Digital menu only

I didn’t have that experience in La Rioja or Aragón areas earlier this year.

Maybe only in the cities we have been (Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada so far)?

We also found that in Sevilla and Granada, most people would try to speak some English with us as long as we started the conversation with “hola” and a smile 😊, but not so in Cordoba.

We are in Seville now and got a paper menu in every restaurant. We were in Granada last week and no problem there either. We always ask for one with no problem.

Hmm, may the ones we went, eg “Taberna del Arenal” in Sevilla, “ GastroTaberna La Albahaca” in Cordoba, “Restaurante Miso” in Granada are more for locals or not fancy enough 😉? But they all have very good rating from 600 to 3000 google reviews.

We normally like to go where local people eat to experience local food. But that can cause difficulties sometimes when you don’t speak the language. In Lisbon, our host recommended a good restaurant that is just two doors down from our apartment. The grandpa there who takes the orders doesn’t speak a word of English but was very friendly, so we resolved the communication issue and had 3 nice meals there with help of photos and google translator (done at the apartment and took the photos to there, as the restaurant doesn’t have WiFi).

We are seeing more QR digital menus here in B.C.

Last year in Berlin one RS-recommended restaurant had only digital menus and I had no smartphone. The waitress loaned me hers and left me with it while I studied the menu. I've been to a few restaurants here in the US where the same was true (not necessarily the trusting generous server though). I think it started as a Covid thing which, like others, is taking hold for the future.

Getting a smartphone last winter solved this and many other communication/storage problems for me, at a cost of course. But I don't regret finally making that choice. As IT professionals, maybe the OPs know something the rest of us don't! ;-)

We are from Victoria and don’t eat out often when at home, and haven’t dined in since the pandemic, only take out. So we haven’t noticed it. But probably it is the trend moving forward. Time to get a cell 😊.

I've encountered a lot of e-menus in Spain and elsewhere since the pandemic. There's also the cost saving involved from not printing menus so I expect to see them remain and become more popular.

I noticed this quite a lot on my last 2 trips to France (October 2021 and April 2022) but I’ve been in Italy for 3 weeks and have not seen it at all here.

Yes, it’s time for a smart phone. Very easy to do rail and museum tickets with an app and TBH I’ve used Apple Pay for everything this trip…including gelato. BTW, I’m old…😬😆

to add on to what @Jaimeelsabio said, here in La Rioja the QR codes are pretty common, but we have never have had a problem getting a paper menu.

And of course in the tapa bar there is no need for the QR menu.

We do use and have an IPad, and have all the Apps and no issue for any online tickets booking, as long as there is WiFi, and have downloaded google offline maps for navigating city streets. So have no need for a smartphone until now with digital restaurants orders when there is no WiFi and the waitress/waiters don’t speak English.

I have encountered this in a number of places: Slovenia and Croatia last year, Scotland this year come to mind, as well as at home. I had data so didn’t have to ask for a paper menu so don’t know if they had them or not. But it is definitely a happening thing….

This may surprise some but Spain has one of the lowest rates of English proficiency in Europe, just behind Italy. I'm not surprised many waiters did not speak English. Meanwhile Portugal has one of the highest levels of English in Europe, around the same level as Germany.

FYI: It also seems that the paper menu, if you can get one, is likely out of date (price and selection wise) comparing to the digital one they are offering now.

Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, all that I have been to in the last year or so, all had a prevalence of digital menus, as an outcome of covid. Most places did still have paper menus, but also, it was plain to see they were not updating them, but having a phone, with data, I can't speak to places that may have been "strictly digital" no other option available.

To bring up another similar issue, I noticed in Spain, that audioguides are also going by the wayside. The good news is that places offer a free downloadable app (handy QR code at the entrance), but again, this will require you to have data, and even with data, it takes a chunk, bad news, if what you have is slow, or you pay dearly for. In many cases, with some foresight, you can find the apps on their website or one of the "Play" stores to download ahead of time.

Very true about museum guide Apps. e.g in Lisbon Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, it has free WiFi, and QR code for guide App, but the WiFi was too slow for the App that it timed out right away. We also had no luck with pre downloaded guide App on IPad, as the ones we tried seem needing data to run at the site.

We managed okay so far by reading and watching YouTube ahead, and renting audio guide and joining tour group at sites. Booked to go Alhambra for tomorrow morning, where “if you don’t talk too much, you will have peace” but “if you talk well, you will be respected”.

Thanks to all. Will have a good cell phone and a good plan next trip for sure.

We had the same experience last week in Granada and Cordoba. We only travel with data on one of our cell phones to save money, so we always asked for a paper menu for my husband, and were told in more than half of the restaurants that they didn't have a paper menu (so we ended up sharing my cell phone).