What you get
Change the menu, keep the code
The QR points at a page you control, not at the file. Swap in the new menu at 11am and every table tent is already correct. Nothing gets reprinted.
See if anyone actually scans
You get a scan count per day. That answers the question most restaurants never get to ask: is the code on the table working better than the one by the till?
A code that looks like your restaurant
Set the colours, the shape and drop your logo in the middle. A designed code on a table tent gets scanned more than the default black square, because it reads as intentional.
Photos or PDF, whatever you have
Upload a photo of the printed menu, a PDF from your designer, or several pages. Guests get a proper viewer they can pinch to zoom, not a file download.
The mistake that costs restaurants a reprint
Most free QR generators will happily encode a PDF link or, worse, the file itself directly into the pattern. It works on day one. Then a supplier price changes, or you drop a dish, and the code on forty table tents is now pointing at the wrong menu.
The fix is boring and permanent: the code should point at a page, and the menu should live on that page. Change the file, the page updates, the printed code never moves. That is the difference between a static QR code and a dynamic one, and it is the only part of this decision that actually matters.
Where to put the code
Table tents are the obvious one. The two that get forgotten: the window, so people deciding whether to come in can read the menu first, and the bill folder, where a second code for reviews sits naturally next to it.
Add a line of text under the code. “Scan for today’s menu” gets scanned more than a bare square, because a bare square does not tell anyone what happens next. And keep the code at least 2.5cm across on a table tent — smaller struggles in low restaurant lighting.
Since you are already printing something, it is worth adding a Google review QR code on the bill. That is the moment a happy customer is most likely to leave one.
Free, and what free means
One menu page, two files, scan counts, and a small QRLinkify credit at the bottom of the page. No trial timer and no card.
Pro at $19 a month allows five pages with twenty files each, removes the credit, and lets you host on your own domain. That matters when you have a second location, or a drinks list you want to keep separate from the food.
If you stop paying, the page does not vanish — it drops back to the free limits. A QR code printed on your tables should not stop working because of a billing change.