QR code menu for restaurants in Dubai
منيو باركود للمطاعم في دبي — بالعربية والإنجليزية
A QR code menu is your menu as a web page: a guest scans the code at the table and it opens in their phone’s browser, no app needed. QaiMa’s version is free, runs in Arabic and English, takes orders over WhatsApp, and is built from the same menu you print, so the two never disagree.
What a guest sees when they scan
Picture a table of four on a Friday in JBR. One of them scans the code. The menu opens in her browser, in Arabic, because that is what her phone is set to. She taps the section bar to jump to Grills, searches “hammour”, and filters out anything with nuts for her son. The dish her friend wanted is greyed out and marked sold out, so nobody orders it and waits twenty minutes to hear the kitchen has none.
- Opens in the browser. No download, no sign-up, nothing to install.
- One language at a time. Arabic or English, switched from the menu bar and remembered for next time.
- Search and dietary filters. Search works in both languages, including Arabic typed without vowel marks. Tags for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, nuts and spicy double as a filter.
- Live sold-out marks. Set from your phone during service, visible on every guest’s menu at once.
- Your links. Instagram and your Google review link sit at the foot of the menu, where a guest who enjoyed the meal is already looking.
The QR menu is the printed menu
Most QR menu tools in the UAE are a separate product from your printed menu. You type the menu into one system for the table card and again into another for the QR code, and the first time a price changes they drift apart. A guest reads AED 48 on the paper menu, AED 52 on the phone, and the argument happens at your till.
QaiMa keeps one copy. The dishes, prices, translations and tags you enter drive the print-ready PDF and the QR menu together, and the phone version keeps the look of the template you chose: its colours, its type, its section headings. Change a price once and both are right.
One QR code per table
Instead of one code for the whole room, generate a code for every table: 1 to 20, or names like “Terrace 3” and “Majlis A”. They print as table-tent cards with your logo and your restaurant’s name in both languages, coloured to match the menu. Each code tells the menu which table it is on. That shows up in two places: on the order message, so staff know where to take the food, and in your statistics, so you can see which tables actually use the code.
WhatsApp ordering, with no commission
Guests add dishes to a basket as they browse. When they are ready, one tap opens WhatsApp with the whole order already written: each dish, the quantity, the table and the total in dirhams. It arrives on the number you choose, and nothing is taken from the bill.
To be plain about what this is: an order sent as a WhatsApp message, not a till. It does not take payment and does not connect to a POS. For a café, a karak stall, a shisha lounge or a busy casual restaurant that already runs on WhatsApp, that is usually exactly right. A hotel restaurant with a POS-integrated ordering system needs something else.
What the view numbers tell you
Every scan is counted, and the dashboard turns the counts into answers rather than a single total:
- Busiest hour, in Dubai time. Useful for rostering, and for knowing when a sold-out mark matters most.
- How many guests read in Arabic. If the answer is a third of your tables, the Arabic translation is earning its keep.
- Which tables scan. A table that never scans usually has a code nobody can see.
- Scanned or clicked. Whether guests arrive from the code on the table or a link you shared on Instagram.
A real digital menu or a PDF behind a QR code?
Not sure a QR menu is the right kind of digital menu for you? The cheapest QR menu is a PDF of the printed card with a QR code pointing at it. It works, badly. On a phone the guest pinches and zooms around a page designed for an A4 sheet.
| PDF behind a QR code | QaiMa digital menu | |
|---|---|---|
| Reading on a phone | Pinch and zoom an A4 page | Built for a phone screen |
| Arabic and English | Both at once, small | One at a time, switchable |
| Changing a price | Re-export and re-upload | Edit once, live in seconds |
| Sold-out dishes | Not possible | Toggled from your phone |
| Search and filters | No | Yes, in both languages |
| Ordering | No | Basket sent to WhatsApp |
| Knowing who scanned | No | Views by hour, table and language |
How to create a QR code menu for your restaurant
- Enter or paste your menu. Type dishes in one line each, or paste the menu you already have and QaiMa splits it into sections, dishes and prices.
- Pick a design. Choose one of the 15 menu templates. The QR menu inherits it.
- Add the Arabic. Fill in the Arabic names, or translate and then review each one before publishing.
- Publish and set your link. Give the menu a readable address and switch on WhatsApp ordering with your number.
- Print the codes. Generate one code per table, print the table tents, and put them out.
QR menu questions from UAE restaurants
Is the QR menu free?
Yes. QaiMa is in early access and everything that is live, the QR menu included, is free with no card required. You get the digital menu, a QR code for it, per-table codes, WhatsApp ordering and view statistics.
Do guests need to download an app?
No. The QR code opens the menu in the phone's own browser. It loads as a normal web page, so it works on any iPhone or Android phone with a camera.
Can the digital menu be in Arabic and English?
Yes. A bilingual menu shows one language at a time with a switch in the menu bar, and it opens in Arabic for a guest whose phone is set to Arabic. The choice is remembered, so a returning guest is not flipped back to English. You can also publish an English-only or Arabic-only menu.
Can guests order and pay through the QR menu?
Guests can build an order and send it to you as a single WhatsApp message with the dish names, quantities, table number and total. Payment is not taken in the menu, and it does not connect to a POS system. Most small restaurants and cafés in Dubai take the order on WhatsApp and settle the bill at the table as they do now.
What happens when a dish sells out?
Mark it sold out from your phone and it greys out on every guest's menu straight away, with the order button removed. Untick it the next morning. The printed menu is not affected.
Are prices shown in AED with VAT?
Prices show in dirhams, in Arabic as د.إ when the menu is in Arabic, and you can add a note that prices include 5% VAT. The UAE Federal Tax Authority requires displayed prices to include VAT, so enter your prices VAT-inclusive.
Can I use my own restaurant name in the link?
Yes. Instead of a random code you can set a readable address such as qaima.online/m/your-restaurant. That is also the link the QR code carries, so choose it before you print the codes.
Where should the QR code go?
On table tents and stickers at each table, at the counter, on the takeaway bag and on the printed menu itself. QaiMa generates a separate code per table, and each one tells you which table a view or an order came from.
Printing the menu as well? The menu design guide for Dubai covers the bilingual layout, and Arabic menu design covers getting the Arabic right.
Publish a QR menu tonight. It's free while we're in early access.