Start with clear restaurants
Mall restaurants, hotel-adjacent places, and photo menus reduce the first-meal load.
Food ordering
How to order food in China with QR menus
By TravelerLocal editorial teamPublished Information checked
In short
What is the safest way to handle a first QR menu?
Choose a simple restaurant, open translation before scanning, order a safe staple plus one local dish, and know the payment half in advance: you either scan the merchant's code and type the amount yourself, or show your own code to be scanned. If the wallet declines after the code scans, pay cash — since February 1, 2026 a restaurant may not refuse it or treat a cash payer worse.
Understand QR flowsApplies to
Foreign visitors using restaurant QR menus, WeChat or Alipay mini-programs, translation apps, allergy phrases, spice requests, and mobile payment in China.
Check before you rely on it
The payment rules on this page are quoted from Ant International's own page and from the central bank's cash provisions, each linked with the date we read it. We found no official source documenting table-code ordering itself, so that part is field description, not a sourced rule.
QR menus are convenient when the phone, translation, and payment work. They are stressful when the first meal depends on a mini-program you cannot read.
Decision guide
Make the first meal low-pressure
A QR menu is easier when food, translation, and payment have backups.
Translate before confirming
Use camera translation, screenshots, and staff help before submitting orders or paying.
Keep dietary phrases ready
Allergies, vegetarian, halal, and spice limits should be saved in Chinese.
Cash is a backed fallback
A restaurant takes payment face to face, and those settings must support cash. A wallet failure at the table is not a crisis.
Saveable checklist
First QR menu checklist
1.Open translation before scanning.
2.Choose one safe staple, one vegetable, and one protein.
3.Show allergy or spice phrases before ordering.
4.Confirm whether payment happens in app or at cashier.
5.Ask for the merchant code if someone shows you a personal one.
6.Carry enough cash for one meal. It is a route the restaurant must take.
In short
QR menu questions
Short answers for ordering, translation, spice, allergies, local-number prompts, and payment.
How do QR menus work in China?
A table QR usually opens a restaurant menu in WeChat, Alipay, or a browser. You choose dishes, submit the order, and often pay through a wallet or at the cashier. We found no official operator or regulator page that documents table-code ordering for foreign visitors, so the ordering half of this page is our own field description rather than a sourced rule. The payment half below is sourced.
How do I pay after the order goes in?
There are two published checkout modes: you scan the merchant's code and enter the amount yourself, or you show your own payment code for the merchant to scan. A code that scans can still decline — Ant International states a home e-wallet may apply its own identity authentication, payment limits or channel restrictions.
Can a restaurant refuse my cash if the wallet fails?
No. Since February 1, 2026, business operators must respect the payer's choice of a lawful payment method, may not refuse RMB cash, and may not treat a cash payer worse than an app payer. Cash must be supported wherever payment is collected by a person or a face-to-face service is provided, which covers a restaurant table. If cash is refused anyway, keep the evidence and apply to the local branch of the central bank rather than arguing at the till.
Can I pay with my home country's wallet at a restaurant?
Probably not. The wallets published as directly usable in the mainland are from Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, Southeast Asia, and Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. No North American, European or Australian wallet appears on either the operator's list or the central bank's. Acceptance is signalled by the Alipay+ mark at the counter.
What if the QR menu is only in Chinese?
Use translation camera or screenshots, choose dishes with photos, ask staff for recommendations, or pick a mall restaurant or hotel-adjacent place for the first meal. To recognise what is actually in front of you, our dish cues cover six dishes worth knowing on sight — which carry pork, peanut, shellfish or serious chilli — since no regulation tells you what is in the bowl.
Can a restaurant give me only a QR code and refuse to bring a paper menu?
No, national law is on your side to ask. Under Article 11 (第十一条) of the State Council's Regulations for the Implementation of the Consumer Rights Protection Law (Decree No. 778, in force since July 1, 2024), you have the right to freely choose goods and services, and a business may not force consumption 利用技术手段 (by technical means). A scan-only ordering setup is a technical means, so scanning cannot be made the sole path — you may ask for a paper menu or to order at the counter. The rule does not require the restaurant to hand you an English menu, only that it cannot make the QR the only door.
The mini-program wants my WeChat profile or phone number before it shows the menu — do I have to agree?
No. Article 23 (第二十三条) of the same national regulation bars over-collecting personal information and bars using 一次概括授权、默认授权 (one-off blanket or default authorization) to force consent to collecting data 与经营活动无直接关系 (with no direct relation to the transaction). Reading a menu and ordering needs almost none of your data, so a mini-program that blocks the menu behind your profile or phone number is asking for more than the meal requires. You can decline and order another way — ask staff to order for you, use a paper menu, or go to the counter.
What if the QR menu requires a Chinese phone number?
Ask staff to order manually, use a paper menu if available, or choose a staffed counter. We have not found an official page that states whether ordering mini-programs require a mainland number, so we are not claiming a rule either way. Do not let a phone-number prompt block the first meal.
QR code survival guide
Understand which app to scan and what to do when a QR flow stalls.
Open guidePayment failure guide
Prepare wallet, card, cash, and network fallback before the first meal.
Open guideChengdu city guide
Use Chengdu as the template for spice, food rhythm, and first-meal pacing.
Open guideDecision table
Paying after the order goes in
The ordering flow varies by restaurant. The payment flow does not: there are two documented modes, and a published reason for most of the ways it fails.
At the table
What the source says
What to do
The staff point you at a code on the table or the counter
One of the two documented modes: you scan the merchant's code and enter the amount yourself.
Check the amount on your own screen before confirming. Nobody else types it for you.
The staff hold a scanner up to your phone
The other documented mode: you show your payment code and the merchant scans it.
Open the pay code before you reach the counter rather than while someone waits.
Someone shows you a personal code instead of a merchant code
An international bank card added to Alipay does not support person-to-person transfers or red packets. Weixin Pay states the same limit: everyday purchases only.
Ask for the merchant's own code. A foreign card is not funded for a transfer.
The code scans but the payment is declined
A home e-wallet may still ask for identity authentication, set payment limits or constrain payment channels, so acceptance at the counter does not guarantee the payment completes.
Try the other wallet once, then stop debugging and pay another way.
No app path works and the food is already on the table
Since February 1, 2026, cash must be supported wherever payment is collected by a person or a face-to-face service is given, and a cash payer may not be treated worse.
Pay cash. It is a route the restaurant is required to take, not a favour.
Source: Ant International — Alipay+ | Pay in the Chinese mainland (read July 24, 2026)
Source: People's Bank of China — Guide to Payment Services in China (2024 edition, page updated May 25, 2024; read July 24, 2026)
Decline behaviour and card restrictions: Ant International — Alipay+ | Pay in the Chinese mainland (read July 24, 2026)
Cash rules
A restaurant is exactly the setting the cash rules cover
Payment collected by a person, face to face. Since February 1, 2026 that setting must support cash.
A merchant may not refuse cash
Article 3: business operators and charging bodies must respect the payer's choice of a lawful payment method. They may not refuse cash, may not induce anyone else to refuse it, and may not treat a cash payer worse than an app payer.
Anywhere a person takes the money, cash works
Article 4: cash must be supported where payment is collected by a person, where a face-to-face service is provided, and where the booking happens online but the goods or service are handed over in person.
Small notes and coins are not grounds for refusal
Article 11: a merchant may not refuse a payer for offering a large quantity of coins or small notes. It has to negotiate or direct the payer to a bank to exchange them.
People's Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, National Financial Regulatory Administration
The provisions took effect February 1, 2026; page read July 24, 2026. The identical full text is mirrored on the State Council portal.
Your home wallet probably is not on the accepted list
Acceptance for a home e-wallet is signalled by the Alipay+ mark at the checkout counter. The wallets published as directly usable are from Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, Southeast Asia, and Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. No North American, European or Australian wallet appears on either the operator's list or the central bank's.
Even where a home wallet is accepted, it may still apply its own identity checks, payment limits or channel restrictions, so a code that scans can still decline. Alipay+ states it adds no fee of its own and settles at rates it updates and discloses each business day.
Source: Ant International — Alipay+ | Pay in the Chinese mainland (read July 24, 2026)
Source: People's Bank of China — Guide to Payment Services in China (2024 edition, page updated May 25, 2024; read July 24, 2026)
What we could not source
Nobody official documents table-code ordering
We looked for an operator or regulator page covering restaurant table-code ordering for foreign visitors and did not find one. Rather than dress up blog material as a rule, we are saying so: the ordering steps above are field description and can vary by restaurant. The payment steps, the card restrictions and the cash rules are quoted from the pages linked beside them, each with the date we read it.