In Japan, many chains are using tablets for their menu, and you can order through that. That's much better than having to pull whatever from a QR code.
At least once you start decoding the drink section (much more consistent) then you can go back and try to interpret the rest.
- staff can keep the menu up to date, basically realtime (they have to do it tho)
- orders can directly land in the kitchen instead of through the waiting staff, which may or may not be coming
- payment can also be done thst way
Of course there are more advantages for the restaurants that may or may not go counter to the interests (or rights!) of their customers. E.g. the ability to easily build profiles and sell that data to the highest bidder.
There are downsides too:
- digital menus can fail more easily than paper menus
- congrats you are a waiter, and now IT-support as well
- customers without phones, no/sucky internet or devices that fail to display the menu are out of luck, so you have to provide offline alternatives/own devices that need their own maintenance
- options that are not in the menu and fields that are not offered cannot be filled, e.g. can be a problem if you are allergic rtc.
- unpersonal. Most people prefer not having to jump through hoops.
Using a tablet that is provided by the restaurant can aleviate many (but not all) of these issues.
Of course, all the downsides are the very reason restaurants are switching to digital menus in the first place, which is something people need to be reminded of. In cases of "I can't believe they replaced a perfectly good X with inferior but 'modern tech' Y", the surprise is usually the person not realizing the vendor is adversarial, and Y is giving some extra benefit to them at the expense of the customer.