If having to scan a QR code to access a menu is enough to get you to walk out, you did the staff a favor.

So be it. I’ll join the resistance. I don’t want phones involved in a restaurant.

It’s the same as loud music or other bad aspects of restaurants. Just because vast number of people like it doesn’t mean I have to as well.

It’s not just scanning a QR code. It’s that the sites almost always require you to verify your phone number so they can track you across orders. I mentally blacklist any store with online ordering and leave a negative review.

Almost always...? Across orders?

We're just talking about QR codes that open up a PDF or HTML page that shows the menu. It's not online ordering.

I mean I've seen online ordering as an option at a couple of places that I thought was cool, but you didn't have to. Literally everywhere else I've been (in NYC) it's just been a static menu. Not tracking you.

In Australia I have very rarely seen QR menus used where it wasn't also the method to order and pay.

In the USA it's been 90% a redirect to some massive print-ready PDF stored on AWS, the other 10% it's a redirect to a hand-coded HTML file that is badly out of date.

sure jump straight to the ad-hominem. Classy.

But obviously no, I did the restaurant no favor. I financially deprived the restaurant of income, and the server unfortunately of a tip. And I tip big.

I don't owe the restaurant a visit. They do owe me an experience. If it begins with struggling with their QR menu system, I'm opting out for a variety of reasons.

And a struggle it is. First find the mode where QR results is something actionable (I have an older phone) Hopefully their WIFI is exceptional, and the password not onerous.

Then answer their marketing questions. Finally peer at a too-small menu you have to scroll through on a tiny screen with terrible pictures.

Find something interesting? How to share it with your dining partner(s). No, can't point to their menu or say "Page three on the bottom!". No, you have to give them your phone. Oops! They touched something or it scrolled or went into low-power.

It's a fairly miserable experience for some of us.

Yes, nothing the staff like more than losing sales over a minor issue.

If I'm hungry, I ask the same thing as whoever is close by and whose dish looks remotely edible.

If I'm not really hungry, or if the food isn't easily visible, I do the same as you do: yes, I carry a computer, but refuse to use it in most restaurants.

If McDonalds can afford some wall poster with pictures + names and prices, I'm sure most restaurants can. So the question is more why don't they want to? Even a flier by the door would be enough for me!

However, on a site were most people love pushing tech even when the best solutions are not technological, I wouldn't be surprised if we were in the minority and people tried to rationalize using QR codes.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's kind of weird to hold up the largest restaurant chain in the world by revenue as a baseline for what most restaurants can afford.

You're replying to someone who said:

> Even a flier by the door would be enough for me!

I wonder how many restaurants there are who can't afford paper flyers. They might even be faster/easier than maintaining an online menu.

In fact, in many parts of the world and even in the US the standard for listing food available for order is just that - a flyer on the counter or even better, some pictures of the various dishes.

(You know the food's going to be good when the picture is faded from 15 years of sunlight.)

I personally like the QR code menus. To each their own.

Same. But in my case it’s because I usually don’t carry my phone with me.