How to add a menu with prices to your app

A menu in an app can do what a printed card cannot: you change a price or mark a dish sold out from your phone, customers tap dishes to build an order, and the order reaches you as a ready WhatsApp message with the items and total.

Updated 2026-11-09

What a menu screen should have

Sections you can scroll or tap: starters, mains, breads, thali, drinks
Each dish with a name, short description, veg or non-veg mark, size and price
A photo for popular dishes, attached by you
A search box for long menus
A sold-out switch you can flip during service
A cart with quantity buttons and a running total, including packing or delivery charges

Who sees the menu decides where it lives

If the app is only for your counter or kitchen, the menu and orders can live on that one phone. It works offline, and nothing else is needed.

If customers will open the app on their own phones, they must see the prices you set on yours. That means the menu lives in a database: connect your own Supabase database from the chat (it has a free plan). Then when you change a price or mark a dish sold out, every customer sees it. Orders placed by customers are also saved there, so your staff see them on their phones.

How orders reach you

Order on WhatsApp: the cart opens WhatsApp with the items, quantities, total and the customer's name and address filled in, and the customer taps send
Order list in the app: with Supabase connected, orders appear on your Orders screen with a status such as new, preparing, sent and paid
Payment: a Pay button using your own Razorpay account, connected from the chat, or a Pay via UPI button that opens the customer's UPI app with the amount filled in

A daily menu

Tiffin services and messes often change the menu every day. Ask for a "Today's menu" screen you fill each morning, with lunch and dinner and the price, and a WhatsApp button to send it to a customer. The app can also remind you on your phone at a set time each morning to update it.

Mistakes to avoid

Building ordering before deciding who will watch the orders during service
Prices that do not match the printed menu or the delivery charge you tell people on the phone
No sold-out switch: customers order, then you call to say it is not available
Promising delivery times the kitchen cannot keep

With AppCub

Describe it, for example: "A menu and ordering app for Annapurna Tiffin, Pune. Sections for thali, rotis and extras with prices. Customers add items to a cart; the Order button opens WhatsApp to 98XXXXXXXX with the items and total. I can mark items sold out." AppCub shows the plan first; then it builds the app and you try it next to the chat.

Questions

Can customers order from the app and pay?

Yes. Orders can reach you as a WhatsApp message or in an order list, and payment can use your own Razorpay account connected from the chat.

Can I change prices from my phone?

Yes. With your menu in your own Supabase database, a price you change shows on every customer's phone.

Can the app print kitchen tickets?

No. AppCub apps do not connect to thermal or kitchen printers. Orders can be shared as a PDF and printed from the phone.

Can the app take orders from food delivery apps?

No. AppCub apps do not connect to food delivery platforms; they handle your own orders.

Can I show dish photos?

Yes. Attach your own photos in the chat. If many photos must reach customers' phones, keep them in your database.

Will customers get a notification when the order is ready?

Not automatically. A WhatsApp button lets your staff send "Your order is ready" in one tap.

Make yours with AppCub

Seeing the plan is free. Building starts with a 2-day trial for ₹99.

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