How to Make a QR Menu for Your Restaurant or Café in Qatar, in Arabic and English

To make a QR menu in Qatar, put your items, prices and photos into a live web menu with Arabic and English names, print a QR code for each table that opens it, and keep it in step with your till. The customer scans with the phone camera, reads the menu in their language, and either orders from the table or calls a waiter. Done well, it takes an afternoon to set up.

Many QR codes on tables in Doha still open a PDF: a photo of the printed menu. That is not a QR menu, it is a paper menu that is harder to read. The text is tiny on a phone, it can't switch language, and when a price changes nobody uploads a new file. A live menu is a web page built from your item list, so a change shows up on every table at once.

A café in Qatar serves Qatari families, Arab residents from a dozen countries, and English speakers from everywhere else, often at the same hour. A menu in only one language leaves part of the room asking the waiter what each item is, which slows every table down.

Write the Arabic yourself or have an Arabic-speaking staff member do it. Machine translation turns a "Spanish Latte" into a literal phrase nobody orders by, and gets dish names wrong. Use the names your customers already say at the counter.

• Keep well-known names as they are said: لاتيه, كرك, شاورما — not a translation of them
• Write a short description in each language, not one translated word for word: what's in it, and anything a customer would ask about (spicy, contains nuts)
• Keep sizes and options short in both languages: Small / صغير, Oat milk / حليب شوفان
• Have someone who didn't write it read the Arabic out loud once. Mistakes you can't see, you can hear

In Outale, every product has an Arabic name and an Arabic description beside the English ones, and the product spreadsheet import reads "Arabic Name", "Description" and "Arabic Description" columns, so a whole menu can go in at once. The customer menu opens in the phone's language, switches with one tap, and remembers the choice. An item with no Arabic name yet shows its English name.

A QR menu earns trust when what it shows is what arrives, at the price on the screen, and is actually available. Each of those three breaks in a predictable way.

• Photos — take them yourself in daylight, on the same plate or cup you serve in. A real photo of your latte beats a stock photo of someone else's. Photos sell the items people don't know yet; your best-known items need them least
• Prices — the menu and the till must read from the same list. If they are two lists, they will drift, and the customer who was charged more than the menu said will tell everyone at the table
• Sold out — when the cheesecake runs out at 9pm, the menu must say so before someone orders it. Greyed out is better than removed: the customer learns you do sell it, just not tonight

In Outale, the QR menu reads the same published menu as the tills: same items, same prices, same photos and options. On Outale POS, a catalog change reaches the tills and the menu together when you press Publish, and a branch price change publishes itself within about a minute. If you use the menu without the till, every change is live straight away.

Most failed QR menus fail at the table: a code too small, too far from the customer, or behind glare. A customer who has to try three times asks for a paper menu instead.

• Size — print the code at least 3 cm wide; 5 to 8 cm is comfortable from a seat. A sticker the size of a coin is too small
• Placement — one card on every table, facing the seat, not hidden behind the napkins or the sauce bottles. Add one at the counter and one at the door
• Finish — matte lamination or a matte acrylic stand. Glossy plastic reflects ceiling lights and the camera can't read the code
• Words — say what it is in both languages: "Scan for the menu / امسح الرمز لعرض المنيو". Print the short web address under the code for anyone whose camera won't scan
• Table number — print it on the card, so an order or a call from the table says which table it came from

Outale makes the cards for you: a print-ready PDF of A6 cards (105 × 148 mm), one per table and numbered, for up to 100 tables, with the store name, "Scan for the menu" in English and Arabic, the table number and the short address. The code is printed sharp with error correction, so a coffee ring or a scratch doesn't stop it scanning. You can also download the bare code as PNG or SVG for a designer or print shop. The link and code never change, so anything you print keeps working whatever you change on the menu.

A view-only menu replaces the paper menu and nothing else: the customer reads, then a waiter takes the order. Ordering from the table goes further: the customer picks items, sizes and options, adds a note, and sends it. It saves a trip to every table, and orders arrive written out, with no misheard items.

Table ordering only works if someone is watching for orders. Before you switch it on, decide who looks at the orders screen, who accepts each order, and what happens when the kitchen is slammed. Two buttons help just as much as ordering: "call staff" and "ask for the bill". They end the waving across the room, and the bill request is the one customers use most.

1. 1Clean the item list first: remove what you no longer sell, fix prices, and group items into the categories a customer would look for (Hot drinks, Cold drinks, Desserts)
2. 2Add the Arabic name and a short description in both languages for every item, written by a person, not a translator
3. 3Take photos of the items people ask about most and the ones you want to sell more of
4. 4Add sizes and options (milk, extra shot) with their prices, so the customer sees the real price before ordering
5. 5Choose which categories show on the menu, and hide items you sell at the counter but don't want on the tables
6. 6Add opening hours, location and a WhatsApp number to the menu's details
7. 7Print one table card, scan it from three seats and from the furthest table, then print the rest and laminate them matte
8. 8Decide who watches table orders and requests on each shift, and show staff how to mark an item sold out
9. 9Put the link in your Instagram bio and send it on WhatsApp to regulars, so people see the menu before they arrive

If your products are already in Outale POS, most of this is done: the menu is built from the same items, prices, photos and options as the till. You pick the categories, print the cards and share the link.

Outale does not count scans or menu views. You can still tell within a month whether the menu is working by watching a few things you already see.

• Orders from the menu per day, and how many were turned down and why. Many "sold out" rejections mean items aren't being marked in time
• How long an order waits before someone accepts it, and how long a bill request stays open
• Sales of the items you photographed, before and after — your till's item sales report shows it
• How often customers still ask for a paper menu. If it's often, the cards are too small, in the wrong place, or the signal is weak