Free menu maker for restaurants and cafés
صانع منيو مجاني للمطاعم والمقاهي
QaiMa is an online menu maker made only for restaurant menus. Paste your dishes and prices, choose one of 15 designs, and export a print-ready PDF or publish a QR code menu, in English, Arabic or both. It’s free while we’re in early access.
Why use a menu maker instead of a design app
General design tools are good at posters. A menu is a different thing. It is forty dishes, each with a name, a description, a price and maybe an Arabic translation, and those prices change three or four times a year.
In a design app every dish is a loose text box. Raise the price of the mixed grill from 95 to 105 and the dots between name and price no longer line up. Add a new starter and everything below it has to be pushed down by hand, page by page. Switch to Arabic and the text boxes stay on the left, because the layout does not know it should run right to left.
A menu maker stores the menu as a list: sections, dishes, prices. The design is drawn from that list. Add a dish and the page reflows. Change a price once and it changes on the printed menu and the QR menu together. Switch the menu to Arabic and the whole layout mirrors.
What you can make with it
- A dine-in menu in A4 or an A5 booklet, one page or many.
- A café menu card in A5, or a square card for brunch. See the café menu templates.
- A drinks or shisha list as a slim DL card (99 × 210 mm) that stands on the table.
- A takeaway menu as a trifold, Z-fold or gatefold. See the trifold menu templates.
- A QR code menu for every table, with WhatsApp ordering. See how the QR menu works.
- An allergen and dietary guide page, built from the tags you already set on each dish.
How to make a menu in five steps
- Paste or type your dishes. One dish per line:
Hummus (V, GF) 28 - chickpeas, tahini, lemon. A line with no price becomes a section heading. - Pick a template. Browse the restaurant menu templates and choose by how your menu is read, not only by colour.
- Add Arabic. Type the Arabic names beside the English, or write both on one line as
حمص | Hummus 28. - Make it yours. Upload your logo, adjust colours and spacing, add a front cover.
- Export and publish. Download the print PDF for your printer and publish the QR menu for your tables.
Built for menus in the UAE
The details that matter here are the ones generic tools leave to you. Arabic is typeset right to left with a typeface matched to each design. Prices show in dirhams, and a line saying prices include 5% VAT can be printed in either language (the Federal Tax Authority requires displayed prices to include VAT). Calories and dietary tags such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and contains nuts are built into every dish. And the export follows the specifications Dubai print shops ask for, so the file does not come back with questions.
Menu maker questions
Is the menu maker free?
Yes. QaiMa is in early access and every feature that is live is free with no card required: all 15 templates, bilingual menus, print-ready PDF exports and the QR menu.
Do I need design skills?
No. The templates are finished designs. You replace the sample dishes with yours and the layout, spacing and typography follow. If you want to change colours, fonts or spacing you can, but you do not have to touch anything to get a menu that looks designed.
Can I bring in the menu I already have?
Yes. Copy the text of your current menu from a Word file, a PDF or a WhatsApp message and paste it in. QaiMa reads section headings, dish names, descriptions, prices and dietary tags in brackets, and shows you what it understood before anything is added. Arabic text and Arabic numerals are recognised.
Can I add my logo and brand colours?
Yes. Upload your logo, place it above, beside or instead of the restaurant name, and set its size. Colours, fonts, spacing and the watermark behind some templates can all be changed per menu.
Can I print the menu at a print shop?
Yes. The export is a PDF/X-1a file in CMYK at exact size, with 3 mm bleed and crop marks, which is what print shops in Dubai and the rest of the UAE ask for. You can also print on your own printer from the same file.
Does it work on a phone?
Designing a full menu is easiest on a laptop. Quick changes, like marking a dish sold out or correcting a price, work fine from a phone.
Can I make a menu for an event or a wedding?
You can, but QaiMa is built around restaurant menus: sections, dishes, prices, dietary tags and a QR menu for tables. For a single printed wedding menu with no prices, a general design tool may be simpler.
Not sure whether to do it yourself? Hiring a menu designer vs doing it yourself compares the cost over a year, and the guide to designing a restaurant menu covers layout and pricing.
Make your menu now. Paste your dishes and see them in a finished design in a few minutes.