QR Menus for Restaurants and Cafés: A Practical Guide
A printed menu is out of date from the day the first price changes. A QR menu updates on every table at once, in seconds, with photos and calories. What to put in it, where the code goes, and what it does not do.
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A QR menu is a web page showing your restaurant or café’s dishes with their photos, prices and descriptions. Guests open it on their phone by scanning a code on the table or tapping an NFC sticker — no app. The biggest practical difference from a printed menu: changing a price or hiding a dish that has run out happens on every table at once, with no reprint.
Why restaurants and cafés are switching to QR menus
- Prices change. Every time ingredient costs moved, the printed menu was either reprinted or corrected with a pen.
- Photos sell. A photo shows the dish as it is, which a printed menu cannot do for every item.
- Dishes run out. Something finished today is hidden in one press, instead of a guest ordering it and hearing “it’s gone”.
- Guests come from everywhere. In cities with visitors from abroad, a menu that opens in the guest’s phone language saves the staff explaining every dish.
- Seasons. A Ramadan menu or a weekend offer is switched on and off at the right time.
What to put in a QR menu
A good menu answers the guest’s question before they raise a hand for the waiter. For each dish:
- Name and description: one line saying what is on the plate, not a poem.
- Price: and if it is on offer, the pre-offer price beside it so the saving shows.
- Photo: a real photo of the dish in natural light. A bad photo is worse than none.
- Calories: the Saudi Food and Drug Authority requires restaurants and cafés to show them on menus, so a digital menu must carry them just as a printed one does. Check the Authority’s current requirements for your business.
- Labels that help choose: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, spicy, new, most popular.
Group dishes into sections guests recognise: starters, mains, hot drinks, cold drinks, desserts. A “most popular” section at the top saves a first-time guest from dithering.
In AurCard all of these are fields in the menu editor: name, description, price, pre-offer price, photo, calories, and the vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, spicy, new and popular labels — with a show/hide switch on each dish and section.
Where to put the code
- On the table: a small stand or a sticker in the middle, within reach of everyone seated.
- On the door or window: someone outside reads the menu and decides before coming in — and when you are closed, sees when you open.
- At the till and the waiting area: for takeaway and for people waiting their turn.
- On the receipt and the takeaway bag: so they order again from home.
Size: at least 2 cm × 2 cm for close reading, larger the further away it is read. Leave a clear margin around it and strong contrast against the background.
A QR code or an NFC sticker on the table?
Both is best. The QR code works with any phone that has a camera; the sticker works with a tap, without aiming the camera. In AurCard the smart sticker does both — an NFC sticker with a QR code on it, ordered from the dashboard for 74.75 SAR including VAT. Put it on a non-metal surface, because metal weakens the signal.
What a QR menu does not do (honestly)
The QR menu in AurCard is a menu for viewing: it shows dishes and prices, and it does not take orders from the table or payments. Ordering stays as it is today: with the waiter, at the till, or by WhatsApp and phone for takeaway.
If what you need is ordering from the table and paying by phone, that is the job of a point-of-sale system or an ordering app, not a menu. Many restaurants combine the two: a POS for orders, and the restaurant’s page for the menu, hours, location and booking.
The menu is part of your restaurant’s page
A guest who opened the menu usually wants something else too: when you open, where the branch is, whether they can book. So in AurCard the menu is a section of your restaurant’s page itself, not a separate page: beside it are your hours and whether you are open now, the location on the map, booking, reviews and a WhatsApp button.
When you register your business and choose “restaurant” as the activity, the page is built with the menu section switched on from day one.
Common QR menu mistakes
A small code in a dark corner. If a guest has to stand up and lean in to read it, they will not. Put it where the eye lands, at a clear size, in good light.
Phone photos under kitchen lights. A yellow photo of a cold dish puts people off more than it sells. Photograph the most popular dishes first, in daylight, on a plain background.
Prices never updated. The point of a digital menu is that it changes in seconds; a digital menu with an old price wastes that and embarrasses the waiter in front of the guest.
A long menu with no sections. A hundred items in one list is tiring on a phone screen. Split it, and put the most popular first.
Dishes that ran out still showing. Hiding a dish is one press; make it part of closing the shift.
A code that opens a PDF. A PDF on a phone needs pinching and scrolling, and changes only by uploading it again. A menu that is a page reads on a phone the way it was designed to.
Setting up a QR menu for your restaurant
- Register your restaurant and choose the activity, categories and city. The page is built with the menu, hours and location.
- Add sections, then dishes: name, description, price, photo and calories.
- Write the menu once, in your language: it is translated automatically and opens in the guest’s phone language, and you can correct any translation yourself.
- Publish, and print the code at print quality, or order the smart sticker.
- Watch: how often the page was opened and how many of those came from a scan — and move the code if nobody scans it.
The details are on the digital menu page, and prices on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Does the guest need an app to open a QR menu?
No. The phone camera reads the code and the menu opens in the browser directly.
How do I change a dish’s price?
Open the dish in the editor, change the price and save. The change shows at once for everyone who opens the menu, and the printed code stays the same.
Can guests order and pay from the QR menu?
No. The menu in AurCard is for viewing: dishes, prices and photos. Ordering and payment stay with the waiter, the till or your point-of-sale system, and takeaway goes through WhatsApp and phone.
Should the digital menu show calories?
Yes. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority requires them on restaurant and café menus, and every dish in the editor has a calories field.
What if the internet is weak in the restaurant?
The page is light and opens on slow networks, but keeping a few printed copies for exceptional cases is still sensible.
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