WordPress Themes and Plugins for Restaurants and Cafes

While having a top-notch website is important for just about everyone, there are certain industries where it can make an even greater impact. The food and dining industry has to be among them. Let’s take a moment and think about just how important a restaurant’s website can be to its success.

Imagine you’re looking for a place to eat tonight and you’re searching out some local establishments. You’ve heard nice things about a certain Italian restaurant in town, but their website appears to be utterly useless save for a few stock photos and a phone number. The site isn’t mobile-friendly, there’s no menu and no clear path to making reservations.

Chances are, you won’t be nearly as keen on visiting a restaurant that doesn’t take its website seriously. That’s why it’s of utmost importance to provide users with a website that’s attractive, functional and leads them to the information they need the most.

Fortunately, this is something that can be achieved with the right mix of an outstanding WordPress theme, template kit and powerful plugins. Today, we’ll introduce you to 21 WordPress themes and plugins that will have your business buzzing about with happy diners.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Grand Restaurant’s several layout options is its use of large, appetizing photos. That’s a great way to entice visitors to stick around and learn more about what you have to offer. The theme not only makes great use of your photography, it also includes a highly-configurable menu, support for online reservations via email, OpenTable or a third-party link. There are plenty of opportunities to customize the look and layout to fit your needs, as well. Keep in mind that there are some useful tools for restaurant management too.

A high-end look is key to representing your brand and Resto is a theme that can help you achieve it. You’ll find stunning animation and parallax scrolling effects, along with an elegant design. There are also several home page designs to choose from, a reservation form, the ability to fully customize site colors and fonts. It’s also built with SEO in mind to help new customers find you.

Floury offers an elegant look and layout that is suitable for a variety of food-related businesses. There are numerous home page and blog layouts, along with lots of custom Shortcodes for adding visual elements with ease. It also integrates many font and icon packages, allowing plenty of room for customization.

Built with breweries and restaurants in mind, Prohibition includes some exciting niche features. Take, for example, the filterable beer portfolio. Beers can be categorized by style and there are areas to add specific information such as alcohol content. You’ll also find a very well-done food menu that is both beautiful and easy to read. The included mega menus make it easy for visitors to navigate through content-heavy sites.

There are instances where a restaurant doesn’t necessarily need a huge, multi-page website. Pizza is a theme that provides everything you need – all in a one-page setup. Restaurateurs can add a menu, reservation form and Google map to help diners get the information they need. The highlight here is the “Specials” carousel, which attractively displays Polaroid-style photos of featured menu selections.

Those looking to impress visitors with an elegant look and special effects will want to check out STEAM. It’s a single-page style theme with outstanding typography, parallax scrolling and a slideshow-based food and beverage menu. There’s also a built in Instagram gallery, OpenTable compatibility and a highly-customizable location map.

A thoroughly-modern layout and a variety of restaurant-specific pages are what make FlyCoffee a great choice for just about any eatery. Included are a Menu page that sports an incredibly clean layout, a Reservations page with a slickly-designed form and an Offers page that could provide a home for daily specials.

Soup provides restaurants with a unique, attention-grabbing layout. The off-kilter layered look could be a great fit for establishments that think of themselves as being a bit “outside-the-box”. It’s also worth noting that this theme works with WooCommerce to enable online ordering. That’s something to consider as restaurants of all sizes are using ecommerce to maximize user convenience and revenue.

Madison features a terrific use of color and typography that can bring your restaurant’s website to life. The combination of soft background colors with red scripted heading text really helps to make items jump off the screen. It’s incredibly easy to pick out specific items of interest with minimal effort. Inside, you’ll find a sticky navigation bar, a handy reservation form, chef profiles and two different menu layouts.

With an impressive 16 included homepage layouts to choose from, Granny is sure to match the needs of most any restaurant. Not only that, there are 8 available menu layouts as well. This kind of variety means that you’ll be able to tailor the look of your website to reflect who you are. The theme is very much ready to customize to your exact specifications.

Rodich is a WordPress theme that provides a highly-detailed look and lots of room for customization. It also includes the kinds of features that restaurants crave, like OpenTable reservation compatibility and a menu that allows visitors to click through to view more details regarding a particular dish. WooCommerce compatibility offers an opportunity for online sales, as well.

A restaurant’s personality is a big part of its appeal. And that is something that the Vincent theme can help you showcase. It offers a mix of both fun and modern design elements. The look is very neat and tidy, while some animation is used to provide a bit of pizzazz. Included are six homepage and 3 menu layouts to help you achieve just the right look.

La Boom is a full-featured WordPress theme that will provide you with a well-crafted and unique look. It comes packed with several page templates, including five different homepage layouts. There’s also a filterable portfolio-styled menu that allows users to easily find what they’re looking for. In addition, there are lots of opportunities to tweak the look to meet your needs. Overall, it’s a very flexible option.

Those looking to go all-out in terms of features and content will want to check out Gourmet. With 138 included templates, it has something to fill just about every need. There are also plenty of design elements available, with tons of icons and page components to unleash your creative flair. Plus, the theme features a wide array of settings for customization.

Online ordering is one of the most popular and convenient features being implemented on restaurant websites. WooFood is a plugin that combines with WooCommerce to bring this functionality to any WordPress website. Customers can order off of your menu, choose delivery or pickup options and pay online. Restaurateurs have the ability to set delivery/pickup hours, manage delivery radius and more.

For establishments with multiple locations, it’s important to provide visitors with a simple way to find the one nearest to them. Store locator provides a flexible way to help customers find you. The plugin uses geolocation to show the closest location and provide directions. Other features include the ability to filter locations by business hours, import locations via a spreadsheet and customize the map template to your liking.

If you’re looking to add a food or beverage menu to your website, Food Menus for WordPress provides an easy and flexible way to get it done. It features over 20 different menu layout possibilities, so you’re sure to find one that suits your style. Plus, you’ll find a layout builder, lots of icons and editable fields.

With the variety of available WordPress themes and plugins, it’s easier than ever to build the perfect restaurant website. In the end, it’s really about using these tools to show the world what you have to offer. Provide visitors with an appetizing online presence and you’ll have them lining up at your door.

Sometimes, a new version of a WordPress plugin may have an undesired effect on your site. Find out what you can do in this blog, “What To Do When WordPress Plugin Updates Go Wrong“.

For more inspiration, head over to the Elements Blog to read up on the latest trends, tips, interviews and roundups!