· 6 min read
Menu engineering in plain words
Stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs: what the classic matrix tells you, and what it does not.
The menu matrix places each dish on two axes: how often it sells, and how much revenue it brings in. Popular, high-revenue dishes are stars. Popular, low-revenue ones are plowhorses. Rarely sold but valuable ones are puzzles, and the rest are dogs.
Use it as a prompt for questions, not a verdict. Revenue is not margin. A plowhorse may be the reason people come in.
Change one thing at a time (price, photo or position) and wait a few weeks before judging.