What is menu optimisation, and how can it help your golf club's GP?

I built a small burger restaurant chain over a decade; honestly, with a fatal flaw I didn't fully appreciate for years.

My menu was full of plowhorses (sic).

Halloumi fries with maple syrup. Loaded fries with chicken, cheese and bacon. Protein-heavy dishes that flew out of the kitchen, kept guests happy; yet, made me virtually nothing.

I convinced myself that popularity meant success. High sales must equal profitability, right?

Wrong.

That's my great regret; keeping too many plowhorses on the menu for too long, chasing volume instead of value.

Now I consult for golf clubs across the UK, and I see the same trap everywhere I look.

Why Menu Optimisation Matters Now

We're heading into the quieter months. January and February, when the course is quieter, the weather's miserable, and footfall drops naturally.

This is exactly when you should be reviewing your menu.

Not just tweaking a few dishes or adding a seasonal special. I mean properly analysing what's working, what's not, and where you're leaving money on the table.

Because the reality is… your cost base isn't getting any easier in 2026. Labour costs continue to rise. Food costs remain volatile. Energy bills aren't coming down anytime soon.

You can't control those external pressures. But you absolutely can control your menu; and with it, your gross profit percentage.

That's what menu optimisation gives you… control.

What Is Menu Optimisation?

Menu optimisation is the process of analysing each dish on your menu against two key metrics:

1. Sales Volume – How often it sells

2. Gross Profit Percentage – How much margin you make on each sale

When you plot every dish on your menu against these two axes, you create four quadrants. The hospitality industry has standard terms for each:

STARS – High Sales, High GP%

These are your dream dishes. They sell well, members love them, and they make you proper money.

Think Mac & Cheese, Fish & Chips done well, or a signature Club Burger with good margin built in.

You want as many stars on your menu as possible. These are the items that genuinely drive profitability.

PLOWHORSES – High Sales, Low GP%

This is where most golf clubs live, and it's the dangerous quadrant.

Plowhorses are popular. Members expect them. They sell consistently. But the margin is thin… sometimes painfully so.

Your club sandwich. Your all day breakfast. Your halloumi fries (if you've got them). Protein-heavy dishes that you can't charge enough for to make proper money.

Think how much more profitable it is for Pizza Express to sell doughballs as opposed to paying £10 per kilo for halloumi; like all the big boys, Pizza Express do a brilliant job.

Of course, you'll always need some plowhorses on a golf club menu. That's the nature of member expectations. But if your entire menu is weighted toward this quadrant, you're in trouble.

PUZZLES – Low Sales, High GP%

These are items with great margin potential that just don't sell enough.

Corn ribs. Seasonal salads. Sharing boards. Vegetarian options that look good on paper but rarely get ordered.

Puzzles need promoting. If you can shift them into higher sales, they become stars. If you can't, you need to question whether they deserve the menu space.

DOGS – Low Sales, Low GP%

Nobody's ordering them. When they do, you make virtually nothing.

Granola bowls. Prawn cocktails. Chicken Caesar wraps that sounded like a good idea but never moved.

Dogs should be removed from your menu immediately. They're taking up space, complicating your kitchen operation, and contributing nothing to your bottom line.

Why Golf Clubs Should Be Doing This

Here's the challenge you face that other hospitality operators don't:

Member expectations.

You can't just bin the bacon roll because it's a plowhorse. You can't remove all day breakfast even though it's margin-thin. Members expect certain items, and rightly so.

But that doesn't mean you accept the status quo.

Menu optimisation gives you the data to make informed decisions:

• Which dishes are actually driving profitability?

• Where are you losing margin without realising it?

• Which items could you tweak (portion size, ingredients, pricing) to improve GP% without affecting sales?

• What could you add to shift the balance toward more stars?

• What could you remove because it's genuinely contributing nothing?

The clubs I work with who take this seriously don't just improve their food GP by a point or two. We're talking 3-5% improvements, sometimes more.

On a £300k annual F&B turnover, that's £9,000-£15,000 straight to your bottom line. Every year. Just from understanding your menu better.

The Pitfalls to Avoid

Pitfall #1: Assuming popularity equals profitability

This was my mistake. Just because something sells well doesn't mean it's making you money. Your most popular dish might be haemorrhaging margin with every order.

Pitfall #2: Keeping items "because we've always had them"

Your menu isn't a museum. If something's not pulling its weight – either in sales or margin – question whether it deserves to stay.

Pitfall #3: Overcomplicating your menu

The bigger your menu, the more likely you are to have dogs hiding in plain sight. Complexity kills efficiency in the kitchen and dilutes your purchasing power with suppliers.

Pitfall #4: Ignoring your kitchen team's input

Your chefs know which dishes are a pain to prep, which ingredients spoil regularly, and which items slow down service. That operational insight is gold when you're optimising.

Pitfall #5: Doing this once and never revisiting

Menu optimisation isn't a one-time exercise. Sales patterns change. Costs shift. Member preferences evolve. Review your menu quarterly at minimum, and always during the quiet months when you've got time to think strategically.

The Opportunity in Front of You

January and February are coming.

You'll have fewer golfers. Less chaos in the kitchen. More time to step back and think strategically about your operation.

This is your window.

Map your menu. Understand where each dish sits. Identify your plowhorses, your stars, your puzzles, and your dogs.

Then make decisions based on data, not assumptions.

Because next year, when costs continue rising and margins get tighter, you'll be glad you optimised your menu today.

Don't make my mistake. Don't let popularity blind you to profitability.

Let's Talk About Your Menu

If you'd like to discuss menu optimisation for your club, I offer a Power Hour Strategy Call – a focused, one-hour session where we dig into your current menu, identify opportunities, and create a clear action plan.

What you get:

• A 60-minute strategy call focused specifically on your menu and operation

• A written summary of our discussion

• Prioritised action points you can implement immediately

Investment: £245 + VAT

This isn't a sales call; this is a working session designed to give you clarity and direction on one of the most controllable aspects of your F&B operation.

Quick one, if you’ve not done this yet, my scorecard helps you spot gaps across guest experience, costs, and day-to-day ops. Takes a few minutes and you’ll get a proper report at the end.