How we built Kalimenu, a QR menu with ordering at the table.

What the guest should be able to do

A QR menu takes one sentence to describe. The guest scans a code on the table and the menu opens on their phone, in the browser, with nothing to install. A PDF placed behind a code does that much. The difference between a useful digital menu and a scanned paper one lies in everything that happens after the scan.

Language comes first. A guest should not have to hunt for a flag. A good menu opens in the language the phone is already set to, and lets the guest switch by hand whenever they like. On Kalimenu that means eight languages: Greek, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Polish. The buttons, the basket, ordering and payment follow the same language, not only the dish names.

Translations deserve a direct question: who writes them. On Kalimenu the owner writes each dish's name and description in the languages they want, in a single form, starting with a sample menu in which the classic Greek dishes are already translated. Allergens and labels are translated automatically. If one translation is missing, the guest sees that dish in English or Greek, never an empty line.

Then the order. The guest adds dishes, picks options such as how a steak is cooked, and leaves a note on any dish. An order should not reach the kitchen unchecked. On Kalimenu a waiter approves it with one tap first, and the guest can see roughly when the food will be ready, so they do not have to ask.

Last, the waiter and the bill. One tap on Waiter or Bill should reach the right person, and the guest should see that the call was received, so nobody has to wave across the room. On Kalimenu the call goes to the waiter responsible for that zone, with the table name attached. When asking for the bill, the guest chooses cash or card. Once the venue has connected its own Viva Wallet account, the guest can pay from the phone by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay: the whole bill, only their own dishes or equal shares, with a tip if they choose. The money goes straight to the venue's account.

What the kitchen, the bar and the owner should see

Every order has to land where it is needed. In a good system each station sees only its own items: drinks go to the bar, food goes to the kitchen, and every order carries a timer. There are no paper slips to lose between the floor and the pass. Kalimenu shows these screens on any tablet or computer the venue already has. If the kitchen prefers paper, order slips print on a thermal printer, but the printer is optional.

The waiter works on a phone. On Kalimenu each waiter signs in with a link and a personal PIN and sees the tables of their own zone first, along with calls, new orders and the bill for each table. Calls arrive with a sound. For guests who would rather not order on their own phone, the waiter opens the table on their own phone and enters the order, much as they would on a handheld PDA, with no dedicated terminal.

The owner needs something simple: to change the menu personally, at the moment it needs changing. Prices change, a dish runs out, the evening menu replaces the lunch one. On Kalimenu dishes and prices are changed in the management area whenever the owner wants, and the change appears on guests' phones at once, without reprinting a single QR code. A dish that has run out can be hidden with one tap, or stops on its own once the portions you set have gone. Breakfast, happy hour or a bar menu can appear on their own at set times, and a dish of the day can sit at the top with a photo.

That principle shaped how we built it. As our write-up of the Kalimenu project puts it, the platform is built so that the operator, not the studio, keeps it current. A menu that needs a developer to change a price is the wrong menu on most days of the season.

Restaurants

A restaurant menu carries detail. Dishes have options, guests ask about ingredients, and a long dinner ends with a table that wants to pay in three different ways. For each dish, the digital menu should show which of the fourteen allergens defined in EU rules it contains, with tags such as vegetarian or gluten-free, so the waiter is not the only source of that information.

In Greece a menu also carries mandatory notices: that prices include all taxes, that the guest is not obliged to pay without a legal receipt, and the person the venue has named as responsible under market rules. Kalimenu shows these automatically, in each of the menu's languages.

Two other things matter here. Orders should pass a waiter before they reach the kitchen, which keeps a stray tap from becoming a plate nobody ordered. And the menu should look like the restaurant: its logo, its cover photo, its colours, and type that renders Greek properly. Kalimenu lets the owner set all of these with a live preview, so the menu does not look like every other menu on the street.

Tavernas

A taverna works with large tables, shared plates and a kitchen that changes with what came in that morning. The dish of the day should sit at the top of the menu with a photo. Dishes that run out should come off the menu on their own, so the waiter does not have to apologise table by table.

On a summer evening the same taverna may serve guests in five languages. A menu that opens in each guest's language removes the translating at the table, and ordering by phone means a large group does not wait for one person to write everything down. The printed menu that had to be reprinted at every price change is exactly the problem a digital one exists to solve.

Beach bars

On a beach the table is a sunbed. Each sunbed or umbrella needs its own QR code, so an order or a call arrives tagged with the exact spot and the waiter knows where to walk. Waiters need zones, so that each one sees their own sunbeds first and two people do not run to the same guest. Drinks go to the bar, food to the kitchen, and a group can split the bill on their phones instead of waiting for the card terminal to make the trip down the sand.

The codes have to last the season. Laminated card, vinyl sticker or plexiglass all work, and since the code does not change when the menu does, they are printed once. One practical point: guests use their own mobile data, but the staff phones and the bar and kitchen screens need a connection. Check the signal at the furthest sunbed before opening day.

Cafés

A café runs on speed and small orders: a coffee, a toast, a second coffee an hour later. The menu should open at once in the browser, and the guest should be able to order the second round without catching anyone's eye. Scheduled menus help, with breakfast in the morning and happy hour later in the day, each appearing at its own time without anyone remembering to switch it.

Some café customers never sit down. A public menu link on Google Maps and Instagram, with ordering for pickup and a code to collect it, serves the people walking past. Small details count in a place people visit every day: a QR code for the Wi-Fi on the menu's home screen, and a loyalty card that asks for no personal details. Kalimenu includes both.

Hotels

A hotel runs several menus at once: the restaurant, the pool and room service, each with its own hours and its own staff. A QR code in each room lets a guest order in their own language, and the order reaches staff and the kitchen with the room number attached. Each area should have its own menu and its own waiters, with breakfast, pool snacks or evening room service appearing at the times you set.

Charging works differently too. A guest may charge an order to the room and settle at reception, if the hotel allows it. All-inclusive guests should see which dishes are included and pay only for the items marked premium. Ask how room charges reach your property management system. Kalimenu, for example, does not connect to one: charges are recorded with the room number and staff transfer them. That arrangement works, provided you know it before the season starts.

What to check before you choose a system

Most systems look alike in a demo. The differences show on a full Saturday night. These are the questions that separate them.

Does the menu open without an app, in the guest's language, on any phone? Who writes the translations, and what does a guest see when one is missing? Can you change a price yourself, on your phone, and have it appear without reprinting the codes? Can a dish come off the menu on its own when it runs out?

Does every order pass a person before it reaches the kitchen? Does each station see only its own items? Does it run on the phones, tablets and printers you already own, or does it require new hardware? What needs an internet connection, and where?

When a guest pays at the table, where does the money go: into your own account with a payment provider, or through someone else's first? What does that provider charge per card payment? On Kalimenu the money goes to the venue's own Viva Wallet account, and Viva's own card fees apply.

Ask, finally, what the system does not do. A digital menu is usually not a cash register. Kalimenu does not issue the legal receipt and does not connect directly to the register or to myDATA, the Greek tax authority's electronic books: the waiter enters the order into the existing register as today, and the legal receipt's number can be noted on the Kalimenu bill. A supplier who tells you this plainly is one you can organise around.

We designed and built Kalimenu: the product design, the website and the development. It has its own site, kalimenu.gr, where it is described in full and where venues sign up. If your venue needs a website that works alongside its menu, our page on website design and development explains how we work. If you are planning a hospitality product of your own, tell us what it has to do. The scope of every project is set in writing before work begins.