for hospitality
QR codes for restaurants: menus, WiFi, reviews and more
A practical guide to QR codes in cafés and restaurants — menus, WiFi, reviews and loyalty — and why a short, changeable link saves you reprinting.
A QR code on a table tent is just a printed link to wherever you point it — your menu, your WiFi, your review page. The trick isn’t generating the code; any phone made in the last eight years scans it straight from the camera. The trick is pointing it at the right thing and printing it so it actually scans.
What restaurants use them for
- Table menus. A code on the table tent opens your menu in the diner’s browser. Use a clean, mobile-friendly web page, not a desktop PDF that forces pinch-zoom and endless scrolling.
- Order at table. Same idea, pointed at your ordering page.
- WiFi. A code that drops guests onto your network without typing a password.
- Reviews and feedback. A code on the receipt or bill folder pointed at your review page.
- Loyalty. A sign-up or stamp page behind a code at the counter.
Point it at a short link, not your menu URL
This is the one that saves you money. Your table tents get reprinted rarely; your menu changes constantly — seasonal specials, a new PDF host, a price tweak. If you bake the long menu URL straight into the squares, every change means a reprint.
Instead, point the code at a short link you control. The printed tent never changes, but you re-aim the link in seconds when the menu turns over. That’s the whole idea behind static vs dynamic codes — and you don’t need to rent a paid QR platform to get it.
One honest note: QR codes themselves never expire, and the printed pattern doesn’t wear out. What “expires” is a lapsed subscription on a paid dynamic-QR service. A static code or a short link you own keeps working as long as the destination stays live.
Size, contrast and glare
The boring details decide whether it scans first time. The full checklist is in what makes a good QR code, but for venues specifically:
- Size by distance. Rough rule: code width should be about 1/10 of the scanning distance. A flat table card scanned from ~30 cm wants at least 2.5 x 2.5 cm. A code on a high counter scanned at arm’s length needs more like 5 x 5 cm.
- Dark on light, always. Inverted (light-on-dark) codes are a top cause of scan failure — scanners struggle to find the finder patterns against a dark field. If your tent is dark, drop a standard code into a light panel rather than inverting it.
- Go matte. Glossy laminate reflects overhead lights and phone flash straight into the camera. Matte cardstock or matte laminate scans reliably, even tilted under a light.
- Keep the quiet zone. That white margin around the code isn’t padding — scanners need it. Don’t crop it or crowd it with text. dottr adds it automatically.
- Don’t crank error correction. Level M is the right default for a clean printed code. The highest level (H) makes the grid denser and harder to scan small; only use it when a logo covers part of the code.
Keep it optional
Diner feeling about QR menus is genuinely mixed, and it skews negative at sit-down venues — frustration runs highest with diners over 40. So treat the code as a convenience, not the only door. Always offer paper or a human, never force an app download (the camera already scans), and never make people log in just to read what’s for dinner.
Get those two things right — a short link you can re-aim, and a code that’s big, matte and high-contrast — and the QR quietly does its job. Pip would approve.
Make yours at dottr — it’s free and runs in your browser.