MenuMargin Glossary
Restaurant menu engineering terms and AI-assisted costing definitions for independent operators building profitable menus at scale.
A
- As-Purchased Weight
- The total weight of an ingredient at the time of purchase, before any trimming, cooking, or prep processing.
- AI Menu Analysis
- The use of large language models and machine learning to evaluate menu item performance and generate optimization recommendations.
- AI Costing
- Automated plate costing powered by LLM-based invoice and recipe ingestion, reducing manual spreadsheet dependency.
C
- Cost Per Serving
- The ingredient cost allocated to a single serving of a menu item, identical to plate cost in most costing contexts.
E
- Edible Portion
- The weight or quantity of a food item that is actually available for service after all prep and cooking loss.
F
- Food Cost Percentage
- The ratio of ingredient cost to menu price, expressed as a percentage. A key profitability benchmark.
G
- Gross Profit Margin
- Revenue minus cost of goods sold, divided by revenue. Expressed as a percentage; the primary menu profitability metric.
- GMROL
- Gross Margin Return on Labor. A productivity metric that measures revenue generated per dollar spent on labor.
I
- Invoice OCR
- Optical Character Recognition applied to supplier invoices to extract line-item data for automated costing.
L
- Labor Cost Percentage
- Total labor expense (wages, payroll tax, benefits) divided by total revenue. A core operating ratio.
- LLM
- Large Language Model. A transformer-based AI model trained on text data that can reason, classify, and generate content.
M
- Menu Engineering
- A framework for categorizing menu items by profitability and popularity to optimize item mix and pricing.
- Menu Psychology
- The application of design, placement, and pricing cues to influence guest ordering behavior and increase average ticket.
- Menu Heat Map
- A visual overlay on a menu showing relative profitability or popularity of each item using color gradients.
- Menu Engineering Matrix
- A 2×2 classification grid plotting menu items by menu mix percentage versus plate cost for strategic routing.
- Menu Pricing Strategy
- The methodology used to set menu prices, whether cost-plus, competition-based, value-based, or demand-driven.
- Menu Mix
- The distribution of sales volume across menu items, typically expressed as a percentage of total menu revenue.
- Menu Segmentation
- Dividing a menu into categories such as appetizers, entrees, and desserts for targeted cost and performance analysis.
- Menu Profitability Index
- A composite score ranking menu items by a weighted combination of margin and sales volume to identify highest-impact items.
- Menu Engineering Dashboard
- A visual interface showing plate costs, food cost percentages, menu mix, and engineering classifications across all menu items.
P
- Plate Cost
- The total ingredient cost for a single prepared menu item, calculated from the cost per ingredient portion.
- Prime Cost
- The combined total of food and labor costs, a primary driver of restaurant profitability and operational health.
- Plate Cost Variance
- The difference between budgeted (standard) plate cost and actual plate cost, often caused by portioning drift or price changes.
- POS Integration
- Connecting a point-of-sale system to MenuMargin to automatically pull sales mix and revenue data for menu engineering.
R
- Recipe Costing
- The process of calculating the per-portion cost of a recipe by accounting for every ingredient and yield.
- Recipe Scaling
- Adjusting ingredient quantities proportionally to produce a different yield (number of portions) from a base recipe.
S
- Supplier Price Volatility
- Fluctuation in ingredient prices over time, which requires frequent plate cost recalculation to maintain accurate margins.
T
- Target Food Cost
- The food cost percentage goal set by an operator, against which actual performance is measured and gaps identified.
Y
- Yield Percentage
- The ratio of edible portion weight to as-purchased weight, expressed as a percentage. Critical for accurate plate costing.