A QR code is only a bridge between paper and a screen. All its value is in where it lands. If it opens a slow page or something that does not look like your restaurant, the guest will not try twice. If it takes them straight to your menu, where they can see the dishes and order with a tap, you have saved them a phone call and a wait.
Before you print anything, decide the destination. In most cases that should be one permanent link that opens your menu or ordering page, because a link that changes makes everything you printed useless. If you have an ordering website, that is the natural place to point it.
On the printed menu
Plenty of restaurants reprint their paper menu once a year, while prices and dishes change more often than that. Put a code at the bottom with a short line like “Order from home.” A guest who just ate with you knows they can order later without hunting for your number, and the online menu stays the most current source for prices.
On packaging and delivery bags
This is the best spot in my view. Someone collecting an order has just tried your food and is as close as they will ever be to ordering again. Put a small sticker on the bag or inside the lid, and say why to scan it: “Order direct next time.”
If you also sell through delivery apps, this is a quiet way to introduce those guests to your own channel. If you run a points programme, mention it right next to the code.
On flyers and the shop window
- Neighbourhood flyers: one big code and one clear offer, not five offers crammed onto a page.
- The shop window: put it at eye level, away from glare. People walk past when you are closed too, so print your opening hours next to it.
- Cups, dessert boxes, receipts: anything that leaves with the guest and stays with them for hours is free advertising space.
Size, contrast, and empty space
- Size: at least about three centimetres on anything held close, and larger the further away the viewer stands.
- Contrast: dark code on a light background is the safest. Avoid pale colours, busy backgrounds, and photos behind it.
- Quiet zone: leave a margin around the code so no text or border touches it.
- Quality: print from a sharp, high-resolution file. A compressed or faded code fails to scan.
- Surface: avoid glossy and curved surfaces, and if you cannot, print it on a matte sticker.
Test it before you print a thousand copies
- Print one copy
At the final size, on the final paper, in the final colours, not on your computer screen.
- Scan it with more than one phone
Try an iPhone and an Android phone, with an older one if possible. Ask someone outside your team to try it.
- Try it in your real lighting
In the restaurant at night, near the window by day, and from the distance a guest will actually stand at.
- Finish a full order
Do not stop at opening the page. Place an order, so you know the whole journey works from scan to the order reaching your team.
- Then print the full run
And check the first copy that comes out of the print shop, since colours can shift.
Whenever you change your website or link, go back and check everything you have printed. An old code that leads to a deleted page is worse than no code, because it tells the guest you are not paying attention.