What is Menu Engineering?
Menu engineering is the practice of analysing every dish by two numbers — how often it sells and how much profit it makes — and then redesigning the menu to push the winners. Dishes fall into four boxes: stars (popular and profitable), plough-horses (popular, low profit), puzzles (profitable, ignored) and dogs (neither). Stars get photos and prime placement; dogs get removed or repriced.
Placement psychology does the heavy lifting: eyes land first on the top-right area, boxed items sell more, and removing the ₹ symbol reduces price pain. An Indian cafe might discover its paneer tikka earns ₹90 margin per plate but hides on page three; moving it to a highlighted "chef recommends" box with a photo can lift its sales dramatically. Digital menus make this easy because sales data is captured automatically.