QR code menus for restaurants
Print the code once, on table tents that last a year. Change the menu behind it as often as the kitchen does — new prices on Monday, a different page for lunch and dinner, a booking link when you are full.
Downloads are the rendered file itself — SVG for print, PNG for screens. The 4-module quiet zone is included; cropping it is the most common reason a printed code stops scanning.
Free, no account. Sign up only if you want to change it later.
Do QR code menus work for restaurants?
QR code menus work for restaurants when the code points at a short link rather than the menu file itself. Print it at about 3cm for a table tent, point it at a web page rather than a PDF, and you can change prices, swap in a set menu, or send people to bookings without reprinting.
The three things restaurants get wrong
The PDF link is baked into the pattern. Move the file, rename it, switch host — every table tent is now a dead end, and you find out from a customer.
A table tent is read at arm’s length, about 30cm. That needs roughly 3cm of code. Most printed tents come back at 1.5cm because it looked fine on screen.
A PDF opens as a document a phone must download and pinch to read. A plain web page beats it every time, and you can edit it from your phone.
One tent, four seasons
A Nairobi coffee chain printed 40 table tents in March. The code has not changed since. The destination has, four times.
Read how they run itQuestions restaurants ask
The things people ask before they commit something to paper.
How big should a table tent QR code be?
About 3cm across for a code read at arm’s length. The rule is one tenth of the reading distance. Print it as SVG rather than PNG so the print shop can scale it without softening the module edges.
Can I use one code for every table?
Yes, and most places should — one code, one destination, one number to read. Use separate codes per table only if you need to know which table scanned, for ordering or table service.
What happens to my table tents if I stop paying?
They keep working. You lose scan history and the ability to make new links, never the redirect itself. A code already on a table belongs to the restaurant as much as to us.
Do people actually scan menu codes?
Heavily, and mostly between four and seven in the evening — someone deciding where to eat tomorrow rather than someone at the table now. That pattern is worth knowing before you choose what the code points at.