Dear restaurant owners:
We ALL hate the QR code menu.
Stop.
-everyone

@cmconseils Stick alternative QR codes over them and maybe they'll stop.

@cmconseils So much so, that I'll eat elsewhere.

@cmconseils Also, let me look at the menu without having to start an order. One click. Not difficult.

@cmconseils
Same goes for the cards in estate agents' windows.
#QRcodes #VeryIrritating

@cmconseils Yes. Stop making me use my phone when I just want to sit down and eat some fajitas.

@cmconseils I refuse to pay for a place that makes me use my phone and always ask for a hard copy of their menu.

@cmconseils The cost of a cheap inkjet printer and some no-name inks is probably less than your menu service.

@cmconseils

You actually triggered a whole imaginary conversation in my flip-phone-carrying brain. "You don't want my business? Just because I refuse to carry a distraction rectangle? WTF?"

@cmconseils Pretend you have a year 2000 Nokia and ask if you can order there or in the restaurant on the other side of the street.

@paulehoffman

What brand printer accepts no-name ink?

@Uair Brother, with some obnoxious reminders from them.

@cmconseils Actually they’re quite popular in Australia. The customers like them—I’m one!—they save the restaurant money, they’re more hygienic … what’s not to like? ;)

@paulehoffman

Thank you! I didnae know that.

@cmconseils heh heh don’t travel to China

@cmconseils I refuse to eat at a restaurant that makes me use my phone to see a menu. Just not gonna.

@cmconseils Why does no one use NFC tags? At least then you don’t have to fight the camera.

Still terrible compared to what has worked for… all time until recently.

@cmconseils I make them get me a menu... saying that scams using QR codes are common, so will not scan them.

@cmconseils there seem to be lots of people agreeing with you, but I don't dislike it, at least at the places I go.

FWIW I _can_ browse the menu without starting an order, and I have the option of going to the bar and ordering instead of I want to.

But they're not asking me to install Yet Another Goddam App, and I'm paying with the same bank card that I would use at the bar anyway so there's very little difference in terms of privacy. What's not to like?

@cmconseils dumbest shit ever

@cmconseils Oh, I thought this hate I share was Brasil only.

@cmconseils @TheBreadmonkey I endorse this opinion. Effing annoying, especially when you're dining with friends. We don’t need more reasons to be on our phones when in company.

@cmconseils When we did our relaunch, my location had qr codes on stickers in the bowling area & concessions lobby. They worked fine for the kitchen, but the bar had no clue where the drinks were going or who ordered them, and if they wanted popcorn or cokes from the concessions, that never printed out anywhere. So we would have to get them to open up their order so we could see what they'd pay for, write it down, and go get it.

Our system was terrible; we hated it because we knew most were using it just to avoid tipping the bartender or us servers (and some folks don't tip anyway, so it was like "whatever"). The owners kept saying they were fixing them for months, but when the kids just started peeling the QR stickers off and playing with them, managers didn't replace them anymore & they all disappeared in a couple weeks. Nobody complained, not even the customers because they were tired of it taking twice as long to get their orders.

@cmconseils
I have come across sensible restaurants who offer both QR codes for ordering and paying, and waiters who provide the same service, all at the same cost

@cmconseils agreed with that I hate trying to scan QR codes with my new expensive phone for some reason it seems to just take a photo rather than scan it properly

@cmconseils

all of us

@cmconseils

The requirement to give up your privacy to buy a coffee is here.

The requirement to share your personal information with a restaurant before you order is here.

The requirement to use a loyalty card to buy a smoothie at McDonald's instead of cash is here.

Ubiquitous Computing becomes Ubiquitous Surveillance.

QR codes are a data brokers' dream.

@cmconseils

Nope. Best invention

Don't have to go line up and order/ pay at the counter. Particularly when you have kids unattended.

Can see pictures of the food

Can eat with another family and pay for just what YOU ordered.
(Friend love splitting bill 50/50 despite having wine and entrees and desert when we didn't)

Don't have to have a waiter keep coming over to see if you are ready to order, when you have not decided yet because too busy talking

Or having to wait for ages for a waiter

@cmconseils Especially at USA airports when changing planes. Credit cards here are scary and especially when forced to order by QR. We had decided to never use a credit card at an airport after a place at ATL did a rip-off attempt.

@cmconseils What annoys me the most is when people print/display QR codes without even providing the link as text alongside it. I always point that out when I see it.

@cmconseils What's real fun is the confusion you can cause by paying in cash.

@cmconseils i just request a menu. And wait. If it takes longer, it takes longer. Capitalism requires compliance to maximize profits. We wouldn't want anything to happen to their profits though, would we.

@cmconseils I refuse to fill up one... and get them to do it.

@cmconseils I don't hate. I hate when it's the main option or, worse, the only option.

Some restaurants put better photos of their food on the website rather than in the print menu. And I'm biased, I develop websites.

@cmconseils The temptation to leave a piece of paper with a QR code on a table at a restaurant that stops just shy of being actual malware if any of them ever tell me to fuck off for wanting a paper menu. The whole reason people reluctantly agreed to QR codes was because we thought we could get COVID from touching a menu but somehow didn't put two and two together for eating inside a restaurant. Now that nobody gives a shit even in the face of a potential pandemic from a disease that actually does stick to surfaces and in the air long enough for that to be a concern, it's all the downsides without the benefit of performative sanitisation and courtesy.

@cmconseils nah. Getting to order right from the table, without having to talk to anyone, is the best thing to come out of COVID.

Push butan get food. I love it.

@cmconseils except when they lead to a website that has pictures of the dishes

@cmconseils not just restaurants

@cmconseils I’ll be the voice of dissent here but I don’t really see the problem.

I just wish that:
- An digital menu always showed the prices
- restaurants with bad cell service would not have a QR code as a link but a QR code as the actual menu encrypted in the code
- FUCKING TAX AND TIP WOULD BE INCLUDED in all the prices
- No junk fees
- again, I’m sorry, but fuck your tip. I’ll pay it. not from the bottom of my heart but because I know that you don’t make a living wage and we’re in this situation because it’s social construct.

@cmconseils True that. I don’t go out to eat place my own order either. Next thing they’ll want us to go back in the kitchen and do our own dishes.

@cmconseils it's for qris

@angiebaby @cmconseils I'd even be content with some chalkboard on the sidewalk or some transparent sheet back-illuminated over the counter.

Instead of #quishing!
https://c.im/@kkarhan/116480051184201482

@cmconseils the only reason they do so is to make extra money with #DataBrokers and overcharge people with #PricingDiscrimination!

- Plus it puts every patron at rish of #Quishing and subsequent risks like #DataTheft & #malware!

https://c.im/@kkarhan/116480051184201482

@cmconseils (given the amount of attention this is given, I should mention it's taken from reddit somewhere)

@cmconseils Amen!

@cmconseils benefits of digital life 😅.. Scam everywhere

@cmconseils
I ate in a restaurant about a year ago that had a QR code to scan to see the menu on your phone. Trouble is my phone would not scan their QR code for some reason. They had no printed menus and did not know the web address that the QR code was supposed to send me. Technology fail.

@cmconseils haha I didnt think about it but yes we does, 😅🫠

@cmconseils
Agreed. If a restaurant's menu is ONLY available via QR code, that means they didn't want to bother cleaning their menus. If they can't be bothered to do THAT, what ELSE are they not cleaning?

However, if restaurants offer physical menus with an OPTION to see a digital menu via QR code, I appreciate that. Those can be updated easily, be better to read, and cleaner. I don't completely trust restaurants or their previous visitors.

@cmconseils In SEA (Thailand, in particular) QR based menus are the norm & I f*cking hate it. Rarely a restaurant will have a printed menu. & most also require you to order & pay from your phone too.

I don’t really understand the *requirement* to force your customers to have a multiple hundred or even thousands of dollars piece of equipment, have it charged, have a mobile subscription for it, and bring it with them, just to be able to buy a $5 meal – especially in a “3rd world” country.

@cmconseils
When I order food online I expect delivery to my house, not delivery to a restaurant table.

@cmconseils QR codes on menus?

I should get out more often...

@cmconseils especially those ones that point to a single Facebook page.

@ppxl true

@cmconseils I love the #urbanguerilla vibe of this thread

@cmconseils I like ordering online but the menus they link to, to order from, are so unbelievably shitty and bad UX. Much better overview with the worn and bent cardboard rag.

@cmconseils They do have one good use - they can be linked to a translator app, which I find very useful when travelling into foreign climes.

@cmconseils the entirety of China food industry runs like this 😆

edit: entire economy*

@cmconseils

I am glad that we don't have this "QR Code menu" in India yet.

@cmconseils Did you say "I want an app based menu"? /s

@cmconseils I want a printed menu on the table. However if there’s no table service I also like to be able to order by phone from my table so that some scrote doesn’t nick my seat/jacket/bag while I’m ordering at the bar. The joys of eating out on your own 🙄

While we’re on the subject of menus 3.6, 9.5, 10 etc are not prices you trendy hipster pillocks, use a £ (or € $ ¥ as appropriate) 😕

@entichahoosh @cmconseils not phone number, but they might be able to identify and track your device through either cookies or "browserprint". I don't know if EFF's panoptic tester webpage is still online, but that could tell you more.

@cmconseils

🚾 The use of QR-code-as-menu is bad for several reasons:

🚫Don't create burdens for your customer.
🚫Don't use tools that put customers at risk or require they vet your lazy use of a gimmick.
🚫Don't allow tech dorx to mine customer data with a "virtual menu" hosted on quikmenu.ai.biz.xyz.blah

- - - - -

🏆🏆🏆 Here is a good use of a QR code:

When attending a play, a theatre hands you a small, printed, business-card-size show program with logo and basic details about the show.

Scanning the QR code on the card opens a full size show program. 🎶🎭🎨

✔️The show's program is hosted on the theatre's website.

✔️The full URL is printed alongside the QR code.

✔️The URL remains active as long as the theatre exists.

✔️Patrons may download a PDF of the full program.

🔸You trust the source.
🔸The physical card is a souvenir.
🔸Save $$$ / environment by not printing large full color programs.
🔸Can add much more info to the bios of cast / crew - even clips of them performing should they choose - for future casting opptys.
🔸Theatre can still feature sponsors of their org and also include static NON-tracking links to their advertisers.

🧡 Users WIN | Theatres WIN | Environment WIN

#badTech #goodTech #thinkGooder

@cmconseils 1. Cell phone reception is not always good enough
2. Phones shouldn't be a part of meals.
3. Trying to read it blows.

@cmconseils Online ordering when you’re in a restaurant is just stupid. And then they want me to tip the service staff? I want them to be well paid, and it’s not their fault, but literally all they do now is carry the food from the kitchen and bring me a clean fork that should have been clean in the first place.

Helpful staff should be part of the experience. Give them a chance to do a good job. They might thrive!

@techsepp @cmconseils Do you like English-pub-style counter service? Where you order and pay at the bar when ready, then just leave when ready.

@crecente @cmconseils you just know they'd use tracking links and browser-print everyone, though. Most theatre owners seem to feel that they have to take any advertising dollar they can, no matter how harmful to users.

@cmconseils ahhh but the qr code menu can have prices changed instantly....no reprinting costs

@cmconseils *you* all, if I may. ☝🏻

@cmconseils Yeah, let us chat about the menu with an AI agent already! It's 2026!

@cmconseils 'struth

@cmconseils Wow, this exploded...

What I find most annoying is that combination of browsing the menu on the phone (QR code) and then having to wait for someone to show up to actually take the order. If you already have me on my phone, then just let me click on that stuff to order it!

@cmconseils hello dear

@cmconseils yes I hate QR code menu
And I fear it too, as most of them
It is so easy to make a sticker with a fake QR code that leads you to a malware-infected website