How ordering through the public page chat works

What this chat is and who answers on the other side

Ordering through the page chat is a guided flow that opens over the restaurant's menu when the owner turns this option on in settings. There's no AI and no bot guessing intentions: it's a fixed sequence of questions with big buttons — category, item, size, flavor, quantity — and, at the end, where the order goes. It runs in the phone's browser, with no sign-in and no app to download.

On the other side, orders are signed by Service, the virtual waiter qmen.us creates automatically at each restaurant to assign orders placed by the customer themselves. While you build it, the order exists as a Draft and shows up faded on the kitchen display, just to give the team a few seconds' head start. When you send it, it becomes Preparing and moves exactly like an order taken by a waiter: same queue, same printed ticket, same tracking.

Why this works better than taking orders by phone

• Nobody has to call or spell out the menu. The customer sees the items with prices, builds the order by tapping buttons and sends it. Gone are the call in the middle of the rush, the PDF menu and the order scribbled on a napkin.
• The order enters the system ready to go. It reaches the kitchen with item, size, flavor, quantity and the place — Table 7 or Delivery — and prints in the kitchens that have a printer on, with nobody retyping anything.
• Zero friction for the customer. qmen.us runs in the browser, there's no app in any store, and the chat doesn't ask for a sign-in. A secret token in the link holds the order, and a floating bubble keeps showing the status while the person browses the site.
• The money doesn't go through us. PIX, Brazil's instant payment system, is arranged directly between customer and restaurant, with the owner's own key, and the owner confirms receipt on the Dashboard. And it's free for the restaurant, with no commission per order: we're not a marketplace like iFood.

How to order through the page chat in 7 steps

Seven steps, from the button on the page to the tracking screen. None of them asks for a sign-up, and only three answers are typed.

1. Open the page and tap Order online

   On the restaurant's public page, just below the name and address, is the Order online button — it only exists if the owner turned on self-ordering. The tap opens a panel titled Place an order: from the right side on a computer, sliding up from the bottom on a phone. Without JavaScript, the same link loads the chat as a full page.

2. Pick the category and the item

   The chat says hello and asks what you'd like to order. The menu's categories become big buttons; tap one and the bot replies with that category's items and the price of each. If the restaurant has just one category, it skips that question and shows the item list right away.

3. Set the size, flavor and quantity

   A drawer opens with the item's name. When there's more than one size, choose under Size; when there are flavors, under Flavor — or Flavors, up to the restaurant's limit, if the item takes more than one. Set the Quantity with − and +, check the price and tap Add. Items sold by weight are left out of the chat, because they depend on the scale.

4. Check with View order and tap Finish order

   The bar pinned at the bottom shows how many items you have and the total, in the R$ 42,00 format. Tap View order to open Your order: you can change the quantity line by line or tap Remove. The Finish order button creates a Draft, which already shows up faded in the kitchen, and takes you to the final questions.

   Tip: If you leave the page before finishing, we cancel the Draft automatically and the faded card disappears from the kitchen — nobody cooks anything by mistake.

5. Say where the order goes

   If the restaurant accepts delivery, the bot asks whether you're at the restaurant or at home. Choose I'm at the restaurant and it lists the active tables for you to tap yours — or asks for the number, if there's only one. Choose At home and it asks for the address with street, number, neighborhood and a landmark — and, if the restaurant charges for delivery, your neighborhood or location, then shows the fee and the new total before payment. Got the table wrong? It tells you and asks again.

6. Give your name, phone number and how you'll pay

   Then come two short questions: your name and a contact phone number. Payment is only asked about for delivery. With PIX on, the chat shows the QR code and the copy-and-paste code with the amount already filled in, plus the Copy code and I've paid buttons. If the restaurant allows it, you can also choose to pay when the order arrives — then the delivery person collects on the spot.

7. Tap Track order

   Table orders and pay-on-delivery orders go to the kitchen right away, and the chat confirms it. A PIX order is recorded and waits for the owner to confirm receipt on the Dashboard — only then does the kitchen start. Either way, the Track order button opens the Track your order screen, which updates by itself through Ordered, Preparing, Ready and Served.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Draft

An order's first status, while the waiter is still putting the list together and nothing has gone to the kitchen yet.

Service

The name shown as the one in charge of orders placed by guests themselves. It's a system waiter, created automatically, just to keep those orders apart from the ones your team entered.

Tracking token

A secret code in the order's link, like qmen.us/your-restaurant/pedido/xxxx. It replaces signing in: it can only view the order and can't change it.

Delivery

The place label an order gets when the customer picks At home and enters an address. It shows where Table 5 would normally appear.

Preparing

The stage the guest sees on the table page while the kitchen works on the order.

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