Guest Experience
Does Your Restaurant Need an App? An Installable Menu Instead
Most independent restaurants do not need their own app-store app. What guests want is quick access to your menu, ordering and opening details, and a web menu can give them that through a QR code with nothing to download. If you want an icon on regular guests' phones, an installable web menu puts an icon for your menu on their home screen and opens like an app, without building, publishing or maintaining one in the app stores.
What guests actually install
Think about the last time you scanned a QR code at a table. You wanted the menu, not a download. Asking a first-time guest to install an app before they can order adds a step at the exact moment they want to sit down and choose. A download can make sense to a guest who comes back every week; for a single visit, the browser is enough.
An app of your own can make sense if you run many locations, have guests who order from you several times a week, or need features a browser cannot offer. For a single restaurant or a small group, the question is usually not "app or no app" but "how do regulars get back to us quickly?"
App-store app vs installable web menu
| App-store app | Installable web menu | |
|---|---|---|
| What guests do | Find it in the store, download, sometimes create an account | Open your menu, then add it to the home screen if they want |
| What you do | Hire developers, pass each store's review, publish updates | Keep your menu up to date; the same page is the app |
| Updates | A new version for each store; guests may run an old one | The next time the menu is opened |
| First visit | Nothing until the download finishes | The menu opens straight from the QR code |
| Ongoing work | Developer accounts, operating system updates, store policy changes | None beyond the menu itself |
The technical name for an installable web menu is a progressive web app, or PWA. You do not need the term to use one: it is a website that tells the phone its name, icon and colors, so the phone can put it on the home screen and open it in its own window, without the browser's address bar.
How guests add your menu to their home screen
iPhone (Safari)
- Open your menu in Safari.
- Tap Share. Depending on how Safari is laid out, you may need to tap the ••• button first.
- Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen.
- Turn on Open as Web App, then tap Add.
Apple's guide says that when guests tap the new icon, the website opens just like an app. Safari on iPhone does not offer installation by itself, so a short hint on the menu helps.
Android (Chrome)
- Open your menu in Chrome.
- Tap the More button next to the address bar.
- Tap Install and create shortcut, then Install. On some phones and browsers the item says Install or Add to Home Screen instead.
Chrome may also offer to install the page itself. Other browsers have their own wording, so keep your instructions short and show them where guests can find them, such as on a table card next to the QR code.
An icon on a phone is a convenience for guests, not a promise. Whether the installed menu works without a connection, or can send messages, depends on the phone, the browser and what the menu supports. Do not advertise either unless you have tested it.
Your menu as an app with Thmenu
Guests can add your Thmenu menu to their home screen with the steps above. Which name and icon the phone shows can differ between phones and browsers, so add your own menu on an iPhone and on an Android phone and check what you see before you describe it to guests.
When a guest's browser offers installation, the menu shows a small "Install as app" banner. In Safari on iPhone, a guest sees a one-time "Add to Home Screen" hint once they have opened your menu three times on that phone. A guest who dismisses the banner will not see it again for 30 days. There is nothing for you to build, submit or update in an app store, and Thmenu does not publish a separate app-store app in your restaurant's name.
New to QR menus? Start with how to create a QR code menu.
Sources
- Apple Support — iPhone User Guide: Turn a website into an app in Safari on iPhone (accessed 31 October 2026)
- Google Chrome Help — Use web apps (Android phone & tablet) (accessed 31 October 2026)
- web.dev — Learn PWA: Installation (accessed 31 October 2026)