For most places the answer is "both, but one of them leads." A QR menu wins when you change prices and dishes often or get a lot of tourists. A printed menu wins at tables where people want to sit without a phone in hand, and with guests who can't or won't scan. The real question is which one holds the up-to-date information, so the other can copy it.
The comparison, point by point
| Criterion | QR menu | Printed menu |
|---|---|---|
| Changing a price or a dish | a few minutes, the code on the table stays the same | reprint, or cross it out with a pen |
| Foreign languages | the page can be translated on the guest's phone | one printed version per language |
| Allergens | easy to keep correct for every dish | correct only until the first recipe change |
| Guest without a phone or with a dead battery | sees nothing | always works |
| Weak signal on the patio or in a cellar | loads slowly or not at all | always works |
| Mood at the table | everyone stares at a screen | read together, people point at things |
| Photos for each dish | yes, without bloating the page | usually few, they take up space |
| Ordering and paying from the table | can be added | no |
| What drives the cost | design, number of languages, who handles updates, table ordering if you want it | design, paper, finish, print run and how often you reprint |
The actual price comes in the quote, once we know how many dishes, how many languages and how often the menu changes.
When the QR menu wins
You change things often. If you cook with seasonal produce or suppliers change prices every few weeks, a printed menu is out of date almost all the time. With the digital menu we build, you change the dish or the price and the code on the table stays the same, so nothing gets reprinted.
You get tourists. A web page written as text can be translated right in the phone's browser; Chrome, for example, has page translation built in. Machine translation isn't great with dish names, so for the languages you hear most at your tables, a version written by a person is worth it.
You want ordering at the table. At that point the menu isn't just for reading. Menyo, our own product that's getting ready to launch, does exactly that: the guest scans, reads the menu in their phone's language and orders, and the order shows up live on the restaurant's tablet. It pays off at places with lots of tables and few servers at peak hours, less so at a restaurant where taking the order is part of the service.
When the printed menu wins
The guest has no phone on them, or it's at 2%. It happens more than you'd think, especially in the evening after a day on the road. A menu you can't read without a phone means a guest waiting for the server to read the dishes out loud.
Older guests, or anyone who doesn't get QR codes. Not everyone knows you scan with the camera. On an iPhone the Camera app reads the code directly and shows the link, but plenty of people don't know that and go looking for a special app. A printed menu needs no explanation.
Weak signal. Courtyard patios, cellars, places up in the mountains. If the page loads slowly, the QR code turns into a frustration. Guest Wi-Fi helps, as long as it actually works.
Atmosphere. At a long dinner or a more upscale place, a menu printed on good paper is part of the experience. It gets passed around and talked about.
Hygiene was the big argument for QR menus in 2020. It matters less today, and a laminated menu or one on wipeable paper gets cleaned between guests like any table.
Allergens have to be right on both
In the EU, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires information on the 14 allergens for food served on the spot too (Article 44), and each member state decides the exact format. If you keep both menus, you have two places where allergens must match. The safest setup is a single source: you update the digital menu, and the printed version is generated from it at every reprint. Otherwise, after the first recipe change, one of them is wrong.
How to make a QR code that actually scans
A badly placed QR code ruins even the best digital menu. A few rules that hold up:
- Leave a white margin. The standard calls for a clear zone four modules wide (the small squares of the code) on every side. Without it, many phones won't read the code.
- Pick the right error correction. A QR code can still be read when it's partly dirty or scratched. Level M, which recovers about 15% of the code, is the most common; on tables that get spills and wiping, level Q (25%) is safer.
- High contrast, dark code on a light background. Colored or inverted codes look great in the mockup and fail at the table.
- Use a link on your own domain. Something like
yourplace.com/menulooks trustworthy and doesn't depend on a link shortener that might disappear. - Write next to the code what's behind it: "Menu and allergens." People scan more readily when they know why.
- Test with three different phones, in the real light of the room, from the distance of someone sitting in the chair.
If you want the printed version too, we design it to match, so the two read as one menu.
Sources
- EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011Article 44 and Annex II: allergen information required for non-prepacked food, format set by member states
- Point for determining the code area, DENSO WAVEthe four-module clear zone around a QR code
- Error correction feature, DENSO WAVElevel M (15%) as the most common choice, levels Q and H for environments where codes get dirty
- Scan a QR code with your iPhone camera, Apple Supportscanning directly from the Camera app
- Translate pages and change Chrome languages, Google Chrome Helptranslating web pages in Chrome on a phone
Checked: surse Xenia Pușcașu · editare Nora Vlăsceanu · SEO Mihnea Tăbăcaru