How to create a QR digital menu: the complete step-by-step tutorial

A digital QR menu can be built in a single sitting, provided you have your dish list at hand. This tutorial walks the whole way through Menivo, from creating the account to the QR code on the table, naming the exact buttons you will see on screen. At the end you will have a menu you can change in seconds, with nothing to reprint.

What you need before you start

Get three things ready and the rest takes under an hour: your restaurant details (name, address, opening hours, phone), your dish list with prices, even in a plain document, and, optionally, photos of the dishes. Photos are not required to launch — the menu works perfectly without them, and you can add them dish by dish later.

If you have just signed up, the platform starts a five-step guided tour that walks you through exactly the actions below. You can restart or skip it at any time.

Step 1: Create the restaurant

After signing in, open the Restaurants section and click New Restaurant. The form asks for the name, address, opening hours and contact details. Fill them in carefully: these appear in the header of the public menu your guests see, and they also feed into Google search results.

The logo and cover image are optional, but worth uploading from the start — a menu carrying the identity of the venue inspires more confidence than a generic one. You can change them any time from the restaurant edit page.

Step 2: Split the menu into categories

Categories are the sections of your menu: Breakfast, Soups, Pasta, Grill, Desserts, Drinks. Next to your restaurant choose Menu categories, then Create list for each section. You reorder them by dragging the rows — categories appear in the public menu in exactly the order you see there.

One practical tip: do not start with twenty categories. Create the ones that actually have dishes now and add the rest as you go. A menu with empty sections looks neglected.

When the menu is large: category groups

If you have an extensive card, you can organise categories on two levels. On the same categories page you will find the Category groups area, where you create up to three top groups — for example Food and Drinks — and then, from the Group column of each category, you choose where it belongs. Cocktails, Wines and Beer go under Drinks; Soups, Grill and Desserts under Food.

Groups hold no products, they only organise the categories you already have, and guests see them as large headings with the categories underneath. If you create no groups at all, the menu looks exactly as before — the feature is optional. A group can also be switched off temporarily, and its categories disappear from the public menu without being deleted: useful for a seasonal offer.

Step 3: Add the dishes

Next to each category click Products and add the dishes. Only the name and the price are mandatory. The rest — description, weight, allergens, nutritional values, photo — you fill in when you have time; you can publish the menu without them.

Allergens are worth filling in early, though. They are a legal requirement in many situations, and a guest who finds the information in the menu stops taking up the waiter's time with questions.

The fast route: importing from Excel

If your menu already lives in a file, do not retype it. On the categories page click Download Excel template and you get a file with the correct structure, in two sheets: Worksheet 1 for categories and Worksheet 2 for products. Fill it in, upload it back, and the whole menu lands at once.

On the categories sheet, the group_ro column is optional: write a group name there and the category goes straight into it, the group being created automatically the first time it appears. Products are tied to their category through category_ref_id, which points at the ref_id from the first sheet.

Step 4: Choose how the menu looks

You pick the template from the restaurant edit page. Basic Menu is the classic reading menu, with categories and dishes. Order Menu adds the option for guests to order straight from the table. Flip Menu shows the menu as a magazine you leaf through, a good fit if you already have a nicely designed menu as images.

The template can be changed at any time without losing any content, so do not get stuck here: start with Basic Menu and switch later if you need table ordering.

Step 5: Check the public menu before it reaches the table

In the restaurant list, the Actions button opens a menu where you choose Public Menu. It opens exactly the page a guest sees after scanning the code. Check it on a phone, not only on a computer: that is where it will actually be read.

Look at three things: the prices are right, the order of categories matches how people actually order, and you have no empty sections left.

Step 6: Generate the QR code and put it on the tables

From the same Actions menu choose QR Code. From there you download the code as an image or as an SVG file, the right choice if you want to print it large or hand it to a designer — SVG does not pixelate when scaled up.

Put the code within the guest's reach: on the table, on the napkin holder, on the window for people looking in before they sit down. Add a short line next to it, such as "Scan for the menu" — without it, some guests will not realise what it is.

What happens after launch

The real advantage starts here: a price change or a dish taken off the list reaches the menu on every table in seconds, with no re-editing and no trip to the print shop. You log in, edit the product, save — the QR code stays the same.

If you also use the POS module, the menu you have just built becomes the basis for the orders your waiters take, and the same category and product structure appears there directly.

Common mistakes

Too many categories, too early. A menu with half its sections empty looks abandoned. Create them as you have something to put inside.

The QR code printed too small. Below three centimetres, older phones struggle. Use the SVG for printing.

Checking the menu only on a computer. Guests open it on a phone, inside the venue, sometimes in dim light. Test it in the same conditions.

Prices updated in the POS but not in the menu — or the other way round. Decide from the start which one is the source of truth and stick to it.

Conclusion

The full path has six steps: create the restaurant, split the menu into categories (grouped, if the card is large), add the dishes manually or through the Excel import, pick the template, check the public page on a phone, and put the QR code on the tables. The first time takes under an hour with the list in front of you; every change after that takes seconds.