Your restaurant's menu online, and pre-orders paid by KNET

Most customers meet your menu on a phone: they scan a QR code at the table, tap the link in your Instagram bio, or search for you on Google Maps before they come. A PDF of your printed menu or a photo of the board works badly there: tiny text, no search, and out of date the day a price changes. A menu website fixes all three, and it is one of the simplest sites a food business can have.

This guide covers what a good online menu shows, how to use QR codes well, how to handle prices, sold-out dishes and allergens, and how paid pre-orders fit beside the delivery apps.

What a good menu website shows

Think of the customer standing at your counter, or deciding at home where to eat tonight. They want to know quickly:

• What you serve, in sections they recognise: breakfast, mains, sweets, hot and cold drinks.
• What each dish is, with a short, appetising description and a real photo where you have one.
• How much it costs, in KWD with three decimals.
• What is available now, so nobody orders the dish you ran out of at noon.
• Where and when: your address with a map link, opening hours (Friday and Ramadan hours included) and a phone number.
• How to order: dine in, pick up, delivery, or all three.

Write both languages properly. Dish names often keep their Arabic or original name in both versions, with a description in each language, and a customer reading in Arabic should never meet half a sentence in English. Our Arabic-first checklist covers the details.

QR codes on the tables

A QR code on each table is now the normal way to open a menu, and it is cheap to do well:

• Point it at your menu page, not at a PDF. The page loads faster on a phone, stays readable, and changes the moment you change a price.
• Use your own address. If the code points to your site, you can change platforms later without reprinting every table card.
• Print it big enough to scan from a seat, with a short line under it: "Scan for the menu" and "امسح لعرض المنيو".
• Test it on several phones in your dining room's light before printing a hundred.

Keep a few printed menus for customers who prefer paper. A QR code should be an option, not a barrier.

Prices, sold-out dishes and allergens

Prices in KWD

Show every price in KWD with three decimals, the same in both languages: 1.750 KWD, not 1.75 or "1 KD 750". If prices differ for dine-in and delivery, say which one the menu shows. Update the website the same day you change the board.

Sold-out marks

A dish you cannot serve today should be marked as sold out rather than deleted. The customer still sees that you make it, and you do not need to rebuild the page tomorrow. This matters most for daily specials, seasonal desserts and anything that sells out by evening.

Allergens

Customers with allergies want to know what is in a dish before they order. In each dish's description, name the common allergens you know it contains, such as nuts, sesame, milk, eggs, gluten or seafood, and add a line saying that your kitchen handles them, so traces are possible. When in doubt, invite customers to ask staff before ordering. Never guess: a wrong "nut free" is worse than no label.

Ordering: your own channel beside the delivery apps

Delivery apps bring customers who are already hungry, and for many restaurants they are a large share of orders. They also take a fee on each order, decide how you appear, and keep the customer's details. Your own site is the channel you control, and the two work well together:

• Show the menu, and keep it true. The menu page is for reading: dishes, photos, prices and what is sold out today. Customers decide there, at the table or at home.
• Take pre-orders on a store page. For things ordered ahead, such as Eid sweets, birthday cakes, trays and catering boxes, give each one a product page and a checkout. The customer chooses the item, the pick-up or delivery day and pays by KNET or card when they order, so you are paid before you start baking and you do not chase transfers. The money goes to your own payment gateway account, and an order counts as paid only once the gateway confirms it. Our guide to accepting KNET and card payments online explains how.
• Keep the delivery apps for delivery. Use your site for what the apps do badly: your full story, your catering menu, pre-orders and the regulars who would rather buy from you directly.

What to decide before you open pre-orders

• Lead time. How many days ahead must a cake or a tray be ordered? Say it on the product page.
• Daily limits. If your kitchen can make ten trays a day, stop taking orders for that day at ten.
• Pick-up or delivery. Where, when, and at what fee, in both languages.
• Changes and refunds. Until when can a customer change or cancel, and what happens to the payment.

Getting found

Put your menu link everywhere hungry people look: your Google Business Profile, your Apple Maps listing, your Instagram bio and story highlights, and the receipt you hand over. On Google, keep your hours, photos and phone number in step with your site. If you are moving from an Instagram-only menu, our guide on going from Instagram to your own website walks through it.

How darwaza builds menu sites

darwaza builds the software a food business runs on, in Arabic and English. A menu is one of its ready-made parts: menu sections and dishes with photos and prices in KWD, favourites on your home page, sold-out marks you switch in your dashboard, and an editor to change prices and dishes any time. Your address and hours appear on every page, and the site is designed for phones first.

The menu itself is for browsing and has no cart. For pre-orders, darwaza adds a store: a product catalogue with checkout, where customers pay with KNET, cards or Apple Pay through your own account with UPayments, Tap, MyFatoorah or Hesabe. Payments work on every plan, Free included, your site is tried with test payments before it takes real ones, and paid orders arrive in your dashboard. darwaza does not connect to delivery apps yet, so keep those for delivery. Tell darwaza about your café or restaurant in Arabic or English, and you can start free.