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The No-Contact Menu System Adopted by Savvy Restaurants

Printed menus are dumb. I hope this QR code idea persists, post-pandemic

By Rain Noe - May 29, 2020

in Food | Tech

Da Enzo, a social-distance-observing restaurant in Rome's Trastevere neighborhood, has figured out how to do away with menus. The waitress simply holds up a sheet of paper with a QR code on it.

Diners capture it with their phone, giving them access to the menu.

Other restaurants, like Duke's in Thailand, simply post the QR code on a window.

There's no restaurants where I live, but I assume other place are doing this in America. And this is a practice that should persist after the pandemic is over. Printed menus are dumb. When I was a waiter, I hated cleaning them. Managers can't like having to reprint an entire batch every time there's a change. And the last time I went to a restaurant in the city, a combination of poor lighting and font size meant I could barely read the damn thing. I'd much rather have it in my phone.

The only downside is that diners without smartphones can't access them. But post-pandemic, at least, restaurants could simply keep a small stock of menus for such cases.

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Frederick Fasola

4 years ago

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Yes, you could do that... but actually its nice NOT to be staring at your phone all through the meal!!!
If you are going to place a qr code on the table, you could also just place the menu on the table, under a plastic tablecloth for instance...
or do what every good old fashioned french bistro has done for generations and write the menu on a blackboard...! No phone, batteries, wifi or data required !!! Also, in a world were social interactions are limited I feel like the main reason people will go to restaurants and eateries is not convenience but social interaction. If its going to be like a takeaway, then I'll stay at home and do just that!

But also from a scientific point of view, is this helpful? Yes, you may have removed the risk of people touching the menu, but by introducing phones, you are bringing a very high risk item into the mix.
Ideally you want to wash your hands upon arrival, so taking your phone out of your pocket to order, immediately ruins that action, whereas being able to read the menu from a board and vocally transmit your order to a waiter stood at a safe distance from you still seems to me the most hygienic option! ... and its also the nicest !
The issue with phones is that we use them both inside and outside the home, and very frequently, so they become an excellent vector for germs and viruses, a little like wearing your outdoor shoes in your house, but then also in bed!

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Ross Oliver

4 years ago

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After thinking about this some more, it occurs to me that the pandemic has compelled a huge number of restaurants to implement online ordering for take-out and delivery just to survive. Now that work is done, why go back to menus and wait staff when the dining rooms reopen? Just order on your phone right from your table. Or even better, while you're waiting for a table. A restaurant that has lost dining capacity due to social distancing might recover some of that capacity through pre-sit-down ordering.

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Anavrin NO WAY

4 years ago

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In Asia many restaurants have the customised QR codes for each table for ordering and some even accept payment via the same webpage.

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Ross Oliver

4 years ago

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Or build the QR code right into the table.

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