Seven mistakes we see in 8 out of 10 Nommy onboarding audits: linking to a PDF instead of a web page, using fonts too small to read on a phone, hiding or omitting prices, skipping dietary tags, cramming every item onto one screen, ignoring load speed, and never updating sold-out items.
Every one of these mistakes adds friction—slowing ordering, triggering table-side questions, and pushing guests toward the safest, not the most profitable, choice. Fixing them does not require a redesign, it requires treating the menu as a sales tool, not a document. For the full setup process, see our guide to creating a QR menu, then use this list to audit what you already have.
For the broader picture on how digital menus and QR codes work together, see our complete guide to digital and QR code menus.
TL;DR
Fix in this order—biggest sales impact first:
- Kill the PDF. Switch your QR to a live web menu that loads instantly on mobile.
- Bump fonts to 16px. Item names at 16px minimum, descriptions at 14px, prices bold.
- Show all prices. Every item needs a visible price—“market price” is fine, blank is not.
- Tag diets. Add Vegetarian, Vegan, Halal, Gluten-Free, Contains Nuts, and let guests filter.
- Limit to 8 items per screen. Group into clear categories with tappable tabs, 6–10 items max per category.
- Compress images under 200KB. Test load speed on 4G—aim for under 3 seconds.
- Enable live sold-out toggle. Grey out or hide items the moment the kitchen runs out.
Do these seven and your menu stops being a PDF on a phone and starts acting like a sales tool.
1. Linking to a PDF instead of a live web menu
This is the most expensive mistake on the list. A PDF forces guests to download a file, pinch-to-zoom on a tiny screen, and scroll horizontally through a print layout that was never designed for mobile. Reading a PDF on mobile is frustrating enough that industry surveys consistently find about 3 in 10 guests will leave rather than pinch-to-zoom through a document.
A digital menu renders as structured web content—text that loads instantly, reflows to any screen size, and lets guests search or filter. If your QR code currently points at a PDF, switching to a live menu is the single highest-impact fix on this list. For the full breakdown of why PDFs hurt conversions, see our digital menu vs PDF menu comparison.
2. Using fonts too small to read on a phone
Print menu fonts shrink to unreadable on a 6-inch screen. Item names, descriptions, and prices all need to be legible without zooming. If a guest has to pinch to read a price, they skip the item entirely.
Rule of thumb: item names at 16px minimum, descriptions at 14px, and prices bold enough to scan at a glance. Mobile accessibility research consistently points to 16px as the practical minimum for body text on phones, and iOS Safari automatically zooms when users tap text under 16px, breaking your layout.
3. Hiding or omitting prices
Some operators leave prices off digital menus hoping guests will order more without seeing the cost. Hiding prices backfires every time. The opposite happens. Missing prices create distrust, slow down decisions, and force guests to ask staff—which defeats the purpose of a self-service menu.
Every item needs a visible price. “Market price” is acceptable for premium seafood; blank is not. Transparency builds confidence, and confident guests order more.
4. Skipping dietary tags and allergen filters
Guests with dietary restrictions scan a menu looking for one thing: can I eat here safely? A menu with no tags forces them to read every description and ask staff about ingredients—friction that often ends with them ordering the plainest, cheapest item or leaving entirely.
Add labels like Vegetarian, Vegan, Halal, Gluten-Free, or Contains Nuts directly to each item—don’t hide them in a separate “Vegetarian” section. Researchers at LSE found that moving vegetarian items from a separate section to the main menu and labeling them produced a 56% increase in sales. Better yet, let guests filter by dietary preference so they see only what they can eat.
5. Cramming every item onto one screen
Operators often treat a digital menu like a printed one—everything visible at once. This is one of the most common digital menu mistakes because it feels logical coming from print. On mobile, that means endless scrolling through dozens of items with no structure. Guests get overwhelmed, stop scrolling, and order from the first few items they see.
Group items into clear categories (Starters, Mains, Desserts, Drinks) with tappable tabs. Limit each category screen to 6–10 items so guests can scan without fatigue. A well-structured menu guides the eye to high-margin items; a wall of text hides them. Overcrowding quietly suppresses average order value.
6. Ignoring page load speed
A digital menu that takes more than 3 seconds to load loses guests before they even see your prices. Google's mobile research shows more than half of visitors abandon after three seconds, and other studies put it at 40% of shoppers walking away at the same mark. The drop-off curve is brutal—as load time stretches from 1 second to 5 seconds, the probability someone bounces jumps 90%.
It's rarely a server problem. It's a design problem. Heavy background images, uncompressed food photos, and leftover PDF links are the usual culprits. On a busy Friday night with spotty restaurant Wi-Fi, that extra weight turns your menu into a loading spinner, and a loading spinner doesn't take orders.
Use a platform that serves compressed, mobile-optimised content. Test load speed on a 4G connection, not just office Wi-Fi. For help getting the code and QR right in the first place, see our how to create a QR menu walkthrough, and make sure poor physical placement—Wi-Fi dead zones, lighting glare on the code—doesn't add an extra layer of friction on top of a slow load.
7. Leaving sold-out items visible
Nothing kills trust faster than a guest choosing a dish, calling a server, and hearing “sorry, we’re out of that.” Every sold-out item still visible on the menu is a broken promise—and it happens most during peak service when staff are too busy to update anything. Of all these menu design mistakes, this one damages trust the fastest.
The fix is a live menu where sold-out items can be greyed out or hidden in seconds from a dashboard. Flip the toggle the moment the kitchen runs out, not at the end of service. Unlike the others on this list, this one has a one-second fix that pays off every single service. The same dynamic menu that enables real-time toggles also means the one-sentence table card that lifts scan rates stays accurate even when the kitchen runs out.
The problem: A busy cafe links its QR code to a PDF menu with 12px fonts, no prices on half the items, no dietary tags, and a sold-out salmon bagel that has been unavailable for three weeks. Guests take 45 seconds to find a price, squint, ask staff, and order the safest option—not the highest-margin one.
The real-world fix: Switch to a live digital menu with 16px+ fonts, visible prices on every item, dietary tags guests can filter by, and a one-tap toggle to mark items as sold out in real time. Guests find prices in under 8 seconds, order confidently, and staff answer 60% fewer “is this available?” questions.
Quick-fix reference
| Digital menu design mistake | What it costs | Quick fix |
|---|---|---|
| PDF instead of web menu | ~30% bounce rate. Guests leave rather than browsing a PDF on their phone | Switch to a structured, live digital menu |
| Fonts too small | Skipped items. Guests won’t order what they can’t read | Set item names to a 16px minimum |
| Missing prices | Breeds distrust. Slows decisions and stalls tables | Show a visible price on every item |
| No dietary tags | Lost group orders. Dietary-restricted guests go elsewhere | Tag every item and add dietary filters |
| Too many items per screen | Decision fatigue. Guests default to cheap, safe options | Limit to 6–10 items per category tab |
| Slow load speed | Abandoned carts. Menus fail under weak venue Wi-Fi | Compress images and use mobile-optimised code |
| Sold-out items visible | Broken trust. Wastes staff time handling complaints | Toggle item availability in real time |
Stop losing orders to menu mistakes you can fix today. Build a fast, mobile-friendly digital menu with Nommy—live prices, dietary tags, real-time sold-out toggles, and unlimited scans on the free plan. No credit card required.
A good digital menu is not a PDF on a phone. It is a sales tool that makes ordering fast, clear, and frictionless—fix these seven mistakes and watch the difference in your next service.