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I hate QR menu's. Younger me is absolutely appalled at that. Older me just wants a physical menu. * I intentionally don't use my phone at restaurants. In fact,

I hate QR menu's. Younger me is absolutely appalled at that. Older me just wants a physical menu. * I intentionally don't use my phone at restaurants. In fact, I often prefer to leave it in the car. * In my area (rural America), a lot of businesses have really poor websites (noticeably worse than urban areas). Nearly all of the QR menus are down right terrible. * There's a good chance some one thought it'd be great to have a bunch of collapsed sections and add a terrible animation. I need to manually expand each section and deal with the terrible animation repositioning the screen. * For those less tech savvy businesses, they probably just uploaded a PDF of their menu. Bonus points if the menu is scanned in on their 15 year old printer/scanner combo. * Finally, there's the group of restaurants that have changed menus but either (1) forget to update the website (2) accidentally have multiple, differing copies of the menu

Schroedingersat 4y ago
Honestly the scanned pdf sounds amazing compared to the website they usually have or the forced app install
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  Website is easier to translate and likely quicker to load. Search is similar whether its pdf or website. I like qr codes as an option. It all varies by context of course, but I much prefer ordering uk/nz style - order at the bar, pay, grab drinks yourself, food gets delivered by waiter. Much faster, esp when you are getting a single cup of coffee.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    That's common in Britain for cheaper places, especially ordinary pubs serving food. At most middle or fancy restaurants you order from the waiter who comes to the table.
gibolt 4y ago
Trust me, the majority of sites are not much better even in the most high-tech of areas. Even large chains can have terrible sites and experiences. Just print a few hundred pieces of paper, and your customers will tell your employees which listed items they want.
reaperducer 4y ago
I was at a food court a couple of months ago (sorry... "food hall") and one of the stalls didn't have a printed menu at all. Not even one available on request. Just a QR code. I went to another stall.
SuperQue 4y ago
Bonus points for the menu PDF file being hundreds of megabytes because it's their high res file for the printing company. Double bonus if their restaurant is a mobile service dead zone.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  And needing a lot of panning and zooming due to being based on a full page format which is unsuitable for a phone. It also feels awkward because you stimulate everyone to pick up their phone as soon as you come in. I'm still from the generation that considers that something too avoid :)
  - bombcar 4y ago
    One restaurant had this - but the menu was in FOUR separate PDFs that you had to zoom and squint at; basically unusable. Always amusing when the menu is on QR but the wine list is a normal printed paper.
- drewtato 4y ago
  You've got it backwards. The big files are menus that have been scanned with no compression at high resolution. Most of that info is vector/font on a properly designed menu.
bombcar 4y ago
I'm luckily in a rural area where we still have washable menus (literally printed on dishwasher-proof plastic) and I've not seen a QR code ... well, ever. And the tide is turning, the waiter at a high-class joint we went to in another big city noticed some hesitation with the QR code and revealed normal menus.
Thorentis 4y ago
> they probably just uploaded a PDF of their menu. Tbh, this is usually the least bad outcome with QR code menus since at least it's usually just the same as the physical one but on my screen (worse than physical, but not "badly designed JavaScript animation hell" worse) *
silisili 4y ago
Exactly the same sentiments. My family is zero phones when eating, whether home or out. Luckily, most places would bring a physical menu when asked. One claimed they didn't have any, and seemingly made no effort to accommodate, so they just lost our business. At minimum, I don't think it's too much to ask for a single chalkboard or screen or something. Having nothing and demanding users scan QR codes is low effort.
Gud 4y ago
Do you hate all QR menus or only the dysfunctional ones? Most are terrible , but occasionally it’s a light web application where I can order and pay directly from. Which I like very much. I do dread the scanned menu PDFs though, they’re crimes against humanity
- SkyPuncher 4y ago
  I dislike most of them. It's compounded by the fact that I currently use a Unihertz Titan Pocket. Physical keyboard, but only a 3" screen.
asdwda 4y ago
mrtksn 4y ago
There are many services that provide nice web menus for the restaurants to use with QR Codes. The terrible state of any restaurant menu would be only because the restaurant is not aware of the service and the service providers failed to market their product to them.
deleted 4y ago
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Schroedingersat 4y ago

Honestly the scanned pdf sounds amazing compared to the website they usually have or the forced app install

dzhiurgis 4y ago
Website is easier to translate and likely quicker to load. Search is similar whether its pdf or website. I like qr codes as an option. It all varies by context of course, but I much prefer ordering uk/nz style - order at the bar, pay, grab drinks yourself, food gets delivered by waiter. Much faster, esp when you are getting a single cup of coffee.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  That's common in Britain for cheaper places, especially ordinary pubs serving food. At most middle or fancy restaurants you order from the waiter who comes to the table.

gibolt 4y ago

Trust me, the majority of sites are not much better even in the most high-tech of areas. Even large chains can have terrible sites and experiences. Just print a few hundred pieces of paper, and your customers will tell your employees which listed items they want.

reaperducer 4y ago

I was at a food court a couple of months ago (sorry... "food hall") and one of the stalls didn't have a printed menu at all. Not even one available on request. Just a QR code. I went to another stall.

SuperQue 4y ago

Bonus points for the menu PDF file being hundreds of megabytes because it's their high res file for the printing company. Double bonus if their restaurant is a mobile service dead zone.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
And needing a lot of panning and zooming due to being based on a full page format which is unsuitable for a phone. It also feels awkward because you stimulate everyone to pick up their phone as soon as you come in. I'm still from the generation that considers that something too avoid :)
- bombcar 4y ago
  One restaurant had this - but the menu was in FOUR separate PDFs that you had to zoom and squint at; basically unusable. Always amusing when the menu is on QR but the wine list is a normal printed paper.
drewtato 4y ago
You've got it backwards. The big files are menus that have been scanned with no compression at high resolution. Most of that info is vector/font on a properly designed menu.

bombcar 4y ago

I'm luckily in a rural area where we still have washable menus (literally printed on dishwasher-proof plastic) and I've not seen a QR code ... well, ever. And the tide is turning, the waiter at a high-class joint we went to in another big city noticed some hesitation with the QR code and revealed normal menus.

Thorentis 4y ago

> they probably just uploaded a PDF of their menu. Tbh, this is usually the least bad outcome with QR code menus since at least it's usually just the same as the physical one but on my screen (worse than physical, but not "badly designed JavaScript animation hell" worse) *

silisili 4y ago

Exactly the same sentiments. My family is zero phones when eating, whether home or out. Luckily, most places would bring a physical menu when asked. One claimed they didn't have any, and seemingly made no effort to accommodate, so they just lost our business. At minimum, I don't think it's too much to ask for a single chalkboard or screen or something. Having nothing and demanding users scan QR codes is low effort.

Gud 4y ago

Do you hate all QR menus or only the dysfunctional ones? Most are terrible , but occasionally it’s a light web application where I can order and pay directly from. Which I like very much. I do dread the scanned menu PDFs though, they’re crimes against humanity

SkyPuncher 4y ago
I dislike most of them. It's compounded by the fact that I currently use a Unihertz Titan Pocket. Physical keyboard, but only a 3" screen.

asdwda 4y ago

mrtksn 4y ago

There are many services that provide nice web menus for the restaurants to use with QR Codes. The terrible state of any restaurant menu would be only because the restaurant is not aware of the service and the service providers failed to market their product to them.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]