QR Code Ordering for Restaurants: A Setup Guide for Table Service

A QR code on a restaurant table can mean two very different things. In one restaurant it opens a PDF of the menu and nothing else. In another, the guest orders and pays from their phone, the kitchen gets a clean ticket, and the server has time to look after the table.

The code is the same. The difference is everything behind it. This guide covers what to set up, and in what order, using Toadee as the example.

Decide what you want it to do

Restaurants use table ordering in a few ways, and it helps to pick one on purpose.

• Full ordering from the table. Guests order everything from their phones. It suits casual dining, patios, breweries with a kitchen, and anywhere servers are stretched.
• Reorders and extras. A server takes the first order and greets the table. Guests use the code for another round, a side or a dessert without waiting to catch someone's eye.
• Order and collect. Guests order at their seat or at the door and pick up from a counter.

None of these replaces your servers. It moves them from carrying orders to looking after guests.

Food needs a better menu than drinks do

A beer has no questions attached. A burger has five: how it is cooked, which side, which cheese, anything removed, any allergy. At a table, the server asks. On a phone, the menu has to.

This is where most restaurant QR setups go wrong. Set up each item so that the guest cannot send an incomplete order.

• Required choices. In Toadee, a modifier group can be single choice, multiple choice or free text, and can be marked required. Make "How would you like it cooked?" and "Choose a side" required, and no ticket reaches the kitchen without an answer.
• Paid add-ons. Each option can carry a price. Extra cheese, a second patty and a side upgrade are charged as the guest picks them, and the total updates before they order.
• Sizes. An item with sizes shows "From" the lowest price, and the guest picks one. An add-on can cost more on a large than on a small.
• Notes for the kitchen. A free-text group gives guests a place for "no onions" or "dressing on the side."
• Photos and descriptions. A guest cannot ask the server what comes with the dish. Put it in the description.

A note on allergies: a free-text field is a way for guests to tell you, not a safety system. Keep your usual allergy procedure, and say on the menu that guests with allergies should speak to a member of staff.

Send food and drinks to the right place

A table orders two beers, a salad and two burgers. The bar needs to know about the beers and the kitchen about the food, and nobody should have to carry a ticket between them.

In Toadee, each menu category is assigned a route, such as bar or kitchen. Staff filter the order board by route, so a tablet in the kitchen shows only the food and one at the bar shows only the drinks. Every ticket carries the table number, the items, the modifiers and notes, and how long it has been waiting.

Give the kitchen a fair clock

Tickets on the board change colour as they wait, from green through to red. A draft beer that has waited ten minutes is late. A well-done steak that has waited ten minutes is not.

You can set the colour thresholds for all categories and then override them per category, so food gets more time than drinks. Set these to match your real cook times. A board that shows everything in red is a board the kitchen learns to ignore.

Plan for the rush

Phone ordering has one risk a server-run floor does not: every table can order in the same minute. Two tools help.

• Pause a route. When the kitchen is buried, staff can pause it for a set number of minutes. Guests see a short notice that you are catching up, and ordering resumes on its own. Drinks can keep flowing while the kitchen recovers.
• 86 an item. When you run out of the special, mark it unavailable and it disappears from the menu until you turn it back on. Nobody orders a dish you then have to walk over and apologise for.

One thing to know: an order is sent when the guest places it. If you want starters before mains, the simplest approach is to say so on the menu or the table card: "Order your starters now and your mains when you're ready."

Let guests pay when they are ready

The end of the meal is where restaurants lose the most time. The guest wants to leave, and the server is at another table.

With a tab, the guest's card is on file from the start. They can close the tab and add a tip from their phone when they are ready, and staff can also close it from their side. No one waits for a check, and no card leaves the table. For the staffing side of this, see how to turn tables faster.

Keep the service in table service

The fair worry about QR ordering in a restaurant is that it feels cold. It does when it is used to remove staff. It does not when it is used to free them.

• Greet every table. A person should still say hello, explain how ordering works, and offer to take the order the usual way.
• Always offer the alternative. Some guests do not want to use a phone at dinner. Take their order the usual way without making it awkward.
• Use the time you get back. Check on the food two minutes after it lands. That is what guests remember.
• Stay reachable. Guests using the Toadee app can message staff with a quick request, such as more water, if you turn that setting on.

Set it up in this order

1. Build the menu, with required choices, add-ons and photos. You can enter items one at a time or import them from a spreadsheet.
2. Assign routes to each category.
3. Lay out the floor plan with your tables and sections, such as the patio, using the table numbers your staff already use.
4. Generate and print the table codes. Each table gets its own, so the kitchen always knows where the food goes.
5. Connect payments before any code reaches a table.
6. Put a tablet in the kitchen and one at the bar, with audio alerts on.
7. Run one quiet service as a test. Order a full meal from your own phone and follow it to the pass.

Table ordering, the menu tools, the order board and the floor plan are included on every Toadee plan, including Free. No app is needed for a guest to order from a table code. See the pricing page for what each plan adds, or register your venue to start building your menu. If drinks are most of your business, the bar version of this guide may suit you better.