EXAMPLEIllustrative example · fictional restaurant «Sazón de Origen». Not your data: your result is built with YOUR restaurant's.See the assistant →
Sazón de OrigenFictional contemporary Colombian restaurant in Medellín, 2 locations, 6 years in business. Every sample result in the library comes from this same case.
Menu Engineering

Sample result

Dish Name Builder for Restaurants

The owner asked this:"I have three new dishes with no name and an old one, the Plato del chef, that almost nobody orders. I want to name the three and decide what to do with the fourth before the menu goes to print."

① The five dishes and their entry

Five dishes on the table and a different decision for each one. Before a single name was proposed, every dish got its card and its costing sheet: a name that does not come out of there is a bright idea in nice handwriting.

DishWhat it carriesName todayMenu priceCost per plateFood costEntry
Panela-glazed pork ribrib, cane-sugar panela, arracacha puréeno name46,000 COP14,720 COP32%Christening
Young-corn parcelchoclo, fresh quesito, huskno name28,000 COP9,520 COP34%Christening
Oven-baked flanksobrebarriga, criolla potato, hogaono name52,000 COP17,160 COP33%Christening
Rice with chicken, chorizo and plantainrice, chicken, chorizo, plantain"Plato del chef"38,000 COP13,300 COP35%Rescue
Traditional platterbeans, chicharrón, arepa, egg"Bandeja de la casa"54,000 COP18,360 COP34%Hands off

"Plato del chef" is the one the house wants to push, and the finding there is not about the name: at 35% food cost it sits above the 32% the house sets as the ceiling for a promoted piece, with the menu averaging 34%. At 41,600 COP the same dish lands at 32%; if the price does not move, cost per plate has to come down to 12,160 COP. It gets named anyway, but it is not promoted until one of the two gives: the problem there is not the name, it is the menu price.

"Bandeja de la casa" is not touched, and that was the hardest call of the session. Six years on the menu, 22% of units sold over the last 12 weeks, and guests who order it without opening the menu. A new christening would have to rebuild that recognition from zero, and recognition never shows up on a costing sheet even though it gets paid for. Illustrative figures, built from the data you gave.

② Twelve candidates and the ones that fell

Four quarries produced twelve candidates. Here are the four chosen and the four discards that teach the most; the other four sit in the full sieve.

CandidateQuarryCharactersUnderstood without askingCollisionVerdict
Costilla en panelaAnchor ingredient18YesNoneCHOSEN
Envuelto de chocloAnchor ingredient18YesNoneCHOSEN
Sobrebarriga al hornoTechnique21YesNoneCHOSEN
Arroz de la fondaThe house17YesNoneCHOSEN for the rescue
Costilla braseada a baja temperaturaTechnique36YesNoneOut: does not fit the 24-character field on the point of sale
Panela y candelaThe house16NoNoneOut: sounds good and says nothing about the food
Costilla en su jugoAnchor ingredient19YesNoneOut: promises a sauce the dish does not have
Sobrebarriga de la casaThe house23YesClashes with "Bandeja de la casa"Out: "de la casa" already has an owner on this menu

Two discards carry the whole method. "Costilla braseada a baja temperatura" was the most precise of the twelve and fell over 12 characters too many: the point of sale cuts it, the server types whatever fits, and the sales mix stays dirty for the rest of the year. And "Costilla en su jugo" promises sauce where there is a dry glaze; that promise comes back as a returned plate, and with that rib's food cost at 32%, two send-backs wipe out the table's contribution margin.

The collision rule is not about taste: "Sobrebarriga de la casa" and "Bandeja de la casa" abbreviate the same way on the docket, and an ambiguous docket at 1:10 p.m. on a Thursday costs one plate remade.

③ Costilla en panela, place by place

The chosen name, written for each place where it lives. Four places and five rows, because this house's delivery channel is two: its own and the delivery platform. The character caps are assumed until you check them against your point of sale.

PlaceHow it is writtenCharacter capWho types or says itSignal measured
Dining-room menuCostilla en panela18, one lineAdminUnits sold per week
Docket and point of saleCOSTILLA EN PANELA24 (assumed)ServerDockets with no handwritten note
Own delivery, over WhatsAppCostilla en panelafreeDelivery assistantOrders that name it without seeing a photo
Delivery platformCostilla en panela · cerdo glaseado con arracacha60 (assumed)AdminSearches that end in an order
Server's mouth"la costilla en panela, that bakes for 12 hours"one sentenceFloor managerTables that order it without asking what it is

On the platform people type "costilla", not "panela": that is why the searched word goes first and the explanation comes after the middle dot, where the title still fits. In the dining room the short name is enough, because the description sits below it. In the server's mouth the name travels with one kitchen fact and no more: if it needs two, the name was not finished.

The same 18 characters hold all five rows without breaking. That is the whole test, and it is run before the menu goes to print, not after.

The full example has 2 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.