QR code menu for restaurants: a practical guide

A good QR code menu opens a fast web page, not a PDF, with every dish, price, veg or non-veg mark and allergen, and lets you mark a dish sold out in seconds. Customers scan it at the table, and you change prices without reprinting anything.

Many restaurants still use a photo of the printed menu as their QR menu. It's hard to read on a phone, impossible to search, and out of date the day prices change.

Picture a café in Hindustan Park (an example, not a real client) with 40 items and a weekend special. This guide shows what its QR menu should include, what the food rules say about menus, and how to set it up.

What a good QR code menu does

The menu page should work for a hungry customer on a slow phone. These are the things that matter most.

1. Opens in a second or two on mobile data, with no app and no login.
2. Text, not photos of text, so people can zoom, read and use their phone's translate.
3. Sections and search: starters, mains, drinks, desserts, and a search box for longer menus.
4. Clear prices, including whether taxes are extra.
5. Sold-out marks you can switch on and off from your phone.
6. Your own name and address at the top, not the menu company's.

A PDF fails most of these. It's slow, it needs pinching and zooming, and it can't show what's sold out.

What the food rules say about menus

FSSAI's Labelling and Display Regulations set out what food service businesses must show on menus (FSSAI, regulation 9, as of November 2026). A QR menu is still a menu, so the same rules apply to it.

• Veg and non-veg logo against each item on menu cards or boards.
• Allergen information against items, which may be shown with easy-to-understand symbols.
• Calories per serving, with serving size, if you hold a Central licence or have outlets at 10 or more locations. You must also show the line "An average active adult requires 2,000 kcal energy per day, however, calorie needs may vary".
• Nutritional information on request, which can be given in booklets, handouts or on your website.

The rules don't apply to event caterers, places that run for less than 60 days a year, free self-serve condiments not on the menu, or special orders made to a customer's request. This is a summary, not legal advice, so check the regulation itself or ask a lawyer if you're unsure.

Set up a QR code menu in five steps

You can do this in an afternoon. The order matters, because the link must work before you print anything.

1. Put the menu on a page you own, such as yourcafe.in/menu. A link on your own domain keeps working if you change menu providers.
2. Add every item properly: name, short description, price, veg or non-veg mark and allergens.
3. Test the page on two phones, one iPhone and one Android, on mobile data, not Wi-Fi.
4. Make the QR code from that link, and test it from a metre away under your restaurant's lighting.
5. Print table cards with a line of text, such as "Scan for the menu", and your page address written underneath for anyone whose camera won't scan.

Keep printed menus for customers who prefer them. A QR menu should be an option, not a barrier.

Keep it up to date

A QR menu's biggest advantage is that it can always be right. That only works if updating it is quicker than ignoring it.

• Sold out: one tap on your phone, the moment the kitchen says so.
• Price changes: update the page, not the QR codes. The codes never need reprinting.
• Specials: add them at the top for the day, and remove them at closing.
• Seasonal items: hide them instead of deleting, so they're ready next year.

Give one person, often the manager, the job of checking the menu page before each service.

Should it take orders too?

A menu that only shows dishes is a good start. Some restaurants then let customers order and pay from the same page.

Ordering from the table saves waiter time at busy hours but needs a kitchen screen or printer and staff who check it. Ordering for pickup or delivery from your own site avoids aggregator commission on those orders. Our guide on taking food orders on your own website covers that step.

Make the QR codes easy to scan

The best menu page is useless if the code won't scan in a dim corner. Check these when you print.

• Size: big enough to scan from where a customer sits, and larger on wall posters than on table cards.
• Contrast: dark code on a light background, with a white border around it.
• Finish: matte card, so lights don't reflect off it.
• Placement: at eye level on the table, not flat under a glass that reflects.

Test each printed card from where a customer actually sits, at night, with the restaurant's own lights on.

Common mistakes

These are the problems we see most often with restaurant QR menus.

• A PDF that takes ten seconds to load.
• A QR code linked to a free generator that later shows ads or stops working.
• Dishes marked available that the kitchen ran out of an hour ago.
• No veg or non-veg marks, which customers look for first.
• QR codes printed too small, or on glossy card that reflects the lights.

If you'd like help

Our restaurant ordering system includes a QR menu on your own domain with sold-out switches and veg and allergen marks. Ask for a free audit of your menu, or WhatsApp us on +91 62918 31815.