Menu Engineering Tool — Analyse Your Menu for Free
Which dishes earn their place on your menu — and which quietly cost you money? Enter your dishes with menu price, food cost and number sold; the tool computes each dish's margin and popularity and places it in the classic menu-engineering matrix: Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles and Dogs, with concrete advice per dish. Everything runs in your browser — no installation, no account.
How does menu engineering work?
- 1
Enter your dishes
Add each dish with its menu price, food cost (ingredient cost per serving) and the number sold over a period — last month, for example. Straight from your POS report.
- 2
Read the matrix
The tool weighs every dish's contribution margin against your menu average, and its sales share against the popularity threshold (70% of an average share), and plots each dish in the four quadrants.
- 3
Act on the advice
Protect your Stars, re-price your Plowhorses, promote your Puzzles and rework or drop your Dogs. Print the analysis or download it as a CSV for your team.
The four quadrants
Stars: popular and profitable
High margin and high sales. Protect them: keep quality rock-steady, give them a prime spot on the menu and never discount them.
Plowhorses: popular, low margin
Guests love them, but they earn too little. Raise the price in small steps, trim the plate cost or add a high-margin side.
Puzzles: profitable but overlooked
Great margin, few orders. Give them a better spot and a stronger description, or let your team actively recommend them.
Dogs: neither popular nor profitable
They take up space, stock and kitchen time. Rework the recipe, adjust the price — or take them off the menu.
Frequently asked questions
What is menu engineering?
Menu engineering is the classic method (Kasavana & Smith) that scores every dish on two axes: profitability (contribution margin) and popularity (sales share). Each dish lands in one of four quadrants — Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle or Dog — each with its own action.
Is this menu-engineering tool free?
Yes, completely free, with no account or installation. Your data is stored locally in your browser and never leaves it; you can print the analysis, download it as a CSV or share it with a link.
Which numbers do I need?
Three per dish: the menu price, the food cost (ingredient cost of one serving) and the number sold over a period. You'll find the sales in your POS report; use the same period for every dish, and prices excluding VAT for the cleanest margins.
How are Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles and Dogs determined?
A dish is 'popular' when its sales share is at least 70% of an average share (the classic rule: 0.7 × 100% ÷ number of dishes). It is 'profitable' when its contribution margin (price minus food cost) is at or above your menu's weighted average. The combination determines the quadrant.
Should I remove every Dog from the menu?
No. Some low performers matter for the story of your menu or for a specific guest group. But make it a conscious choice: rework the recipe, adjust the price — and re-run the analysis after a month to see the effect.
Know your numbers automatically
HappyChef's reservation system tracks your guests, services and revenue live, so you see what runs well per service — and menu decisions become facts instead of gut feeling.
Discover HappyChef analytics