Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

The worst thing about QR code menus is that they're often just a paper-sized PDF that you have to pinch and zoom around. If they could design QR code menus like responsive mobile sites inspired by food-ordering apps this wouldn't be an issue, they'd be even better than paper menus.

When I was in China I enjoyed using their mobile menus. A common layout I saw was a narrow vertical bar on the left with categories(appetizers, main, drinks, etc) and cards with photos + details on the right.

https://www.smartshanghai.com/uploads/articles/2019/06/63615...

That design language makes sense with Chinese because it's dense. I'm not sure it would work with any language written in Roman script. Uber Eats for example uses a single vertical scrolling menu with horizontal separators and tab bars top and bottom.

That looks quite distopian

Every pandemic ordering system I've used has been a proper app or website. Surely you have to have that in order to actually enter your order? You can't click "buy" on a PDF.

Most bars/restaurants I've been to have menus but no ordering system, you order and pay as before.

This comment and the one below it, also about China[1], should be higher up. It was very convenient to be in a restaurant and have a digital menu in a standardized format. Of course, it required a number of factors to align: all interactions were through one of two apps (WeChat or Alipay), the menu layout was standard, font size was not tiny (no zooming necessary), cell and/or wifi coverage was not lacking. There was also a choice between having a menu portal and just a payment portal. Street food vendors usually had a laminated QR code tacked to their cart and you could scan and pay without the vendor needing to ever handle cash, which made for a more efficient processing of the line.

It certainly wasn't a perfect system, but it was a lot better than the US, where restaurants have multiple different menu layouts, some are PDF, some let you pay via mobile, etc. The lack of relative uniformity makes for some positive but many negative user experiences.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27671788

Must be regional. Are you in America? Maybe because card payment is less common?

In France. Payment by cash is very rare, most everything is paid by contactless. But I think it's more of a habit that in restaurants and bars, you usually pay when leaving.