The menu report worth reading every month

Most venues have more data about their menu than they ever read. Every check rung through the till records which dishes were ordered, when and at what price. Yet the menu is often changed on instinct: the chef's feeling about what is popular, a manager's impression of what is not selling, a regular's comment about a dish they miss.

A monthly menu report turns that data into a page worth reading. Not a stack of printouts, but a single page that shows what sold, what earned, what changed since last month and what is barely selling at all, followed by a short conversation with the chef about what to do. This guide covers what belongs on the page, how to read each part, and the three questions to bring to the kitchen. Every figure in it is an example.

A month is a good rhythm for a menu report. It is long enough to smooth out an unusual night or a wet week, and short enough that changes show up while there is still time to act on them. Weekly reports are too noisy for menu decisions; quarterly reports arrive too late.

A regular report also changes the conversation about the menu. Instead of arguing from impressions, the owner, the manager and the chef look at the same page and start from the same facts. Instincts still matter, because the chef knows things no report shows, but they are tested against what guests actually ordered.

And a report read every month builds a history. After six months, the venue can see how dishes behave through the seasons, which changes worked and which did not, and how the menu as a whole is changing.

The report has four parts, each answering one question:

Keep it to one page. A report that runs to ten pages is read once and then filed. One page, read every month by the people who decide the menu, does far more good.

Each part needs only a few numbers per dish. The skill is in choosing which numbers, laying them out so patterns are obvious, and resisting the urge to add more.

Use calendar months, so each report covers the same kind of period and can be compared with the last. Note anything that makes a month unusual: a week of closure, a heatwave, a big local event, a menu change partway through.

For the movers, compare each month with the month before and, once you have a year of reports, with the same month last year. The comparison with last month shows recent change; the comparison with last year separates real change from the normal rhythm of the seasons.

If the menu changed during the month, either report the two parts separately or start the report from the change. Comparing a dish's sales across a menu change can mislead, because its position, price or description may have changed too.

The menu mix is the share of sales each dish takes within its section. For each section, list the dishes with the number of plates sold and each dish's share of the section.

Keep sections separate. Starters compete with starters and mains with mains; a dessert's share of all sales means little. Within each section, sort the dishes from most to least sold, so the shape of the section is visible at a glance.

Add one line for each section's total, so the reader can see whether the section as a whole grew or shrank. Our guide to menu mix: what your guests order, not what you sell covers what the mix can tell you.

Every section has a shape. Usually a few dishes take a large share, a middle group takes a steady share, and a few take very little. The shape itself is not a problem; what matters is whether it is the shape you want.

Look at the top of each section. Are the dishes guests order most the ones the kitchen most wants to sell? If the most popular main earns little, the menu is working hard for little reward. If the dish the kitchen is proudest of is in the middle of the list, it may need a better position or a word from servers.

Look at the balance between sections too. If mains are strong but few guests order starters or desserts, the problem may be how those sections are presented or offered, rather than the dishes themselves.

The second part shows what each dish earns. For each dish, show the cash margin per plate, the selling price net of tax minus the plate cost, and the total contribution, the margin multiplied by the plates sold.

Cash margin per plate tells you which dishes earn most each time they are ordered. Total contribution tells you which dishes earn most for the business over the month, which depends on how often they sell as well as on their margin. The two lists often differ, and the difference is worth seeing.

Our guide to menu item profitability, dish by dish covers how to calculate both, and how to add kitchen time for a fuller picture.

The margin figures are only as good as the plate costs behind them. Update the costs of the most important dishes whenever ingredient prices change significantly, and check them all at least every few months. A report built on last year's costs will flatter dishes whose ingredients have risen.

Note on the page when each dish's cost was last updated, or mark any dish whose costing is out of date. That keeps the margin figures honest: a reader can see which numbers are solid and which need checking.

Use the price net of tax. A margin built on the price including tax overstates every dish, and makes the cheaper dishes look better than they are.

The movers are the dishes whose sales changed most since last month. For each section, list the two or three dishes whose plates sold rose most and the two or three that fell most, with the change in plates and in share.

Movers are where the report earns its keep. A dish that suddenly sells far more may have benefited from a new description, a better position, a server's recommendation or simply the season. A dish that suddenly sells far less may have a problem: a change in the recipe, a price rise, a run of complaints, a competitor offering the same thing.

Show movers in plates and in share. A dish can sell more plates simply because the venue was busier; a rise in share shows it gained ground against the other dishes.

Every significant mover deserves a reason. When a dish moves, ask what changed. Was there a new special that took its sales? Did the price change? Was it moved on the menu? Did the season turn? Did the kitchen change the recipe or the supplier?

Many movements have ordinary explanations. Soups and stews rise in autumn; salads rise in summer; a special that ran for three weeks takes sales from the dishes beside it. These are worth noting but not acting on.

The movements worth acting on are the ones nobody can explain, and the ones caused by changes the venue made on purpose. If a price rise caused a dish to fall sharply, that tells you something about its guests. If a new description lifted a dish, the same approach may help others.

The long tail is the dishes at the bottom of each section that sold only a few plates in the month. List them with their plates sold and, where you have it, any reason they stay on the menu.

Every dish in the tail carries costs that its sales do not show: ingredients in stock, prep each morning, space on a station. Some of those dishes earn their place for other reasons, such as a dietary need or a signature dish, and those reasons should be written down. Others are simply not selling.

Watch the tail over several months. A dish that sits in the tail month after month, with no reason recorded, is a candidate for change. Our guide to menu size, and why thirty dishes is usually too many covers what the tail costs.

If guests read the menu on their phones, the report can include something sales alone cannot show: how guests behaved before they ordered. How often each dish was opened, how often it was then ordered, and which categories were rarely opened at all.

That adds a useful layer. A dish that is opened often but rarely ordered may have a description or a price that puts guests off at the last moment. A dish that is rarely opened may simply be in a poor position on the menu. A category that few guests open may need a better name or a better place.

Keep this part short: a line or two noting the dishes where looking and ordering differ most. It is a clue to follow up, not a part of the report to dwell on.

The report exists to start a conversation, and the best conversations with the chef are built around three questions. Each points to a different kind of action, and together they cover almost everything the report can show.

The three questions are: what should we protect, what should we fix, and what should we stop? Bring them to a short meeting with the chef soon after the report is ready, perhaps half an hour in a quiet afternoon. Agree one or two actions for each question, with an owner and a date, and check them at the next month's meeting.

Keep the conversation focused. The report invites discussion of every dish; the three questions keep it on the few that matter this month.

The first question is about the dishes that carry the menu: popular, profitable, consistent. These are the dishes to protect, by keeping their quality, portions and position steady and by being careful about changing them.

Ask the chef whether any of them are at risk. Has a supplier changed? Has the portion drifted? Is a cook leaving who makes it best? A dish that carries the menu is worth more attention than its steady numbers suggest.

Protecting also means noticing when one of these dishes begins to slip. A star whose share has fallen two months running deserves a closer look before it becomes a problem.

The second question is about dishes with a problem that can be solved. A popular dish with a thin margin might need a price rise or a lower cost. A profitable dish that sells slowly might need a better description, a better position or a server's recommendation. A dish whose sales fell after a recipe change might need the old recipe back.

Agree a specific fix for each, and decide how you will know if it worked: next month's mix, the margin after a price change, the share after a new description. Our guide to the menu engineering matrix, with a real menu covers the usual fixes for each kind of dish.

Limit the fixes to two or three a month. Too many changes at once make it impossible to tell which ones worked.

The third question is about dishes that should come off the menu, specials that should end, or practices that should change. A dish that has sat in the long tail for months with no reason to stay is the obvious example.

Stopping is the hardest of the three, because every dish has someone who likes it. Bring the evidence: several months of sales, the dish's margin, the stock and prep it needs. Agree whether it should be replaced, reworked or simply removed, and when.

Not every month needs something stopped. But a menu that never stops anything only grows, and the third question is what keeps it in check.

A one-page report works best as a few simple lists or a compact grid. One approach is a block for each section: the dishes sorted by plates sold, with share, margin per plate and total contribution beside each, and a mark beside any mover or tail dish. Below the sections, a short list of the month's notes: unusual events, out-of-date costings and the dishes where looking and ordering differ most.

At the bottom, leave space for the actions agreed with the chef: what to protect, what to fix and what to stop, each with an owner and a date.

Keep the same layout every month, so the people reading it know exactly where to look. A familiar page is read in five minutes; a new format every month is read with effort, if at all.

The menu report is one of a small set of reports a venue should read regularly. Others cover sales and covers, labour, costs and guests. Each answers a different question, and none needs to be long.

Our guide to restaurant reporting: six reports, no more covers the whole set. The menu report's job is narrow: what guests ordered, what it earned and what should change on the menu. Leave labour, bookings and marketing to their own reports.

Like any key performance indicator, the numbers on the page matter only if someone acts on them. A report that leads to two good decisions a month is worth far more than a beautiful report that leads to none.

The report should be read by the people who decide the menu: usually the owner or general manager and the head chef. In a group, the person responsible for menus across the sites reads each venue's report alongside the others.

Fix the timing: prepare the report in the first few days of each month and hold the meeting with the chef within a week. A report that arrives three weeks into the next month is already out of date.

Share a short summary with the wider team too. Servers who know which dishes the kitchen wants to sell, and why, can help. A line in the pre-service briefing, such as "the lamb is our best dish this month, please mention it", turns the report into action on the floor.

An invented bistro starts a monthly menu report. In its first month, the mix shows its burger taking a third of all mains, with a thin margin. The movers show its fish dish falling sharply after a price rise. The long tail shows four mains that sold fewer than twenty plates each, two of them with no recorded reason to stay. The digital menu shows guests opening the lamb often but rarely ordering it.

At the meeting, the chef and manager agree three things. Protect the roast chicken, the steadiest earner, by checking its portion. Fix the burger's margin with a small price rise and a cheaper side, and rewrite the lamb's description, which guests seemed to find confusing. Stop one of the tail dishes, replacing it with a vegetarian main the menu lacked.

The next month's report shows the burger's sales holding at the new price, the lamb's orders rising after the new description, and the replacement dish selling better than the one it replaced. The meeting takes twenty minutes.

In servearound, the menu report gives the sales side of the page for any dates: menu revenue, units sold, checks and how many dishes sold; categories with units, revenue and share; top sellers by revenue; and every dish that sold, with units, checks, quantity per check, revenue and share, for one menu or all of them. From the menu guests open on their phones, it also shows how far a visit gets, how often each dish was looked at against how often it was ordered, which categories were never opened and what guests searched for.

The report does not compare one period with another, so the movers come from running last month and this month and comparing the two. servearound does not hold dish costs today, so the margins come from your own costing sheet, with the units and revenue taken from the report. See Analytics and the menus module.

A regular report showing what guests ordered, what each dish earned, which dishes changed most and which barely sold, used to make decisions about the menu.

Monthly is a good rhythm: long enough to smooth out unusual nights, short enough to act while changes are recent.

The menu mix by section, the margin and total contribution per dish, the dishes that moved most since last month, and the long tail of slow dishes.

Because dishes compete only with others in their section. A dessert's share of all sales tells you little.

The dishes whose sales rose or fell most since last month, shown in plates and in share of their section.

Record why each slow dish stays. Dishes that sit in the tail for several months with no reason are candidates for change.

What should we protect, what should we fix, and what should we stop? Agree one or two actions for each.

The people who decide the menu, usually the owner or manager and the head chef, with a short summary for the wider team.

Yes. Comparing how often guests open a dish with how often they order it shows dishes that put guests off and dishes that are rarely seen.

A monthly menu report turns till data into one page that the people who decide the menu actually read. It has four parts: the menu mix by section, the margin and total contribution of each dish, the movers since last month, and the long tail of dishes that barely sell, with a line on what guests looked at if they read the menu on their phones.

Keep the same layout every month, build margins on current costs and prices net of tax, and ask why every significant mover moved. Then bring three questions to the chef, what to protect, what to fix and what to stop, agree a few actions with owners and dates, and check them at the next month's meeting.