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Menu and daily menu

QR digital menu for restaurants: the complete guide

A QR digital menu is a web page with your menu, dish by dish, that the customer opens by scanning a code at the table. It isn’t a PDF: every dish is text with a price, description, allergens and photo, it can be edited in seconds and Google can index it like any other page.

Pau Coderch9 min read

Seafood platter photographed for a restaurant’s digital menu
In this article+

In 30 seconds

  1. 01A QR code with a PDF is a file you redo at every change. A digital menu is text that can be edited, translated and indexed by Google.
  2. 02The minimum: up-to-date prices, allergens per dish, languages, photos of what you want to highlight and the option to hide what has run out.
  3. 03Link it from your Google listing: every dish is a search you can win.

What a QR digital menu is and what it isn’t

A digital menu is your menu turned into a web page: every dish is a line of text with a name, price, description and allergens.

The QR code is only the door. No app, no sign-up and nothing to download.

What a digital menu isn’t is a QR code that opens a PDF: a photo of the paper menu put on a phone, which forces people to zoom, can’t be translated and can’t be searched. The confusion dates from 2020, when Orden SND/399/2020 (a 2020 Spanish Ministry of Health order) asked venues to avoid shared menus and many bars put up a QR code pointing to a PDF.

The difference is in the result. A PDF doesn’t sell anything; a well-made digital menu reads without effort, shows photos of what you want to sell and appears on Google when someone searches for "black rice in La Barceloneta".

PDF with a QR code or a dynamic menu: the difference that matters

Picture a bar with 40 covers: the price of coffee changes, the oxtail runs out at two and four tables of French customers walk in.

With the PDF, the owner rings the nephew who laid out the menu and waits until the next day. With a dynamic menu, the owner changes the price from a phone, hides the dish with one tap and the French customers switch language themselves.

There is a third difference you can’t see from the table. Google can index a PDF, and on your listing it can generate the menu with AI from a photo or a PDF, an experimental feature that you have to review. A dynamic menu is already text: Google can transcribe the menu on your website to your listing.

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PDF with a QR code versus a dynamic menu: what changes day to day
PDF with QR codeDynamic digital menu
Changing a priceLay out, export, upload againEdit from your phone in seconds
Dish run outStill shows until the next PDFHidden with one tap
LanguagesOne PDF per language or noneLanguage selector in the same menu
AllergensA separate chart or nothingIcon and word on every dish
Reading on a phoneZooming and sideways scrollingAdapted to the screen
GoogleIt indexes the file; you generate and review the listing menu separatelyEvery dish is text that Google can transcribe to the listing
PhotosHeavy and slow to loadOnly on the dishes you highlight
Daily set menu (menú del día)Another PDF every dayIts own section with a date
Typical costFree or nearlyFrom 4 to 20 €/month on its own; included in platforms

What a neighbourhood bar gains from a digital menu

Time: changing the paper menu means reprinting, laminating and throwing away the old ones, and many owners put up with out-of-date prices for months so as not to go through that again. Selling better: three or four dishes with a photo and a long description stand out from the rest.

The customer who doesn’t understand your menu: a tourist faced with "cap i pota" orders a burger; with the language selector they order the cap i pota and leave you a review. And Google: according to its help pages, with a detailed menu on your listing customers find what you offer on Search and on Maps.

How to create your restaurant’s digital menu, step by step

The real work is in turning the menu into clean text and deciding what to highlight.

Done in order, a menu with 80 items is digitised in an afternoon; with AI from a photo, in minutes plus a review. Have your current menu, the price list and the allergen sheet to hand.

  • Step 1. Clean up the menu: remove what nobody orders, correct prices and group into clear sections.
  • Step 2. Turn it into text, by hand or with a tool that reads the photo. Name, price, short description and allergens for each dish.
  • Step 3. Choose the tool: a free one to get by, a paid one for languages and allergens, or a platform if you want the menu to feed Google, your website and the daily set menu.
  • Step 4. Upload the menu and check it dish by dish, above all prices and allergens.
  • Step 5. Add photos to the three or four dishes you want to sell. Real ones, in natural light.
  • Step 6. Switch on the languages and check the 20 most ordered dishes in each one.
  • Step 7. Generate the QR code pointing to the menu’s URL. Print it at a minimum of 3 cm and test it with two phones.
  • Step 8. Link the URL from your Google Business Profile listing and from your website.

How Menuveo does it

At Menuveo you send us a photo or a PDF of your menu and we digitise it. You check dishes and prices, and confirm the allergens with the kitchen; once published, it is on the QR code, on your website and on your Google listing, in seven languages.

Menuveo digital menu

The key point

A QR code with a PDF is a file you redo at every change. A digital menu is text that can be edited, translated and indexed by Google.

Features you have to demand

Many tools promise the same thing: "create your menu in 5 minutes".

The difference is in what happens three months in. If a tool fails on the first three, don’t sign up even if it is free.

  • Text, not an image. It can be read without zooming, searched on the page and copied.
  • Editing from a phone: price, description and availability without a computer.
  • Hiding a dish that has run out with one tap, so that it disappears everywhere at once.
  • Allergens per dish, with the 14 that must be declared, icon and word, next to the description.
  • Languages with a visible selector at the top, with your own glossary for your dishes.
  • Daily set menu as a separate section, with date and price, updatable every day without touching the main menu.
  • Loads in under two seconds on mobile data. No app, no sign-up and no third-party advertising.
  • Your own URL or one on a serious domain, which you can link from Google and from your website.
  • Structured data of the Menu and MenuItem types.
  • Exporting your menu if you leave. The menu is yours, not the tool’s.
Features you have to demand

How much a QR digital menu costs

The market in Spain has three tiers.

Free or nearly free: tools that give you the menu in exchange for advertising, someone else’s domain or limits on dishes and languages. Menu only: between 4 and 20 euros a month, as a guide. And platforms that include the menu along with other things.

The useful question isn’t which one is cheapest, but what you do with the menu. If you only want a QR code that works, the free one will do. If you want it to work on Google, translate itself and feed the daily set menu, look at what each price includes.

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Price tiers for a QR digital menu in Spain (indicative, September 2026)
TierPriceWhat it includesWho it is for
Free tool0 €Basic QR menu, with limits, someone else’s domain or advertisingGetting by with a QR code that works
Menu-only tool4 to 20 €/monthMenu with sections, photos and, depending on the plan, languages and allergensBars that want to look after the menu and run it themselves
Menuveo (Pro plan)See PricingMenu in 7 languages with allergens, daily set menu from a photo, a well-kept Google Maps listing, reviews and a listing on menuveo.esRestaurants with a daily set menu that want to show up on Google

Languages and allergens: two topics with their own guide

On languages: switch on English as a minimum and check the 20 most ordered dishes.

The rule is name in the original and description translated. On allergens: it is mandatory to give information on the 14 allergens in everything you serve, daily set menu included. RD 126/2015 (Real Decreto 126/2015, Spain’s rules on food information for non-prepacked food) allows you to do it verbally if the information is recorded in writing or in electronic format on the premises; in a digital menu they go on each dish with an icon and a word. Each topic has its own guide in this same cluster.

Languages and allergens: two topics with their own guide

The physical QR code: where to put it and how to print it

Any generator will do, as long as the code is static and points to your domain.

Avoid "dynamic" QR codes from outside services: if the service closes, your QR code stops working. Minimum size of 3 centimetres, high contrast, a white margin, and test it with an iPhone and an Android phone.

Put it where people see it when they sit down, with a line underneath: "Scan to see the menu in your language". Keep a paper menu too for anyone who prefers it, and make sure the two say the same.

Mistakes we see in digital menus

None of them is about technology; all of them are about upkeep or judgement.

The most serious is the out-of-date menu: with old prices it is worse than paper, because the customer assumes that digital is up to date.

  • A QR code that opens a heavy PDF. It is slow, it can’t be read and it can’t be translated.
  • A menu with prices different from the ones on the bill.
  • Dishes that have run out and still show.
  • A photo on every dish: it is heavy, it loads slowly and no dish stands out.
  • Dark background with light lettering and a decorative typeface.
  • Unchecked machine translation: "octopus to the party".
  • Allergens in a separate chart instead of on each dish.
  • Daily set menu as a photo of the blackboard, with no date and no price in text.
  • A QR code from a free service that one day adds advertising or stops redirecting.
  • A menu linked on Google that doesn’t match the one on the table.

How Menuveo does it

At Menuveo the menu, the daily set menu and the Google listing come from the same source. You hide a dish that has run out from your phone and it disappears from the QR code, from your website and from Google at once.

How the menu works

The key point

Link it from your Google listing: every dish is a search you can win.

What to ask the provider before you sign up

Every tool looks good in the demo.

These questions are asked before you pay and in writing, and ask them to show you on a real menu from another customer, opened on your phone over mobile data.

  • Is the menu indexable text or an image? Show me one of your menus on Google.
  • Can I edit prices and hide dishes from my phone, without calling anyone?
  • Does it carry the 14 allergens on each dish, visible next to the description?
  • Which languages does it include and how is a bad translation corrected?
  • Is the daily set menu updated every day without touching the main menu? How?
  • Is the URL mine or yours? If I leave, does the QR code keep working?
  • Can I export the menu in a format I can use somewhere else?
  • Is there a minimum term, a set-up fee or a cost per additional venue?
  • Is there third-party advertising on the menu or on the loading page?
  • Does it link to the Google Business Profile listing and carry structured data?
What to ask the provider before you sign up

Sources consulted

The allergen obligations come from Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 and from Real Decreto 126/2015.

What Google does with the menu link is described in Google Business Profile Help, and the Menu and MenuItem structured data at schema.org. The price ranges are indicative, as of September 2026; check each provider’s website.

  • Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the provision of food information to consumers.
  • Real Decreto 126/2015, on food information for food presented non-prepacked for sale to the final consumer.
  • Google Business Profile Help: menu editor, menu generated with AI from a photo or PDF, and menu link.
  • Orden SND/399/2020, article 16.d: avoiding shared menus on terraces during phase 1 of 2020.
  • schema.org: Menu, MenuSection and MenuItem types.

Frequently asked questions

With a free tool: you sign up, enter the dishes with their prices and download the QR code. It works as a start, with limits on languages, allergens, domain and sometimes advertising.

First publish the menu at a URL. Then generate the QR code with any free generator pointing to that URL, print it at a minimum of 3 centimetres and test it with two phones.

No. The 2020 measures that asked venues to avoid shared menus are no longer in force. What is mandatory is to give allergen information, with the information recorded on the premises.

It doesn’t have to. Many restaurants have both. What matters is that they say the same and that the paper one is reprinted when prices change.

On a digital menu you hide it with one tap from your phone and it stops showing on the QR code, on your website and on Google.

If it is a web page with text, Google crawls it and can transcribe the dishes to your listing. If it is a PDF or a photo, it accepts the link, and you can generate the menu with its AI (an experimental feature) and review it.

Ask beforehand whether you can export the menu and whether the URL is yours. If the QR code points to a domain owned by the provider, you will have to reprint the codes when you leave.