Where to put a tap card in a restaurant.

The table

Best for a menu and for ordering. This is the moment somebody is actively deciding what to eat, which makes it the one placement where a link to anything other than the menu, the specials or the wine list is a missed chance — a card on the table pointing at a review request is asking for goodwill before the food has even arrived.

The failure mode here is competing with what is already on the table. A card standing next to a table tent that already carries a code is one more thing to notice, not one more reason to look, and a table tent still reads better across a whole room than a small object does.

The counter or register

Best for reviews, for one reason: the moment of goodwill is at payment, not at the table. Somebody who has eaten, is satisfied and is about to pay is at the single highest point of goodwill they will reach during the visit, and it is also the moment they already have their phone out.

The mistake to avoid is the same one asking for a Google review warns about generally: a sign at the register works far better paired with somebody actually saying the words than left to be noticed on its own, because a silent card competes with a phone that is already being put away.

The bill folder or receipt tray

The same review-at-payment logic as the counter, but private rather than public — nobody else at the table sees whether this particular guest taps it, which matters for a party where one person is paying for several. It also reaches someone who pays without going near a register at all.

Its failure mode is timing rather than placement: a card inside the folder is opened only once the bill has already been asked for, which is later than the register catches the same goodwill. Fine as a second placement, weaker as the only one.

The takeout bag or delivery box

The one placement reaching a customer who was never at the counter or the table at all. A link here does better pointing at a reorder page or a review than at a menu the customer just finished using to order, and it is read later — in a kitchen, after the food is out — so it should not depend on a moment that has already passed.

Its honest failure is the box itself: it may be opened by someone who was not the one who ordered, thrown away before anyone looks at it, or never handled at all if the order came by a delivery platform's own packaging rather than yours.

The host stand and the window

Best for a menu, hours or a reservation link, reaching people who have not sat down yet — someone deciding whether to come in, or waiting to be seated. This is the one placement where a stranger who has never eaten there is the most likely person to tap it, so it should point at something that works with zero context about the place.

The failure worth naming: a card left at a host stand walks off more easily than one fixed to a table or a counter, because nobody is watching it and it looks like something anyone could pick up.

The pattern underneath all five

Ask what the person doing the tapping is doing right then. Deciding what to eat wants a menu. Paying wants a review link. Walking away with a bag wants a reorder page. Standing outside wants hours and a reservation. The placement that fails is the one chosen because it was convenient to print, rather than because of what somebody is holding a phone up to do at that exact spot.

What we make, for the placement rather than one spot

Interested rather than neutral, so read it that way: a Dote restaurant tap card points at an address we host, so a card on the table can go to the menu while a card at the register goes to reviews — different cards, different destinations, each changeable afterward without reprinting anything if what a spot needs to say changes.