What you are downloading
Free template
Two numbers decide what should stay on your menu. Score every item on how much people want it and how much it makes you, then sort the lot into four boxes and make four decisions.
A menu engineering matrix sorts every item on your menu by two numbers: how much it sells (demand) and how much it earns per unit (margin). Each item lands in one of four boxes, Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks or Dogs, and each box carries one decision: protect, lift the margin, fix the visibility, or question the item's role.
List everything you sell. Every item. Do not pre-edit the list: the things you would have left off are usually the ones worth looking at.
Rank by demand, then score. Sort the list by units sold over one fixed period. Split it into five equal groups. The top group scores 5, the bottom group 1.
Rank by margin, then score. Sort the same list by margin per unit, which is selling price minus direct cost. Split into five groups again and score 5 down to 1.
Plot each item. The two scores put every item in one of four boxes. A score of 3 or above counts as high.
Decide one action per box. Not per item. Four decisions is a plan you will act on. Forty is a document you will not open again.
What you are downloading
Plot demand against margin and every item you sell lands in one of four boxes. The point is not the grid. The point is that each box carries one instruction, so you leave with a plan rather than a chart.
High margin, high demand
Keep them consistent and keep them visible. Work out what they are teaching you about everything else.
High margin, low demand
These usually have a visibility, naming or placement problem rather than a quality problem.
Low margin, high demand
People already want these. Look at portion, price, add-ons and input cost before touching anything else.
Low margin, low demand
Ask what job it does. If there is a real strategic reason to keep it, write the reason down.
Rank, do not guess. Sort your list by units sold, split it into five groups and score from the top down. Then do the same for margin. You already have an opinion about every item you sell, and that opinion is exactly what the exercise is meant to test. Ranking lets the result disagree with you.
We run this worksheet with the restaurants we work with, usually once a quarter. Owners kept asking how we decide what stays on a menu and what goes, so we made the sheet public.
If you would rather not do it by hand
Nlyten runs this for restaurant groups on live Swiggy, Zomato and POS data, so the matrix rebuilds itself every month instead of once a quarter on paper.
See what we doFAQ
Stars are high margin and high demand: protect them. Cash Cows are low margin and high demand: lift the margin through portion, price, add-ons or input cost. Question Marks are high margin and low demand: usually a visibility, naming or placement problem, so fix before you cut. Dogs are low margin and low demand: ask what job the item does, and write the reason down if you keep it.
