A queue at the bar costs a pub rounds. Guests who would have ordered another drink look at the crowd and decide against it. A drink ordering app lets them order from the table instead, while your team keeps pouring.
Guests are not all ready for it. In the Zonal and CGA by NIQ GO Technology research, based on 5,000 consumers in October 2025, 34% of pub-goers said they prefer to order and pay from their table, while 66% still prefer to order at the bar. So the aim is a faster second way to order, not an end to bar service. Here is how to set it up in a pub, step by step.
1. Build the menu the way pubs sell
Pubs sell by size and serve, so set those up as options on each drink, not as separate items. A lager can offer a pint or a half. A spirit can offer a single or a double, with a mixer as an optional choice. Each option carries its own price, so the menu stays short and the order reaches the bar exactly as the guest chose.
Group drinks and food the way your regulars think: draught, bottles and cans, wine, spirits, soft drinks, then food. Add notes for the kitchen where it matters, such as no onions or sauce on the side.
2. Hide what has run out
When a keg goes or the last bottle sells, hide that item in the menu manager. Guests stop seeing it straight away, so nobody orders a drink you cannot pour.
3. Give every seat a code
Table ordering only works if staff know where to take the drinks. Print a code for every table, and for every bench, booth and snug, including the beer garden. Each code carries its table number, so the order arrives with it. The print guide covers size and paper, and where to put QR codes covers placement. Outdoors, use stands rather than stickers so a code does not get soaked or knocked off.
Guests need a mobile signal or your Wi-Fi to order from their phone: QR ordering needs a connection, even though the bar till can keep taking cash if the internet drops. Check the signal in the garden before you rely on it.
4. Decide where orders arrive
The simplest route is the live order screen on a tablet behind the bar, with orders moving from new to preparing to ready. If staff prefer paper, connect a supported Star CloudPRNT or Epson network printer and a ticket prints for each order. Each printer you connect receives every ticket, so decide which orders go where before you connect more than one.
5. Choose how guests pay
Guests pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay or card through your own Stripe account. You are the merchant, Café QR takes a 0% platform fee, and Stripe pays out to your bank. Each order is paid when it is placed, so whoever orders the round pays for it. If you run tabs, keep those at the bar and use table ordering for pay-as-you-go tables. Until you connect Stripe, guests can still order from their phone and pay at the till.
6. Brief your staff, including on age checks
Café QR takes the order but does not check anyone's age. Your Challenge 21 or Challenge 25 policy still applies when drinks reach the table, and you stay responsible for your licensing conditions. Tell staff to ask for ID at the table just as they would at the bar, and to be comfortable refusing a table order.
Give waiters their own staff sign-in. When a guest taps Call staff or Request bill, the request appears with the table number until someone marks it done.
7. Plan for last orders
You can set the hours guests are able to order, and pause ordering with one switch. Scheduled ordering hours cannot yet run past midnight, so a pub that serves later uses the pause switch at last orders. Stop table ordering at last orders, and earlier for food if the kitchen closes first.
8. Test it before you open
Order from a few tables yourself, including one outside, and watch what arrives at the bar. Check that the options read clearly on the ticket and that staff know where to take the drinks. The free first month is long enough to do this properly.
Try it
Café QR's Order & Pay plan costs £9.99 per venue per month, and your first month is free with no card needed. If you also want a till, tabs and a floor plan, the POS plan is £39 per venue per month. See the pub and bar POS page for how it works, read our checklist of eight things to sort out first and what a pub POS needs, or start your free month.