How do I put my menu behind a QR code?

Point the code at a page, not at a file

The pattern you print holds a web address and nothing else. Which address you choose decides whether you ever have to reprint.

• A link straight to a PDF on your website works until the day you replace the file. Upload menu-autumn.pdf over the old one and the code opens the new menu; upload menu-winter.pdf as a new file and every printed code points at last season.
• A link to a page you control is the safer version of the same idea: the page stays at one address and you change what is on it.
• A short link a QR code service forwards is what makes the code itself changeable: you can send it somewhere else entirely, to a different page, a new PDF or a booking form, without touching the print. Every code is a dynamic code: a short go.qrvane.com link, or a hosted page behind one, that you can point somewhere new after printing.

Whichever you pick, do not point a menu code at a social media post or a third party’s listing page. Those addresses change without telling you, and when they do the code is dead and the fix is a reprint.

A PDF or pictures of the pages?

If your menu is designed in something that exports a PDF, use the PDF: the text stays sharp when a guest pinches to zoom, and it is one file to keep in step with the paper version. Pictures are the answer when the menu only exists on paper or on a chalkboard — photograph each page straight on, in daylight, with the page filling the frame.

A QRVane menu page takes one PDF or up to 10 pictures, in the order you give them, and shows them with your title, your opening hours and a note of your own. Keep the file small enough to open on a phone on a slow connection: under about 2 MB is a reasonable target, and exporting a PDF at screen rather than print quality usually gets you there.

One thing a PDF cannot do is take an order. If you want guests to order and pay from the table, that is a point-of-sale job, not a QR code job, and your till provider probably sells it. A code that shows the menu and a code that takes payment are different products, and this is the first.

Allergen information: the digital menu cannot be the only way in

If the code is how guests read your allergen information, the Food Standards Agency’s best practice guidance for non-prepacked food is that they they should have an alternative way of accessing the information that is not digital. In practice: staff who can answer, or a printed copy behind the bar. The guidance itself says you You are not required by law to follow best practice guidance., but the accuracy of what you tell a guest about the 14 allergens is a legal matter, so the safe reading is to follow it.

So a menu behind a code needs two things: a line telling guests to ask, and someone able to answer. A QRVane menu page carries that line by default — Allergies or intolerances? Please ask a member of staff about allergens before you order. — and you can edit it or switch it off if your allergen information is already on the menu itself.

Where the code goes, and what to write next to it

A code nobody reads is the usual way this fails. Three rules cover most of it.

1. Say what it is. “Scan for today’s specials” or “Scan for the full wine list” gets scanned. An unlabelled square does not.
2. Put it where a seated guest can hold a phone over it. A table tent, the corner of the paper menu, a card in the bill folder. A code on the wall behind the banquette is a code nobody can reach.
3. Keep the paper menu. Lightspeed’s 2024 survey of UK hospitality found diners specifically request a physical menu when offered a QR code. The code is for the things that change — specials, prices, the Sunday roast — beside paper that stays.

Size matters more than people expect: a code on a table tent is scanned from about 30 cm and can be small, a code in the window is scanned from across the pavement and cannot. How big a printed QR code should be has a size for each job.

Changing the menu afterwards

This is the whole point of putting it behind a code. With a QRVane menu page, you sign in, upload the new PDF or pictures, and every printed code shows the new menu the next time it is scanned. Nothing is reprinted and no code changes. The same goes for your hours and the note.

If the menu moves somewhere else entirely — a new website, a booking system, a different supplier — you change where the code points instead of what it holds. How to change where a QR code points covers that, and what it means for codes already printed.

One practical habit: print the date on the paper menu, not on the code. Then you can tell at a glance which tables are carrying last season’s prices, and the code behind them is already right.

What a menu code costs after its free period

A menu code is a subscription, not a one-off print cost, and it is worth knowing that before you print 200 table tents. Every code works for 14 days from the moment it is made. After that, unless its workspace has a plan with room for it, people who scan it see a QRVane page instead of the destination.

While the workspace subscribes, its plan keeps codes live past their first 14 days: Starter 10, Pro 50 and Business 250. One menu page is one code, so a restaurant with a food menu, a drinks list and a specials page is using three. A code's scans can be exported as CSV at every stage: in its first 14 days, in a grace period and after it stops.

If you would rather not depend on anyone, the honest alternative is a page on your own website and a code that holds its full address: the page is yours, you decide what goes on it, and no company’s billing stands between a guest and your menu. What you give up is changing where the code goes and counting the scans. The restaurants page says where that is the better choice, and what actually stops a printed code working goes through the rest.

Before the print run

1. Scan the printed proof with an iPhone and an Android phone, from where a guest will sit.
2. Open it on a phone with a weak signal: a 10 MB PDF in a basement dining room is not a menu.
3. Check the allergen line is there and that a member of staff on each shift can answer.
4. Check the menu reads on a small screen without zooming in to find the prices.
5. Write down where the code points and who can change it, so the person who covers your shift can do it too.

Then print the batch. A QRVane code’s 14-day free period runs from the moment the code is made, not from the day the table tents reach the tables, so make the code when the menu is ready rather than weeks ahead of the print.