A menu audit you can run in an afternoon

Most menus are written once and then edited for years. A price goes up here, a dish is swapped there, a supplier changes, a special becomes permanent. Each change makes sense on its own. Together, they leave a menu that nobody has looked at as a whole for a long time, with costings from last year, descriptions that no longer match the plate and allergen records that trail the recipes.

A menu audit is a structured look at the whole menu, on one afternoon, against a short list of checks. It does not need a consultant or a week of work. It needs the right documents, a quiet few hours and the honesty to write down what you find. This guide sets out twelve checks across costing, sales, copy, allergens, layout and channels, a timetable for the afternoon, and the two checks that fail at almost every venue. Every figure in it is an example.

A menu drifts. Ingredient prices rise faster than menu prices, so margins shrink quietly. Dishes that once sold well stop selling, but stay on the menu out of habit. Descriptions are written for the first version of a dish and never updated. Allergen information falls behind recipe changes. The website shows last season's prices.

None of this is visible from inside a busy week. Each problem is small, and each one is easy to put off. An audit makes them visible all at once, so they can be fixed together rather than discovered one at a time by a guest, an inspector or the accountant.

It also gives the team a shared picture of the menu. A head chef, a manager and an owner who audit the menu together usually find that they each knew about different problems, and leave with a single list of what to fix.

The afternoon goes faster if everything is gathered in advance:

Ask the head chef and a senior server to be there for part of the afternoon. The chef knows the recipes; the server knows what guests ask about and what confuses them.

The twelve checks fit into about four hours with a short break. A timetable keeps the afternoon moving:

Do not try to fix things as you go. Write each finding down with the dish it affects, and move on. Fixing during the audit turns a four-hour job into a two-day one and leaves the last checks undone.

Start with costing, because it is where money leaks most quietly. For each dish, look at when its costing was last updated and whether the prices behind it still match what you pay.

A costing audit does not mean re-costing every dish from scratch in an afternoon. Pick the dishes that matter most: your best sellers and any dish with an expensive main ingredient. Our guide to a costing audit for your twenty best sellers covers how to do it quickly. For the rest, note which costings are more than a few months old.

The finding is usually a short list of dishes whose costings are out of date, and two or three whose costs have risen enough to matter. Those go on the action list for proper re-costing.

With costs checked, look at what each dish earns. For each dish, compare the selling price with the cost to find the gross profit in money and as a share of the price.

Set the bar before you look, so the check is honest. A venue might decide that every main should earn at least a certain amount of cash per plate, and that no dish should have a food cost above a certain percentage of its price. Those figures depend on your venue and your prices; the point is to have them written down.

Mark every dish that falls below the bar. Some will have a good reason, such as a signature dish that brings guests in. Most will simply need a price change, a portion change or a cheaper ingredient. Our guide to menu engineering, and the four dishes you must act on covers how to decide which.

A dish can be costed correctly and still lose money if the portions on the plate are larger than the costing assumes. Ask the chef to plate two or three of the most important dishes as they are served on a busy night, and weigh the main components.

Compare them with the recipe specification. A steak that is supposed to be a set weight and comes in heavier, a side of chips that has grown over the months, a generous hand with the cheese: each is a cost that never appears in the costing.

Portion drift is common and usually innocent: cooks are generous, and generosity creeps. The finding is a note of which dishes are over-portioned and by how much, and the action is usually a reminder to the team and a photograph of the correct plate at the pass.

Now look at sales. For each dish, how often did it sell over the period, and how does that compare with the other dishes in its section? Combine that with the margin from check two, and each dish falls into one of four rough groups: popular and profitable, popular but thin, profitable but slow, and neither.

That is menu engineering, and it gives each dish a clear next step. Popular and profitable dishes are protected. Popular but thin dishes need their cost or price looked at. Profitable but slow dishes need a better place on the menu, a better description or a server recommendation. Dishes that are neither are candidates to remove.

Mark each dish with its group. The finding is often surprising: a dish everyone thinks of as a favourite turns out to sell modestly, or a quiet dish turns out to be one of the most profitable.

Most menus have a long tail of dishes that sell rarely. In many venues, a small number of dishes account for most of the sales, a pattern often called the Pareto principle, and the rest sell a handful of times a week.

Look at the bottom of the sales list. Which dishes sold fewer than, say, ten times in the period? Each one carries a cost the sales do not show: ingredients that sit in the fridge, prep time, space on a station and a line on the menu that another dish could use.

The finding is a list of tail dishes. Not all of them must go; some serve a purpose, such as a dish for children or a guest with a particular dietary need. But each one should have a reason to stay that someone can state.

Read every description against the dish as it is served today. Descriptions are often written for the first version of a dish and left unchanged as the dish evolves: a garnish that was dropped, a sauce that changed, a side that is now different.

Ask the chef and the server together. Does each description say what the guest will actually receive? Does it mention anything that is no longer there? Does it leave out anything a guest would want to know, such as a spicy element or a rich sauce?

A description that does not match the plate disappoints guests and can matter for allergies, if a changed component brings an allergen the description does not hint at. The finding is a list of descriptions to rewrite.

Look at the menu as a guest would. Are dish names clear about what the dish is? Are prices easy to find and consistent in style? Are supplements and extras priced clearly, such as a premium cut or an extra side?

Look for anything that might surprise a guest on the bill: a supplement shown in small print, a side that is charged separately but looks included, a service charge or cover charge that is not stated clearly. Each surprise costs goodwill.

Check the menu design while you are there. Our guide to menu layout: one page, two columns or a folder covers how the page itself affects reading, and check ten returns to it in the room.

Allergens are the check with the highest stakes. For every dish, compare the allergen matrix with the recipe as it is made today, including every sauce, garnish and side, and any supplier changes since the matrix was last updated.

Pay special attention to specials, recent changes and substitutions. A special that became a permanent dish may never have been added to the matrix. A substitute product brought in when the usual one ran out may have different allergens. Our guide to building an allergen matrix that stays correct covers how to keep it accurate.

Check that the version of the allergen information guests see, printed or digital, matches the matrix too. Our guide to menu allergens, and what to put on the page itself covers how the page and the guide should work together.

Go through every dish carrying a dietary label, such as vegetarian, vegan or gluten free, and check it against the full recipe and the way it is prepared. Stocks, cheeses, finishing butter, egg washes and shared fryers are the usual problems.

Check that the labels are consistent across every version of the menu, and that the kitchen statement about shared equipment is still accurate. A new fryer arrangement or a new pastry section can change what the kitchen can honestly claim.

Our guide to dietary labels guests can trust on a menu covers what each label requires. The finding is any label that no longer holds, and it should be fixed the same day, not added to a list for later.

Take a printed menu to a table in the dining room at the time guests read it, usually in the evening light. Read it as a guest would. Is the type large enough? Is the contrast strong enough? Can you find the sections quickly? Is the page crowded?

Ask the server what guests ask most often. Repeated questions usually point to something the menu fails to say clearly, such as how big a dish is, what a word means or whether a side is included.

Look at the physical menu too. Is it clean, undamaged and the right size for the tables? A menu that is stained, torn or held together with tape tells guests something about the venue before they read a word.

Lay every version of the menu side by side: the printed menu, the website, the QR menu, any delivery platforms and the till. For every dish, check the name, the price and whether it appears at all.

This is where most venues find their biggest surprises. A price raised on the printed menu but not online. A dish removed from the dining room but still on the website. A delivery platform with prices from two years ago. The till charging a different price from the menu on the table. Our guide to the menu on your website, not in a PDF covers why the online version matters so much.

Every difference is a guest who is disappointed or charged unexpectedly. The finding is a list of differences, and the action is to make one version the source and update the rest from it.

When a dish runs out during service, what happens? Is it taken off the QR menu and any online ordering at once? Do servers know? Does the till stop it being ordered?

Ask the team how it worked the last few times something sold out. Common problems include guests ordering a dish from their phones after it has run out, servers discovering it is gone only when the kitchen sends the ticket back, and delivery platforms selling a dish the kitchen cannot make.

The finding is a note of how sold-out dishes are handled, channel by channel, and where the gaps are. The action is usually a simple routine: who marks a dish as sold out, where, and how the team is told.

At almost every venue, two checks fail.

Check eleven, the menu being the same everywhere, fails because menus live in too many places and are updated in one or two of them. Prices on the website, the delivery platforms or the till drift from the printed menu, and nobody notices until a guest does.

Check eight, the allergen matrix matching today's recipes, fails because recipes change more often than the matrix is updated. Specials, substitutions and quiet recipe changes leave the matrix describing dishes as they used to be.

If you have time for only two checks, do these. And because they fail so often, they are the two that most deserve a routine beyond the audit: one source for the menu's content, and an allergen update every time a recipe or supplier changes.

At the end of the afternoon, turn the findings into a list of actions, each with an owner and a date. Group them by urgency:

Keep the list short enough to finish. An audit that produces sixty actions and completes ten has done less good than one that produces fifteen and completes them all.

A full menu audit is worth doing at least twice a year, and whenever the menu changes significantly. Some venues audit at every seasonal menu change, which keeps the audit short because the menu has been reviewed recently.

Between full audits, the two checks that usually fail deserve a lighter routine. Once a month, compare every version of the menu for prices and dishes. Every time a recipe or supplier changes, update the allergen matrix the same day.

Record each audit: the date, who took part, what was found and what was done. Over time, the record shows whether the menu is getting healthier, and which problems keep coming back.

An invented brasserie runs its first menu audit on a quiet Monday afternoon. Costings show that four dishes have become noticeably less profitable since they were last costed, and portions on two mains have grown. Sales show a long tail of nine dishes that sold fewer than ten times in the month.

The channel check finds the biggest surprises: the website shows prices from before the last increase, a delivery platform still lists two dishes removed months ago, and the till charges a different price for one dessert. The allergen check finds a special that became permanent without ever being added to the matrix, and a substitute mayonnaise containing mustard that the matrix does not mention.

The brasserie fixes the allergen record and the till price that day, updates the website and delivery platform that week, re-costs the four dishes, removes five tail dishes and reprints the menu within the month. The next audit, three months later, takes half the time.

In servearound, the menu report gives the sales side of the audit: units sold, revenue and share of sales for every dish and category over any dates, and from the menu guests open on their phones, how often each dish was looked at against how often it was ordered, which categories were never opened and what guests searched for without finding it. One menu feeds the QR menu, the venue's menu page, digital menu boards and print designs, so a price changed once changes on every guest menu and board, and a print design says when it is out of date: a dish repriced, renamed, added or removed since it was printed.

Allergen and dietary tags sit on each dish and show on every guest menu, and marking a dish sold out on the till shows it as sold out on every guest menu at once. servearound does not hold recipes or dish costs today, so the costing audit stays in your own sheet; inventory tracking, for the stock behind the menu, is coming. See the menus module, or get in touch to walk through your own menu.

A structured review of the whole menu against a set of checks covering costing, sales, copy, allergens, layout and every place the menu appears.

About four hours for twelve checks, if the documents are gathered in advance and findings are written down rather than fixed on the spot.

Every version of the menu, recipes and costings, current supplier prices, a recent sales report and the allergen matrix.

The menu being the same in every channel, and the allergen matrix matching today's recipes.

A check of whether dish costings still reflect current ingredient prices and portions, focused on the best sellers and the most expensive dishes.

Not automatically. Some serve a purpose, such as a dish for a dietary need, but each one should have a reason to stay that someone can state.

Anything affecting guest safety, such as a wrong allergen record or dietary label, and any price that charges guests unexpectedly, on the same day.

A full audit at least twice a year and at major menu changes, with a monthly channel check and an allergen update whenever a recipe changes.

The person responsible for the menu, the head chef for recipes and costings, and a senior server who knows what guests ask about.

A menu audit is a structured afternoon spent looking at the whole menu against twelve checks: costings at today's prices, acceptable margins, portions that match the spec, dishes that earn their place, the long tail, descriptions, prices and supplements, the allergen matrix, dietary labels, readability in the room, consistency across every channel, and how sold-out dishes are handled.

Gather the documents first, follow a timetable, write findings down rather than fixing them on the spot, and turn them into a short list of actions with owners and dates. Expect the channel check and the allergen check to fail, fix anything affecting guest safety the same day, and give those two checks a monthly routine between full audits.