QR code menus: a PDF, an app or a page on your website?

QR code menus stayed in many restaurants after the pandemic, but the experience varies a lot from one place to the next. The difference doesn't come from the code; it comes from what opens after the scan.

What a QR code menu is

A QR code is a web address drawn as a square. The phone reads it and opens the page. The same code can lead to three very different things:

1. a PDF of the printed menu, scanned or exported;
2. a digital menu platform, where the menu lives in your account with a provider, sometimes with ordering and payment from the table;
3. a menu page on the restaurant's own website.

The three options compared

Why a PDF is the weakest option

PDF was designed for paper, with fixed page sizes. On a phone, an A4 or letter-size menu shows up shrunk, and the guest has to zoom in and pan around to find a section. Nielsen Norman Group, one of the best-known user experience research firms, has argued for more than twenty years that content meant to be read on a screen should be a web page, not a PDF.

Two more problems:

• A scanned menu is an image. Google can't read the dishes and prices in it, so they don't help the restaurant show up in search.
• The file is heavy. A PDF with photos can be several megabytes, which means a long wait on mobile data at the table.

Static or dynamic QR codes

QR code generators offer two kinds of code:

• A static code holds the page's address in the pattern itself. It's free, never expires and doesn't depend on any account. You can't change where it points, but you don't need to if it points to a page of yours that you keep updated.
• A dynamic code holds a short address belonging to the generator, which redirects to your menu. You can change the destination and see how many scans you get, but the code only works while the account is active. One well-known generator, QR Code Generator, says on its own blog that dynamic codes created during the free trial are deactivated when the trial ends, and that paid codes pause if you stop paying.

A dynamic code that stops working means dead codes on every table and a reprint. That's why we recommend a static code that points to an address on your own domain, such as yourrestaurant.com/menu. You change the prices on the page, and the code stays the same for years.

When a menu platform with table ordering is worth it

A platform where guests order and pay from their phone makes sense when:

• you have many tables and few servers, for example on a large patio;
• you want orders to go straight to the kitchen instead of being read out;
• you already have a point-of-sale system the platform can connect to.

Before choosing one, check three things: the monthly or per-order cost, whether the menu and customer data can be exported if you leave, and whether the menu can live on your own domain. If you want ordering on your own site without commission, a custom system can be built as a web app.

Safety: fake codes stuck over real ones

In December 2023 the US Federal Trade Commission warned that scammers stick their own QR codes over real ones, on parking meters for example, and send people to fake pages that ask for personal or card details. At a restaurant, the risk is the same: a sticker placed over the code on the table.

What reduces the risk:

• The code printed directly into the menu, the table tent or the wooden board, not as a separate sticker.
• The address written under the code, such as yourrestaurant.com/menu, so guests can see where it leads.
• A quick check at opening: someone on staff makes sure nothing has been stuck over the codes.
• No payment on a page that isn't yours. If guests pay from the table, payment should happen on your page or your payment processor's.

How to make the code work well

1. Contrast and margin: a dark code on a light background, with white space around it. Coloured codes or codes with a logo in the middle need extra testing.
2. The right size for the scanning distance: a code on the table can be small; one on a window or a wall has to be much bigger.
3. Testing on several phones, including older ones, before printing.
4. A page that opens fast, with no pop-ups and no prompt to install an app.
5. Languages: if you get tourists, the page has other language versions and a button to switch.
6. Allergens next to each dish. Where the 2022 FDA Food Code is adopted, restaurants must give written notice of the nine major allergens, and the EU requires allergens to be visible before an online order. We cover the rules in what a restaurant website needs.

Keep a few printed menus

Not every guest wants to or can scan a code: some don't have their phone, some have a dead battery, some prefer to leaf through. A few printed menus offered on request take care of that without giving up the digital menu.

What to do now

If you already have QR codes on the tables, scan one and answer three questions: does it open quickly on mobile data, can you read it without zooming, and does it lead to an address on your own domain? If any answer is no, the most useful change is a menu page on the restaurant's website and new static codes pointing to it. A menu page built for phones is part of every restaurant website we build.