Augmented reality in restaurants: how a guest sees a dish on their table
Augmented reality in a restaurant means placing the 3D model of a dish, at real size, on the guest's table through their phone's camera. It works from the browser, with no app of its own, using the augmented-reality viewer built into iPhone (Quick Look) and Android (Scene Viewer or WebXR).
By Zelerix · Updated on
What the guest sees, step by step
- They scan the QR on the table with the phone's camera and the menu opens.
- They tap a dish. It appears in 3D and can be spun with a finger.
- They tap “View on my table”. The phone opens the camera and asks them to point it at the table.
- The dish appears on the tablecloth, at its real size. They can walk around it, get closer and look at it from anywhere. On closing, they're back in the menu.
Why no app is needed
Both mobile systems have shipped a built-in augmented-reality viewer for years. On iPhone and iPad it's called Quick Look and opens .usdz files; on Android, Scene Viewer (by Google) opens .glb files, and modern browsers also support WebXR. A well-made 3D digital menu hands each phone the format it understands, and the system does the rest. The guest sees none of this: they just tap a button.
What augmented reality solves in the dining room
- The size question. “Is it for one or for sharing?” stops being asked: the dish is right there, on the table, at its real size.
- The language barrier. A name that makes no sense in any language — a fideuà, an escaldón, papas arrugadas — makes sense once you see it.
- Dishes nobody orders. What's seen gets ordered. High-margin dishes stop being a line of text.
- Returns for “this isn't what I expected”. If the guest has already seen the dish, the only surprise is a good one.
What the restaurant needs
No hardware. Augmented reality runs on the guest's phone; what the restaurant provides is the 3D model of each dish — which we make on site, with photos and video through photogrammetry — and the QR on the table. With Cartalux, the models are included in the set-up and further ones are added per dish.
Honest limits
A 3D model is only as good as the capture: a dish photographed in poor light or with reflective sauce turns out worse. That's why every dish is approved before publishing and the capture is repeated if needed. And augmented reality needs to see a surface: on a transparent glass table it may struggle to anchor the dish.
Try it with your phone
Open demo.cartalux.es on your phone, pick a dish and tap “View on my table”. It's a real menu, with genuinely scanned dishes.
Frequently asked questions
- Does it work on any phone?
- On any iPhone or iPad from iOS 12 and on most Android phones from recent years. If a phone can't open augmented reality, the menu still shows the dish in 3D to spin it.
- Does the guest have to grant permissions or install anything?
- The camera permission the system itself asks for when opening augmented reality. There's no Cartalux app and no sign-up. On iPhone nothing else is needed; on some Android phones, the first time, Google asks to enable its free augmented-reality component (Google Play Services for AR): it installs in seconds and isn't asked for again.
- Is the dish shown at its real size?
- Yes. Models are scaled to the dish's real measurements and augmented reality places them at that scale, without the guest being able to enlarge or shrink them with their fingers.
- What if the restaurant is dimly lit?
- Augmented reality needs the camera to see the table surface. With the normal ambient light of a dining room it works; in a very dark room it may take a little longer to anchor the dish.