How to digitize your restaurant menu

Digitizing a menu sounds more complicated than it is. In practice, for most restaurants we work with the whole process finishes within one working day. Here is exactly what happens.

What you need before you start

Only three things:

1. A product list with prices — ideally in Excel or Word, but a photo of your paper menu works too.
2. Photos of the dishes — they do not need to be professional. A well-lit phone photo is perfectly good to start with.
3. Categories — how you want the menu divided: starters, mains, drinks, desserts.

If you have no photos, the menu can go live without them and you can add images gradually.

Step 1: Structure the menu

Before entering anything, look at your menu critically. This is the moment most restaurants discover they have items nobody has ordered in years. A digital menu makes that visible, so use the opportunity to clean it up.

Rule of thumb: if a category has more than 12 items, guests will not read them all. Split it.

Step 2: Enter the products

We do this part for you — you send the materials and we set up the entire menu. If you prefer to do it yourself, in the admin panel you add a category, then products within it, each with a name, description, price and photo.

Keep descriptions short. Two sentences are enough, and the most important information (ingredients, allergens, portion size) belongs in the first.

Step 3: Place the QR codes

Every table gets its own QR code. This matters — the code is not the same for the whole restaurant but per table, so the system knows where the order came from. Codes are printed on stickers or table stands.

Step 4: Train the staff

This is the step most often underestimated. The system itself is simple, but staff need to know what to do when a guest asks how it works. Training takes under an hour and is part of installation.

The most common mistakes

• Too many categories. Eight categories on a phone screen is already a lot.
• Photos in mixed formats. If some are landscape and others portrait, the menu looks untidy. Stick to one aspect ratio.
• Forgotten seasonal items. A digital menu should be updated when your offering changes — that is the advantage, but it takes a habit.
• No alternative for guests without a phone. Keep a few printed menus just in case.

How long it takes in total

From the moment you send us the materials to a fully working menu: usually one to two days. The on-site installation itself takes 1-2 hours.

If you want to see a finished digital menu before deciding, request a demo — we will show you a real example from a restaurant.