I Built a QR Menu SaaS in a Weekend (Here’s the Admin Playbook)

I’m going to do this one in a “build log + technical teardown” style, because that’s how I actually approached the project. A restaurant client pinged me with a very modern problem: “We need a QR menu system. Not just a menu. A system we can reuse for multiple branches, maybe even resell later.”

So instead of hacking a PDF and printing new codes every time a dish changed, I installed QRMenu - Restaurant QR Menu Generator (SaaS) on a staging server and treated it like a mini product launch. This article is basically my admin notebook: what I set up, what I checked, where the plugin saved me time, and how it behaves when you run it like a real SaaS tool instead of a fancy single-restaurant widget.

If you’re a website admin managing restaurants, cafés, food trucks, or a small hospitality group, you already know the truth: menus are not static content. They’re living, breathing creatures that change with price, season, and “we ran out of shrimp at 7pm.”

So the question isn’t “can I show a menu online?” It’s: can I update menus quickly without breaking the customer experience?

The Old World: Menus as Painful Files

Before QR menus became the norm, the workflow was basically:

1. Design a PDF menu.
2. Upload to the website.
3. Print QR codes pointing to that PDF.
4. Change one price.
5. Repeat steps 1–3 while quietly screaming.

It’s not just inefficient. It’s fragile.

• PDFs look bad on phones unless you zoom like a detective.
• People don’t want to download files anymore.
• Every menu update risks a “wrong price” moment.
• Multi-branch restaurants suffer because each branch needs its own menu variant.

As an admin, that setup is a maintenance trap.

Why I Picked a SaaS-Style QR Menu Tool

I’ve seen lightweight QR menu plugins that work for a single restaurant. But in my case, the client wanted:

• multiple restaurants / branches
• separate menus per location
• easy theme control
• a clean scan-to-menu flow
• the option to scale into a small hosted service later

That’s why I chose a SaaS-oriented system rather than a simple shortcode menu. QRMenu is structured like a multi-tenant platform: you can manage restaurants, categories, items, QR codes, and themes from one control panel.

From an admin operator lens, that architecture matters more than a pretty demo.

My Deployment Sequence (What I Did First)

I always deploy operational plugins using one reliable order:

1) Create Restaurant Entities Before Items

I started by adding each branch as its own restaurant entity in QRMenu. This is critical because items belong to restaurants, and you don’t want to re-assign a thousand dishes later.

I set:

• restaurant name
• address
• cover image / branding
• basic contact and hours

2) Build a Category Taxonomy

Then I created categories that matched how staff think, not how developers think:

• Starters
• Mains
• Grill
• Desserts
• Drinks
• Seasonal Specials

Small admin trick: keep category names short and scan-friendly. QR menu users are usually standing in a restaurant, not reading a novel.

3) Add Items with Variants

QRMenu makes item creation feel like a real menu builder. I added:

• name
• price
• description
• image
• optional variants (sizes, spice levels, add-ons)

This variant layer is a huge win. It stops you from duplicating dishes for every size.

4) Generate QR Codes per Restaurant

Once menus existed, generating QR codes was basically a click. Each code points to the correct restaurant’s menu, not a generic landing page.

Admin takeaway: no custom routing hacks needed.

The UX Side: What Guests See

I tested the guest flow on a phone because QR menus live or die on mobile.

What I liked immediately:

• menus load fast without a “download file” step
• categories are easy to jump between
• images don’t choke the layout
• item pages feel clean and readable
• scrolling a long menu doesn’t feel like doom-scrolling a PDF

This is important: in a restaurant, friction equals lost orders. If someone can’t find drinks quickly, that’s revenue thrown away.

The Admin Side: What Made My Life Easier

Let me call out the backend behaviors that matter when you run this daily.

Central Dashboard for Multiple Locations

Managing multiple branches from one panel is the point of a SaaS menu system. QRMenu keeps restaurant separation clean, so a branch manager won’t accidentally edit another location’s prices.

“Menu Updates Are Cheap”

After launch, I tested the real scenario: a sudden price change on a top-selling item.

I updated the price once, refreshed the QR view, and it was live immediately. No reprinting codes. No file replacements. No caching nightmares.

That’s the kind of routine change that turns into admin pain on weaker systems.

Theme + Branding Control

Restaurants care about vibes. QRMenu lets you style the menu so it matches brand tone without rebuilding templates.

You don’t want every menu to look like a generic directory. You want it to feel like your restaurant.

Practical Controls for Real Operations

Stuff like “availability toggles,” “featured items,” or “special badges” sounds small, but it’s how you keep menus aligned with real stock.

As an admin, I don’t want staff calling me to remove a dish. I want them to click a toggle and move on with service.

A Quick “Under the Hood” View

This part is for the Django-style dev/admin minds:

• Think of each restaurant as a tenant.
• Categories and items are scoped to tenants.
• QR codes are essentially pointers to tenant menu routes.
• Theme settings are global or per-tenant depending on how you configure.

That model scales. It’s the same model you’d design if you were building a tiny menu platform yourself.

So instead of coding it from scratch, I just… used it.

Where QRMenu Fits in a Broader WordPress Stack

Restaurant sites often grow into more than menus:

• online ordering
• reservations
• events
• memberships or loyalty
• merch or gift cards

So I’m always thinking about plugin ecosystems. I keep a curated toolkit of WooCommerce Plugins and related site ops tools so that when a restaurant expands into commerce, I can do it inside a stable, familiar stack rather than duct-taping random add-ons. QRMenu fits nicely beside that toolkit because it handles the “menu as system” layer cleanly.

Who I’d Recommend QRMenu For

Based on my deployment, QRMenu is a strong fit if you’re:

• running one restaurant but updating menus frequently
• managing multiple branches
• building a small hospitality group site
• launching a QR menu service for clients
• tired of PDF menus and code reprints
• trying to reduce staff/admin coordination overhead

If you only update your menu once a year, you can survive with PDFs. But the moment your menu becomes dynamic, this kind of system pays for itself in time saved.

My Final Admin Verdict

QRMenu didn’t feel like a “cool QR menu plugin.” It felt like a menu operations platform built for how restaurants actually work.

The core wins for me:

• multi-restaurant structure that scales
• fast edits without reprinting codes
• mobile-first menus that guests don’t hate
• variants and categories that match real menu logic
• branding control without custom dev

As a site admin, that’s what I care about: fewer fragile steps, more repeatable workflow, and a system that stays sane when the business grows.

So if your restaurant site is still living in PDF land, or you’re about to manage menus across locations, QRMenu is one of the cleanest “stop the admin bleeding” upgrades I’ve used this year.