QR code for a restaurant menu
The menu QR is the most widespread use of a QR code in hospitality. It points to the address where your menu lives, and whoever scans it opens it on their phone without installing anything. It lets you change prices without reprinting menus, show photos of the dishes, and keep the menu available even when the place is packed.
Here the code is free and never expires. The difference with services that charge a monthly fee is that the destination is fixed inside the code: that saves you the subscription, with the trade-off that if you change web address you have to reprint. Below is how to avoid that problem from the start.
Any web address. We add https:// for you.
Your QR code
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How it works
- 1
Put your menu at a stable address
It can be a page on your site, a hosted PDF or a shared document. What matters is that the address won't change: that is what gets baked into the code.
- 2
Paste the link and generate the code
Check it opens properly on a phone first. A menu that renders tiny on mobile makes the customer close it and ask for the paper one.
- 3
Download SVG for printing
SVG doesn't lose definition when enlarged, which is what you need if the same code goes on a table card and on an entrance banner.
- 4
Test at an actual table
Scan it sitting where the customer sits, in the light there is at that hour. It is the only test that counts.
How not to get locked into today's address
The classic problem with a menu QR is that the code points at one specific address, and if you switch systems tomorrow every table card has to be reprinted. The fix is not paying a monthly fee: it is choosing the address well from the start.
The most robust option is pointing the QR at a page on your own domain, say yourrestaurant.com/menu, and letting that page show the menu or redirect to wherever it is hosted. Change provider tomorrow and you edit the redirect while the printed codes keep working. The domain is yours, so nobody can take it away or start charging you for it.
The most fragile option is pointing the QR straight at a shared document in a personal account, at a social profile, or at the link a third-party service handed you: if that account closes, if the service changes its addresses, or if you forget to renew, the code dies and there is no fixing it without reprinting.
Mistakes you can see from the table
The most common is size. A code under two centimetres on a table card forces people to bring the phone right up to the paper, and in low light it simply won't catch. Three centimetres a side is a comfortable minimum for reading it from a natural seated position.
The second is plastic. Many table cards sit inside a clear holder that reflects the room's lights right onto the code. If the glare lands on it, the camera can't read it. Tilt the holder or use a matte material.
The third is no label at all. A black square with no text tells nothing to someone who isn't expecting it: adding the word Menu underneath, or using the framed text this tool generates, noticeably changes how many people scan it.
The fourth shows up when the menu opens but is a PDF laid out for paper: the customer has to pinch and drag to read every line. If you get to choose, a web page that adapts to the phone converts far better than a letter-sized PDF.