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How to Create a Free QR Menu for Your Restaurant

Updated 4 min read

A QR menu is a web page guests open by scanning a code at the table — no app, no PDF, no reprinting. The whole point is that the printed code never changes while the menu behind it can change every day.

You don't need a designer or a developer to get one, and you don't need to pay for one either. Here is the entire process, start to finish.

What a QR menu actually is

The QR code itself is just a link. When a guest points their phone camera at it, the phone opens your menu page in the browser it already has. That means two things: guests never install anything, and you control what the page shows from a dashboard — prices, photos, what's sold out — without touching the printed code.

A PDF uploaded to a QR generator is not the same thing. The code still works, but every price change means regenerating the file, and on a phone a PDF is pinch-and-zoom misery. A real QR menu is a mobile page with categories, dish photos, and search.

Step 1 — Create your restaurant's account

Register your restaurant on AlaMenu's Free plan. Free means free: one location, your own menu page, table bookings, and the floor plan are all included, with no card required and no trial clock. Paid plans (Pro at $4.99/month, Premium at $7.99/month) exist for multi-location restaurants and sending WhatsApp from your own number — you can ignore them until you need them.

Step 2 — Build the menu, in both languages

Add categories the way your kitchen thinks about them — breakfast, grills, drinks — then add dishes with a price, a photo, and a description. Every dish can carry its name and description in English and Arabic at once; guests flip the menu to their language with one tap, and the Arabic side renders properly right-to-left.

If you serve mixed tables — a family reading Arabic next to a visitor reading English — this is the difference between one menu and two laminated ones. Our guide to writing a bilingual Arabic and English menu covers dish names and descriptions line by line.

Step 3 — Print the QR code once

Download your menu's QR code from the dashboard and put it where guests sit: table tents, stickers on the table corner, the front window, the counter. Print it once. When you change a price, add a seasonal dish, or hide something that ran out, the change is live the moment you save — the code on the table doesn't know or care. Need a print-ready code in your own colours? Use our free QR code generator.

Step 4 — Let the same page take table bookings

This is the part most QR menu tools skip: the menu page can also take reservations. A guest who just read your menu can book a table — date, time, party size — and you confirm or decline from the dashboard. Confirmations reach the guest on WhatsApp, the channel they actually read. Bookings land on a floor plan of your actual room, so the same table can't be double-booked for overlapping times.

What to check before you choose any tool

Whatever you pick — ours or anyone's — hold it to this list. For what each tool actually charges, see our QR menu price comparison; if you run a restaurant in Saudi Arabia, also check what a Saudi menu must show.

  • Instant updates: can you change a price without reprinting anything?
  • True Arabic support: does Arabic render right-to-left as a first-class language, not a translation bolted on?
  • No app for guests: does the menu open in the phone's browser?
  • An honest free tier: can a single-location restaurant run on it indefinitely?
  • No commission: are you paying a percentage of orders to anyone?
  • Bookings included: can the menu page take reservations, or will you need a second tool?

Try it on your own menu

AlaMenu's Free plan includes the bilingual QR menu, table bookings on a floor plan and WhatsApp confirmations. No card required.

Create your menu, freeFree QR code generatorSee a live demo menu

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