Part 1: Building Your Menu Manually

The Menu Builder is the right choice when you’re starting fresh, your menu is short, or you want full control over every word. Here’s the process from a blank dashboard to a scannable QR code.

Step 1: Plan your categories first

Before you touch the dashboard, sketch your structure on paper. Categories are how customers navigate, so keep them in the order people actually eat: starters, mains, sides, desserts, drinks. Aim for 5–8 categories. More than that and customers scroll past things they’d have ordered.

Step 2: Create categories in the Menu Builder

1.     Log in to your Qr Food Menu dashboard and open Menu Builder.

2.     Add each category with a clear, plain name. “Starters” beats “Prelude to the Feast” — customers scan menus, they don’t read them.

3.     Drag categories into your preferred order. The order on screen is the order customers see.

Step 3: Add your items

For each dish, you’ll fill in a name, a description, a price, and ideally a photo. Two of these matter more than people think:

•        Descriptions sell. One or two sentences naming the key ingredients and how the dish is prepared. “Slow-roasted lamb shank with rosemary jus and creamy mash” outsells “Lamb shank” every time. If writing isn’t your thing, use the built-in AI description enhancer — type a rough note and let it polish the wording.

•        Photos move the needle most on your top sellers. You don’t need a photo for every item. Shoot your ten best dishes in daylight, near a window, on a plain plate. A mediocre photo hurts more than no photo.

Step 4: Review on a real phone

Open your menu link on your own phone before you publish. Check that prices are right, nothing is misspelled, and photos aren’t stretched. Hand it to a member of staff and ask them to find a specific dish — if it takes more than ten seconds, your categories need work.

Step 5: Generate your QR code and put it everywhere

From the QR Code section of your dashboard, download your code and place it on tables, at the counter, on the door, and on receipts. Print it at least 3 × 3 cm so older phones can scan it from a seated position.

Part 2: The AI Shortcut — Import Your Existing Menu in Minutes

If you already have a menu — printed, PDF, even a photo of your chalkboard — you don’t need to retype it. The AI Menu Generator reads it and rebuilds it as a structured digital menu.

How it works

1.     Open AI Menu Generator in your dashboard and upload a PDF or a clear photo of your menu. Scanned and image-based PDFs work too — the system falls back to image recognition automatically.

2.     The AI extracts your categories, item names, descriptions, and prices, and matches them against any categories you already have so you don’t end up with duplicates.

3.     Review everything on the preview screen. This is the important part: check prices digit by digit, fix any dish names the AI misread, and remove anything you no longer serve.

4.     Hit Import. Your menu is live and editable in the Menu Builder like any hand-built menu.

Tips for a clean AI import

•        Upload the sharpest source you have. A flat, well-lit photo beats a crumpled menu shot at an angle.

•        Import one menu at a time — lunch first, then dinner — rather than a single cluttered file.

•        Never skip the preview. The AI is accurate, but a wrong price on a live menu costs you money or an awkward conversation.

Manual or AI: Which Should You Use?

Use AI when you have an existing menu to digitise — it turns an afternoon of typing into a few minutes of reviewing. Use the Menu Builder for everything ongoing: price changes, daily specials, seasonal swaps, and new dishes. The fastest workflow is AI for the first import, then manual upkeep.

Either way, the goal is the same: a menu customers can read on their phone in seconds, that you can change without calling a printer. Set aside one hour, pick your route, and get it live.

Take orders straight from the menu

A digital menu does not have to stop at showing dishes. With WhatsApp ordering switched on, the same menu becomes the order pad: guests build a list as they browse and send it to your WhatsApp in a single tap.

If you print a QR code for each table, every order arrives already tagged with the table it came from, so nobody has to ask “who ordered the paneer?” across a full room. Bigger venues can go further and route each area to its own number — a rooftop bar and a main kitchen do not need to share a phone.

The important part for your numbers: prices are re-read from your live menu on the server, never taken from the guest’s phone. What you see on the order is what your menu actually says, even if someone has been clever with their browser.

Frequently asked questions

How do I create a digital menu for my restaurant?

Plan your categories first, create them in the menu builder, then add dishes with names, prices, descriptions and photos. Review it on a real phone before printing anything, then generate your QR code. Most restaurants are live the same afternoon.

Should I organise my menu by category or by dish?

By category, and decide the categories before you start adding dishes. Retro-fitting structure to a half-built menu is far more work than sketching it first, and the categories are what guests use to navigate.

Can AI build my menu for me?

Yes. You can upload an existing menu — a photo, a PDF or plain text — and have it structured into categories, items, descriptions and prices automatically. You then review and correct it, which is far quicker than typing everything.

Why should I check the menu on a phone before launching?

Because that is where every guest will see it. Long descriptions, awkward category names and missing photos all look different on a small screen, and it is much easier to fix before your QR codes are printed.