There are many applications that try to act as a shopping cart and a kind of cloud electronic cash register for the restaurant. Which sounds like a great idea. But in many places, especially during the (QR-code menu) pandemic, I came across to some QR codes, requiring you to download an application. Unfortunately, the application itself is just a PDF viewer with built-in ads. You still call the waiter to order, you still use POS to pay. Nothing has changed in the process of ordering food but I installed a really shitty PDF viewer with ads at the bottom and the top of the menu, also before and after every interaction. Immediately left the restaurant but still. Why all the hassle?
I’ll say there’s at least one extremely good version of this out there and I imagine it dramatically increases the restaurant’s sales: a service called OneDine that is in use by a small regional chain called Bartaco along the eastern US.
It’s so easy to keep ordering that I and everyone I eat with indeed just keeps ordering.
Every other implementation I’ve seen pretty much sucks though, to your point.
The times I've come across this I've been able to just go to the restaurant website and download the menu PDF normally from there.
Even when the QR code brings you directly to the website it feels like a clunky experience, so I've gotten in the habit of checking out menus before going to the restaurant if I can.
