Serverless Menu: digital restaurant cart powered by Telegram admin.
Ditched boring PDF menus for an interactive Serverless App (Netlify + Supabase) wrapped inside a Telegram Mini App. Guests place orders from their phones, while the owner manages the menu via an admin bot: scheduling discounts, disabling sold-out items, and automatically hiding the 'Breakfasts' category after 1:00 PM.
(Netlify Serverless)
breakfast category
smartphone (Bot)
Why PDF and paper are ancient history
Printed menus are expensive and rigid. They get dirty, tear, and changing a price on a single cocktail requires re-layout and reprinting. Many restaurants shifted to scanning QR codes for PDF menus, but that's a hassle for guests: scrolling through tiny text on a phone is annoying, and you still can't place an order without waving down a waiter.
The restaurateur needed a flexible solution to update prices, toggle stop-lists, and build a guest database without calling developers or designers.
No Digital Menu / With Serverless Menu
- Price updates require a graphic designer and printing shop
- When a dish runs out, the waiter apologizes at the table
- Unclickable PDF file linked to a QR code
- Zero data collection on guest preferences
- Full-featured interactive catalog with shopping cart
- Price updates and stop-lists controlled from a smartphone
- Application runs directly inside Telegram (Mini App)
- Micro-CRM that tracks and collects guest birthdays
Modern architecture and a mobile dashboard
Technically, the project is split into two layers. The first is a Serverless frontend hosted on Netlify, which ensures instant loading speeds and zero hosting bills. The database and backend logic run on Supabase (a modern PostgreSQL-based Firebase alternative).
The second layer is the Telegram infrastructure. Guests browse the menu inside Telegram via Mini App, select grid styles, add items to their cart, and place orders.
For the restaurant owner, we built a dedicated Admin Bot with the following features:
- Stop-list Item Hiding. If a steak runs out, the manager toggles it off in the bot. The item vanishes from guests' menus instantly.
- Scheduler Category Timers. Set schedules: e.g., the 'Breakfast' category automatically hides from the storefront after 1:00 PM. No manual intervention required.
- Marketing Promotional Features. Pin items to the top, toggle "Promo" badges, or display crossed-out original prices (hot prices) to stimulate sales.
- Orders Order Management. New orders (dine-in, takeout, or delivery) drop into the bot, where managers can view order histories and sales graphs.
We built a pocket remote control for the restaurant. No clunky CRM web screens on a PC — everything from price editing to order routing and birthday congratulations is handled inside the messenger.