QR menus stuck around after COVID for good reasons: instant updates, no reprinting, lower paper waste. Here's how to actually do them well for a small restaurant or café.
What scans best on a table
A QR on a small table tent or card stand at 1.5-2 inches works for most tables. Customers are 12-18 inches away when seated; the 1:10 rule says your QR should be 1.5-2 inches. Below that, expect scan failures.
Position it where it doesn't get covered by drink glasses or napkin holders. Center of the table or on the salt-and-pepper caddy works.
Behind the QR: design choices
Option 1: A simple HTML menu page. Fast loading, works on any phone, easy to update yourself. Best for small menus that don't change daily.
Option 2: A PDF. Easy to make from your existing print menu. Downside: PDFs are awkward on mobile — pinch-zooming a multi-page PDF on a 5-inch screen is bad UX.
Option 3: A digital menu service (Toast, MustHaveMenus, etc.). Pretty, integrates with ordering, costs $20-100/month. Worth it for growing restaurants; overkill for a 4-table café.
For most small operators, a simple mobile-friendly HTML page is the right answer. Fast, no recurring fees, full control.
Why "editable destination" matters here
Print runs aren't trivial. If you print 50 QR table tents and then move your menu from PDFs to a new ordering page, you don't want to reprint everything. OneDollarQRcodes lets us repoint the destination URL after printing — same QR image, new target. Most "free" QR generators don't offer this.
Daily specials
Don't put daily specials directly in the QR target — they go stale immediately. Better: have a static "Today's Menu" page that you update each morning. Customers scan, see what's current.
Languages
If you have multilingual customers, the linked page can auto-detect browser language. One QR, multiple language versions of your menu.