see the effect. To read the whole restaurant rather than single items, work out prime cost and average check with the restaurant KPI calculator. If your delivery app prices differ, set them with the delivery app pricing calculator.
When the menu changes with every season and supplier
The analysis needs three numbers per item, and the hard part is keeping the first two right: how many actually sold, and what each plate costs today after the latest supplier price change. At Microtec we offer restaurants and cafes in the Kingdom O-Red, a cashier and POS system. Start the trial with your current menu items.