How to Choose a QR Menu System: 10 Things to Check

The short answer

Most QR menu systems can put your menu behind a code. The differences show up later: when a price changes on a Friday night, when a tourist cannot read a dish, when a guest asks about allergens, or when the bill for the software arrives. Before you choose, check the ten points below against every system on your list, using a free trial and your own menu.

1. Guests can open it without an app

A guest should point the phone camera at the code and see your menu in the browser. Every extra step, an app to install, an account to create, loses guests. Test it on an older phone and on a slow connection, the way a guest on a terrace would.

2. Changes take seconds, not a reprint

Your menu will change: prices, the dish of the day, a dish that has run out. Check how long it takes to mark a dish sold out or change a price from your phone, and whether the change is on every table at once. If it takes a laptop and five minutes, it will not happen during service.

3. Setting it up does not take a weekend

Typing in a long menu is the step that stalls most restaurants. Ask whether the system can import your current menu from a photo or a file, and how much you have to check by hand afterwards.

4. It speaks your guests' languages

If you serve visitors, count the languages, and check two more things: whether the menu opens in the guest's own language without them hunting for a switch, and whether you can correct a translation when a dish name comes out wrong. A translated menu that turns your local dish into nonsense does more harm than an English-only one.

5. Allergens are on every dish

In the EU, guests must be able to find out which of the 14 allergens each dish contains. Check that allergens sit on each dish, in every language the menu offers, and that they change when you change the dish. Our guide to the 14 allergens explains the rules.

6. Ordering fits the way you serve

Decide what you need now and what you might need next year:

• A menu only, for guests to read
• Ordering from the table, with the table known
• Pick-up and delivery from your own link
• Calling a member of staff from the menu

A system that can grow from a menu into ordering, without changing the codes on your tables, saves you a second project later.

7. The kitchen side works too

Ordering is only as good as what happens after the guest taps "send". Look at the screen your staff will use: can they see new orders at once, print a ticket, and enter an order themselves for a guest who would rather ask?

8. You know what it costs, all of it

Pricing models differ: a monthly fee, a commission on each order, a fee per scan or per table, extra charges for languages or ordering. Work out what you would pay in a busy month, not a quiet one. A commission that looks small adds up; see what marketplaces and menus really cost. Check, too, how you leave: notice period, contract length, and whether you can try it without a card.

9. Your QR codes are yours to keep

Printed codes end up on tables, windows, flyers and receipts. Make sure they keep working when you change your menu, your design or your plan, and check what happens to them if you stop paying.

10. You can still offer paper

Some guests do not use their phone at the table, and some rules expect information to be available without one. A system that can produce a printable PDF of the same menu, in each language, covers them without a second menu to maintain.

Questions to ask before you sign up

• Can I try it with my real menu before paying?
• How do I import my current menu?
• Which languages are included, and can I edit translations?
• Where do allergens appear, and in which languages?
• Is there a commission on orders, or any fee per scan?
• Do guests pay through the system, or at the table as usual?
• What happens to my QR codes if I change plan or leave?

How QRestAI answers the checklist

Here is how QRestAI does on each point, so you can compare:

• No app: the menu opens in the browser from the code.
• Changes: mark a dish sold out or change a price in seconds, on every table at once (digital menu).
• Setup: type the menu in, or upload a photo of your current menu and AI reads the dishes and prices for you to check.
• Languages: 12 languages, opened in the guest's own; AI translation you can correct (AI menu translation).
• Allergens: the 14 EU allergens on each dish, in every language (allergen menu).
• Ordering: from the table, and pick-up and delivery from your own link; staff calling from the menu. The codes stay the same when you switch ordering on.
• Kitchen: a live order screen, ticket printing, and orders staff can enter themselves.
• Cost: a monthly or yearly subscription, no commission on orders, and a 14-day trial with no card required. Plans are on the pricing page.
• Paper: a PDF of the menu in any of its languages.

One thing to know: guests do not pay through QRestAI. They pay you at the table, the counter or on collection, as they do today. If paying in the app matters to you, weigh that when you compare.