Menu engineering is the practice of analysing every item on your menu by how often it sells and how much contribution margin it earns, then changing prices, placement, descriptions, portions and combos so the menu sells more of what makes you money. Items fall into four groups: stars (popular and high margin), plowhorses (popular but low margin), puzzles (high margin but slow), and dogs (slow and low margin).
Why it matters
On most menus a handful of items earn most of the profit and a few lose money on every plate. Small changes add up without a single extra customer: a ₹20 rise on a star, a combo that pairs a plowhorse with a high-margin add-on, a puzzle moved to the top of its category with a better description, a dog removed. On a digital menu you can make these changes in minutes and see the effect in a week. Restaurant menu engineering explains the full method.
Example
A cafe sells about 1,200 items a month. Its paneer tikka sandwich sells 300 at ₹80 margin, a star, so leave it alone and feature it. Cold coffee sells 350 at ₹35 margin, a plowhorse, so the price goes from ₹140 to ₹160; if volume holds, that is ₹7,000 a month more, and a small dip in volume is normal and still pays. Mushroom pasta sells 20 at ₹110 margin, a puzzle, so it gets a photo and the first slot in the mains. The veg club sandwich sells 15 at ₹30 margin, a dog, and comes off the menu. Combos do the rest: pricing meal deals that lift order value shows how to pair items.
On Tezzu, bundles and combos and promo banners on your store page are the tools for pushing the items you want to sell more of.