What is pricing power on a restaurant menu?

Pricing power is unevenly distributed. Destination items that customers come for tend to hold volume through increases; add-ons and price-anchored value items tend not to. It also varies by market: the identical item can have real headroom in one trade area and none in another, depending on income, competition, and what role the brand plays there.

The honest way to size pricing power is from a brand's own transaction history: measure elasticity item by item and store by store, then classify the menu into items with room to move, items that are safe where they are, and landmines where increases have historically cost traffic.