Six steps, ending in a screen, staff or point route
Read the table before you scan
A printed menu, a photo board, a display counter or a picture on the wall beats every digital route. If any of them exists, order from it with staff and skip the QR code entirely.
Scan once, and set a stop line
Open the code one time. Stop at the first screen that demands a Chinese mobile number, an account follow, or personal details you do not want to give. Do not create an account to read a menu.
Screen route · the mini-program opens
Prices are visible and it accepts you. Order on the screen, but run the dish name through the cross-check below before you confirm.
Staff route · the screen stopped you
Show card 2 below. Ordering with a server is a normal way to order in China, not a special favour, and it needs no app, no number and no account.
Point route · no shared language at all
Point at a dish on a counter, a board or another table, then show card 3 to fix the price before you agree. A photograph of what you want is a legitimate order.
Decide payment before the food arrives
Know which method you will use while you still have a choice. The ladder below sets the order and marks the ordinary face-to-face cash rule and its legal non-cash exception.
A fluent translation is not a correct one
Machine translation of Chinese dish names fails in a specific way: it returns something grammatical, confident and wrong, so nothing warns you. Travellers in our source set describe exactly this. Check any translated name against three independent signals before you order it.
Price band
Price is only a supporting signal. If the translated name seems inconsistent with the price, ask staff to confirm the dish, portion size and displayed price before deciding; do not assume which one is wrong.
Section heading
Menus group dishes: 凉菜 cold dishes, 热菜 hot dishes, 汤 soup, 主食 staples such as rice and noodles, 饮品 drinks. The heading limits what the dish can possibly be.
Cooking-method character
One character usually tells you the method: 炒 stir-fried, 炸 deep-fried, 蒸 steamed, 烤 roasted or grilled, 炖 stewed, 凉拌 cold-dressed, and 辣 or 麻辣 for spicy and numbing-spicy.
Two out of three
If two signals disagree with the translated name, do not order it on the strength of the translation. Use card 4 and let the server suggest something instead.
This is an editorial reading aid built from menu structure and common characters. It is not a dish dictionary and it makes no claim about ingredients.
Payment ladder and the ordinary face-to-face cash rule
| Method | When to use it | What it does not promise |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Wallet QR (Alipay / WeChat) | Usually the fastest when it is already working for ordinary payments. | A working wallet does not prove that a restaurant mini-program's own checkout will accept you. That remains untested here. |
| P2 · Overseas contactless or chip card | Worth one attempt at larger venues with a card terminal. | Acceptance at small and family-run venues is not general and is not promised by any source on this page. |
| P3 · RMB cash | At an ordinary face-to-face restaurant, this is the method the operator may not refuse unless a law, regulation or rule requires a non-cash instrument. A venue that supports cash must also keep a reasonable float of small change under Article 8, so a missing float is not a lawful reason to turn you away. | It does not promise the person in front of you knows the rule. Article 11 lets a venue that cannot count a large pile of coins or small notes send you to a bank to change them first — but not refuse you on that ground — and Article 10 keeps an occasional dispute over an unfit or suspect note outside the refusal rule. Carry small notes anyway. |
Cash rule and report route: Announcement [2025] No.29, RMB Cash Receipt, Payment and Service Provisions (PBOC, NDRC and NFRA; issued 27 November 2025, in force 1 February 2026), Articles 3, 4, 8 and 15. Checked 22 August 2026.
What a merchant may and may not require
| Question | What the source actually says | What it does not give you |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | Announcement [2025] No.29, the RMB Cash Receipt, Payment and Service Provisions, in force since 1 February 2026, is the current rule. Article 3: operators must respect the public’s own choice among lawful payment methods and may not refuse cash, induce others to refuse it, or treat cash payment less favourably — except where a law, regulation or rule obliges them to use a non-cash instrument. Article 4 makes supporting cash explicit for manual collection, for face-to-face service, and for an online order whose service or goods are handed over in person with staff able to take payment. Article 8 requires a reasonable float of small change. | The named exception in Article 3 is a real one, so this is not an absolute in every setting. It does not settle any one mini-program’s checkout, and it does not promise the staff in front of you know the rule. |
| Being pushed into a scan or an app | Order 778, in force 1 July 2024, Article 11: a business may not use technical means to force, or constructively force, a consumer to buy goods or accept services. | It is a general prohibition. It does not entitle you to a printed menu and gives you no remedy you can enforce at the table. |
| Your personal details | Order 778 Article 23: a business may not over-collect personal information, nor use blanket or default authorisation to force consent to information with no direct connection to the business. | It does not rule on whether one particular field in one particular mini-program is lawful. |
| QR-only ordering, said plainly | A Beijing Consumers Association advisory carried on the Beijing municipal portal on 9 May 2023 told merchants not to force consumers to follow a public account or use an app or mini-program to self-order, shop or pay, and to provide several service methods. | This is a municipal advisory from 2023, not national enforcement. Do not tell a merchant in another city that it binds them. |
| Seeing the price | SAMR Order 56, in force 1 July 2022: price marking must be truthful and accurate, matched to the item, and conspicuous. | It does not specify the medium. A screen can satisfy it, so it does not entitle you to a printed one. |
| Complaining afterwards | Announcement [2025] No.29 Article 15 names the route in its own text: keep the evidence and apply to the local People’s Bank of China branch for lawful rights protection (可保存证据并向当地中国人民银行分支机构申请依法维权). Other consumer complaints go to the national 12315 platform and hotline. | For refused cash, use the branch route Article 15 designates rather than 12363; we have no official text setting out what 12363 itself accepts, so this page makes no claim about it. For a 12315 complaint, ask the local consumer authority how a visitor can register and what language support is available. |
Sources: Announcement [2025] No.29, State Council Order 778, Articles 11 and 23, the Beijing Consumers Association advisory and SAMR Order 56. All four are Chinese-language official pages; there is no equivalent English original.
Show these instead of explaining
1. 请问有纸质菜单吗？
Do you have a printed menu?
2. 我扫码点不了，可以直接跟您点单吗？
I can’t order by scanning. May I order with you directly?
3. 请问这个多少钱？
How much is this one, please?
4. 我不太会点，可以推荐一个口味清淡的家常菜吗？
I’m not sure what to choose — could you recommend a mild everyday dish?
5. 我用现金付款，可以吗？
I’d like to pay in cash — is that all right?
6. 请问可以结账吗？
Could I have the bill, please?
Seven worked table decisions
The mini-program opens and shows prices
- Decision
- Order on the screen. Check the three signals, then apply the decision rule before confirming, because a fluent translation is not a correct one.
The first screen demands a Chinese mobile number
- Decision
- Stop there. Do not build an account to read a menu, and do not assume your foreign number will or will not work — this page does not know. Show card 2 and order with staff.
The screen wants an account follow or personal details
- Decision
- Stop. Switch to the staff route rather than arguing at the table. Being pushed into that route is what Order 778 Article 11 and Article 23 address, but the useful move at the table is simply to order another way.
There is a display counter or a photo board
- Decision
- Skip every digital route. Point, fix the price with card 3, and order. When a counter exists this is usually the fastest correct route.
The translated dish name reads like confident nonsense
- Decision
- Treat the translation as the unreliable part. Apply the cross-check; if two signals disagree, use card 4 instead of confirming.
Staff say cash is not accepted
- Decision
- Offer it once, calmly, with card 5. If it is still refused, pay another way to end the meal rather than escalating, keep the receipt, and take it to a local PBOC branch under Article 15 afterwards.
You need to avoid a specific ingredient for medical reasons
- Decision
- The ordering cards do not establish allergy safety. Use the food-restriction cards and checked-food fallback before ordering; decline the meal if ingredients or preparation remain uncertain.
Six recovery cards
The scan does nothing
- First action
- Stop after one attempt and put the phone down.
- Alternative
- Show card 1, then card 2, and order with staff.
- Escalate
- If there is no staff to hand, as on a train, ask a neighbouring passenger to point you to the service crew rather than restarting the app.
A Chinese mobile number is demanded
- First action
- Do not enter another number and do not register.
- Alternative
- Switch to the staff route with card 2.
- Escalate
- If the app will not accept your number, use the staff route for this meal; keep the venue and screen details if you want to check the app later.
Personal details are demanded to see a menu
- First action
- Close the screen instead of consenting.
- Alternative
- Ask to order with staff using card 2, or leave.
- Escalate
- If you want to complain later, keep a screenshot and ask the local consumer authority how a visitor can use 12315.
Cash is refused
- First action
- Offer it once with card 5 and stay calm.
- Alternative
- Pay by another method so the meal ends, and keep the receipt.
- Escalate
- Keep the evidence and apply to a local People’s Bank of China branch for lawful rights protection — that is the route Announcement [2025] No.29 Article 15 designates for this. Use it rather than 12363.
A dish arrives that you did not order, or the order was recorded wrongly
- First action
- Say so before eating it, and show what you actually confirmed — the screen order, your photograph, or the line you pointed at.
- Alternative
- If the venue recorded, served or billed something other than what you confirmed, that is the venue’s error, not your cost: ask for it to be corrected or replaced, and ask that the bill match what you confirmed. Keep the marked price, the itemised bill and a photograph of the dish.
- Escalate
- If it is not resolved at the table, keep that evidence and use the 12315 channel; no outcome or timescale is promised here. Only where what arrived does match the order you confirmed — the translation misled you, and the venue served what was asked — is this yours to absorb; pay the marked price and use the cross-check next time.
The bill does not match the marked prices
- First action
- Ask for the itemised bill and compare it against the marked prices with card 3.
- Alternative
- Raise it with the venue first; prices must be marked truthfully, accurately and conspicuously.
- Escalate
- If it is not resolved, keep the bill and photographs and use the 12315 channel. No outcome or timescale is promised here.
Confirm your meal before ordering
A printed menu, foreign-number signup, mini-program payment and small change are not guaranteed at your restaurant. If the screen fails, ask staff to help and use the bilingual cards above. Confirm the dish, displayed price, portion size and a payment method you can use before ordering. Translation can be wrong; ask staff to point to the dish or a picture. If neither the screen nor staff provides a workable route, choose another restaurant. The complaint route is a later step; ask the local consumer authority whether 12315 accepts your contact details and offers a language you can use.
Two minutes before your first meal
Screenshot the six table cards and the payment ladder, and put enough small-denomination RMB in a separate pocket to cover one meal. Use those backups to ask staff how to order, confirm the displayed price and portion, and agree a usable payment method before ordering. If neither the screen nor staff can provide a workable route, stop before ordering and choose another restaurant.
Common questions
Do I need a Chinese phone number to order from a QR-code menu?
We could not verify an answer, so this page does not give one. No official or first-party source we checked states whether a restaurant mini-program completes signup with a foreign mobile number, and the answer may differ per venue. The routes on this page are built so that you never need to know: if a screen demands a number, stop and order with staff instead.
Can a restaurant in China refuse my cash?
Not in an ordinary restaurant. The current rule is Announcement [2025] No.29, the RMB Cash Receipt, Payment and Service Provisions, in force since 1 February 2026. Article 3 says operators must respect your choice among lawful payment methods and may not refuse cash, induce a refusal, or treat cash payment less favourably — the one carve-out is where a law, regulation or rule obliges them to use a non-cash instrument. Article 4 makes this explicit for manual collection and for face-to-face service, which is what a restaurant table is, and Article 8 requires a reasonable float of small change. Carry small notes anyway: the rule does not make the staff in front of you aware of it.
What do I do if cash is refused anyway?
Offer it once, calmly, then pay another way so the meal ends rather than escalating at the table. Keep the receipt and any photograph, and afterwards apply to a local People’s Bank of China branch for lawful rights protection — Article 15 of Announcement [2025] No.29 names that route in its own text. Use it rather than 12363; we have no official text on what that line itself accepts, so this page makes no claim about it.
Can they make me follow an account or hand over my details just to see the menu?
State Council Order 778, in force since 1 July 2024, forbids using technical means to force or constructively force a purchase route (Article 11) and forbids over-collecting personal information or forcing blanket consent to details unrelated to the business (Article 23). A Beijing Consumers Association advisory said the same about QR ordering in plainer words, but it is municipal and advisory. At the table the useful move is to ask to order with staff, not to argue the law.
Am I entitled to a paper menu?
No source on this page says that. Prices must be marked truthfully, accurately and conspicuously under SAMR Order 56, but the rule does not specify the medium — a screen can satisfy it. You can ask for a printed menu; whether the venue provides one is unverified, and claiming a right to one is not supported.
The translation app gave me a strange dish name. Should I order it?
Treat the translation as the unreliable part. Machine translation of Chinese dish names fails by returning something fluent, confident and wrong, so nothing warns you. Check the name against the price band, the section heading and the cooking-method character. If two of those three disagree with the translation, ask the server to suggest something instead.
Can this page help me avoid an ingredient I am allergic to?
The ordering cards do not establish ingredient or allergy safety. Use the linked food-restriction guide for bilingual kitchen questions and a checked-food fallback; decline the meal if ingredients or preparation remain uncertain. Open the food-restriction cards and meal fallback →
Sources and review boundary
Rules checked against the official texts, not against summaries of them. The cash rule and the complaint route were refreshed on 22 August 2026 to Announcement [2025] No.29, which has been in force since 1 February 2026 and replaces the 2020 announcement in the role this page gives it; Order 778, the Beijing advisory and Order 56 were checked on 21 August 2026.
The eight ordering details above remain unverified.