QR menu for restaurants in India: how to set one up and what to avoid

A QR menu is a QR code, printed on a table sign, sticker or standee, that opens your menu in the guest's phone browser. There is no app to download. The guest points the camera at the code and the menu appears.

It saves reprinting menu cards every time a price changes, and it lets you mark a dish as sold out without crossing it out on fifty cards.

These are different things, and the choice decides how much work your staff save:

• QR menuShows dishes and prices. The guest still waves for a waiter to place the order. Often just a PDF or an image behind a link.
• QR orderingThe guest picks dishes and sends the order. It reaches your counter as a request; staff accept it and the KOT prints.

A menu-only QR is fine to start. Ordering is what reduces the calls for a waiter at a busy hour. See QR code ordering for how POSBADA does it.

• Get your menu into the system. With POSBADA you send a photo of your printed menu; it reads the dishes and prices, and you check them before publishing.
• Add your tables. One code per table, so an order arrives with the table number and nobody has to type it.
• Print the signs and put one on every table.
• Keep a device at the counter where staff see and accept incoming orders.

Most of the effort is checking the menu. Once dishes and prices are right, the tables and signs are quick, and you can run a test order from your own phone before opening the doors.

Guests can send an order from the table, but nothing should reach the kitchen without a person looking at it. A request shows the table and the dishes; staff accept it and the KOT prints, or they reject it. This keeps prank orders and wrong-table orders out of the kitchen.

Guests can add more rounds to the same table, and each round becomes a new ticket. Payment can happen at the table by UPI, confirmed by staff, or at the counter as usual.

A code that guests cannot find or cannot scan does nothing, so placement matters as much as the menu behind it.

• On the table, at eye level for a seated guest. A flat sticker on a glossy table top picks up glare from ceiling lights; a small standee or a matte sign scans better.
• Big enough to scan from arm's length. Make it large enough that a seated guest can scan it without leaning in. Leave a clear white border and do not put a logo over the code.
• Say what it does. Write one line under the code, such as "Scan to see the menu and order". Guests ignore a bare black square.
• Keep it clean. Wipe the sign with the table. A greasy or scratched code fails on older phones.
• Test it in your own light. Scan every sign once from a guest's seat, on a phone that is not the newest, before you open.

• A huge PDF. A menu that takes ten seconds to open on a weak network loses the guest. Use a light, mobile-first menu with photos that load fast.
• One code for the whole restaurant. Without a table number, staff have to ask where to deliver.
• No sold-out switch. Guests order a dish you ran out of at noon.
• No backup for guests without a smartphone. Keep a few printed menus for elderly guests.
• Unattended requests. If nobody watches the counter screen, the guest waits. Someone must own it during service.

Whichever tool you pick, check these before you print a hundred signs:

• Table number on every orderOne code per table, so staff never ask "which table?".
• Staff approvalOrders wait for a person to accept them before the kitchen sees anything.
• Kitchen ticket and bill in one placeIf QR orders live in a separate app, you end up typing them into the billing system again.
• Easy editsYou can change a price or mark a dish sold out yourself, in seconds, without waiting for a designer.
• No per-table or per-order feeAsk what you pay when you add a table or when a guest orders.

If you only want to try the idea, a menu-only QR is a low-risk start. If you want fewer calls for a waiter at the busiest hour, you need ordering with staff approval.

A table QR is for guests inside the restaurant. For delivery and pickup, share your online shop link on WhatsApp, Instagram or Google Maps; the same menu powers it, with 0% commission. See online ordering.

In POSBADA, QR table ordering is part of the one plan: ₹999 per outlet per month plus GST, with the first 3 months free and no separate charge per table. See pricing, or read what a POS system covers.