Menu Pricing
Seven Menu Engineering Mistakes That Cost Restaurants Money
Identify underpriced bestsellers, low-margin distractions and opportunities to improve your menu.
The menu is the highest-leverage sales tool in the building. Most operators redesign the look every couple of years and leave the maths alone. Here are the seven mistakes that cost the most.
1. Underpricing your bestseller
If a dish sells out of proportion to the rest of the menu, it's almost always underpriced. A modest £1 increase on a dish selling 800 covers a month is £9,600 of pure GP annually.
2. Anchoring in the wrong place
The most expensive dish on the menu sets the price band for everything else. Remove it and the whole menu feels expensive.
3. £ signs everywhere
Menus without currency symbols consistently outsell menus with them. A small design decision, real money.
4. Ten similar dishes
Choice paralysis reduces spend. Curated menus with clear categories outperform sprawling ones.
5. Hiding the champions
Top-right of the menu is where the eye lands first. Put your highest-contribution dish there. Not the cheapest one.
6. Round-number pricing everywhere
£10, £15, £20 signals cheap in the wrong context and expensive in others. Vary the price points; use £9.50, £11.95, £14.
7. Never re-costing
Suppliers change prices monthly. If your menu is 12 months old and the prices haven't moved, your GP has.