Setting up a QR menu in 20 minutes

Most “how to set up a QR menu” guides take a 20-minute task and stretch it across a 90-minute reading session. This one is the opposite. The work is real but small: create an account, name the restaurant, add categories, type items, print one QR per table, scan from your own phone, take the first order. A 10-table cafe finishes in under an hour, including the print step.

The whole walkthrough fits MobiTaste’s Starter trial. No card required for the first 14 days. If you want the underlying concept first, the QR menu glossary entry is the 21-word version.

Before you start

Set aside 20 minutes, a phone you can scan from, and a printer that can output A6. A regular A4 printer is fine; the dashboard tiles four A6 QRs per A4 sheet. A thermal receipt printer also works if you have one for your kitchen tickets. Cut, place, scan.

If your menu is on paper, have it nearby. You can also type from memory; cafes do this all the time. The bulk-add field in the Menu page lets you paste a list of items, one per line, and clean up later.

Step 1. Create your account

Go to mobitaste.com and click Start trial. Enter an email and a password (argon2id hashes it; you never give us the plaintext). You land in the dashboard. There is no card prompt on Starter. The trial runs 14 days, and at day 15 you either subscribe or stay on a read-only menu.

The first screen asks you to name your restaurant. Pick a short slug, like karakoy-cafe or sunrise-bistro. The slug becomes part of every guest URL: mobitaste.com/menu/karakoy-cafe/t/{token}. Slugs lock at creation, so pick something you want to read on your own QR cards for the next two years.

Step 2. Create your restaurant

Set the languages your guests will see. Turkish and English are on by default; you can add a third later. Set your kitchen language separately; this is what the cook sees on tickets, regardless of the locale the guest browsed in. A Turkish kitchen reads Turkish even when the guest scanned an English menu.

Set the time zone and the currency. Currency formatting affects how prices render in the guest menu, not what the dashboard charges you (Paddle does that in USD).

Step 3. Add five categories

Categories are the left rail of your menu. Five is the right number for a cafe: Coffee, Breakfast, Pastries, Drinks, Specials. A full-service restaurant might use eight: Starters, Salads, Mains, Sides, Pizza, Desserts, Drinks, Specials.

Type the category name in Turkish and English. Categories carry locale-specific text just like items. The order of categories on the menu matches the order you create them; you can drag to reorder.

Step 4. Add at least three items per category

Each item card holds: name (Turkish), name (English), description (Turkish), description (English), price, allergen flags, and modifier groups. Type three items per category to give the menu body. Most cafes type their full menu in 40 minutes.

A short description (10 to 15 words) helps guests pick faster. “Single shot of Yirgacheffe, milk on the side” reads better than “Espresso”. Allergen flags (gluten, nut, dairy) render as small badges; flip them on per-item, not per-category.

If your prices vary by size (small, medium, large), use a modifier group. Modifiers carry their own prices and add to the base item price at checkout. The modifier glossary entry explains the structure.

Step 5. Create your tables

Open Tables and add one row per table: T1, T2, T3, up to your table count. Each row gets a unique table token at create time; the token never changes after that. The token is what makes a scan from table 4 land on table 4, no manual selection from the guest.

Hit Print. A PDF downloads with one QR per table, tiled four to an A4 sheet. The print quality only needs to be high enough that a 2-megapixel phone camera can read the code from 30 cm away. A standard inkjet is more than enough.

The table-token glossary entry is the 25-word explainer. The token is also the load-bearing piece of the QR menu feature; printed QRs stay valid through menu changes and price updates.

Step 6. Print and place

Cut the A4 sheet along the tile lines. Stick each QR on a coaster, a table tent, or directly on the table. A simple lamination ($2 per sheet at a copy shop) keeps the codes legible after months of spilled coffee.

Check that the QR sits at a comfortable angle for someone seated. A 30-degree tilt is easier to scan than flat-on-the-table. If your tables are dark wood, a white card under the QR helps the phone camera focus.

Step 7. Test from your own phone

Open T1’s QR with your phone camera. Confirm the menu loads. Pick one item, add it to the cart, submit. Open the dashboard on a laptop or another phone, look at the order board, watch the order land in the Pending column (if approval is on) or the New column (if it is off). Tap Approve. The order moves to In Progress.

If you have waiter approval on, the order pauses in Pending. Tap Approve once on the floor tablet or the dashboard. The ticket reaches the kitchen view. If the kitchen view is open on a third device, you see the ticket arrive in under a second.

The waiter approval guide walks the approval flow in more depth if you want a longer read.

What “first order” means

A first order is one ticket from one guest at one table that reaches the kitchen screen. By step 7, you have that. Your printed QRs are live. Anyone scanning T1 right now would land on the same menu and the same flow.

Total elapsed time: 20 minutes for a 5-category, 15-item cafe; about 40 minutes for a 30-item restaurant.

What to do next

Brief your staff. The best-practices guide is the operational read for the first shift: when to keep approval on, where to mount the kitchen tablet, what the host watches.

If you have questions that are not in this walkthrough, the FAQ page has 50 of them with concrete answers. For tier limits, the pricing page is the source of truth.

Common stumbles

The QR loads to a 404. Cause: you copied a development URL instead of the printed PDF. Reprint from the Tables page and use the PDF.

The order does not appear on the kitchen screen. Cause: approval is on and nobody has tapped. Check the Pending column on the floor view.

The menu shows English when the guest is Turkish. Cause: the phone is set to en-US. The guest can switch language with the menu header switcher; if you want Turkish to win by default, set the default locale in restaurant settings.

The price on the menu is wrong. Cause: a modifier price added on top. Open the item, check the modifier group.

All four are recoverable in under a minute. None of them lose data.

Where to go after the first order

Take the second order. Print fresh QRs the night before service if any sticker peels. Watch the audit log at the end of the first week and see what changed and who did it. The system is designed to be quiet; if you stop noticing it, that is the goal.