Remembered filter preferences
Two guest choices persist between pages: which allergens they are filtering by, and whether allergen icons are shown at all. Both are stored in the guest's own browser, and understanding that explains several questions that reach the floor.
What is remembered
| Choice | Effect | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| The allergens selected in the filter | Dishes with those allergens stay hidden | About 30 days |
| The Show allergens in dishes switch | Whether the allergen icons are displayed | About 30 days |
Both are stored on the device that made the choice. Nothing is stored in an account, and nothing identifies the guest.
Why it matters at a table
- A guest who filters once keeps their filter as they move between sections and between menus. They do not have to repeat it.
- Two guests at the same table can see two different menus, because each device remembers its own selection. This is correct and is worth knowing when a guest says a dish "is not on the menu" that a colleague can see.
- A returning guest can arrive with last month's filter still applied.
Clearing a selection
A guest clears their filter by unticking the allergens and selecting Filter again. The same applies to the icon switch: it is turned back on where it was turned off.
Clearing the browser's stored site data also resets both, but that is a technical instruction that rarely belongs in a conversation with a guest.
Explaining it to staff
Three sentences are enough for a briefing:
- The menu remembers what a guest filtered on their own phone, for about a month.
- That is why one phone can show fewer dishes than another.
- Unticking the allergens and filtering again brings everything back.
Why not store it in an account
Fenómenus deliberately does not ask guests to sign in to read a menu. Keeping the preference on the device means the filter works instantly, at the table, with no account, no login and no personal data collected.
The same design decision applies to the favorites feature, which is also stored per device.
Consequences for testing
When you test a menu:
- use a private browser window, so a previous filter does not distort what you see;
- clear or reset the filter before judging whether a dish is published;
- remember that a menu which looks incomplete may simply be filtered.
This is the most frequent false alarm in an internal review: a colleague filtered by gluten last week and never cleared it.
Consequences for caching
The filtered view is produced by the site, so a page cache in front of it must not serve one guest's filtered menu to another. If a site uses a page cache or a CDN, confirm during launch testing that an unfiltered menu is what an arriving guest gets.
That check belongs in the launch checklist.