FREE WORKBOOK
Menu Engineering Workbook
Every dish plotted by popularity and cash margin into stars, plough horses, puzzles and dogs, each quadrant with its own move.
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Who this workbook is for
Anyone whose bestseller might be underpriced
The demo menu makes the case: its bestselling fish pie turns out to be a plough horse, popular but earning £7.37 against the menu’s £7.47 average, and thirty pence on the price or a penny off the plate moves it to a star. Nobody cancels a booking over 30p, and the workbook finds the dishes where that conversation is waiting.
Anyone who judges dishes by GP percentage alone
The matrix runs on cash margin, because percentages steer and pounds pay: a 65 per cent dish earning £9 beats an 80 per cent dish earning £4 every service. Popularity uses the standard 70 per cent rule, at least 70 per cent of an equal share of plates, so a long menu cannot grade everything unpopular. Both thresholds are shown on the sheet, not hidden in the formulas.
Anyone about to redesign the menu on instinct
Each quadrant has its move: stars are protected and never discounted, plough horses get re-priced or re-costed, puzzles get better placement and better descriptions before they get cut, dogs retire without sentiment. Run it quarterly with fresh plate costs from the Plate Costing Calculator, and a dish that changes quadrant has told you something a GP average never would.
