QR codes restaurants: You could now order directly with them and pay your check through them

[JEDI]

The QR-Code Menu Is Being Shown the Door

A dining innovation that once looked like the future has worn out its welcome with many restaurateurs, customers and servers who say it takes the joy out of dining.

www.nytimes.com

Nom Wah, the restaurant group behind the famed dim sum place of the same name in Manhattan’s Chinatown, knows that not all of its patrons, or its servers, speak fluent English. In its Chinatown location, there’s a QR code on the table that links to a menu with pictures, and a paper menu with pencils to check off your order.

“I have a picture menu so that no one asks any questions,” said Barbara Leung, the group’s head of marketing and operations. “It just eliminates room for error or miscommunication.”

In some restaurants, QR codes are moving to the end of the meal.
At Bar Meridian in Brooklyn, diners order off a paper menu. The check comes with a QR code, in case they want to simply pay on their phones and leave.
Even though Sage Geyer, the owner, believes that phones at the dining table are “conversation killers,” he said they can be useful at the end of the meal.


QR code menus are seeing less and less usage.
Restaurants are canceling QR code subscriptions.

So the QR code companies are creating dynamic QR-code menus that allow a customer to order and pay without waiting for a server.
I, for one, would love to order from my phone and not having to wait for a server.

My all you can eat sushi restaurant used to have an ipad at every table that allowed people to place orders by themselves.
But they discontinued it a year because of food waste and charging the customer extra for the wasted food caused arguments and grief.

But ordering from your phone in non-buffet environments should work fine. The restaurant doesnt care if you dont eat everything you order since you pay for every dish.
And paying with your phone when you get the check is great.

What would be perfect if they had robot servers. (Some restaurants are testing them! )
Then you don't even need to tip!

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Rest-ah-rants?

I haven't been in one in many years.

 

[MtnMan]

A local brewery with adjunct food (BBQ) does that. Works great, and very convenient. The QR code at each table also identifies where you are sitting.

 

[lxskllr]

Only time I've seen it was at the Guinness brewery. I'm not a huge fan, but for the crowd there, I can see the benefit.

 

[JEDI]

Only time I've seen it was at the Guinness brewery. I'm not a huge fan, but for the crowd there, I can see the benefit.

in baltimore?

 

[lxskllr]

in baltimore?

Yea, the Baltimore brewery.

 

[K1052]

QR based payment on the check for sit down dining is great but I strongly prefer a physical menu to order from.

For anything more casual QR ordering is fine IMO.

 

[Kaido]

I stopped by a farmstand today to get some goodies & paid with a QR code...their phone had the app (Square, I think), you use your camera to scan the QR code on your phone, takes you to a webpage, then you can use Apple Pay or whatever. No tap or anything required! Pretty cool.

 

[sdifox]

There is a dim sum restaurant here where the food is carried to the table by robot and the waiter puts the food on the table.

 

[Captante]

Rest-ah-rants?

I haven't been in one in many years.

On behalf of wait-staff everywhere I would like to express sincere thanks!

 

[darkswordsman17]

A group of co-workers went to eat and the place had this setup, but because they just had a list of all the food that was ordered and you "claimed" what you ordered, people claimed less than they actually ordered then bounced, leaving food that others had to pay for. But then I've come to learn I work with adults who act like children. But really soured me on the whole bit.

But then, not like other setups are better. I ordered takeout from a national chain and their online system tried to force mandatory gratuity, so I put pay at the restaurant and they then did their stupid kiosk tablet and it wouldn't let me bypass the gratuity either. So I won't be ordered from them again.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

A group of co-workers went to eat and the place had this setup, but because they just had a list of all the food that was ordered and you "claimed" what you ordered, people claimed less than they actually ordered then bounced, leaving food that others had to pay for. But then I've come to learn I work with adults who act like children. But really soured me on the whole bit.

But then, not like other setups are better. I ordered takeout from a national chain and their online system tried to force mandatory gratuity, so I put pay at the restaurant and they then did their stupid kiosk tablet and it wouldn't let me bypass the gratuity either. So I won't be ordered from them again.

Fwiw I found that most places that do mandatory gratuity accept 0.0 as a value.

 

[dainthomas]

Almost every restaurant/bar in Vancouver has this. Thought it was great.

 

[purbeast0]

Depending where I am, I love the QR stuff to pay.

We got to the airport early last weekend in FLL and we were through security with 2 hours to spare. The restaurant we were at had the pay by QR thing but they gave us actual menus.

It was nice to just be able to pay and not have to wait for the waitress when we wanted to just bounce, especially with 2 kids, one being 2.

 

[pete6032]

These are nice and convenient at fast casual restaurants but I prefer a real waiter or waitress at a sit down restaurant so I can ask questions about the menu or get recommendations.

 

[mikeymikec]

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/aussies-fume-over-being-asked-to-use-qr-codes-at-restaurants/news-story/6f5c0be6b75584c1aceb2041433538aa

I was about to start a thread when the forum suggested this one.

Putting aside the customer's experience for a moment (and as a customer I'm trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction against it), the craziest aspect of this idea IMO is that restaurant owners are basically putting their trust in a third party to a) make their business work and b) trusting that the third party won't continue to tighten the screws from them because that is more profitable.

Many businesses do have to use a third party's software to make their business run in the digital age, but in my experience it's a rarity for a niche software company not to take the piss in at least one of many ways. Why on earth a basic business model like the restaurant business which has worked for thousands of years would needlessly complicate their revenue stream like this, I don't understand.

Getting back to my reaction as a customer, my default feeling is this - I think if a restaurant asked me to install an app so that I can buy a meal from them once, I'd look elsewhere; I'm not installing some random binary on my phone from an unknown software writer as a general rule. What's the restaurant going to do if say they have a couple coming in from a meal, one has an obsolete OS on their phone and the other doesn't have enough space to install the app? Do restaurants really want to think about tech support just so people can sit down and eat?

I wonder though whether there's some advantage for say disabled customers though who use tech to make their lives easier. Having said that, a restaurant being able to facilitate customers who benefit from the extra tech as an option is likely a good thing.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have not run into this myself but no way do I want to install some random software just to order food. This app craze is so ridiculous now days. Everybody making apps for the most dumb things that could easily be a web page or built into the product itself. Even a QR code going to a web page would be kinda annoying, I don't want to read a menu on a tiny screen, just give me a real paper one.

I can't help but wonder just how much money companies make from collecting data through apps, since coding these probably costs a lot of time and money too considering you need to make it for each platform then try to get it on each store which I presume costs money and requires an approval process. Most restaurant owners are probably not coders either so I presume they are outsourcing this. So for them to go through all that effort it must be worth it vs just coding a website once and putting it on a web server.

I had briefly looked into app development and it's a huge PITA to get setup for too. It's not like desktop, where all you really need is g++ and a text editor. Or in the case of a website you only really need a text editor.

 

[sdifox]

I have not run into this myself but no way do I want to install some random software just to order food. This app craze is so ridiculous now days. Everybody making apps for the most dumb things that could easily be a web page or built into the product itself. Even a QR code going to a web page would be kinda annoying, I don't want to read a menu on a tiny screen, just give me a real paper one.

I can't help but wonder just how much money companies make from collecting data through apps, since coding these probably costs a lot of time and money too considering you need to make it for each platform then try to get it on each store which I presume costs money and requires an approval process. Most restaurant owners are probably not coders either so I presume they are outsourcing this. So for them to go through all that effort it must be worth it vs just coding a website once and putting it on a web server.

I had briefly looked into app development and it's a huge PITA to get setup for too. It's not like desktop, where all you really need is g++ and a text editor. Or in the case of a website you only really need a text editor.

Software as a service - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

the ones that want me to install an app I just tell the waiter my order. a website I would put the order in.

I have seen a better solution for dim sum restaurant, back of the menu is pictures and item numbers. look at the picture, flip over and order what you want.

a lot of AYCE places here have switched to tablet ordering. I don't mind since it is easier to order that way, ask how many of each item people want and put it in. Wait staff concentrate on delivering food.


<--- back to living on restaurant food.

 

[Brainonska511]

I have not run into this myself but no way do I want to install some random software just to order food.

I have yet to come across a single restaurant that uses a QR code menu and/or ordering system that requires a separate app or login created.

The QR code menus are fine - just saw some in Spain. Waiter still takes your order, but you just look at the menu via the QR code.

I've seen QR ordering at some local breweries - you order and pay in the web applet and they bring it over to your table, easypeasy.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/aussies-fume-over-being-asked-to-use-qr-codes-at-restaurants/news-story/6f5c0be6b75584c1aceb2041433538aa

I was about to start a thread when the forum suggested this one.

Putting aside the customer's experience for a moment (and as a customer I'm trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction against it), the craziest aspect of this idea IMO is that restaurant owners are basically putting their trust in a third party to a) make their business work and b) trusting that the third party won't continue to tighten the screws from them because that is more profitable.

Many businesses do have to use a third party's software to make their business run in the digital age, but in my experience it's a rarity for a niche software company not to take the piss in at least one of many ways. Why on earth a basic business model like the restaurant business which has worked for thousands of years would needlessly complicate their revenue stream like this, I don't understand.

Getting back to my reaction as a customer, my default feeling is this - I think if a restaurant asked me to install an app so that I can buy a meal from them once, I'd look elsewhere; I'm not installing some random binary on my phone from an unknown software writer as a general rule. What's the restaurant going to do if say they have a couple coming in from a meal, one has an obsolete OS on their phone and the other doesn't have enough space to install the app? Do restaurants really want to think about tech support just so people can sit down and eat?

I wonder though whether there's some advantage for say disabled customers though who use tech to make their lives easier. Having said that, a restaurant being able to facilitate customers who benefit from the extra tech as an option is likely a good thing.

My thoughts here would be whoever is making POS software that businesses use for ringing up stuff would be wise to offer their services to handle any QR ordering/paying as well, if a business wanted to add that ability on. The paying via QR can also be beneficial for customers that may want to split a check with their fellow diners (instead of having to Venmo each other), or just pay and go, without having to wait for the server to come around.

 

[K1052]

The paying via QR can also be beneficial for customers that may want to split a check with their fellow diners (instead of having to Venmo each other), or just pay and go, without having to wait for the server to come around.

This has been made somewhat easier as handhelds have finally deeply penetrated the restaurant biz. Makes splitting a breeze and no running cards and folios all over the place.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find using tap is convenient enough, don't really need anything else for payment. Ever since covid it's kind of become a universal thing now.

 

[Torn Mind]

Anyone who eats restaurant Chinese food regularly is asking to suffer in life.

 

[sdifox]

Anyone who eats restaurant Chinese food regularly is asking to suffer in life.

Like all the people in China?

 

[WelshBloke]

Anyone who eats restaurant Chinese food regularly is asking to suffer in life.

Man is there any kind of food that you actually enjoy eating?

 

[sdifox]

Man is there any kind of food that you actually enjoy eating?

Soylent Green I bet.