AR menus for fine dining restaurants in London
Let guests see each course of the tasting menu, plated as your kitchen plates it, before it leaves the pass.
Quick answer
For fine dining, an AR menu is less about choosing and more about anticipation and storytelling. VR Express scans each course in your kitchen as it is plated, cleans it up in our studio and publishes it behind a discreet QR code. Guests see the dish at real size on their own table through their phone, with no app: Apple's AR Quick Look on iPhone, Google's Scene Viewer on Android. A typical tasting menu goes live in about two weeks.
Why fine dining uses AR differently
Tasting-menu guests rarely need help deciding; the menu is set. What they want is to understand the courses: what the plate looks like, how it is built, which element is which. An AR model answers that in a way a list of ingredients cannot, and it is something guests show the table and share after the meal.
Used well, it supports the room rather than competing with it: a QR card with the wine list or on the booking confirmation, so guests can explore before they arrive or after the course, not phones out at every plate.
Plating detail that survives the scan
Fine plating is the hardest food to capture: glossy sauces, fine herbs, foams and white plates on white linen. We capture at full resolution and our team repairs glare and holes by hand, then checks the scale against the real plate so the model sits on the table at its true size.
Courses change with the season. New dishes can be scanned with the kit by your team and sent for the same quality pass, so the AR menu keeps up with the kitchen.
Where it fits in the guest journey
- Before the visit: AR previews of signature courses on the booking confirmation or your website.
- At the table: a QR card that opens the current menu course by course.
- After the meal: a link guests keep, which works for press and social too.
How it works
- Onboarding call and capture kit: guide, matte mat, turntable and your own upload code.
- Dishes are scanned freshly plated in quiet hours, by your team with the kit or by us on site in London.
- Every model gets a quality pass by our 3D team (holes, glare, scale, file size), with a retake note within a day if a capture can't be saved.
- Your menu page goes live with sections, prices and allergens, plus a print-ready QR code per dish. A typical menu takes about two weeks.
See it and read the case study
Try it on your phone: open the demo menu and tap “See it on your table”. VR Express has built AR, VR and WebXR since 2015, including the AR Menu platform for restaurants and bars. Start with the overview of AR menus for London restaurants, see what an AR menu costs in the UK or compare AR and QR menus.
Frequently asked questions
Will guests have their phones out during service?
Only if you want them to. Many fine dining rooms put the AR menu on the booking confirmation or a single card with the wine list, so it is used before the visit or between courses rather than at every plate.
Can you capture plates with sauces, foams and fine garnish?
Yes, with care. These are the hardest surfaces to scan, so every model goes through a manual quality pass. If a capture can't be saved, you get a specific retake note within a day.
What happens when the menu changes each season?
New courses are scanned with the same kit and pass through the same quality check. Retired dishes can be hidden from the menu page without reprinting the QR cards.