Optimize Your Restaurant Menu to Increase Sales

“The chefs write the music and the menu becomes the lyrics, and sometimes the music is gorgeous and it’s got the wrong lyrics and the lyrics can torpedo the music.” - Danny Meyer, Restaurateur, Tabla

While a menu might seem to be an arbitrary list of appetizers, mains and desserts, an effective menu is anything but a mishmash of steak, pastas, and pizza smooshed together haphazardly. Strategy prevails in even the smallest details – from the dish’s title, to the item it’s placed beside, to the price, to the visual accompaniment.

Defined as, “the study of the profitability and popularity of menu items and how these two factors influence the placement of these items on a menu,” the practice of optimizing menu profitability is called Menu Engineering. The main objective is to increase profits through the strategic placement of products. In fact, a menu redesign can serve to increase your profits more than 15 percent.

Entire careers are devoted to this profession, but to…