This guide is for you if you run a restaurant, café or food stall in the Philippines and your menu has grown the way most menus grow. A dish added for a festive season stayed on. A regular's favorite became a fixture. A new drink arrived because the team loved it. Each one made sense at the time, and together they make the menu your customers know today.
Now picture your next menu change. You want room for something new, and you want every dish on the page to earn its place. Some items fly out of the kitchen every service. Others sell a handful a week. A few sell well but leave less behind after ingredients than you expected.
Menu engineering is the method restaurants use to make those calls with numbers rather than instinct. It sorts every item by two measures, how often it sells and how much it keeps, and gives each one a clear next step. The result is a menu that is easier to cook, easier to order from and better for your margin.
This guide walks through the method step by step, from collecting the numbers to deciding what to do with each item. It also shows how running your whole shop on one system gives you most of those numbers without a spreadsheet.
Popularity and Profit Tell You Two Different Things
A best seller tells you what your customers love. It does not tell you what each plate leaves behind once the ingredients are paid for. A dish that sells three hundred times a month at a thin margin can contribute less than one that sells a hundred times at a healthy one.
Menu engineering puts both measures side by side. Popularity shows you what your customers choose. Profit shows you what each choice is worth to your business. Read together, they show you the dishes people come back for and how to build more of your menu around them.
Here Is How One Order Looks When Your Whole Shop Runs on One System
Daniel sits down for lunch and scans the QR code on his table. Your menu opens in his phone's browser with photos and a recommendation beside the dish you most want to sell. As he adds a main, an add-on prompt suggests a drink that pairs with it. He sends his order from his phone, then settles the bill at the counter after his meal.
His order goes straight to your kitchen display, routed to the right station. Every item and every add-on lands in QashierPOS the moment he orders, in the same record as your walk-ins, your counter orders and your GrabFood and foodpanda orders. When he pays, he scans the Qashier Treats QR code and his points are added to his account.
The next morning, your QashierGM digest tells you how lunch went and which items moved. Over a month, those orders become the popularity half of your menu review, broken down by item, by channel and by time of day.
None of that required a single manual action from you.
Get the Popularity Half From Every Order You Already Take
The first number you need is how many of each item you sold over a set period. A full month works well for most menus, and a full season works better if your trade moves with the calendar. Count every channel, because a dish that sells modestly at the counter can be a favorite on delivery.
QashierPOS records every item across in-store, QR and delivery orders, and QashierHQ shows your best sellers, slow movers, product performance and channel performance. QashierGM makes the numbers easy to reach. Ask it "What were my best sellers last month?", "What's not selling?" or "Which items sell best at lunch?" in your own words, and it answers from your own QashierHQ data.
Work Out What Each Dish Keeps
The second number is what each dish keeps after ingredients, often called its contribution margin. Take the selling price, then subtract the cost of every ingredient on the plate at the portion your kitchen actually serves. Include the garnish, the sauce and the side, and the packaging for takeaway and delivery orders.
Many owners also track food cost as a percentage of the selling price. Both views help, but menu engineering ranks dishes by the amount each one keeps per plate, because that is what pays your rent and your team. Recheck your costs whenever a supplier changes a price, and keep the figures in one place so the next review starts where this one ended.
Sort Every Item Into One of Four Boxes
With both numbers ready, you can place every item. An item counts as popular when its share of total sales is at least 70% of an average item's share. On a menu of 20 items, the average share is 5%, so any item with at least 3.5% of sales counts as popular. An item counts as profitable when it keeps more per plate than your menu's average.
Those two lines create four boxes, and each box has its own next step:
- Stars sell often and keep a lot per plate, so you keep them and protect them.
- Plowhorses sell often but keep less per plate, so you reprice or rework them.
- Puzzles keep a lot per plate but sell less often, so you reposition them.
- Dogs, also called low performers, sell rarely and keep little, so you replace or cut them.
Work through one menu section at a time. Comparing mains with mains and drinks with drinks gives you fairer averages and clearer decisions.
Keep and Protect the Dishes Everyone Loves
Your stars are the dishes people come back for, so consistency matters more than anything else. Keep the recipe, the portion and the presentation exactly as customers know them, and give these dishes the best spots on your menu.
Make sure they never run out during service. If a star does sell out, QashierGM can mark it as sold out across your in-store, QR and delivery menus once you confirm, so no customer orders something the kitchen cannot make. Feature your stars on your Qashier Spotlight page and in your social posts, because they are the easiest way to introduce new customers to what you do best.
Reprice or Rework the Popular Dishes That Keep Less
Plowhorses bring people in, so the aim is to help them keep more without changing what customers love. A small price rise on a popular dish usually lands well, especially when the dish is clearly good value. Reworking the portion of a side or swapping one costly ingredient can lift what the plate keeps without changing how it tastes.
Pairing is the other lever. Offer a drink or side that keeps more per plate as an add-on, so every plowhorse order brings a second, more profitable item with it. Your QR menu can prompt the pairing with add-on suggestions as customers order. When you change a price, your QR menu updates in seconds, so every customer sees the same price wherever they order.
Reposition the Profitable Dishes Fewer People Order
Puzzles already keep a good amount per plate. They just need more customers to find them. Start with visibility. Move them higher on the menu, give them a clear photo on your QR menu, rename them so they are easier to picture and add them as a recommendation.
Your team makes a big difference here. A quick word from staff about the dish of the week moves orders, and Crew, Qashier's team chat, keeps everyone on the same message before service. A short promotion helps customers try something new. Ask QashierGM to create a promotion for your least-sold items and it suggests a way to move them, based on your own sales, ready for you to review before anything goes live.
Replace or Cut the Dishes That Have Done Their Job
Every menu has a few items that sell rarely and keep little. Removing them gives your kitchen less to prep, frees up ingredients and storage, and makes your menu easier to read. Customers decide faster when there are fewer choices, and the dishes you keep get more attention.
Before you cut an item, check who orders it. If it has a small group of loyal fans, your Qashier Treats customer records show you who they are, so you can let them know about the change or offer them something new to try. To test the impact first, take the item off your menus for a few weeks and watch your sales in QashierHQ. If nobody misses it, the decision is made.
Make Menu Reviews Part of Every Season
A menu is never finished, because ingredient costs, customer tastes and the calendar keep moving. Most restaurants review their menu every quarter and again before a big season, such as the Christmas season.
QashierGM makes each review faster. Ask "How does this week compare with last week?" or compare last month with the month before to see how a repriced or repositioned dish is performing. A morning digest arrives before you open, and you can set alerts in your own words for anything you want to watch, so you see the effect of every menu change while it is still fresh.
Everything Connects, So Every Menu Change Shows Up Everywhere
Each part of your shop feeds the next. Every order, in store, by QR or on delivery, adds to the same sales record. That record shows you which box each dish sits in. The changes you make reach your QR menu in seconds, your team hears about them in Crew, and Qashier Treats keeps your regulars coming back to see what is new.
QashierGM reads across all of it, so the answer to your next menu question is always one question away. The result is a menu where every item earns its place, built around the dishes people come back for.
One login. One view. One system.
Get Started
Qashier runs your POS, QR ordering, kitchen display, loyalty and QashierGM on one system, and it is ready for your restaurant today. Our local team in the Philippines helps you set up and get serving.
Book a free demo and see which dishes your customers come back for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is menu engineering?
Menu engineering is a method for analyzing a restaurant menu by popularity and profitability. Each item is placed in one of four groups based on how often it sells and how much it keeps per plate after ingredients. For restaurants and cafés in the Philippines, it gives you a clear next step for every dish: keep, reprice, reposition or cut.
What are the four categories in menu engineering?
Stars are popular and profitable, plowhorses are popular but keep less per plate, puzzles are profitable but less popular, and dogs are neither. Each category has its own action. You protect stars, reprice or rework plowhorses, reposition puzzles and replace or cut dogs.
How do I calculate the profit of each menu item?
Subtract the full ingredient cost of one portion from the item's selling price, including garnishes, sides and any takeaway packaging. The amount left is that item's contribution margin. Compare it with the average across the same menu section to see whether the item counts as profitable.
How often should a restaurant review its menu?
Most restaurants review their menu every quarter and again before a major season. A review is also worth doing whenever a key supplier changes prices. Regular reviews keep your margins steady and your menu fresh for regulars.
Can my POS show me my best-selling and slowest-selling items?
Yes. QashierPOS records every item sold across in-store, QR and delivery orders, and QashierHQ shows your best sellers, slow movers, product performance and channel performance. You can also ask QashierGM questions like "What's not selling?" in plain language and get an answer from your own sales data.
How do customers sign up for my loyalty program?
Customers join Qashier Treats by scanning the QR code on their receipt and entering their mobile number. After that, they scan the Treats QR code on each visit to earn points, and QashierPOS keeps track of their visits and rewards.
Do customers need to download an app to order from a QR menu?
No. Customers scan the QR code at their table and your menu opens in their phone's browser. They browse with photos and recommendations, then order, with no app to download. In the Philippines, customers place QR orders in store and settle the bill at the counter.
What is QashierGM?
QashierGM is the AI general manager inside QashierHQ. It answers questions about your sales and menu in your own words, sends a morning digest, alerts you to what you ask it to watch and can set up promotions or mark items sold out once you confirm. It works from the data your Qashier system already collects.