How to Make a QR Code Menu: Create a Digital Menu Step by Step (Free)

To make a QR code menu, build your menu as a mobile web page, create a QR code for each table that opens it, then test every code on two phones before service.

A small restaurant can do all of it without paying for software. The 10 steps below show how to make a digital menu for your restaurant, including the main US, UK and EU rules on what a menu must show and where Pakistan stands, all checked on October 12, 2026.

If you only want an existing PDF or menu page behind a code, see How to convert a PDF menu to a QR code under Step 7.

This guide covers menus guests open on their own phone, not TV menu boards. Where a step needs software, we show it in MenuBeacon, the software we make, which has editions for the US, the UK, EU member states and Pakistan.

If your restaurant is elsewhere, contact the team before signing up. Plan details are for the US, UK and EU editions unless marked Pakistan.

Step 3 is general information, not legal advice. Check your duties with your local health department (US), Trading Standards or your council's food team (UK), or your local food authority (EU and Pakistan).

How to make a QR code menu in 10 steps

1. Plan the structure for a phone screen.
2. Write names and descriptions guests can scan.
3. Add the allergen, calorie and price information your market requires.
4. Photograph your best sellers first.
5. Build the menu in a digital menu builder.
6. Add translations, branding and an allergy message.
7. Create a QR code for each table.
8. Add your menu to your Google Business Profile.
9. Test every code on two phones before service.
10. Keep the menu current.

Step 1: Plan the structure for a phone screen

Group items the way guests order, with best sellers in the first two sections. Our rule of thumb: on a phone, split any section longer than about 12–15 items.

Two illustrative layouts (ours, not a customer's):

Use modifiers for choices on the same dish. Make separate items when the kitchen cooks something differently or the portion and its price change, as with a half and a full karahi.

Step 2: Write names and descriptions guests can scan

• Names: short and specific. "Chicken karahi (half)" tells a guest more than "House Special No. 4".
• Descriptions: one sentence of about 10–20 words (our rule of thumb). Lead with the main ingredients, the cooking method or the portion size.
• Prices: one format on every item, with any compulsory charge built in where Step 3's rules require it.
• Allergens and diet: use your menu builder's allergen and dietary fields (Step 3) so they look the same on every item, and name the nut or cereal in the description: almond, not just nuts.

Two illustrative rewrites (ours, not a customer's):

Each rewrite says what's on the plate and how it's cooked; "famous" and "delicious" give guests nothing to check.

Step 3: Add the allergen, calorie and price information your market requires

In the table below, three rows cover only larger businesses: US calories and California's allergen rule start at 20 locations, and England's calories at 250 employees. A single independent restaurant should read the other allergen rows and, in the UK and Germany, the price rows.

Checked on October 12, 2026; the date beside each link is the source's own.

Every other US restaurant should check its state's food code. Regulators use the FDA Food Code as a model (FDA, September 17, 2026).

Since the 2022 edition (FDA, January 19, 2023), the Food Code has called for written notice of major allergens in unpackaged food, on paper or electronically (Food Code 2026, FDA, September 30, 2026; § 3-602.12(C) and Annex 3 of the PDF it links).

Ask your health department which edition your state uses.

On every plan, MenuBeacon gives each item fields for calories, allergens, dietary tags and age restrictions. The restaurant enters that information and is responsible for it.

Step 4: Photograph your best sellers first

Every photo adds loading time on mobile data, so start with your best sellers rather than photographing every dish. Shoot them in natural light on a plain background.

Keep words out of photos and in the description, where translation tools and screen readers reach them. Use only photos you have the right to publish: your own, or images whose license covers your menu.

Step 5: Build the menu in a digital menu builder

In MenuBeacon, you sign up with an email address and no card, add your restaurant, then build your menu in the digital menu builder: sections first, then items.

In the US, UK and EU editions, Free costs $0, doesn't expire and includes 3 menus with unlimited items and 5,000 scans a month.

Pro is $20 a month, billed in US dollars, month to month, with unlimited menus and 50,000 scans; your menu still shows your own currency.

Free's 3 menus go further if you keep time-limited dishes, such as breakfast, inside your main menu and give each its own item hours.

If happy hour changes prices, add happy-hour versions as separate items with their own hours and "happy hour" in their names, so guests can tell them from the full-price items. Scan a code during happy hour to check.

To check the scan cap, multiply a busy week's scans from your analytics by 31 ÷ 7 (illustrative arithmetic, not customer data):

• 1,300 scans a week projects to about 5,760 in a 31-day month, over Free's 5,000.
• 1,000 scans a week projects to about 4,430, under it.

Over a plan limit, you're asked to upgrade rather than having live menus interrupted without warning. You're warned at 80% and again at 100% of the month's scans. Past the allowance plus a 20% margin (6,000 scans on Free), new scans can be turned away until the next calendar month or an upgrade; guests already ordering at a table aren't cut off, and orders are never refused because of scans.

If you're still choosing a tool, see our comparison of free menu software.

On Pro, AI menu import turns a JPEG, PNG, WebP or PDF of your menu (up to 10 MB) into a draft. Nothing is created until you review and confirm it, the AI can misread, and you add modifiers afterwards.

Check every price, allergen and calorie in the draft against your recipes before you confirm. CSV import, a separate tool that isn't AI, is also on Pro. On Free, you add items in the editor.

What MenuBeacon can't do for your menu

• No tablet menus: guests open the menu on their own phone.
• No automatic translation: you write every language yourself (Step 6).
• No website builder: link to the menu from your own site or Google profile (Step 8). A display-only widget (Pro; US, UK and EU editions) can also show it on your site, without ordering, photos or modifiers.

Step 6: Add translations, branding and an allergy message

On every plan, you can add a translation for each language, and guests switch language on their phone. Have a fluent speaker check each one, especially allergen wording in descriptions.

Branding works on every plan: logo, colors, cover image and footer text. Free menus show a small "Powered by MenuBeacon" line, and Pro removes it.

With table ordering, guests can order without speaking to anyone, so staff may never ask about allergies. The UK Food Standards Agency's best-practice guidance (FSA, February 24, 2025) says to ask every guest, for example as you seat them.

Where you can't ask everyone, the FSA asks for a message on a sign in the guest's eyeline or on the menu, preferably at the top (paras 66–67).

Footer text sits at the bottom of the menu, not at the top the FSA prefers, so add the message there and also on a table tent you design around your Step 7 code.

Say who to tell: "Please tell a member of staff about any food allergy, intolerance or celiac disease before you order." In the UK, write coeliac. If your menu shows the waiter-call button (every plan), point guests to it.

Table orders carry the guest's notes on every plan, but a note isn't a conversation. For digital orders, the same FSA guidance asks for an allergy request to reach the cook in writing, with confirmation that it was received and understood (para 79).

Have staff confirm every allergy request with the guest and the kitchen; Step 9 checks that notes show where the cook works.

Step 7: Create a QR code for each table

Give every table its own code, so orders carry the table number and scan analytics show which tables scan and when.

Free covers 20 table codes and Pro 200. With more than 20 tables, move to Pro or let some tables share a code; orders from a shared code carry the same table number.

On every plan, the QR designer sets colors, corner style and your logo, and exports print-ready PNG, SVG and PDF table cards.

Our guide to QR code sizes, placement and scam checks covers printing.

How to convert a PDF menu to a QR code

Put the PDF at a public link: a file on your own website, or a Google Drive file whose General access is set to "Anyone with the link", which guests can open without signing in (Google Drive Help, undated).

Then paste the link into a QR generator such as our free static QR generator. A static code stores that link, so it works only while the PDF stays at that exact address.

When the menu changes, replace the file at the same address. A file at a new address leaves the printed code opening the old file, or an error once that file is gone.

On Google Drive, Google's route is More → Manage versions → Upload new version, not a second upload. Its help page doesn't say whether the share link survives a new version (Google Drive Help, undated), so scan a printed code after every replacement.

A PDF makes guests pinch and zoom, and can't mark a dish sold out or take an order. A mobile menu can: type the PDF into the builder on Free, or let AI import draft it on Pro.

How to change the menu on a QR code you've already printed

It depends on what the code opens:

• A live menu in a menu builder: price, dish and availability edits show through the same printed code. In our builder, deleting or rotating a code is a separate action. Switching tools usually means new codes, because the code opens the old builder's address.
• A file: replace it at the same address and re-test, or print a new code.
• A dynamic code from a QR provider: you change its redirect while you stay with that provider; if you leave, you reprint.

Step 8: Add your menu to your Google Business Profile

For food and drink businesses, Google offers its own menu editor, an experimental AI tool that converts a one-page menu photo or PDF, and a Menu link field under Edit profile → Business information → Contact → Menu link (Google Business Profile Help, undated).

Each route has a cost. Google's editor lists your dishes on the profile itself, under Menu, but it's a second copy to keep current, and edits can take 24–48 hours to show. A Menu link opens your live menu, so prices change in one place.

On Google and your website, use a menu link without a table number: a table code's link carries that table's number (Step 7), so anyone opening it from home would show up as that table. If your tool gives only table links, ask its support.

Google may also transcribe your website's menu, and customers can add menu photos. If several appear, pick one under Edit menu → Full menu, and flag photos of an old menu for removal.

Step 9: Test every code on two phones before service

Print one table card and test it before printing the rest. Then scan every code from a seat at its table, in the lighting you serve in, on an iPhone and an older Android phone, over mobile data rather than Wi-Fi. Check that:

• the right menu opens for each table
• photos load and the text is easy to read
• prices, allergens, calories and modifiers match the kitchen's recipes
• sold-out items appear the way you expect
• each language reads correctly, if you offer translations
• a test order with a note, such as "no peanuts", reaches the kitchen dashboard and the note shows, if you take orders
• each table has its own code, with your allergy message beside it
• printed menus or a printed allergen list are ready for guests who can't or won't scan

Then ask someone new to the menu to find a vegetarian main and a drink, and fix wherever they hesitate.

Step 10: Keep the menu current

• Mark a dish sold out when the kitchen runs out, or set daily stock (every plan). Its photo, description and price stay saved.
• Schedule menus (every plan) so lunch switches to dinner on time.
• Change a price once in the menu builder, and in Google's editor too if your profile uses it (Step 8).
• Re-check allergens whenever a recipe or a supplier changes.
• Review scan analytics weekly; every plan records scans by time, table and device. A busy table with no scans may have a missing or damaged card.

Making a QR code menu in Pakistan

In MenuBeacon's Pakistan edition, Free is Rs 0 and Pro is Rs 5,000 a month, billed locally in rupees. Guests pay cash or at the counter; there are no online card payments.

Free includes 3 menus in PKR with unlimited dishes, 20 table QR codes, 5,000 scans a month and printable QR cards; AI and CSV menu import are on Pro.

Allergen fields, translations you type in yourself, scheduled menus and right-to-left display for Urdu also work in the Pakistan edition, on every plan, although the Pakistan edition's plan list doesn't mention them.

Sources, checked on October 12, 2026

• United States: FDA, menu labeling requirements (December 13, 2023); 21 CFR 101.11 (Cornell LII, undated); FDA, food allergies (March 11, 2026); FDA Food Code (September 17, 2026), its 2022 summary of changes (January 19, 2023) and the Food Code 2026 page (September 30, 2026), which links the full text; Virginia Department of Health (undated); WJLA/WSET (September 10, 2026); CDPH, SB 68 (undated); California Restaurant Association (March 5, 2026)
• United Kingdom: FSA allergen guidance (updated July 17, 2026); FSA best practice (February 24, 2025); Food Standards Scotland (February 23, 2026); DHSC calorie guidance (September 17, 2021); CMA price transparency (updated January 7, 2026)
• EU and Germany: European Commission, food information to consumers (undated); § 13 PAngV (undated)
• Pakistan: ProPakistani (July 21, 2023)
• Google: Business Profile menus, Drive sharing and Drive file versions (all undated)
• MenuBeacon: our published plan lists for the US, UK and EU editions and for the Pakistan edition