How AI translation is reshaping QR menus across Türkiye
Two years ago, a multilingual menu was something boutique hotels had. In 2026 it's table stakes for a neighbourhood lokanta in Istanbul's Beyoğlu. Here's why that shifted, and how Dasvio built its 14-language support.
Translating a menu is not swapping words. Render "kuru fasulye" as "dried beans" and you are technically correct while the guest still has no idea what they would be ordering. Menu translation is a context problem: portion size, cooking method, allergens and cultural reference all have to survive the trip.
Our first attempt at the AI translation layer was plain machine translation. It did not survive contact with the field. On the second attempt we fed the model the product category, ingredient list and price band alongside the string — and accuracy jumped sharply.
Tourist mix redrew the map
The visitor profile arriving in Türkiye has diversified over the past three years. Russian and German still dominate the Antalya coast; but demand for Japanese and Korean in Cappadocia, and for Arabic and Farsi in Istanbul, has climbed fast. A single English menu no longer covers the average.
- In coastal resorts and tourist-heavy districts, expect more than half of menu views to open in a language other than Turkish.
- In spots like Istanbul's historic peninsula that share climbs even higher.
- In Anatolian city centres the share is small — so the feature does not deliver the same value everywhere; measure your own language stats before investing.
Why we kept a human in the loop
Every translation sits in an "awaiting approval" state in the dashboard before it goes live. That costs speed; it is non-negotiable on accuracy. A mistranslated allergen label isn't a poor user experience — it's a health risk.
When a menu opens up to many languages, the first thing that changes usually isn't order volume — it's how many fewer questions guests ask the server. With fewer questions, service gets faster on its own.
Where to start
- 1Look at your last three months of QR menu language stats — measure, don't guess.
- 2Translate your top 20 most-viewed items first; the long tail can wait.
- 3Put allergen and ingredient fields through a separate approval round.
- 4After going live, watch basket average by language for two weeks.
