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I'll buck the trend and say that I love QR code menus. It lets us order at our own pace, even after our initial order, without waiting on the waiter. Additional
by Salgat 3y ago
I'll buck the trend and say that I love QR code menus. It lets us order at our own pace, even after our initial order, without waiting on the waiter. Additionally, my wife and I can both queue up what we want in the cart on each of our own phones and discuss before submitting the order. It's just way more convenient, the whole "wait on a stranger to take our order" thing isn't a necessary component of the restaurant experience for me, and if I need to ask questions, I've never had issues waving over a worker to help.
- chrisdalke 3y agoFull mobile ordering is great, but there’s lots of places that have the worst of both worlds: a QR code linking to a digital menu, but still take orders with the waiter
- rahimnathwani 3y agoYeah bonus points if the digital menu is a regular-sized PDF, meaning anyone over 20 has to pan and zoom.
- dakial1 3y agoQR. code that takes you to a Google Drive PDF with a scan of the printed menu.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- davchana 3y agoTo top that, that QR code is distorted before printed, like rectangle. Happened to me in central valley.
- solardev 3y agoWas it still scannable? I thought they had perspective correction built in, given that any picture you take of one will always have some distortion? edit: 2022 discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36174607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36174607
- davchana 3y agoNo, it did not scan. They did not have any url listed below. I was using Barcode Scanner from zxing. I snapped a photo, edited, and then scanned.
- FooBarBizBazz 3y agoFWIW, I vote heavily against full mobile ordering. The more I have to do on my phone the worse it is. Things that admittedly make this worse: - Using an older phone. - Not saving credit cards to your phone. It's just slow and clunky, and -- it feels like work. I don't want to file a JIRA ticket to get my appetizer. I don't want to fill out a form. I just want to sit down and tell somebody. Another way to look at this is that it's the "self checkout" version of dining out. Self checkout is slow, because it's different at every store, and you will never be as fast as a cashier who has some practice with their particular system. Same deal here.
- EasyMark 3y agoYeah I do like wait staff, eating out is a bit of a ritual for me, I do tend to go to smaller family owned establishments.
- bscphil 3y ago> I'll buck the trend and say that I love QR code menus. It lets us order at our own pace, even after our initial order, without waiting on the waiter. Why not a paper menu plus order online? You could even have the order QR code and URL printed on the menu.
- mulmen 3y agoYou’re describing online ordering. This article is about links to a PDF.
- Arainach 3y agoMany restaurants (quite possibly most) take away the menus after you've ordered and traditionally had to bring them back if you wanted dessert/another round of drinks/etc. If they left menus, they're fighting space on what is often a table barely large enough to hold a plate for everyone seated at it QR code to PDF improves both these scenarios.
- bluGill 3y agoThey took menus away to discourage changing your mind
- addandsubtract 3y agoWho changes their mind after ordering?
- cortesoft 3y agoNo they don’t. They take them away to make room on the table for your food.
- prmoustache 3y agoUsually the waiter take back the menu right after you ordered so I doubt it.
- jimbob45 3y agoThey’re certainly good at sushi conveyor belt bars, where most people don’t care which food they’re selecting beyond what it looks like but a small minority want to know what they’re actually biting into.
- feedsmgmt 3y agoPaying with QR instead of having a stranger take your credit card somewhere to swipe it is also a much better experience for me.
- ginko 3y agoWhy not have the waiter come over with the card reader? That's usually how it's done here.
- somebodythere 3y agoI figure not every restaurant has the money/motivation to invest in the mobile POS and so it's still not super common.
- wyre 3y agoHandheld card readers are price competitive, or at least marginally more expensive. I’d attribute it more to the time investment of switching POS systems.
- joseda-hg 3y agoEverything is weird in the US so can't tell how different it would be, but in Chile you can get a handheld personal car reader [1][2] for around ~25USD to 50USD, even if they needed something more specialized I really can't see them becoming prohibitively expensive, even the matching POS from the same company is just like 400USD[3] [1]https://sumupchile.com/products/lector-air?variant=39994977910833 https://sumupchile.com/products/lector-air?variant=399949779... [2]https://sumupchile.com/products/lector-solo https://sumupchile.com/products/lector-solo [3]https://sumupchile.com/products/punto-de-venta https://sumupchile.com/products/punto-de-venta
- EasyMark 3y agoI can get the same deal here if I look for it, nothing special about Chile, etc. Most restaurant/business owners aren't tech savvy and will switch when their equipment fails, not to keep up with tech trends.
- ShakataGaNai 3y agoI like the mobile order option the best, but very few places I've been have that. The QR option is nice, as long as it's just an option. A physical menu is, generally, much nicer to use. That being said, sometimes you want to go back and reference what you ordered, or other options (like for drinks) and ... the menus have all been taken away.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- anigbrowl 3y agoThink about all the data you're giving up on yourself in exchange, and how that is being rebundled and sold.
- crazygringo 3y agoLiterally zero more than if you're already paying with a credit card. Your credit card already identifies you by name, and your precise location is known because you're at the restaurant by definition.
- anigbrowl 3y agoWrong. When you pay with a credit card it gives your name and amount. Activate a QR code and you're giving up your IP address at the bare minimum, it becomes possible to calculate how long you've been in the restaurant and who knows what else based on the cookies that come back or pdf telemetry. Every day there are stories here on HN about how people's data can be exfiltrated from their phones, but somehow you think this could never happen in a restaurant?
- Nullabillity 3y ago> you're giving up your IP address at the bare minimum Your phone's dynamic IP. Which is a redundant, and much weaker, identification than your payment info. > it becomes possible to calculate how long you've been in the restaurant Also doable by the staff.. using their eyes. And most restaurants will use some form of system anyway to track the orders and payments, because that information is vital to running a functioning restaurant.
- anigbrowl 3y agoConventional observation by restaurant staff isn't bundled and resold by data brokers. I find it astonishing that a reader of HN would be unaware of commercial data collection and resale practices.
- matsemann 3y agoI often end up ordering more thanks to QR. No longer do I have to try to flag down a waiter to get a menu looking for desserts after I'm done eating. Then having to flag them down again to order. Such a hassle I often don't bother. Same with getting another drink. With QR? Just scan it an order. Done eating? Just leave, having already paid in the app. Also removes the whole stupid tip thing.
- justahuman74 3y agoIt means everyone is staring at their phones once they sit down, can kill the vibe
- vdaea 3y agoWhat I really, really love about QR code menus is that, unlike real menus, they aren't sticky and covered in grime.
- nickthegreek 3y agoThe prices aren’t sticky either.
- jandrese 3y agoYou've never gotten a paper menu with stickers over the prices? Or those places that re-print the menus every week.
- wkat4242 3y agoIf you do to a decent place they're not sticky and covered in grime. After all they're used and taken away before the food even arrives. I go to a vegan restaurant with a 3 course 10,95€ meal deal and they have excellent menus.
- EasyMark 3y agolots of hole in the wall restaurants have great food for reasonable prices but not a lot of waitstaff to make sure every menu is pristine.
- the_snooze 3y ago>Additionally, my wife and I can both queue up what we want in the cart on each of our own phones and discuss before submitting the order. This is exactly the thing I loathe about QR code menus. It normalizes having phones out at the table, with everyone looking at their own. Defaults are powerful, and "phones out" as a default leads to increased distraction and inattention among the people you're dining with.
- kanbara 3y agoit's ok to do your own thing sometimes. if you want to share a nice meal with your wife without your phones just say so. people are often more social now than they used to be, at the cost of some personal attention, sure. i hang out with and eat out with my partner almost every day all the time. i don't need to be present 100% at every single moment, and if i or he wants to be during a meal, we will simply share that thought. i've never had issues having normal social interaction with people when out, even with some phone usage. it's normal.
- EasyMark 3y agoI don't have any issue with them, but I would hope they would have a reasonably recent paper version available for downed internet or older customers. I don't think it should be the "only" option. Also please make your menus searchable. Sometimes I just want to see what all your chicken/beef/veggie options are.