Menu Profitability Calculator
Enter your dishes — price, plate cost, and how many you sell — and see each one's contribution margin and food cost, then where it lands on the menu engineering matrix: Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle, or Dog. Nothing leaves your browser.
| Dish | Price (€) | Plate cost (€) | Units sold | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Your menu, classified
- Signature burgerContribution: €12Food cost: 33%Share: 47%Star
- Fish & chipsContribution: €7Food cost: 56%Share: 41%Plowhorse
- RibeyeContribution: €19Food cost: 44%Share: 8%Puzzle
- Soup of the dayContribution: €4Food cost: 50%Share: 5%Dog
Plowhorse: Fish & chips — high volume, thin margin. Every cover earns less than it should — the first place to look for margin.
Compare like with like — run this one category at a time (starters against starters), since a starter and a main never compete fairly on the same grid. Thresholds are the average contribution of the dishes you enter and a 70% share benchmark.
New to this? Read the complete guide to menu engineering.
This is the 60-second version.
The full Couverté Verdict reads your real POS and menu, benchmarks your market, and hands you three prioritized moves — free.
Get your free Verdict →How to read the four quadrants
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Star
High margin, high popularity. Protect it — hold the recipe and the position, never discount it.
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Plowhorse
Low margin, high popularity. The dangerous favourite — nudge the price, re-spec the plate, redirect demand.
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Puzzle
High margin, low popularity. Profitable but hidden — reposition, rename, or hand-sell it.
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Dog
Low margin, low popularity. Usually cut — unless it's a deliberate anchor, a signature, or a dietary necessity.
The full method — costing recipes, setting thresholds, and running the loop on a weekly cadence — is in the complete guide to menu engineering, with the terms defined in the glossary.