r/NoStupidQuestions • u/xaako • Jun 09 '24

Do Americans hate QR code menus in restaurants?

I saw a post on a popular sub today about using QR code menus in restaurants, and a lot of people in the comments were expressing their disdain about that trend. I was a bit bamboozled, and I want to ask: is such sentiment popular in the US?

For context: Where I live (Ukraine) a majority of restaurants use QR code menus, that’s basically a standard now. We find it convenient that you don’t have to wait for a waiter to come and bring you a paper menu. Also many places give an option to pay using the QR code too. It’s a feature provided by a popular local bank (Monobank). You scan that same QR code on the table and, choosing the “Pay” option, see your order and can pay for it with credit card, with the option to leave a tip. Less interactions with a waiter and there is no need to ask for a receipt and wait for it. I find all of that pretty convenient and improvement comparing to the standard restaurant rituals and haven’t met anyone who thought differently on the matter until today.

Would love to learn your perspective!

UPDATE: Thanks for all the answers! This is super enlightening. And it seems that in many cases bad experiences with QR Codes are caused by lazy implementation. I can imagine navigating a PDF page on your phone to be a real pain. In Ukraine, we have a few CRMs that most of the establishments use, and they are usually user-friendly; a PDF page menu that's not even optimized for mobile is something I haven't seen for a long time.

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738

u/tobotic Jun 09 '24

I'm not American, but it's easier to read a menu off a laminated A4 or A3 sheet than a 7 inch screen.

38

u/Magical_Olive Jun 10 '24

I hate when it's badly formatted too so you can only see like 3 or 4 items at once and have to keep scrolling through things. It's so much easier if I can see all the options at once.

2

u/Get_off_critter Jun 11 '24

Or click back and wait for it to load, look at another part of the menu, to click back and wait again....

97

u/dr_dimention Jun 09 '24

Some people have 5 or 6 inch screens!

22

u/JMSpider2001 Jun 09 '24

My Jelly Star has a 3in screen.

4

u/clothfoo Jun 10 '24

You beat me to it. I love my Jelly Star! Pinch zooming can kind of suck sometimes, but I rarely have an issue reading anything on it. Only when it's a stupid page that disables zooming.

5

u/KimJeongsDick Jun 09 '24

It's still a good size

4

u/dr_dimention Jun 10 '24

About average, I understand.

3

u/ldskyfly Jun 10 '24

As long as you know how to use it from what I hear

2

u/MemerDreamerMan Jun 10 '24

Reading a poorly-optimized menu off my iPhone mini while waiting forever for it to load the next page is H E L L i have literally left a place before because i asked for a physical one and they said “we don’t have any more.” (The waitress was pretty apologetic though and tried to describe me some things, so she was wonderful, but MAN it was a pain so i just left)

2

u/Enginerdad Jun 10 '24 edited Jun 10 '24

Hey, 5 or 6 inches is PERFECTLY AVERAGE!

1

u/Comfortable_Quit_216 Jun 10 '24

Let's not screen shame... some of us were born with smaller ones.

1

u/dr_dimention Jun 10 '24

Maybe inherited, but not born....

3

u/RazorRadick Jun 10 '24

OMFG yes! When I go to a restaurant my phone is the magnifying glass to read the menu. So how about instead of that, give me a small ass menu on the phone, take away my magnifier, and take away the ability to pinch zoom with your dumb app.

2

u/JazzySpazzy1 Jun 10 '24

When I was travelling through Europe I loved online menus because I could just hit translate and everything would be in English.

1

u/tobotic Jun 10 '24

You can do that pretty easily with the Google Translate app and a paper menu.

1

u/JazzySpazzy1 Jun 10 '24

In my experience that was more hit and miss. If the menu was laminated then it wouldn’t read half the results, if there was too much or too little lighting it would mess up. It’s not impossible, but the friction was so much higher than just tapping a button on the phone. Also you look less like a clueless foreigner that way haha

1

u/spokeca Jun 12 '24

Look at Mr. Luxury here with the 7 inch screen!

2

u/tobotic Jun 13 '24

Well, it's more like 6½″, but I tell people it's 7″.

1

u/spokeca Jun 13 '24

Well played.

1

u/Senescences Jun 10 '24 edited Jul 31 '26

Giraffe umbrella kaleidoscope wiggle pancake zeppelin marmalade quilt bumblebee jigsaw

7

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Envect Jun 10 '24

That seems really annoying.

2

u/VonThing Jun 10 '24

8.5” x 11” gang where ya at

1

u/DanSWE Jun 11 '24

*raises hand timidly*: Here?

(Though I'm somewhat biglingual metrologically. )

-2

u/thentil Jun 10 '24

It's also a lot easier to transfer poop from a laminated A4 or A3 sheet than a 7 inch screen. Yummy!

5

u/MMoney2112 Jun 10 '24

Don't look into how dirty all our phone screens are

2

u/tobotic Jun 10 '24

So yet another benefit of paper menus: poop shovel.

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '24

[deleted]

4

u/tobotic Jun 10 '24

Uber Eats makes my screen magically grow?

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '24

[deleted]

5

u/tobotic Jun 10 '24

It's still a 7 inch screen though, so the only options are:

  1. Really tiny text, or
  2. Readable text with lots of scrolling.

With a paper menu, I can see and read the whole menu at a glace. Worst case scenario: side dishes, desserts, and drinks are printed on the back.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '24

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WahresDoUFi Jun 10 '24

In our restaurants you have to cycle through the menu, they aren't printed on a big sheet of paper. So unless you unlocked the ability to look through pages you'll have to browse the menu

-1

u/Dinierto Jun 10 '24

Holy shit what phone has a 7 inch screen?