Free tool

Menu Engineering Calculator

Paste your menu and get an instant Kasavana-Smith menu matrix — contribution margins, item classification, and a prioritized action plan with estimated dollar impact. Free to use, runs in your browser.

Your menu data

Paste one item per line: name, food cost, price, units sold, category. Everything is calculated in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

How to engineer your menu

Most menus are priced by habit — a markup here, a guess there. Menu engineering replaces guesswork with a two-axis model: popularity (how often an item sells, its menu mix %) and profitability (its contribution margin — price minus food cost). Every item lands in one of four quadrants, and each quadrant has a playbook.

  • Stars — high popularity, high margin. Protect them: keep quality and visibility high, don't over-discount.
  • Plowhorses — popular but thin margin. Raise the price slightly, trim portion cost, or reposition on the menu.
  • Puzzles — profitable but under-sold. Promote and reposition; these are your biggest upside.
  • Dogs — low sales and low margin. Candidates for removal or a full reinvention.

The classic thresholds come from Kasavana & Smith (1982): an item is "popular" if its menu mix exceeds 70% of the average item's share, and "profitable" if its contribution margin beats the menu average. The calculator applies these when you analyze your data.

The real leverage is in the action plan: a one-line move per item, ranked by estimated dollar impact. A single Plowhorse repriced $1.50, or a Puzzle promoted into visibility, can be worth hundreds of dollars. MenuWright keeps your Square menu and sales data in sync automatically; run an analysis on demand to refresh those insights.

Frequently asked questions

What is menu engineering?

Menu engineering is the practice of classifying each menu item by profitability and popularity, then using that matrix to decide what to promote, reprice, bundle, or remove. It turns your menu into a profit lever instead of a static list.

What is the Kasavana-Smith menu matrix?

The Kasavana-Smith method (1982) plots every item on two axes — popularity (menu mix %) and profitability (contribution margin) — producing four quadrants: Stars (high/high), Plowhorses (popular, thin margin), Puzzles (profitable, under-sold), and Dogs (low/low).

Is this calculator really free?

Yes. The matrix, contribution margins, and per-item classification are free with no signup. Enter your email to unlock the prioritized action plan ranked by estimated dollar impact.

Do you upload my menu data?

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you paste is uploaded or stored.

How is this different from MenuWright?

This calculator does manually, for one snapshot, what MenuWright does from your Square POS data: your menu and sales data sync automatically, and you run each analysis on demand for updated classifications, AI recommendations, bundle and cannibalization detection, and reports.