Suggestions on Fine-Tuning your Restaurant’s Menu
Menu optimization is key in a successful operation. Aligning your menu with a balance of dishes that excite your customers, all while keeping your own checkbooks happy, can be a challenging task. This is especially true for dealing with the after-effects of the pandemic. Restaurants are now facing food shortages, a rise in food costs and customer behavior changes. Adapting to this change has never been more key for businesses to be successful. Here are some tips on how to fine tune your restaurant’s menu to better deal with economic instability.
Drop it – Edit it – Rebrand it
The first step in fine-tuning your restaurant’s menu is to know what your customers favorite dishes are and to know which items are rarely being ordered. Menu items with low popularity are only costing you money and should be dropped immediately.
The second step is editing or switching up menu items that are poorly performing. Brainstorming new innovative recipes could improve your menu. You could always go a more classic route, for example replacing the unpopular ham sandwich on your menu with an unbeatable chopped cobb salad.
Something to be aware of is that if there are too many food items on your menu, customers can get overwhelmed in choosing their meals. Psychologists advise limiting your menu to seven options per food category, this will help to lessen your customers’ confusion.
Innovating popular menu items can allow you to become more cost effective, while keeping the same classic and delicious taste on your menu. An example of this is instead of paying for the labor cost of an employee chopping and preparing a side dish such as mashed potatoes, you can conveniently replace your recipe with a speed-scratch option. This will significantly reduce time and labor costs, while allowing you to still highlight this popular item. With easy ingredient swaps like this, operators can continue to serve signature dishes while saving time and money.
The last step we suggest is rebranding. Rebranding can do remarkable things for your restaurant and is an innovative idea if your restaurant is just not attracting customers like it used to! Make sure to do your research in this area before you make any major changes. A good rule of thumb is if your brand is stale and no longer appealing to you then that is a definite sign it is no longer appealing to your customers. The goal is to stand out by setting your brand and establishment apart.
We hope these suggestions help you fine-tune your restaurant’s menu. It is imperative that your restaurant is strategic during these times by laying out a game plan for adapting to change. Menu optimization should be a key aspect of this plan so that your restaurant can thrive in the years ahead.
Resources:
Unilever Food Solutions (n.d) Restaurant Innovation & Menu Optimization: Doing More with Less. Retrieved from https://www.unileverfoodsolutions.us/chef-training/restaurant-innovation-menu-optimization.html
Nation’s Restaurant News. August 4, 2022. Strategies for Successful Menu Optimization in times of Economic Uncertainty. Idaho Food Service. Retrieved from https://www.nrn.com/sponsored-content/strategies-successful-menu-optimization-times-economic-uncertainty
