Marco runs a fifty-cover Italian restaurant in Soho, London. He reprinted his menus three times last year. Once in March when his wine supplier raised prices. Once in July when he introduced a summer specials section. Once in October when two dishes sold out and the supplier discontinued the ingredients.
Each reprint cost him £160 for laminated A4 cards across fifty tables, plus the cost of the designer's time to update the layout. Total menu reprint spend for the year: approximately £600. Plus the two weeks each time when the menus had prices crossed out in pen, which his regulars photographed and posted about unfavourably on Google.
Marco is not unusual. He is typical. And the problem he has is one that a QR code menu solves completely — permanently — for the cost of nothing.
Why paper menus are a structural problem, not just an inconvenience
A printed menu is a fixed document in a business that changes constantly. Seasonal ingredients arrive and disappear. Supplier prices shift quarterly. A dish becomes popular and sells out. A new chef joins and introduces a signature item. VAT changes in the UK, GST changes in India, sales tax rules shift in the US.
Every single one of these events — routine, expected, unavoidable in the life of any food business — triggers the same cycle: update the menu document, send to the printer, wait three to five days, receive the new menus, replace the old ones, dispose of the laminated stock.
Across the global restaurant industry, this cycle plays out millions of times per year. In London's Soho and Shoreditch. In Dubai's JBR and Downtown. In Mumbai's Bandra and Juhu. In New York's Lower East Side and West Village. In Singapore's Orchard Road and Chinatown. In Sydney's Surry Hills. In Paris's Marais district.
The cost per reprint varies by city and print quality. The frequency is the same everywhere: every time something changes, the physical menu is wrong until it is reprinted.
"The average independent restaurant in the UK reprints menus 2.4 times per year. At £100–200 per run for a fifty-cover restaurant, that is £240–480 in direct costs annually — before accounting for the downside of serving guests with visually degraded menus in between print runs."
A QR code menu does not have this problem. There is no document to reprint. There is no physical object to replace. When something changes, you update the source — whether that is a PDF, a Google Doc, a Canva design, or a dedicated menu platform — and the QR code continues to point to the updated version instantly.
What a restaurant menu QR code actually is
A restaurant QR menu is a URL QR code that points to the digital version of your menu — wherever that lives. This could be a PDF hosted on your website, a page on your own site, a Google Drive link to a document you maintain, a Canva-published design, or a dedicated menu platform like Menulog, Zomato, or a custom-built menu page.
When a guest at your table scans the QR code with their phone camera — any iPhone, any Android device, no app download required — their browser opens to your menu. They read it on screen, just as they would a physical menu, but from their own phone in their own preferred orientation at their own preferred font size.
The QR code itself never changes. The link it encodes never changes. What changes is the content at the destination — which you control completely and can update instantly at any time.
The real-world difference: a week in a restaurant
Consider what this means practically for a restaurant managing a seasonal menu change.
With paper menus: The chef decides on a Tuesday that the summer risotto is going off menu and being replaced by a grilled vegetable tart at £15.50. The menu document needs to be updated, sent to the designer, approved, sent to print, delivered, and distributed to tables. The earliest this happens is Friday. Until then, servers are explaining to every third table that the risotto is not available and the tart is not yet on the menu. Some guests order something they did not want because the item they wanted is not visible to them.
With a QR menu: The chef decides on Tuesday. You update the PDF or the menu page on Tuesday evening. By Wednesday morning, every guest who scans the QR sees the updated menu — with the tart listed, the risotto gone, the correct price showing. No one asks about a dish that no longer exists. No one pays the wrong amount. No menu is wrong.
The weekly operational drag of managing an incorrect physical menu — the verbal corrections, the crossed-out items, the reprints — disappears.
How to create a QR code for your restaurant menu on QRGenLabs
Creating a restaurant menu QR code takes under five minutes and costs nothing. Here is the exact process.
Step 1 — Get your menu online
Your QR code points to a URL, so your menu needs to exist somewhere on the internet. You have several options depending on your setup:
PDF on your website. Upload your menu as a PDF to your restaurant's website and copy the direct link. This is the most professional option and keeps everything on your own domain.
Google Drive PDF. Upload your menu PDF to Google Drive, set sharing to "Anyone with the link can view", and copy the share link. Free, instant, and updates the moment you replace the file.
Canva published design. If you design your menus in Canva, you can publish the design as a live link. Update the Canva file and the link automatically shows the new version.
A dedicated menu page on your website. Many restaurant websites have a /menu page. Use that URL directly. Every time you update the page, the QR code points to the current version.
Third-party menu platforms. If you use Zomato, Menulog, OpenTable, or similar platforms, most have a shareable menu URL. You can use that — though you should use your own domain link where possible for brand consistency.
Step 2 — Create the QR code on QRGenLabs
Go to QRGenLabs and select the URL QR type from the generator.
Paste your menu URL into the field. QRGenLabs will generate a QR code that encodes that exact URL.
At this stage, customise the design to match your restaurant's brand:
- Add your restaurant logo to the centre of the QR code
- Choose your brand colours for the QR modules and background
- Select a dot pattern style that fits your aesthetic — rounded dots look softer and more welcoming for hospitality use
- Set error correction to High — this ensures the QR code remains scannable even when printed on textured paper, matte card, or surfaces where there may be slight wear
Step 3 — Export and place
Export as SVG for any printed use — table cards, menu inserts, window stickers, chalkboards. The SVG format is infinitely scalable so the QR code stays crisp at any size, from a business card to a wall-mounted display.
Export as PNG for digital use — your website, social media, WhatsApp status, delivery app profile, and any screen-displayed version.
Test scan before you print. Open your camera app, point it at the QR code on screen, and confirm the menu link resolves correctly.
Step 4 — Print and place
For a fifty-cover restaurant, print your QR code on:
- Table tent cards — small folded cards that stand on the table. The QR on one side, your restaurant name and logo on the other.
- Menu cover inserts — if you still use physical menu covers, a QR code card inserted inside gives guests the option to scan rather than read a potentially outdated physical menu.
- Window sticker — for guests walking past who want to check the menu before entering. Saves them having to ask a server.
- Table surface sticker — increasingly common in casual dining restaurants across London, Dubai, Sydney, and Singapore. Guests scan from the table itself.
What to do when your menu changes
This is the part that makes QR menus genuinely different from printed menus.
When you need to update your menu — a new dish, a price change, a seasonal adjustment, an item going out of stock — you update the source document or page that your QR code points to. That is the only step. The QR code on every table in your restaurant immediately points to the new version.
You do not reprint anything. You do not replace anything on the tables. You do not tell your servers to explain the discrepancy between what the menu says and what is available. The update propagates to every scan instantly.
For a restaurant that changes its menu seasonally — spring, summer, autumn, winter — this means four menu updates per year with zero print cost. For a restaurant that adjusts prices annually with supplier cost changes, that is one update with zero print cost. For a casual dining venue that runs weekly specials, that is fifty-two updates per year with zero print cost per update.
Common questions about restaurant QR menus
Does a QR menu replace the physical menu entirely?
It can, but it does not have to. Many restaurants use a hybrid approach: a small physical card or table tent with the QR code, plus a limited printed menu for guests who prefer paper. The QR menu serves tech-comfortable guests and eliminates the reprint cycle for the majority; the printed fallback remains for guests who ask.
What if a guest does not have mobile data?
If your restaurant has guest WiFi — which most hospitality businesses in London, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, and other major markets provide as standard — this is not an issue. Guests connect to WiFi and scan. For venues without guest WiFi, hosting the menu PDF directly on your website means guests with data can access it without any issue.
What size should I print the QR code?
For table use, a minimum of 3cm × 3cm ensures reliable scanning from a normal table distance of 30–60cm. For window stickers visible from the pavement, 8cm × 8cm or larger. For wall-mounted displays, scale appropriately — the SVG export from QRGenLabs will maintain perfect quality at any size.
Can I brand the QR code with my restaurant's design?
Yes — and you should. A plain black-and-white QR code on a table card is functional but missed as a branding opportunity. QRGenLabs lets you add your logo to the centre, use your brand colours for the QR modules, and choose dot patterns that match your aesthetic. A branded QR code on your table is a touchpoint for your identity, not just a utility.
Where restaurants globally are using QR menus right now
The QR menu adoption that accelerated during 2020 and 2021 has permanently shifted guest expectations in major hospitality markets.
In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, QR menus are standard practice across virtually all casual and fine dining venues in Dubai Marina, Abu Dhabi Corniche, and Riyadh's Olaya district. Health and safety regulation during the pandemic made them mandatory and the habit has remained.
In the UK, particularly in London's restaurant-dense neighbourhoods — Soho, Covent Garden, Shoreditch, Notting Hill, Canary Wharf — QR menus are near-universal in casual dining and increasingly common in mid-range and fine dining venues.
In India, QR menus are widespread across restaurant chains in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, and Pune, particularly in the urban casual dining segment where smartphone penetration among guests is extremely high.
In Southeast Asia — Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City — QR menus are standard in any venue targeting the under-40 demographic and have largely replaced paper menus in food court environments.
The infrastructure is in place. Guest expectation has shifted. The remaining cost — for restaurants still running the reprint cycle — is unnecessary.
The menu that never goes out of date
Marco's three reprints last year — the March wine price update, the July summer specials, the October dish removals — represent a workflow he will repeat indefinitely for as long as he uses printed menus.
A QR code menu changes that workflow permanently. The March wine price update takes three minutes: open the menu PDF, change the numbers, save and re-upload. Every table in the restaurant shows the correct prices before the first service of the day.
The summer specials section takes as long as it takes to add the new dishes to the document. The October dish removals take sixty seconds. No design invoice. No print run. No three-day wait. No menus with items crossed out in pen.
The QR code on the table is the same QR code that was there in March, July, and October. It has never been reprinted. It has never needed to be.
Create your free restaurant menu QR code at QRGenLabs — no account required, no expiry, export ready in under five minutes.