Excel + PDF WorksheetMenu Design

Menu Engineering Worksheet — Free Excel & PDF Download

45 min analysis

What's Inside

Excel version with auto-classification formulas

Stars/Plowhorses/Puzzles/Dogs matrix

Contribution margin walkthrough

Per-quadrant action guide

Works from a standard POS export

About This Menu Engineering Worksheet

Menu engineering categorizes dishes by profitability and popularity: Stars (high profit, high popularity), Plowhorses (low profit, high popularity), Puzzles (high profit, low popularity), and Dogs (low profit, low popularity). Each quadrant gets a specific strategy — reprice, reposition, bundle, or remove.

Who Should Use This Menu Engineering Worksheet?

Restaurant operators making data-driven decisions about their menu, particularly before a redesign or seasonal refresh.

Quick Start Guide

1List all menu items with their food cost and sales volume
2The worksheet categorizes each item into the matrix
3Read the recommended action for each quadrant
4Make the changes and re-run the analysis after 30 days

The Resource

Understanding the Menu Matrix

Menu engineering categorizes every dish into one of 4 quadrants based on two metrics: popularity (how often it's ordered) and profitability (contribution margin — the dollar amount you keep after food cost). ⭐ Stars = High popularity + High profit → Promote heavily, feature on the menu 🐴 Plowhorses = High popularity + Low profit → Increase price gradually or reduce portion cost 🧩 Puzzles = Low popularity + High profit → Better descriptions, server recommendations, menu placement 🐕 Dogs = Low popularity + Low profit → Remove, replace, or completely reimagine

Step 1: Gather Your Data

1Pull sales data for the last 90 days from your POS: item name, quantity sold, selling price
2Calculate the food cost per item using your standardized recipes (or actual cost if you track it)
3Calculate contribution margin per item: Selling Price − Food Cost = Contribution Margin
4Calculate popularity: each item's sales as a percentage of total items sold in its category
5Calculate the average contribution margin and average popularity across all items

Step 2: Classify Each Item

Category	Popularity	Profit	Action
⭐ Star	Above average	Above average	Maintain quality, prominent menu placement, slight price increases OK
🐴 Plowhorse	Above average	Below average	Reduce portion slightly, substitute cheaper ingredients, increase price 5-8%
🧩 Puzzle	Below average	Above average	Better menu description, train servers to recommend, reposition on menu
🐕 Dog	Below average	Below average	Remove from menu, replace with a new dish, or completely rework the recipe

Step 3: Take Action

0/7 completed

Frequently Asked Questions

Menu engineering is a menu analysis method that categorizes every dish by profitability and popularity into four quadrants: Stars (high profit, high popularity), Plowhorses (low profit, high popularity), Puzzles (high profit, low popularity), and Dogs (low profit, low popularity). Each quadrant gets a specific strategy — reprice, reposition, bundle, or remove.

Yes. The download is a zip with both formats: an Excel workbook where the contribution margin, popularity share, and Star/Plowhorse/Puzzle/Dog classification calculate automatically as you enter your menu, and the PDF walkthrough of the full method.

Yes — the worksheet is free. Enter your email on this page and the download starts immediately; no account or payment required. It walks you through the full matrix with action recommendations for each quadrant.

Two things per item: quantity sold over the last 30-90 days, and food cost per portion. Most POS systems can export this as a report.

Contribution margin = selling price minus food cost. A $18 dish with $4.50 food cost has a $13.50 contribution margin — that's what covers labor, rent, and profit.

Remove them, reimagine them at a lower food cost or higher price, or fold them into a bundle. Keeping a Dog on the menu out of sentiment costs you the visual space a Star could use instead.