Part of menu analysis is comparing menu item profits with how popular each item is, so you can figure out which dishes to keep promoting and which to remove or rework.
Once you have yourrecipes in Garde and have done at least some PMIX mapping, you can access this graphic way to visualize this information to make it easier to understand where your items stand in comparison to one another. The chart is separated into four quadrants: Plow Horse, Dog, Star, and Puzzle. (Industry names, not our creation!)
Under Recipes > Menu Analysis , you can click to view as “Chart” to see this visual in action.
A Summary of the Four Quadrants
**For a more in depth analysis with suggested approaches for each type,click here. **
Each quadrant has their own special benefits and challenges, but there is a lot of overlap in terms of how you can try to improve profitability across the graph.
Plow Horse: Low Profit, High Popularity
Dishes that fall under the Plow Horse category have both higher food costs and high popularity, meaning they are less profitable for you, but your customers love them.
To raise your profit margins on Plow Horses, the goal is to lower food costs without hurting the dish’s popularity. The dish is already a hit, so look for ways to cut food costs that do not involve changing the dish’s ingredients.
Dog: Low Profit, Low Popularity
Dog menu items have low profitability and low popularity, making them the worst things to have on your menu from a financial point of view.
There are basically three options: rebrand the item as a limited-time special so you don’t have to buy as many ingredients to make it, rethink the recipe (like turning it into a corn chowder), or 86 it from your menu entirely. We know that making these choices can be tough, but hard numbers to back up your decision should make them a little easier.
Puzzle: High Profit, Low Popularity
Puzzles have high margins, but not many people order them. Since they are already profitable, the main opportunity is finding better ways to promote them.
Star: High Profit, High Popularity
Stars are your best menu items: high profitability and high popularity. Promote them as much as you can. The return on that effort will be worth it.
Combine Menu Analysis with Garde’s AI Insights to get automated recommendations about which dishes to promote and which to reconsider based on your actual sales and cost data.
