QR menus people actually use
Most table QR codes get scanned once and abandoned. The difference is rarely the technology — it is four decisions made before the sticker goes on the table.
A QR menu fails quietly. Guests scan, wait, squint at a PDF, and go back to asking the waiter. Nobody complains, so nobody fixes it — the code stays on the table and the ordering never happens.
Load in under two seconds or lose them
A phone on a busy restaurant's saturated mobile signal is the worst network conditions your menu will ever see. A PDF is the common mistake: it forces a pinch-zoom on every item and often downloads several megabytes before showing anything.
Serve a real page with images sized for a phone. If the first screen is not readable within about two seconds, a meaningful share of guests have already put the phone down.
Open on food, not on a homepage
The code on table fourteen should open the menu for that table, in that branch, at that time of day. Every extra tap — pick a branch, pick dine-in, dismiss a banner — costs guests.
Let them read in their own language
In Kuwait a table of six may want three languages. Detect the phone's language and let them switch in one tap, without losing their place in the menu.
Decide what happens after they choose
Browsing and ordering are different products. If the guest can order from the menu, the ticket should land on the same screen as everything else. If they cannot, say so clearly rather than letting them build a basket that goes nowhere.
Get these four right and the QR menu stops being a poster and starts being a channel.