Table QR codes & dine-in ordering
One QR per table — guests scan, see your live menu and order from their seat, with the table on the ticket.
5 min readUpdated 14 Sep 2026
In this guide
Why a table QR beats a paper menu
- Guest scansNo app, no signup
- Live menu opensSold-out dishes already hidden
- Order reaches the counterTagged with the table
- They pay at the counterOr online, your choice
The menu is the one you already maintain, so a dish you mark unavailable at 8pm disappears from every table instantly. No reprinting, no “sorry sir, finished”.
Example · Bawarchi, a 14-table family restaurant
Friday evenings used to lose orders because two servers could not reach every table. Now guests order the moment they sit down; the kitchen sees the ticket with the table on it, and the servers carry food instead of notepads. Average table time dropped, so they turn more covers on the same 14 tables.
Setting up your tables
Turn dine-in on
Restaurant → Settings → Dine-in. This is an instant-save switch, not a draft — printed QR codes must never point at a channel you thought you had enabled.
Add your tables
Restaurant → Tables & QR → + Add table. Name them the way your staff already do — T1, Patio 3, AC Hall 2 — and give each one an area (Dining AC, Open, Rooftop) and the number of seats. The area is what groups the live board later, so it is worth a minute. If you run more than one outlet, pick which outlet the table belongs to. Adding your first table turns dine-in on automatically if it was off.
Design and print the cards
Design & print QR cards (top-right of Your tables) opens the card designer: seven card looks, your own colours, the QR pattern, a centre badge (the table number, a food emoji, your initials or your logo) and the wording — one tap fills it in English, Hinglish, Hindi, Tamil or Telugu, and every line stays editable afterwards. Then print an A4 sheet at the size you want — one poster per page, or 4, 9 or 16 cards a page — or download a single card as a PNG. Your design is saved for next time. To print just one table's card, tap QR codeon that table's row.
Test one yourself
Scan a card with your own phone and place a real order. Check it reaches the counter with the right table on it before the cards go out.
Printing cards that survive a restaurant
Do this
- Print at the largest size that fits the stand — a small QR under a glass top will not scan
- Laminate, or use an acrylic stand — cards live near water and oil
- One line above the code: 'Scan to see the menu and order'
- Keep a couple of spares printed; cards go missing
Not this
- Putting the card under a glare-heavy glass top
- A tiny QR at the corner of a printed menu
- Reprinting every time a dish changes — the menu is live, the QR never changes
The live board — who is seated right now
The top of Tables & QR is a board of your floor, grouped by area and refreshed every 15 seconds. The line above it reads something like 9/14 occupied · ₹8,420 running — that is your floor and your money on the floor, in one glance.
- FreeTap it to start a counter bill
- SeatedTime seated, orders, running ₹
- Settle & freeCloses the table
- ClearFrees it without billing
A seated tile shows Seated 25 min ago and, once you have told us how long a table usually takes, ~free 9:15pm — useful when someone is waiting at the door. If a table has an order nobody marked paid, the tile says so and links straight to it. A table with no orders on it frees itself after a quiet spell, so a guest who scanned and changed their mind does not block the tile all evening.
Details ›on a seated tile opens that table's ticket: every round on it — the ones the guests sent from their phones and the ones you billed at the counter — with what was ordered, what is paid and what is not. From there you can Print bill, + Add round (it takes you to the counter with the table already picked), or Settle & free / Clear without going back.
If you take reservations, the board warns you before the party arrives — 2 booked parties are arriving soon — keep 2 tables free, with the times and names — and marks free tiles as held. Nothing is auto-assigned; it is a nudge, and you seat people the way you always have.
The dine-in settings worth knowing
Restaurant → Settings → Dine-in holds the decisions that keep the board honest:
- Let guests pay at the counter — on for most restaurants. Off means the table must pay from the phone before the kitchen sees it.
- Let guests pay online from the table — UPI or card from their own phone, using the payment methods you already accept.
- Allow entering the table number without scanning — for the guest whose camera refuses to read a scratched card.
- How long does a table typically take? — it drives the ~free 9:15pm line and frees up booking slots; with Menu timings on, lunch and dinner can each carry their own table time.
- Free a table when guests stop ordering for… and After the bill is settled, free the table… — the two timers that clear tiles for you, plus Fresh start every night at… so tomorrow opens clean.
- Hold tables when a booked party is about to arrive — free tiles are marked Holdshortly before a confirmed booking's time. A reminder for your staff, never a block.
Dine-in, takeaway and delivery are separate
Each is its own switch. You can run dine-in only, close delivery on a busy Sunday, or pause everything for a holiday — see Pause ordering. Orders show which channel they came from, so your numbers separate cleanly.
If someone scans a table QR while ordering is switched off, they see a short notice explaining you are not taking orders right now. They are never quietly pushed into a delivery order they did not want.
Taking the money
Dine-in orders normally settle at the counter — the order shows as counter-pay and you close it on the billing counter. If you would rather guests pay on their phone, your normal payment methods work here too.
What table QRs actually save
- Reprinting menus after a price change
- ₹0
- Orders lost at peak because nobody came
- fewer
- Time from sitting down to order placed
- ~2 min
- Cost to set up
- printing only
Common questions
Do guests need to download anything?
No. It opens in their phone’s browser. No app, no account, no OTP to order.
A card went missing — can I stop the old one working?
Yes. Open the table and make a new QR for it: the old printed code stops working immediately and you reprint just that card. Removing a table does the same thing permanently.
What if two tables scan the same card?
Each card is tied to one table, so the order carries that table. If a card gets moved, orders will show the wrong table — that is the one thing worth keeping tidy.
Can I use one QR for the whole restaurant?
You can (use a normal site QR), but then orders arrive with no table on them and you are back to asking. One per table is the point.
Does a dish marked out of stock disappear from the tables?
Yes, immediately. The menu guests see is your live menu, not a printed snapshot.
Can guests book a table in advance?
Yes — turn on reservations in restaurant settings. See Restaurant mode.
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