Mobile order and pay for independent restaurants

Mobile order and pay means a guest orders from your menu on their own phone and pays there too, by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, so nobody waits for a server to take the order or bring the check. The big chains do it through apps their customers download. With Menuthere, an independent restaurant gets the same thing without a download: guests scan a QR code on the table, or open your link to order ahead, and the money goes to your own Stripe account. Menuthere takes 0% commission, and ordering from a table QR is on the Free plan; paying on the phone starts on Lite at $17 a month.

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)

How mobile order and pay works

1. Scan or tap. The guest scans the QR code on their table, or opens your store link from Google, Instagram or a text.
2. Order. They pick dishes, sizes and add-ons. A table code sets the table, so the order arrives marked "Table 7" and skips the "delivery or pickup?" question.
3. Sign in with a phone number. No password and no account to create. Orders from a table QR skip the one-time code.
4. Pay. Stripe's checkout takes a card, or Apple Pay or Google Pay on phones that have them. Tips are optional and can be added at checkout if you switch them on.
5. Fire. The order rings on your dashboard and the Menuthere partner app until someone accepts it, or it accepts itself after a delay you set. The kitchen ticket prints without prices.
6. Follow it. The guest lands on a live status page that moves from Accepted to Ready as you update the order.

Three ways to run it

Pick the one that fits how your dining room works. You can mix them: each order type has its own payment switches.

On the Free plan there are no online payments, so every order is paid in person. Free includes 50 orders a month; after that your codes open a browse-only menu until the 1st, or until you upgrade.

Where the money goes

Menuthere never holds your takings.

What it costs per check (US)

Stripe's standard US price is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction. Here's what that means per check, before any tip:

The fixed 30¢ hits small checks hardest. A coffee shop with lots of $5 orders may prefer pay-at-pickup for walk-ins and card payment for order-ahead.

Worked month. A 40-seat cafe takes 400 table orders a month through mobile order and pay at an average of $28. That's $11,200 through the phone. Stripe's fees come to 400 × $1.11 = $444.80. Menuthere's commission is $0, and the plan is Lite at $17 a month. A marketplace taking 15% of the same $11,200 would cost $1,680.

Rounds, checks and splitting: what really happens

This is where order and pay systems differ most, so here's exactly what Menuthere does.

• A second round joins the first order when it's the same guest at the same table, the first order is still open (Pending, Accepted or Food Ready, with activity in the last 4 hours) and unpaid, and the guest isn't paying this round online. You see it tagged "Edited by customer", the new lines marked "Added", and the table keeps one order and one check. Reprint the ticket so the kitchen sees the new lines.
• Rounds paid online stay separate. If each round is paid as it's ordered, each is its own order. Friends who want to pay for their own drinks can each scan and pay.
• No split bill. Menuthere doesn't divide one shared check in the app. If a group wants to split a joined check, do it at the register as you do now.
• No open tabs. There's no card held on file to settle at the end. Use "pay after the meal" instead: the Pay now button appears once you complete the order.

Tips and service charges

Switch on tips and checkout shows No tip, up to four percentages you choose (they start at 10, 15 and 20) and Custom. No tip is selected until the guest picks one, and tips are never taxed. An optional service charge can be added as a percentage of the food, dine-in only at first; guests see it marked optional with a Remove button. Both show as their own line on the check and are charged with the rest of the order. See tips and service charge.

In California, the Honest Pricing Law (SB 478) has required advertised prices to include mandatory fees since July 1, 2024, and a restaurant's mandatory fee must be clearly and conspicuously displayed wherever its prices are shown (SB 1524). An optional service charge the guest can remove isn't mandatory, but check the Attorney General's guidance for your setup.

Stop orders from outside the restaurant

People photograph table codes. Geo-lock, on every plan, asks for the phone's location when a guest checks out from a table code and only lets the order through within 100 m, 200 m, 500 m or 1 km of your map pin (up to 150 m of the phone's own error is allowed on top). Pickup orders aren't checked. More in how to stop prank QR orders.

Menuthere vs the chain app and the POS add-on

If your till must receive QR orders by itself, a POS vendor's own add-on is the better fit: Menuthere orders arrive in the Menuthere dashboard and partner app, not in Square, Toast or Clover. Comparing? See Menuthere vs Toast and Menuthere vs Square Online.

Want an app in the App Store and Google Play under your own name and icon as well? That's the Branded App plan at $99 a month. Press Get your app to start.

Set up mobile order and pay

1. Create your store. Search for your restaurant on Google to fill in the name, address and photos, or start by hand.
2. Add your menu. Import it from a photo or PDF, then add sizes and add-on groups and check every price.
3. Add your tables. Add them in bulk with a name prefix such as "Table", up to 50 at a time, and download every code in one Excel sheet.
4. Connect Stripe. On Lite, press Connect with Stripe in Settings, then turn on Apple Pay and Google Pay in your Stripe account.
5. Choose how each order type pays. Turn Online and Cash on or off for dine-in, takeout and delivery, and switch on "Ask payment after order complete" if guests pay after the meal.
6. Switch on geo-lock and tips. Set your map pin, pick an allowed distance, and choose your tip percentages.
7. Test it. Scan a table code with your own phone, order, pay a small amount with a real card, then refund it from Stripe.

Print the codes at a size guests can scan from their seat: the QR code size calculator works it out, and the table QR card maker prints them on cards. New to QR menus? Start with what is a QR menu? and QR codes every restaurant should print.

Ordering from the table is free, with 0% commission.

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)

UK venue? See order and pay at table for UK venues, with UK card fees and tipping law.