Turn menu data into stronger margins.
Your best-seller and your best earner are rarely the same dish.We rank every item by contribution and popularity, then focus attention where it pays.
Profitability Menu complexity Kitchen efficiency Pricing decisions Product promotion
The practice
A menu is not a list of dishes. It is the system that sets your margins, shapes your kitchen and steers every order.
PIHOCO reads your menu the way an accountant reads a P&L, and the way a head chef reads a Saturday night. Then we tell you exactly what to change.
10daysFrom your data to a prioritised plan of action.
3filesStandard POS exports. No logins, no guest data.
1feeFixed, scoped and agreed before work begins.
Our expertise
Where the margin hides.
Five levers decide what a menu earns. We work on all of them together, because a change to one always moves the others.
Simpler menus. Clearer choices.
Every dish brings its own prep, stock and waste.We map ingredient overlap and low-value complexity to build a sharper, more focused offer.
Menus that work in service.
A great dish that stalls the pass costs more than it earns.We look at prep steps, stations and timing so the menu holds up on your busiest night.
Price with confidence.
Prices set two supplier increases ago quietly erode margin.We connect recipe cost, contribution and guest value into a price structure that holds.
Give the right dishes the spotlight.
Guests read menus in seconds.Position, descriptions and hierarchy decide which dishes they choose. We put your most valuable ones where eyes land first.
Menu engineering
What sells isn’t always what earns.
Every dish sits somewhere on two lines: how often it is ordered, and what it leaves behind after food cost. Where it sits tells you what to do with it.
Illustrative menu. Dot size shows the effort each dish asks of the kitchen.
Ways to work together
Start small. Go as deep as the menu needs.
Clearly scoped engagements, each with a fixed fee and a defined deliverable. Most clients begin with a Health Check or the full Profit Audit.
A fast, focused diagnostic for single-site restaurants and cafés that want to know where the menu stands before committing to more.
- Your menu plotted on the engineering matrix
- Top five priorities, ranked by impact
- A pricing sense-check
- 30-minute walkthrough call
The complete engineering review of your menu, sales and food cost, ending in an action plan your team can put into practice the following week.
- Item contribution and popularity
- Pricing and portion review
- Kitchen complexity scoring
- Prioritised action plan
- Layout and description brief
- PDF report, Excel model, 60-min review
For new openings, relaunches and seasonal changes: a menu designed to earn from the first service, and built to be cooked well.
- Menu architecture and range
- Recipe specifications and costing
- Ingredient cross-utilisation
- Price architecture
- Kitchen feasibility check
A standing review cycle for operators who want the menu managed as carefully as the books, season after season.
- Quarterly re-engineering
- Supplier price-change reviews
- Seasonal menu support
- Tracking against your baseline
- First access to PIHOCO Intelligence
Support for decisions above the menu: concept development, launch planning, unit economics and standardising across sites.
- Concept and positioning
- Launch and opening plans
- Unit economics
- Multi-site standards
Every engagement is quoted as a fixed fee after a short first call, based on menu size and number of outlets.
Good food gets people through the door. Good business keeps the doors open.THE PIHOCO PRINCIPLE
Our approach
From data to decisions.
A structured process that turns menu information into practical priorities, not a report that sits on a shelf.
Days 1–2 · Diagnose
Understand
You send three standard exports. We reconcile item sales against your POS totals, then review recipe costs, pricing and the operating context.
- Item-level sales
- Menu & item list
- Recipe costs
Days 3–5 · Analyse
Find patterns
Popularity, contribution, price structure, product mix, channel split and the operational load behind every dish.
- Engineering matrix
- Channel economics
- Prep load
Days 6–8 · Engineer
Recommend
A specific decision for every item: keep, feature, re-cost, reprice, reposition, rework or retire, ranked by commercial impact.
- Action plan
- Price changes
- Layout brief
Day 10 & week 6–8 · Review
Measure
A 60-minute session with you and your head chef. Then, where agreed, we compare trading after the changes against the baseline from day one.
- Review session
- Excel model
- Baseline comparison
What a point is worth
Small changes on the page. Real money on the P&L.
Menu engineering rarely needs a dramatic overhaul. A better mix, sharper prices and fewer wasteful dishes usually show up as a few points of food cost. See what that is worth to a business your size.
Each month–
Each year–
Illustrative arithmetic on your own inputs, not a forecast. What is achievable depends on your menu, data and guests.
Who leads the work
Built from the kitchen up.
PIHOCO was founded by Piyush Raikwar, whose career runs from hotel kitchens and the pass to backend kitchen operations and menu engineering for restaurant groups.
That is why our recommendations hold up on a Saturday night as well as on a spreadsheet.
2025RevvU ConsultingSenior Menu Engineer
2024–25Laughter ChefHead of Backend Kitchen
2024Food StyleOperations Head
2021Pizzza.in · Kababs at KadalpalamCDP / Sous Chef
2019–20ITC Grand Central, MumbaiIndustrial Training
PIHOCO Intelligence · in development
The method, becoming software.
Everything we do in an engagement, from reconciling POS exports to costing recipes and tracking each action, is being built into a platform for operators who want to run it every week.
- Connect your POS exports onceData
- A live menu matrix by outlet and channelAnalysis
- Alerts when supplier prices move a marginCost
- Every recommendation tracked to baselineActions
Engagement clients are invited first.
Concept preview
RecommendationGrilled Sea Bass is a puzzle. Move it to the top of mains and brief the floor team.
Concept visual. Figures shown are illustrative, not client results.
Knowledge, applied
Better decisions start with better questions.
Short reads on the thinking behind menu performance.
Questions
Before you ask.
Do you need access to our POS?
No. Standard CSV or Excel exports are enough, and safer than shared logins. We never need guest names, card details or staff personal data.
Our recipes aren’t costed. Can we still start?
Yes. Many independents don’t have full costings. We send a simple template, build the costings with your head chef, and you keep them afterwards.
Will changes upset our regulars?
The dishes people come back for are the ones we protect most carefully. Most changes are to cost, portion, position and description, which guests feel as a clearer menu.
How soon will we see a difference?
Price, layout and description changes can go live with your next menu print. We recommend six to eight weeks of trading before comparing against the baseline.
Do you work remotely?
Yes. Engagements run remotely by default, wherever your POS can export a file. On-site kitchen visits can be added by arrangement.
What does it cost?
Each engagement is a fixed fee, quoted after a short first call and based on menu size and number of outlets. You know the full cost before any work starts.
Start a conversation
Let’s find the opportunity in your menu.
Tell us about your outlet and what you want the menu to do better. We reply with next steps and a fixed quote.
- Your current menu PDF or photo
- Recent item-level sales 8–13 weeks
- Recipe costs, if you have them Optional
Or write directly: raaikwaarpiyush@gmail.com