Menu Engineering: Cost your Menu

You may have heard the term 'Menu Engineering' whispered around the hospitality world.  Too often, a menu is made purely focusing on aesthetics - but with more time and effort, using Menu Engineering, a design can become a psychologically tuned sales driver. We look in to Menu Engineering and break down the 4 main steps in our crash course series. 

Surprisingly, it is estimated that around 80% of restaurants don’t cost their menu and a further 5% do so incorrectly.

Whilst it may be time-consuming, the benefits are huge.

Ensure that one person performs the costing of the entire menu, this will ensure consistency. This individual will be the obvious choice for leading the menu engineering process due to being highly knowledgeable about the food costs of each item.

The costing should refer purely to the ingredient costs (food/drink) and not include labour costs. Every menu item should be broken down by the ingredients used, the quantity of the ingredients used, and the cost associated with each ingredient.

Find part 2 of our Menu Engineering series here: https://www.supertuffmenus.com/menu-engineering-categorise-your-menu

“Menu Engineering...what is it?

Menu Engineering is a systematic approach to building powerful menus that positively impact guests' experience and drives their desire to return.

Your menu is your most valuable marketing tool and fortunately a menu update is often the least-expensive improvement a restaurant can make! It also tends to produce the greatest and quickest returns on investment.

Gregg Rapp, Menu Engineer has refined the menu engineering process, over his thirty-six years working with restaurant teams around the world on menus.”
- www.menuengineers.com