What is menu engineering?
Updated:
Short answer
Menu engineering sorts every dish by two measures so you can decide what to keep and what to fix. The classic method looks at units sold; Palato's menu analysis looks at the guests' score: every dish's margin and the share of guests who loved it, on one screen.
Four quadrants in Palato
| Quadrant | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Stars | Profitable and loved | Feature them, keep the price |
| Reprice | Loved, thin margin | Fix the cost or the price |
| Fix | Profitable, less loved | Fix the recipe |
| Rethink | Thin margin, less loved | Should it stay on the menu? |
How to analyse your menu in Palato
- 1Cost comes from your recipes and units sold from your sales; Palato works out the margin.
- 2Guests score dishes from the QR menu or at a tasting.
- 3The menu analysis places every dish in a quadrant; a dish is placed only once at least 3 guests have scored it.
- 4You make one decision per quadrant: feature it, reprice it, fix it or rethink it.
See your own menu this way
Try the menu analysis in the live demo, with an example venue's menu.