Can we please go back to regular physical menus?

Ben Arthur

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Hey guys,

I can't be the only one tired of sitting down at a restaurant and getting told to scan a QR code. Half the time the menu file is impossible to read on a phone screen, or the signal in the building is garbage.

Then you've got places that try to force you to download their specific app just to order a simple coffee. Whatever happened to just handing someone a regular paper menu?

Am I officially getting old, or is this trend just genuinely annoying? Let me know if anyone actually prefers the digital versions.
 
i think i am the only one to be honest i dont know why i find it stressfull but i guess we have to move with how things are right now
 
They probably do it because most restaurants are now regularly bumping up the prices. Can't keep on printing new menus, adds to the overheads.
That's a really good point. Constantly reprinting menus to match price hikes would definitely eat into their margins. It still ruins the dining experience a bit, but I can see why it makes sense for them on the business side. :)
 
Yes! Ihate those qr codes. and mostly the menu ui is broken, photos are just stock images too. There should be a law to force the restaurants to use the actual photo of the food to be expected.
 
Hey guys,

I can't be the only one tired of sitting down at a restaurant and getting told to scan a QR code. Half the time the menu file is impossible to read on a phone screen, or the signal in the building is garbage.

Then you've got places that try to force you to download their specific app just to order a simple coffee. Whatever happened to just handing someone a regular paper menu?

Am I officially getting old, or is this trend just genuinely annoying? Let me know if anyone actually prefers the digital versions.
I Prefer having both options. QR Menus are fine, but paper menus are easier
 
They probably do it because most restaurants are now regularly bumping up the prices. Can't keep on printing new menus, adds to the overheads.

Oh, that really makes a lot of sense if that's actually the reason why some do it that way because I know for sure some probably just changed because they saw others do it

The pizza place I buy from, even after they bumped their prices still had the old price list in their catalog for some time before they eventually updated it since the image they used had the pricing from the old paper menus

I guess the best approach would just be to have paper menus at the restaurant and there should be a barcode along with the menu for anyone who wants to go that route because what if their phone is dead or they don't have their phone with them
 
same here especially those that don't accept cash. what do you mean you won't accept legal tender!? Imagine being in your 60s in facing this :weep:
 
I prefer paper menu but for some that ask that there app should be downloaded, uses it more for there growth especially for marketing.
 
That's a really good point. Constantly reprinting menus to match price hikes would definitely eat into their margins. It still ruins the dining experience a bit, but I can see why it makes sense for them on the business side. :)
Oh, that really makes a lot of sense if that's actually the reason why some do it that way because I know for sure some probably just changed because they saw others do it

The pizza place I buy from, even after they bumped their prices still had the old price list in their catalog for some time before they eventually updated it since the image they used had the pricing from the old paper menus

I guess the best approach would just be to have paper menus at the restaurant and there should be a barcode along with the menu for anyone who wants to go that route because what if their phone is dead or they don't have their phone with them
Even I'm only guessing, that is why used the word 'probably'. There could be many other reasons, like trying to look tech savvy and a 'modern' restaurant.
 
The reprint theory does not really survive contact with the actual menus though. Most of the time the QR just opens a PDF of the old paper menu, and @SirTop's pizza place is the proof -> still showing the old prices months later.

If it was really about keeping prices current they would be editing the thing weekly. Mostly it just moves the job of holding the menu onto the customer, and the customer brought their own screen.
 
Honestly, nothing makes me feel older than needing a phone, WiFi, and a software update just to order a burger

Digital menus are cool when they work, but when the QR code takes you to a blurry PDF from 2014… I start missing the good old paper menu real quick.
 
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