Code menu in Spain: what the QR can and cannot replace

People type "code menu" when they want the square on the table that opens a menu on a phone. This article is about that square, what Spanish rules expect around it, and the job it should be doing instead of the one most restaurants give it.

The short version is this. In Spain the code cannot be your only menu. It can, however, do several things a printed card will never do, and those are worth more than the paper you were trying to save.

The paper menu does not go away

Spain's consumer organisation OCU is direct about it. Bars and restaurants, it says, must have physical menus or visible price lists in the establishment, otherwise they can be penalised for failing to inform. Its wording is plain: "los bares y restaurantes deben tener cartas físicas o listas de precios visibles en sus establecimientos".

It also notes that a code is awkward for older customers who are less comfortable with a phone. That is not a legal point, it is a business one. A table you cannot serve is a table you lose.

The same page is firm about prices. Prices shown on the menu must already include IVA, and showing them without it is called an illegal practice, with customers otherwise seeing their bill grow by around 10 percent at the end.

So keep printing. Print fewer copies if you like, because you no longer need one per seat, but keep them.

What the code should actually be for

Once you stop asking the code to replace paper, the useful list appears.

A paper menu cannot tell a customer the sea bass is finished. It cannot show a photo. It cannot hold four sauces with their own prices. It cannot take an order, remember a regular, or send a ticket to the kitchen. Those are the jobs, and each one is a thing that paper structurally cannot do.

That reframes the purchase. You are not buying a way to avoid printing. You are buying a second surface that sells.

Allergens are easier on a screen than on a card

There is a real compliance reason to like a digital menu here.

Under EU food information rules, allergen information is mandatory for food sold without packaging, including in restaurants and cafes under Regulation 1169/2011. On paper that means a dense block of small print, or a separate folder the waiter fetches. On a page it can sit inside each dish, in the description, and it can be corrected the same afternoon the supplier changes.

Our item names and descriptions are free text, so an allergen note sits with the dish it belongs to, and correcting one dish never means reprinting anything.

What our version of the code opens

The code points at a menu of yours living on getmenu.ae under your own name, part of every plan. Pick from 12 page layouts, 57 colour themes and a font, so a tapas list and a tasting menu need not look alike.

Items carry options and add-ons with their own prices. A choice can be marked required, so a customer cannot order a dish while leaving the important question open. Photos are compressed automatically so the page opens quickly on a busy terrace connection.

Stock counts fall as orders come in, and options carry counts of their own, so one finished topping does not remove a whole dish. Sold out flips itself at zero.

Every line is priced again from your live menu at checkout, so the total on the phone is the total on the bill. Because the page reads one list, the printed card and the screen can be reconciled from the same source rather than drifting apart quietly.

"We made page weight a rule rather than a preference. A menu that takes six seconds to appear on a terrace connection has already lost the table, and no amount of design fixes that." — Anzul Aqeel, founder of Get Menu

What happens if the customer orders from it

This is the part a code is really for.

A code is generated for every table, so the ticket knows which table it came from and nobody writes a number on a pad. A designer lets that printed code carry your own colours, and the print pack arrives by email ready for the printer.

When an order is placed, three messages go out over WhatsApp in about 2 seconds. A confirmation to the customer, a ticket into the managers' group, and for delivery a rider link carrying the GPS pin dropped at checkout. A group at one table can order from their own phones onto one bill, which is the moment a code stops being a menu and starts being service.

Underneath sit the parts that bring the customer back. Stamps per order or per euro spent, regulars growing into tiers with an automatic discount, and a loyalty card living in Google Wallet with no app to install. Apple Wallet is built and waiting on a certificate. Coupons carry caps, exclusions and expiry dates.

What it does not do

There are no online payments. Payment is cash or your card machine at the table, and that is a real limit worth checking against how your customers pay. It also means no card details sit anywhere in the product.

We are not a reservations system, we do not sell hardware, and we do not track ingredients by weight. Order details older than 120 days are wiped on their own, so an address a customer typed last winter is not still sitting there.

A sensible arrangement for a Spanish restaurant

Keep printed cards, in fewer copies. Put a code on every table beside them, and let the code be the ordering surface rather than a photograph of the card.

Then measure it. The sales dashboard shows what sold by day, item and channel, so within a month you can see whether the code is taking orders or just showing prices. If it is only showing prices, it is not earning its place.

For related reading, QR code menus covers the general case, menu QR codes covers making one, and QR ordering in restaurants covers the ordering step. A flat monthly price with 0 percent commission is how we charge, and you can try it for 15 days without giving card details.

Frequently asked questions

Is a QR menu legal in Spain?

Yes, as an addition. Consumer guidance is that a physical menu or a visible price list must exist in the establishment, so a code should sit beside the printed card rather than replace it entirely.

Do prices on a digital menu have to include IVA?

Yes. Prices shown to the customer are expected to already include IVA, and adding it at the end is treated as an illegal practice. Set your prices as the customer will pay them.

Can customers pay online?

No. Payment is cash or your card machine at the table. Nothing is charged through the page, which also means there is no card data in the system to lose.

What happens if the wifi is bad?

The page is loaded over the customer's own mobile connection in most cases, and the images are compressed to keep it light. The printed card is still on the table, which is another reason to keep it.