Menyu

Local guide · New York State

One menu for your regulars and New York City’s 65 million visitors

New York City welcomed 65 million visitors in 2025, 12.5 million of them from abroad, and 47.7% of its residents aged five and over speak a language other than English at home. Here is what that means for the menu on your tables, and what Menyu can and cannot do for a US restaurant today.

See my menu online from its linkWhat works for a US restaurant today

Café table on a New York sidewalk lined with brownstone stoops on an autumn morning, with a red QR code stand, Vietnamese summer rolls and a glass of white wine
AI-generated illustration

Key facts

New York City in figures

residents on July 1, 2025, the most populous city in the country1
8,584,629
visitors in 2025, 12.5 million of them from abroad2
65 million
of residents aged five and over speak a language other than English at home (2020-2024)3
47.7%
restaurants in the MICHELIN selection for NYC and surroundings, 224 of them with vegetarian options4
360

Growth

Five boroughs, 8.6 million residents

On July 1, 2025, New York City had 8,584,629 residents, more than twice as many as Los Angeles, the second-largest city (3,869,089). In 2020 it packed 29,303 people into each square mile.13

The Census Bureau counts a loss of 12,196 residents between 2024 and 2025, the largest numeric drop of any US city, and a population 2.5% below its April 2020 base.13

Hotels and restaurants, counted together as accommodation and food services, sold $43.7 billion in the city in 2022.3

For your menu

At 29,303 people per square mile, your next regular may live on your block: a menu they can open on a phone before walking in does part of the selling.

Visitors and languages

65 million visitors, half the spending from abroad

New York City Tourism + Conventions counted 65 million visitors in 2025, up 0.7%: 52.4 million came from within the United States and 12.5 million from abroad, 3.2% fewer than in 2024. International visitors still account for half of tourism spending.2

Arrivals from the UK, Italy and Mexico grew despite the dip, and the bureau projects 66.3 million visitors for 2026.2

For your menu

A guest from Milan or Mexico City reads the menu before ordering: dish names in Italian or Spanish save your servers some explaining.

Visitors and languages

Nearly half of New Yorkers speak another language at home

In the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 figures, 47.7% of New Yorkers aged five and over speak a language other than English at home, and 36.6% of residents were born abroad.3

The city plans for it: NYC DOT staffs its outdoor dining program with multilingual reviewers and inspectors, and has translated the online application into other languages.5

For your menu

With half the city speaking another language at home, the dish names and their descriptions are where a menu shows it.

Local food

360 restaurants in the MICHELIN Guide

For NYC and surroundings, the MICHELIN Guide lists 360 restaurants: 5 with three stars, 14 with two, 50 with one, 77 Bib Gourmands and 214 selected addresses.4

The guide’s filters flag vegetarian options at 224 of them, vegan at 150, gluten-free at 133, halal at 35 and kosher at 31.4

At the 2026 James Beard Awards, Lei, a 28-seat wine bar on Doyers Street in Chinatown, was named Best New Restaurant, and Hooni Kim of Meju, in Queens, won Best Chef: New York State.67

For your menu

Six in ten restaurants of the selection flag a vegetarian option: on your menu it should be easy to spot, with its allergens next to it.

Local rules

Dining Out NYC: the license for sidewalk tables

Outdoor dining runs through Dining Out NYC, administered by NYC DOT. A café on the sidewalk or in the roadway needs a license and a revocable consent, the City’s permission to occupy the street, which it can withdraw at any time. The restaurant must already hold a food service establishment permit from the NYC Health Department.5

Sidewalk cafés may operate year-round. A seasonal roadway café runs from April 1 to November 29, and the City Council now allows year-round roadway dining with a year-round license. Every café closes at 11 p.m.58

The license costs $1,050 for a four-year term. A revocable consent fee comes on top every year, from $6 to $31 per square foot for a sidewalk café depending on the sector: $720 a year for 120 square feet in the cheapest sector, $3,720 in the most expensive. Sidewalk cafés also leave a refundable $1,500 deposit.9

NYC DOT says review can take six months once the application is complete, and no café may open before the license is issued. Questions go to [email protected]; comments on proposed amendments to the program’s rules are open until November 9.58

For your menu

Six months of review means a sidewalk café wanted for next spring has to be applied for this fall.

According to the guides

Five New York restaurants the guides single out, from Union Square to Long Island City

Three come from the MICHELIN Guide’s New York selection and two from the 2026 James Beard Awards. They run from a Bib Gourmand Vietnamese dining room to tasting menus built on vegetables or on Korean fermentation.

These restaurants are not Menyu customers and were not approached. The list comes from the MICHELIN Guide and the James Beard Foundation; on October 21, 2026, each one’s website showed its hours, menu or bookings.

  4. Lei

    Doyers Street, Chinatown7 · Wine bar, regional Chinese home cooking

    • James Beard Award, Best New Restaurant 20266

    A 28-seat wine bar whose dishes, rooted in regional Chinese home cooking, are matched to a wine list that keeps changing.7

    James Beard Foundation listingRestaurant website16

  5. Meju

    Long Island City, Queens617 · Korean fermentation tasting menu

    • James Beard Award, Best Chef: New York State 20266

    Dietary restrictions need 72 hours’ notice, and the traces of barley in traditional Korean ferments rule out severe gluten allergies.17

    James Beard Foundation listingRestaurant website18

With Menyu

What Menyu does for a New York menu today

Menyu puts your menu at a fixed address, behind a QR code in your colors. For a New York restaurant, choose US dollars and New York’s time zone in the settings: prices show in dollars, and the opening status follows New York time, though it reads in French. These are the uses that hold up today.

  • Keep the printed menu, add one that changes

    Keep your printed menu on the table and in the window. The QR code beside it, in your colors and with your logo, opens a menu whose address never changes: a new dish goes live when you publish it, without a reprint. Prices show in dollars once you choose that currency in the settings; you type them in dollars, and nothing is converted.

    • One fixed QR code, a menu you can edit at any timeIncluded
    • QR code in your colors, with your logoIncluded
    • Prices in US dollars, chosen in the settingsIncluded
    Create my menu QR code

  • Vegetarian or gluten-free, filtered by the guest

    Each dish carries its allergens, and guests filter the menu: vegetarian, or free from whichever allergens they choose. The allergen list is the EU one, with 14 entries: it names milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, tree nuts, peanuts, soy and sesame as US law does, but has no wheat entry, only gluten.

    • The 14 EU allergens, dish by dishIncluded
    • A vegetarian filter and one for each of the 14 allergensIncluded
    Make my allergen chart

Limits

What Menyu does not do

  • The opening status on your menu shows in French only (“Ouvert · Jusqu’à…”), even when guests read the menu in English; the buttons come in English or French.
  • Allergens follow the EU list of 14, not the nine major food allergens of US law: wheat only appears under gluten, and celery, mustard, lupin, mollusks and sulfites are extra.
  • No online payment: Menyu opens payment accounts in France only.
  • Orders placed from the menu carry no tip line and no service charge.
  • Menyu bills its plans in euros, even when your menu shows dollars.

Questions

Questions and answers

Do I need a permit to put tables on the sidewalk in New York?

Yes. Sidewalk and roadway cafés go through Dining Out NYC, run by NYC DOT: you apply for a license and a revocable consent, and the restaurant must already hold a food service establishment permit from the NYC Health Department. NYC DOT says review can take six months once the file is complete, and you may not set up before the license is issued.

Questions go to [email protected].5

How much does a sidewalk café cost in New York City?

$1,050 for the license, paid once per four-year term, a refundable $1,500 deposit, and a revocable consent fee every year: $6 to $31 per square foot depending on the sector. A 120-square-foot sidewalk café pays $720 a year in the cheapest sector and $3,720 in the most expensive.9

Don’t guests dislike QR code menus?

Some do: type “qr code menu” into Google in the US and it suggests “meme” and “reddit” among the next words. Menyu is meant to sit next to the printed menu, not to replace it. The paper stays on the table; the QR code opens the version with translations and allergens, updated without a reprint.19

Is Menyu ready for a New York restaurant?

For the menu, yes, with limits. In the settings, choose US dollars and New York’s time zone: prices show in dollars, and the opening status and timed categories follow New York time, although the status reads in French. Payment accounts open in France only, so guests cannot pay online, and orders have no tip line. The phone field at sign-up expects a French number: a ten-digit US number would be saved without its +1 code, so leave it blank.

The menu itself is translated, sits behind a QR code in your colors and is managed from a dashboard in English. Menyu bills its plans in euros.

Menyu in the United States: what works, what doesn’t
Which allergens does Menyu show, compared with US law?

US law names nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. Menyu uses the EU list of 14. It names eight of the nine and files wheat under gluten; it adds celery, mustard, lupin, mollusks and sulfites.

The United States page covers the federal list and how states handle allergen notices.20

US rules for your menu
Can my menu be in Spanish or Chinese?

Yes for the dishes: Menyu translates the content into 25 languages, Spanish, Chinese, Italian and Korean included, and you check the result before publishing. The buttons stay in English, and the opening status shows in French.

In New York, 47.7% of residents aged five and over speak a language other than English at home.3

Are the restaurants on this page Menyu customers?

No. They come from the MICHELIN Guide’s selection for NYC and surroundings, which lists 360 restaurants, and from the 2026 James Beard Awards. We did not contact them; each entry links to its source.46

How much does Menyu cost?

The same everywhere, billed in euros even when your menu shows dollars: Essentiel at €49 a month, Premium at €79 and Beyond at €149, with a seven-day trial on Essentiel.

Compare the plans

Method

How this page was made

Written by the Menyu team, a publisher based in Montpellier, France, from the pages cited, all read on October 21, 2026: the U.S. Census Bureau, New York City Tourism + Conventions, NYC DOT’s Dining Out NYC site, the FDA, the MICHELIN Guide, the James Beard Foundation and the restaurants’ own websites. The restaurants listed are not Menyu customers. The illustration is AI-generated and shows no real place. Menyu works for US restaurants with the limits this page lists; the Menyu sections describe the product as it stood on October 22, 2026.

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Growth Holds Steady in Midsized Cities Amid Widespread Slowdowncensus.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  2. New York City Tourism + Conventions, New York City Tourism + Conventions 2025 visitation surpasses forecast, generating $84.7B in economic impactbusiness.nyctourism.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  3. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: New York city, New York; Los Angeles city, California; Chicago city, Illinois; Houston city, Texascensus.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  4. MICHELIN Guide, MICHELIN restaurants, NYC and surroundingsguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  5. NYC Department of Transportation, FAQ, Dining Out NYCdiningoutnyc.info · accessed October 21, 2026

  6. James Beard Foundation, The 2026 James Beard Award Winnersjamesbeard.org · accessed October 21, 2026

  7. Lei, Lei, official websiteleiwine.nyc · accessed October 21, 2026

  8. NYC Department of Transportation, Dining Out NYCdiningoutnyc.info · accessed October 21, 2026

  9. NYC Department of Transportation, Fees, Dining Out NYCdiningoutnyc.info · accessed October 21, 2026

  10. MICHELIN Guide, La Dong, New Yorkguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  11. La Dong, La Dong, official websiteladongnyc.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  12. MICHELIN Guide, Semma, New Yorkguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  13. Semma, Semma, official websitesemma.nyc · accessed October 21, 2026

  14. MICHELIN Guide, Dirt Candy, New Yorkguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  15. Dirt Candy, Dirt Candy, official websitedirtcandynyc.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  16. Lei, Lei, official websiteleiwine.nyc · accessed October 21, 2026

  17. Meju, Meju, official websitemejunyc.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  18. Meju, Meju, official websitemejunyc.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  19. Google, Google autocomplete, United States (en), “qr code menu ”suggestqueries.google.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  20. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Food Allergiesfda.gov · accessed October 21, 2026