QR menu vs QR ordering: what your venue actually needs
Both start with a code on the table. A QR menu stops at showing the food; QR ordering goes on to take the order and the payment. Which one you need depends less on the software than on where your service loses time.
What a QR menu does
A QR menu is your menu as a web page: the guest scans the code on the table and it opens in the phone’s browser. A good one fits the screen, carries photos and allergens, opens in the guest’s language and changes the moment you change a price. A PDF behind a code is the minimum version, and guests notice.
What it does not do is take the order. The guest still waits for someone to come over, and the bill still arrives on a tray.
What QR ordering adds
With QR ordering, the same menu has an order button. The order reaches the kitchen the moment it is sent, a second round is one tap, and the table pays, or splits the bill, from their own phones.
The waiter does not disappear. Guests who would rather order from a person still can, and the waiter spends less time carrying pads and card machines and more time with the guests.
When a QR menu is enough
A menu that only shows the food fits where ordering is not where you lose time: a dining room where taking the order is part of the evening, a counter where guests order at the till anyway, or a menu you mainly want translated and kept up to date.
When QR ordering pays off
It pays off wherever guests wait to order or to pay: busy terraces, bars where the next round depends on catching someone’s eye, hotels taking orders from the pool or the room, events with a queue at the counter, and all-you-can-eat rounds.
A simple test: on a busy night, time how long a table waits between sitting down and ordering, and between asking for the bill and leaving. If those gaps are long, a menu that only shows the food leaves them as they are.
What to check before you choose
Commission: some systems take a cut of every order, others charge a flat subscription. Payments: whose account does the money land in? Your till: does the system connect to the one you have, or replace it? Languages: how many, and can you correct a translation yourself?
In Austria, also ask about the fiscal rules: a card payment at the table counts as a cash sale under the Registrierkassenpflicht, so it needs a signed RKSV receipt. Ask who signs it.
Where GoRunny fits
You can start with the menu alone: until a payment provider is connected, your QR codes open the menu and your team takes the order. Ordering and paying at the table switch on later, on the same codes.
GoRunny is both on one code: a QR menu in 201 languages with photos and allergens, and ordering, splitting and paying at the table by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through your own Stripe, Mollie, Unzer or SumUp account. Orders reach a kitchen display sorted by course. It works with ready2order, helloCash, Lightspeed, gastronovi and SumUp, or with no POS at all, signs RKSV receipts in Austria through fiskaly, and takes 0% commission on a flat subscription.
Questions
Is a QR menu the same as QR ordering?
No. A QR menu shows the menu on the guest’s phone; QR ordering also takes the order and, usually, the payment.
Do guests need an app?
Not with GoRunny. The menu opens in the phone’s browser: no download, no sign-up.
Will QR ordering replace my waiters?
No. It takes the walking and the waiting out of ordering and paying. Guests who want to order from a person still can, and the waiter can take the order on their own phone.