My Kingdom for a Menu
on QR Code menus
It happens about once a week, in a variety of restaurants. I’ll walk in and get seated, and look around the table, and find the small laminated black square. Then I’ll shake my head and sigh, flag down the server, and politely ask: “Could I please have a paper menu?”
Most of the time the response is a quick “Of course”, but sometimes I’m told there simply aren’t any, or that the system requires I order from the online menu, like I’m getting delivery.
Who likes a QR Code menu?
I’m asking this honestly, because to me there is no clearer example of the ill designed use of digital technology applied without thought or critical reflection on the end experience. QR Code menus have been around for a few years, but their use was limited to a few outlying places that experimented with the technology. Then, in an environment of fear and misinformation, they were adopted en masse at the pandemic peak as a critical bit of hygiene theatre.
There was no epidemiological logic for the QR code menu. Science was clear early on that Covid-19 was not spread by menu. But it was a tempting and easy way of doing “something”, a step of “an abundance of caution”, that a restaurant that needed to reopen could adopt to ease some fear.
It is now three years since those scary days, and the pandemic is a distant threat. But the QR Code menu survives, like some mutant strain. For most diners, it is an inconvenience: small PDF font, bad navigation, connectivity issues, and formatting problems. It might save some paper, but it costs $ to set up and maintain.
Crucially, it removes the diner from the experience, forcing everyone at the table back into their screens, killing conversation and interaction. I don’t know how it improves the dining experience. I don’t know how it improves the bottom line for a restaurant. But it shows that once adopted, it becomes difficult to dislodge technology, even when it proves inferior. The attitude seems to be “We did the innovative thing. Sorry you don’t like it, but this is the future.”
Can I please just have a printed menu?
Agreed. I am annoyed by the assumption, here and elsewhere, that everyone owns a smartphone. Admittedly, I do, but the cool youngsters favor flip phones! (https://writingball.blogspot.com/2022/12/logan-lane-and-luddite-club.html)
I prefer paper menus too. Actually, I like the sticky plastic ones. Bonus points for food stains under the plastic or a spiral binding that's missing the bottom few holes of each page.