From one year of preparation to constant changes
The opening itself was not completely smooth.
Some of the people expected to work did not show up. One of the cooks was missing on the second day, and several waiters also didn't come in.
At the same time, Lili Bakery was doing what new restaurants and bakeries inevitably have to do: learning from their first guests.
Which products sell?
Which ones don't?
Are the prices right?
Should a product be added? Removed? Temporarily unavailable?
The team was constantly testing and adjusting.
They were changing prices, adding new products, removing others and moving products to the stock list when they were no longer available.
With a printed menu, every one of these decisions creates friction.
You either keep serving an outdated menu, print new pages, add stickers or annotations, or accept that guests and staff will have different information.
With Oto, the team simply changed the menu.
The new information was immediately available to guests.
A menu that could keep up
This is one of the biggest differences between a digital menu and simply putting a PDF online.
A PDF can be digital, but it is not necessarily flexible.
A physical menu is even less flexible.
At an opening, when the restaurant is still discovering its products, prices and customer preferences, that flexibility matters.
Oto allowed Lili Bakery to treat the menu as a living part of the business.
Prices could change.
Products could be added or removed.
Unavailable items could be marked accordingly.
Descriptions could be updated.
The menu could evolve as the bakery learned what guests actually wanted.
There was no need to redesign and print a new menu every time something changed.
And it looked like Lili Bakery
Speed and flexibility would have been enough to solve the immediate problem.
But Lili Bakery also needed the menu to fit the experience they had spent a year creating.
The visual identity of the bakery is strongly built around its pink aesthetic, and the Oto menu was designed to fit naturally into that environment.
The result didn't feel like a generic QR menu placed inside a bakery.
It felt like part of Lili. You can see the menu for yourself here.
High-quality product photography made the desserts and other products immediately appealing. Clear descriptions helped guests understand what they were choosing. Allergens were available where needed, and the menu could be presented in multiple languages for different guests.
The menu was functional, but it was also memorable.
And in a bakery where so much of the experience is visual, that matters.
The menu became part of the opening
Lili Bakery's opening showed something that is easy to overlook when preparing a restaurant.
The menu is not finished when the restaurant opens.
In many cases, that's when the real testing begins.
The first guests tell you what sells. The team discovers which products create confusion. Prices get adjusted. New products appear. Others disappear. Stock changes throughout the day.
A menu that cannot change easily becomes a limitation.
Oto gave Lili Bakery something they needed during those first weeks: the ability to change the menu as quickly as the business was changing.
After spending a year preparing the physical space, they didn't need another rigid system to slow them down.
They needed something that could move with them.
And while many things around the opening were changing, one thing simply worked.
The menu.
Try Oto
Opening a restaurant or bakery is already complicated enough.
Your menu shouldn't be another problem.
With Oto, you can create a beautiful multilingual digital menu, update prices and products instantly, manage availability, add descriptions and allergens, and adapt the menu as your business evolves.
FAQs
How quickly can Oto create a digital menu?
Oto can move very quickly when a business needs a menu urgently. In Lili Bakery's case, the complete menu was prepared in just two days before opening.
Can I change prices after the menu is published?
Yes. Prices can be updated without printing new menus.
Can I add or remove products?
Yes. Products can be added, removed or updated whenever the business needs.
Can I mark products as unavailable?
Yes. Products can be managed according to availability, so guests don't have to rely on outdated information.
Does Oto support multiple languages?
Yes. Oto supports multilingual menus, allowing businesses to serve guests in different languages.
Can I add product descriptions and allergens?
Yes. Product information can include descriptions, allergens and other relevant details. In facts this information is auto-dected by Oto AI system.
Why use Oto instead of putting a PDF online or a website?
A PDF gives you a digital copy of a menu, but it does not provide the same level of flexibility and interaction. Oto is designed specifically for hospitality, allowing restaurants and bakeries to continuously update products, prices and availability while also providing a structured, visual and multilingual guest experience.
