What is the menu engineering matrix, and how does it classify items into stars, plowhorses, puzzles, and dogs?

The menu engineering matrix is a simple framework that helps you evaluate menu items based on two things: how popular they are and how profitable they are. It classifies each item into one of four groups—stars, plowhorses, puzzles, and dogs—so you can decide what to promote, reprice, improve, or remove.

In most restaurants, cafés, and bars, it’s used as a practical way to make menu decisions with less guesswork. Instead of changing items based on opinions, you use sales and margin data to guide the next steps.

What the menu engineering matrix is

The menu engineering matrix is a 2x2 chart built on two measures:

• Popularity: how often an item sells compared to the rest of the menu (usually based on unit sales)
• Profitability: how much profit an item contributes per sale (often contribution margin: selling price minus food cost)

When you plot items using these two measures, each item falls into one of four categories. The category tells you what kind of management action is typically appropriate.

How items are classified into stars, plowhorses, puzzles, and dogs

Stars: high popularity, high profitability

Stars sell well and generate strong profit per sale. In most restaurants, these are the items you protect and showcase because they pull their weight on both volume and margin.

• Typical actions: keep consistent quality, feature them prominently, avoid unnecessary changes, ensure they’re always available

Plowhorses: high popularity, low profitability

Plowhorses are your steady sellers, but they don’t contribute much profit per sale. They often include large portions, expensive ingredients, or items priced too low for their cost structure.

• Typical actions: adjust portion size slightly, refine the recipe to reduce cost, test a small price increase, add profitable modifiers or sides

Puzzles: low popularity, high profitability

Puzzles make good profit when they sell, but they don’t sell often. In practice, this usually means the item isn’t being noticed, isn’t clearly understood, or doesn’t fit the guest’s usual decision pattern.

• Typical actions: improve the name and description, reposition it on the menu, train staff to recommend it, test a small price reduction or bundle

Dogs: low popularity, low profitability

Dogs don’t sell much and don’t add meaningful profit. They may still exist for a reason (dietary needs, brand identity, a signature tradition), but they generally need a clear justification to stay.

• Typical actions: remove or replace, simplify ingredients, reposition for a niche audience, limit availability, or keep only if it serves a strategic purpose

How it’s typically done in restaurants, cafés, and bars

A common process is straightforward and repeatable. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s consistency, so you can make sensible changes over time.

• Pick a time window that reflects normal trading (often 4–12 weeks, excluding unusual events if they distort sales)
• Pull unit sales for each item (popularity measure)
• Calculate contribution margin for each item (profitability measure)
• Set your cutoffs (for example, above/below average popularity and above/below average margin)
• Classify items into the four groups
• Decide actions and test changes in small, controlled steps (one change at a time where possible)
• Recheck results after the next cycle and repeat

Real-world examples of each category

These examples are typical patterns operators see in day-to-day menu reviews:

• Star: a signature burger that sells daily and has a strong margin because the build is cost-controlled and priced correctly
• Plowhorse: a popular chicken schnitzel with large portions that guests love, but food cost and labor make the margin thin
• Puzzle: a high-margin seasonal pasta that tastes great but doesn’t sell because it’s buried on the menu or described vaguely
• Dog: an underperforming appetizer that rarely sells and uses ingredients that create waste or complicate prep

How digital menus and management systems can support the process

Digital menu tools can make menu engineering easier because updates can be applied quickly and consistently across locations and languages. In practice, operators use them to test changes without reprinting menus and to keep item information standardized.

For example, a system like Menuviel can support the workflow by letting you update item names, descriptions, prices, and availability from one dashboard, then roll those changes out across multiple menus and languages. That makes it easier to act on matrix decisions (like highlighting stars or improving a puzzle’s description) and keep the menu aligned with what you’ve learned from sales and margin data.