QR menus for restaurants: the complete setup guide

The laminated menu with three prices crossed out and rewritten in pen is a Sri Lankan institution — and a quiet embarrassment. Since 2020, customers everywhere have learned to scan a QR code for a menu. The good news: doing it properly costs almost nothing and takes one evening.

How a QR menu actually works

Your menu becomes a fast web page. A QR code on each table points to it. Customers point their phone camera — no app, no typing — and the menu opens in their browser. When you change a price or run out of a dish, you edit it once online and every table instantly shows the update.

Setting up in four steps

• 1. Type your menu once. Group dishes the way you serve them — Rice & Curry, Kottu, Short Eats, Drinks. Add photos only to the dishes that look as good as they taste.
• 2. Set honest prices. The whole point is that the digital menu is always right. With Duqit's free QR menu builder you can build the entire menu before creating an account.
• 3. Print the table cards. Duqit generates an A5 card with your name and QR, sized for lamination. One per table, one at the counter, one on the door for passers-by.
• 4. Update as you go. Ran out of watalappan at 8pm? Mark it unavailable from your phone. That five-second habit is what separates a useful QR menu from an annoying one.

Mistakes that make customers hate QR menus

• A PDF instead of a page. PDFs load slowly and need pinch-zooming. Use a real mobile page.
• An out-of-date digital menu. Worse than paper — you have removed their excuse to ask.
• No paper fallback at all. Keep two printed copies for the customer whose phone is dead. Hospitality first.
• A QR that leads to Facebook. Customers want prices, not your page's timeline.

What it costs

Printing and laminating ten table cards costs a few hundred rupees at any communication shop. The Duqit menu itself is free to build and free for 3 months, then LKR 490/month — less than one plate of rice a day. Pair it with a review QR on the same table and happy diners grow your Google rating while they wait for the bill; add online booking if you take table reservations.

Build your QR menu free — it takes about twenty minutes, no account needed to start.