How to Set Up a Restaurant QR Code Menu (Step by Step)

Setting up a menu QR code - a digital menu customers open by scanning, instead of handing out a printed one - takes a few minutes once the menu itself is ready. Here's the actual sequence, including the one decision worth thinking about before you print anything.

Still deciding whether to make the switch at all? See what actually changes versus a printed menu, and if online ordering is also on the table, how a QR menu differs from a full ordering platform - they solve different problems. Otherwise, here's the setup itself.

1. Prepare your menu as a PDF

Export or scan your menu as a single PDF - the same file you'd send to a printer works fine. Keep it legible at phone-screen size: dense multi-column layouts that work on paper can be hard to read zoomed in on a 6-inch screen, so a simpler single-column layout often reads better on a scan than an exact copy of the printed version.

2. Create a free account and upload it

Menu QR codes need an account, unlike EverScans' other free QR tools, because the PDF has to be hosted somewhere - sign up free, pick Menu as the QR code type, and upload the file. A static menu QR code is free on the Starter plan, no credit card required.

3. Decide: static or dynamic

A static QR code is fixed to the PDF you just uploaded - right for a menu that rarely changes. If prices or seasonal items change often enough that reprinting starts to feel like a recurring chore, a dynamic QR code lets you replace the PDF anytime without touching the printed code at all.

4. Optional: set up scheduled sections

If the menu itself changes through the day - breakfast, lunch, dinner, a separate weekend brunch menu - a dynamic QR code can hold multiple named sections, each with its own PDF and its own schedule (which days, and an optional start/end time), evaluated in your restaurant's own timezone. Set it up once and the same printed code automatically serves whichever section matches right now, with no staff involvement and no separate code per meal period.

5. Print and place it

Print the QR code onto a table tent, sticker, or the corner of a placemat - anywhere it'll sit at eye level and stay flat (a curled or folded code can fail to scan). A size of roughly 1.5 to 2 inches square is enough for a phone camera to read comfortably from normal table distance.

6. Test the scan yourself

Before it goes on every table, scan it with your own phone from a normal seated distance and confirm the PDF opens cleanly and is actually readable. If you set up scheduled sections, check the code at a couple of different times of day to confirm the right menu is showing.

Getting started

Menu is one of the 19 QR code types available on EverScans - create your online menu QR code free, and upgrade to dynamic whenever the menu itself starts changing more often than the printed code should have to.