In Canberra, several venues introduced QR codes during coronavirus which seemingly are here to stay.

The Boat House bought in a mobile phone ordering system for its summer pop up, the Armada Outdoor Bar.

Inside, the restaurant introduced a digital wine list during COVID-19, viewed on diner's smartphones through a QR code.

While the outdoor ordering was packed up with the pop up last month, the 38 page wine list is still accessed digitally.

Introduced as a hygiene measure, its online drinks list stayed when the practicality of avoiding printing hundreds of papers every time the wine list was updated was realised.

The team at Akiba has gone one step further, with the entire menu accessible through diner's mobile phones.

Chef James Viles, who recently came on in a culinary advisory role at the Akiba, Kokomos and Sage restaurant group, said QR codes have their place. He did not believe it was in fine dining.

"Fine diners are a place where we all go to escape," Mr Viles said. "After COVID we're all hungry for that."

Mr Viles said after 26 years in the kitchen, to him hospitality still means being hospitable.

"And my opinion is we've got to try to protect that somehow through the modern ways we dine, we need to try to protect the hospitable ways of hospitality," he said.

Despite having to close his Bowral fine-dining restaurant, Biota, following the bushfires and then coronavirus, Mr Viles insists the pandemic has not been all doom and gloom for the industry.

"People are landlocked and they're hungry for new adventures," he said.

"I look at places like Sage, Akiba and Kokomos on a Wednesday or Thursday night and they're just packed.

"You all just love to eat - it's unreal."

Boat House owner James Souter said the outdoor bar would likely return in the warmer months, as would QR codes for ordering.

"It does change the experience a little bit but there are really big positives as well," Mr Souer said.

"It means you have full agency over when you want to order and how you want to pay and you don't have to be waiting for a waiter or standing in line at a bar."

Mr Souter said most people under 60 were extremely familiar with the process of scrolling to shop on their phones.

"I think it fits the niche for those more casual dining experience, I don't see a place for it in the more formal or service-based hospitality, I don't think it works there."

Melbourne restaurant reviewer Gemima Cody said she's all for a more efficient way of dining, particularly when it comes to composing the Good Food Guide.

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"After a week of reviewing restaurants back to back I think, 'I have spent probably four hours in total just sitting between finishing food and waiting for the bill'," she said.

Ms Cody said most venues in Melbourne have had to change the way they do business to some extent, with a lot opting for phone accessed menus and quite a few switching to phone ordering completely.

She said diners in Melbourne had responded positively to being able to see images of dishes on their phone.

"I have heard restaurant operators say there is something they lose in not being at the table and explaining the menu to people," Ms Cody said.

"People are more likely to just go to the dishes they're familiar with so they don't get the opportunity to introduce them to new things."

Ms Cody said several fine-dining establishments were doing complete online ordering in Melbourne, including the iconic Builder's Arms which has a tab in the middle of the table which is tapped and the order goes through.

"That to me is incredibly convenient, it's also very useful for businesses who were already really really struggling before the pandemic hit last year because they can't afford to have too many staff on.

"I think three quarters of the restaurants I've reviewed since I have gotten back to it have gone digital."

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