From the days of merely displaying menu items and the contact details, the best restaurant websites have come a long way. To evoke the restaurant’s sense of style and give customers a visual taster of what they might be experiencing during their visit is what they have evolved as. How do you make yours stand out from the crowd if your competitors already have stunning websites? With one or two handy free restaurant WordPress plugins, it is easy to go ahead with.
When you wish to create the ideal restaurant website, fortunately, WordPress has everything that you need. There is also an entire host of plugins available to assist you in enhancing your site’s functionality, along with a plethora of excellent restaurant WordPress themes to choose from.
You can effectively convey your restaurant’s brand and encourage more customers through the door by selecting the plugins that are right for your requirements. There are plenty of services built to help you do that for a hefty commission if you wish to create a restaurant website with online ordering for home delivery. A WordPress restaurant plugin allows you to keep your margins for yourself and skip the commission.
It is over the Internet that people want to be able to get their food delivered. Between 2010 and 2015, online food ordering more than doubled, and the trends are continuous mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of the phone, customers prefer ordering online, and the correct WordPress restaurant plugin will satisfy that demand without the requirement of a 15% commission rate. You can check out how you can best use the plugins for WordPress restaurants to create your online ordering system for your restaurant here in this post today.
You will not need to be a tech savant just to get it working, as you will be able to customize it to your needs! This article will reveal our favorite free restaurant WordPress plugins that can help you create a fantastic foodie website with ease with the above in mind. So, let’s get cracking!
1. Store Hours Manager
You can easily set your store hours with this handy plugin. By enabling WooCommerce store functions only when you are open, you will create your custom daily schedules. You can even accept orders during your free hours with the handy Take Out & Delivery Addon. For pickup time, delivery time/location, and scheduling, this addon enables options. It also allows for the methods for restrictions and several shipping zones. The following are the other main plugin features that are included here:
- Add custom store hours
- Disabling the checkout when your store is “closed.”
- Addition of a banner to your site that allows your customers to know they are open
- Option for overriding the schedule if needed (e.g., for holidays or special events)
2. WP Restaurant Price List
With the WP Restaurant Price List, you can build a menu for your restaurant. To add and organize your offerings, making it easy for customers to decide what they wish to buy, this free plugin is a great way.
To create your menus, you need to install the plugin and use the latest WP Restaurant Price List section options to get started. You will have options for the category, item name, ingredients, and price when adding a new item. You can use the Settings to add a currency, symbol, enable decimals, and select a layout in either plain text or text with an image once you have added items to your menu.
You are also offered a pro version, including the dynamic shortcodes, custom currency, lightbox popups, infinite lists, font and styling options, product variants, allergens, and more here. For the popular page builders, including Gutenberg, Elementor, and Visual Composer, WP restaurant Price list pro also offers support to these.
3. MotoPress Restaurant Menu
Every restaurant will have a menu, be it fine dining, bar, or food truck, yet most of the themes of WordPress do not include this as a built-in option unless you wish to use the access list features that are not that exciting. This is where MotoPress Restaurant Menu is at the top of our free restaurant WordPress plugins list and comes into play.
To design categories, unlimited menu items, tags, and ingredients, the plugin includes these easy options here. Things are made even simpler with the inclusion of shortcode, making inserting your menu onto any page, post, or even sidebar easy. The following are the features included here:
- Unlimited menu items
- Menu design options
- Shortcode to insert a menu into any text area
- Premium addons for online purchases, toppings, and delivery
4. Easy Notification Bar
With the help of the notification, allow your customers to know about your current deals, new menu items, upcoming events, or something else. This is made possible with the Easy Notification Bar. To bring attention to anything important your restaurant has going on with this simple plugin. To allow the notification bar on your homepage only, there is even an option for this. The following are the other features that are included in the notice bar:
- Customizable colors and fonts
- Custom message
- Button link options (add no follow)
5. Five Star Restaurant Menu
You will be able to create menus for any restaurant, bar, café, or another eatery to be displayed in various locations throughout your site as allowed by the Five Star Restaurant Menu.
Menu Items and Menus are the two custom post types that are involved here as the plugin is easy to use. Create the individual items using Menu Items, and then group them into sections using Menus to whip up your entire menu. It is so easy! The plugin in Gutenberg can be easily inserted with a page block and compatible. The following are the additional features:
- Unlimited number of menus and menu items you can enlist
- Menus are displayed in templates, posts, pages, and widgets.
- Option for creating one or two-column menus
- Easy to create templates
6. The Events Calendar
You need not neglect the calendar when you consider free restaurant WordPress plugins. At your establishment, do you plan on hosting an event? You need to ensure that your customers know what is going on with the customizable Events Calendar!
One of your best options to create a simple yet effective event calendar on your website is the Events Calendar by Modern Tribe. Include the organizers, display as a list or daily calendar, insert into sidebar or footer with the included widget, and more with the addition of events. You also get these additional features:
- Addition of unlimited events
- Saving venues/organizers
- Events calendar, list, or day view
- Widget for upcoming events
- Google calendar and iCal export
- SEO and translation ready
7. Five Star Restaurant Reservations
The popular plugin that enables customers to book their tables from your website is Restaurant Reservations. You can add a customizable and straightforward reservation form to your site. Simply use the shortcode or Gutenberg block to insert your paper on any post or page with it. Email notifications when a reservation is made and restricting bookings outside of your establishment’s opening hours is what this plugin offers. The following is also provided:
- Confirming or rejecting the bookings with just a few clicks
- Customizable email notifications can be sent to customers offered to a receipt of request, confirmation, or rejection.
- Bookings can be automatically be restricted at specified dates and times.
- The booking form can be placed in several site locations such as pages, posts, and widgets.
8. RestroPress
For your restaurant, the RestroPress plugin is a free way to add an online ordering system. As it works in the same way, think of it as the WooCommerce of Food Ordering. You can use it to add food items that can be organized into categories along with payment gateway options, taxes, email notifications, and delivery options as the plugin adds a custom post type. You will be able to track payment and order status right from your dashboard once you have set up the options of your restaurant.
- Add menu items with custom post type.
- Allowing for item addons
- Enabling pickup and delivery options
- Built-in reporting system
9. WP Store Locator
As it allows visitors to filter locations to see which store is closest to them as WP Store Locator is a helpful plugin for any business with a physical location. With all of your store locations to your site, it enables you to add a Google Map. You can add store information, nine map markers, enable geolocation, customize map terrain and zoon, and more is what you need to choose. By making this free restaurant WordPress plugin specifically beneficial for businesses with more than one location is where you can add as many placemarks as you want on the map. The following are included here:
- Unlimited number of stores
- Custom map styles
- Compatible with WPML and qTranslate
- Drag and drop map locations
10. WPPizza
To cater to pizza delivery businesses along with the flexibility means that it is suitable for any restaurant as this is how WPPizza was initially designed as. For the addition of an online menu and the management of orders, this is a great way. This plugin can generate reports that are based on sales supporting over many currencies. For businesses offering food in different sized portions as multiple prices can be set per item is where it is helpful too. The following are provided here:
- Tracking online orders and generating sales reports
- Customers have the option for various payment options, including cash on delivery.
- Extensions available for the addition of ingredients and tiered delivery pricing
- Supports 140+ currencies
11. Redi Restaurant Reservation
To help manage book tables, and much like Restaurant Reservations, Redi Restaurant Reservation is the other plugin here, and it is straightforward to use:
Customers can view your available tables that are based on their selected time and then make a reservation directly from your website after setting your opening hours, the details of your establishment, and enabling restrictions on seating numbers. The following is what it offers:
- Enabling you to view upcoming reservations from a mobile or tablet PC
- The reservation page automatically refreshes after 15 minutes.
- Maximum available seats can be set depending on the day of the week.
- Bookings can be blocked automatically for the specified times and dates.
- Supports multiple locations
12. Five Star Restaurant Reviews
The other plugin from the developer of the Food and Drink Menu enabling you the addition of customer reviews and testimonials to your posts, pages, and widgets, is Good Reviews for WordPress. By using Schema markup, your thoughts and testimonials can be integrated into search engine listings that are important to draw in new business from search queries with the use of this. The following are what included here:
- Option for the addition of star or number ratings and reviewer photos to your reviews
- Enabling you the addition of a link to increase the credibility of the review
- Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is achieved through the use of Schema markup.
- Reviews can be organized to show single reviews, all reviews, or categories. Showing single reviews, all reviews along with the categories through the reviews.
13. More Widgets
To your sidebars with more widgets, you can add your store’s hours and contact info, location on a Google Map, and even a bio. As a restaurant or small business you need, this free plugin is full of helpful widgets that most of the themes are lacking. The following are included here:
- About us
- Advertisement
- Business info
- Facebook Page
- Social links
- Google Map
- And more
14. Speed Contact Bar
For any business to enable you to display a bar at the top of every page of your site showing your establishment’s contact information, the Speed Contact Bar plugin is a valuable addition for any business.
The following are the options that you are going to have here:
- Selecting which items of contact information to add to the bar
- Size, color, and fonts modification
- The phone icon along with the numbers can be clicked to get through a phone call.
- Social media icons are included.
So, Which WordPress Plugins Would You Head For?
Consumers are turning to technology more and more to connect them with places to eat in this digital age. It is imperative that the restaurants stay ahead of the game with their websites and the simplest way is while a couple of free restaurant WordPress plugins as such.14 Best WordPress Food Ordering Plugins To Try Out In 2021
Juhi Dave
Juhi Dave is WordPress Developer at USS LLC. At USS LLC she provides Custom PHP Development service and Wordpress Website Development service. She likes to share some tips about web development