QR Codes on Table Tents

The angle problem

A table tent leans back, and a seated guest looks down at it. That combination photographs the code from above at a slant, which foreshortens the pattern.

• Keep the tent's face at roughly 60 to 70 degrees from the table, not the near-flat lean most stands default to
• Position the code in the upper half of the face, closest to the reader's eye line
• A5 or A6 tents want a 4 to 5 cm code, which is larger than most designs allow for
• Weight the base. A tent that slides when someone leans in is a tent that gets pushed to the far end of the table
• Matte finish, because restaurant lighting is warm, low and directly overhead, which is the worst combination for gloss

Three moments, three offers

Print a two-sided or three-panel tent and let the guest pick:

1. On arrival: the menu and the WiFi code. WiFi is what makes the tent worth looking at in the first place, and it is the one code guests thank you for.
2. During: ordering and reordering, which is where table-side ordering pays for itself. The table ordering explainer covers how the table identity gets attached to the order.
3. At the end: paying, tipping, and the review code. Never lead with the review; a review request before the food arrives reads as desperate and gets the wrong rating.

One code per table

It costs slightly more to print and it changes what you can see:

• Orders arrive with a table number attached, which is the entire point of table-side ordering
• Feedback becomes traceable to a section, which means to a server and a shift
• You learn which tables turn slowly and which parts of the room never get scanned, which is a seating-plan insight nobody had before

What guests hate, and how to avoid it

QR menus earned a bad reputation for good reasons, and most of them are fixable. The menu mistakes guide lists them in full, but the three that matter here:

• A PDF is not a menu. Pinching and zooming on a phone at a dinner table is why people ask for paper. Use a mobile page.
• Keep printed menus available. The code is a convenience, not a filter on who gets to eat.
• Do not demand an app, a login or an email before showing the food.

Keep it current without reprinting

A dynamic code lets the same tent show today's specials, switch to the brunch menu at eleven, and become a holiday-hours notice in December. Table tents are printed in the hundreds, and every reprint avoided is real money.