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BSB
Menu Intelligence
Getting started
Introduction
Your menu is a portfolio. Start treating it like one.
Most restaurants manage their menu by gut feel — keeping dishes because they're popular, dropping them when they feel stale. This tool replaces gut feel with a framework developed by Cornell professor Michael Kasavana in 1982 called Menu Engineering.
The idea is simple: every item on your menu earns its place — or it doesn't. This dashboard tells you which is which, so you can make decisions backed by data instead of instinct.
📊
Two metrics only
How often it sells × how much profit it makes. That's it.
🎯
Four clear buckets
Every item lands in one quadrant with a clear action attached.
⚡
Immediate decisions
What to raise, promote, redesign, or kill — right now.
The Framework — Step 1
Two numbers. Everything flows from them.
The Horwath model ignores revenue. Instead it asks two questions about every dish:
1. How popular is it? — How many times per week does someone actually order it? 2. How profitable is it? — After the ingredients, how much money does one order put in your pocket?
THE TWO AXES
X axis — Popularity
= Units sold per week
If the Classic Margarita sold 262 times last week, its popularity score is 262. High = right side of the chart. Low = left side.
Classic Margarita: 262 units/wk →
Y axis — Profit contribution
= Selling price minus ingredient cost
If Beef Tartare sells for Rp 150,000 and costs Rp 41,804 to make, its GP per unit is Rp 108,196. High = top of chart. Low = bottom.
Beef Tartare: Rp 108k GP ↑
The dividing lines sit at the median for each axis — items above the median popularity are "high volume", items above the median GP are "high margin". Those two cuts create four zones.
The Framework — Step 2
Four quadrants. One action each.
Plot every item. Where it lands tells you exactly what to do with it.
⭐
Stars
HIGH VOLUME · HIGH MARGIN
Your best performers. Customers love them and you make good money on every order. These items earn their spot on the menu every single night.
→ Protect & promote
🐎
Plowhorses
HIGH VOLUME · LOW MARGIN
People order these constantly, but you're not making much per plate. They drive traffic but underperform financially. The risk: if you try to raise prices, volume drops.
→ Reduce cost or test price
❓
Puzzles
LOW VOLUME · HIGH MARGIN
Great money per order, but nobody's choosing them. Usually a positioning, placement, or awareness problem — not a recipe problem. They could be Stars with the right push.
→ Reposition & promote
🐶
Dogs
LOW VOLUME · LOW MARGIN
Low sales, low profit. They're taking up menu space, kitchen inventory, and staff training time. Unless there's a strong strategic reason to keep them, these are candidates to remove.
→ Reprice, rework, or remove
Test yourself
Which quadrant does each dish belong in?
Use what you just learned. Click the dish you think is the Star — the one with both high volume and high margin.
🐶
Potato Graten
3 units/wk · GP/unit: Rp 57,502 · COGS: 28%
🐶
Steak & Frites
3 units/wk · GP/unit: Rp 218,202 · COGS: 51.5%
⭐
Classic Margarita
262 units/wk · GP/unit: Rp 112,000 · COGS: 20%
🐎
Hand-cut Fries
136 units/wk · GP/unit: Rp 43,315 · COGS: 21%
Your Menu — Real Examples
What the data is saying about Black Sand right now.
Two weeks of Quinos sales data combined with your May 2026 supplier cost increases. Here's what the matrix reveals.
⭐ Star — Protect this
Classic Margarita
262 units/wk GP/unit: Rp 112,000 Weekly GP: Rp 29.4M COGS: 20% · New price: Rp 160k
Your single highest-revenue cocktail by a distance. At 20% COGS it's leaving margin on the table — the price increase to Rp 160k is long overdue and won't dent volume at this level of loyalty. Never let this run out of garnish.
🐎 Plowhorse — Volume driver
Brisket Burger
134 units/wk GP/unit: Rp 79,946 Weekly GP: Rp 10.7M COGS: 38.5% · New price: Rp 145k
One of your two top-selling big plates. But 38.5% COGS on wagyu brisket is bleeding money at scale. Every burger sold is costing you Rp 18k more than it should. Price must go to Rp 155–160k or the recipe needs tightening.
❓ Puzzle — Undersold
Beef Tartare on Toast
30 units/wk GP/unit: Rp 108,196 Weekly GP: Rp 3.3M COGS: 27.9% · New price: Rp 170k
Almost as much GP per unit as the Classic Margarita, but barely anyone orders it. This is a menu placement and recommendation problem. Train staff to suggest it. Move it up on the menu. It deserves 60+ units a week.
🐶 Dog — Hard question
Steak & Frites
~3 units/wk GP/unit: Rp 218,202 (pre-cost) COGS: 51.5% · New price: Rp 505k
The highest GP per unit on paper — but it's actually losing money at 51.5% COGS, and barely selling. Rib Eye cost just jumped 23%. This dish needs a decision: Rp 580k+ price, a different cut, or removal.
Using the dashboard
You're ready. Here's how to navigate it.
The dashboard has two views. Use them together.
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Scatter plot
See the full picture at once. Every bubble is a menu item. Bubble size = weekly revenue. Hover any bubble to get the full breakdown. Use this for board-level discussions and to spot patterns across the menu.
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Full table
Every item, every number, with current price struck through and recommended price in green. Filter by category, quadrant, or flag. Sort by any column. Use this when making pricing decisions item by item.
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Urgent flags
Items flagged Urgent need a decision before you update prices on anything else. Filter by flag to isolate them. Brisket Burger and Steak & Frites are your two this month.
Remember: items with "No data" in the units column haven't been tracked yet in Quinos. Their quadrant is estimated from GP alone — add more weekly reports to lock them in.
BSB
Menu Engineering
Internal — May 2026
APR 20 – MAY 3
Upload Quinos sales data
Export your weekly sales report from Quinos as CSV and drop it here. The dashboard updates automatically.