When I plan to take my wife to a restaurant that I don’t know, I always try to consult its website. This allows me to get an idea of what they offer.
And unfortunately, most of the time, it doesn’t make my mouth water.
I’m not disappointed by the menus, or even the prices. I’m disappointed because many restaurant websites are stuck in 1998… They really need to get up to date and review their grub.
Let’s be clear, I’m not here to blame this or that restaurant owner. We each have our own trade.
I’m just saying that it’s essential today to give a good image of your establishment on the internet.
Thousands of us are searching for a restaurant where we can take our partner, colleagues, or friends. You have to admit that it would be a shame to miss out on great food, just because the website doesn’t give you the right impression.
If you have a restaurant, I imagine that you try to arrange your tables well, to have beautiful plates, and to provide quality service. So why should you neglect your website?
Overview
This article contains affiliate links. This means that if you buy one of these themes, WPMarmite will get a small commission. This allows us to pay for the editorial work on the blog and to build a fund to buy and test other tools. That said, we remain impartial: our goal is to help you make informed choices. To learn more, check out our editorial policy.
Your best WordPress projects need the best host!
WPMarmite recommends Bluehost: great performance, great support. All you need for a great start.
An example of what not to do for a restaurant website
To prove to you that you don’t have to go far, check out Catfish Corner’s website:
I don’t know what you think, but when you look at the site quickly, without focusing on the text, you don’t necessarily have the impression of being on a restaurant website.
At least for me, the design doesn’t make me think of that at all. The call to action button, assumably to place an order, is labeled “Get quote,” which is very vague.
Although the opening time is displayed at the top of the page, you have to scroll to the bottom to find the full hours and contact information.
Further, there is no menu anywhere to be found, and the gallery of images at the bottom of the page are all of the restaurant’s interior, not of their food. The photos aren’t even good quality.
My reaction when I realized this:
Yet this restaurant might well be a treat to visit!
Well, let’s stop the criticism here, and move on to a more constructive phase.
What we expect from a restaurant website
If you are still reading this article, I imagine you want to refresh a WordPress website for a restaurant or even create one from scratch.
This article is going to introduce you to several themes that will help you make your establishment look good.
Put yourself in the shoes of someone looking for a restaurant. What do they ask themselves?
- What do you eat here? (What is the restaurant’s cuisine — home cooking, pizzeria, Japanese, etc.)
- What are the dishes? (The menu.)
- How much does it cost? (The combinations and prices.)
- Why should I go there? (Are the customers satisfied?)
- Where can I make a reservation? (Contact information or a reservation form.)
- How do I get there? (A map or a Google Map.)
In my opinion, the above points are the bare minimum of what is expected from a restaurant website.
Remember, your site should whet people’s appetite and most importantly, convince them to come to your place!
6 WordPress restaurant themes
Today, I decided to show you a selection of WordPress restaurant themes that, I hope, will allow you to find the rare pearl that will equip your site.
Our goal is that you have all the cards in hand to create a site that is great.
Come on, get your knife and fork ready, put your napkin around your neck: let’s get right to tasting.
Carbone
Design
The demo provided by the Carbone WordPress theme welcomes the visitor with a huge header, including a video with friendly waiters that shows the restaurant as if you were there, which is quite immersive and allows you to get an idea of the establishment.
A call-to-action button to place an order is at the top of the page, which is a good thing. It leads to a page containing a contact form and includes the contact information of the restaurant.
The address, phone number, and social network profiles of the establishment are also highlighted just below the header and just above the footer.
The opening hours are clearly indicated in the middle of the homepage, but it is better to place them higher up on the page, so that the visitor can find them in the blink of an eye without having to scroll.
The restaurant menu is presented in an ergonomic way, with separators between each section (starters, main courses, desserts), with the home page containing only the coffees and starters.
Installation
To use the Carbone theme, you need to install and activate the Framework Ignition, a plugin developed by CSSIgniter. The installation and activation of other plugins is recommended, like GutenBee, which adds additional Gutenberg blocks to the editor.
Here is the top of my site after activation of the Carbone theme and Framework Ignition:
To make this a little better, two variations of the theme are available (in Appearance > Theme options, “Theme Variations” tab): Carbone and Igloo.
Switching from one variation to the other updates the theme’s color palette and changes the Customization Tool options. So be sure to save the existing options beforehand with the built-in tool or a backup plugin.
You can also import demo content in Appearance > Import demo data. Once the demo is imported to your site (Carbone or Igloo), you will be able to integrate your content in the pages of the site and customize its design to make it your own by applying your restaurant’s style guide to the whole site.
The theme will still require you to install and activate additional plugins.
Carbone says that“importing demo data (posts, pages, images, theme settings, etc.) is the fastest and easiest way to configure your theme. This allows you to simply edit everything instead of creating content and layouts from scratch.”
Customization
In the Customization Tool, you can determine the layout of the site, the colors (as well as a color palette), and the typography displayed.
Global Sections are an interesting feature of Carbone. They are used to create content sections (i.e. sets of blocks, like block patterns) that will be displayed on all pages or articles of the site, or only certain publications.
You can specify on which publication to display or not to display a global section, or insert a shortcode where you want it to be displayed on your site, at a defined location (for example: insert a newsletter subscription insert above the footer of all articles, etc.). Global sections can be reused in more than 15 locations in the theme.
A set of shortcodes is provided with Framework Ignition to display a custom menu, search bar, date, your Instagram feed, etc.
Benefits
- Modern theme design.
- The demo content you can import, which allows you to create your site faster.
Disadvantages
- Many additional plugins to install and activate.
- Some menus are not very useful or are too catch-all, such as the “Utilities” menu, which is used to configure the display of the weather and social network icons, enable/disable the lightbox, the dark mode in the block editor, the support of blocks as widgets, etc.
Price of this theme: $49
Download the WordPress theme Carbone:
Korina
Installation & customization
Like Carbone, Korina is published by CSSIgniter. And just like the former, it requires the installation and activation of Framework Ignition, the plugin created by the same store.
It is also possible to import demo content into Korina, following the same procedure as the Carbone theme. Here too, several plugins will have to be installed and activated to proceed with the import of demo content.
You can choose an image, a GIF, or a background video to be displayed in the header of a given page (like what you can see in the demo) in the content editor, in “Page Title Image” on the right of the editor.
In terms of options, we find much the same as with the Carbone theme. It’s mostly in the design that the two themes will differ.
Design
In terms of design, we find that the address of the restaurant, its phone number, and its email address are this time highlighted at the top of the page.
The navigation menu contains a call to action button to reserve a table, which leads to a reservation form created with Contact Form 7.
The carousel in the header of the homepage allows you to showcase beautiful pictures of the dishes and the restaurant, but be careful not to overuse carousels as they can distract the visitor. By default, the photos scroll too fast, and it’s better to let the user choose when to switch from one photo to another.
Having the contact information, the opening hours, and the establishment’s social network profiles in the footer make it easy to find them on all the pages of the site.
On the content pages and the homepage, the different parts are aesthetically distributed on the page, alternating text and photos on the left and right of the page.
Advantages
- The design is modern, but the gold border around the screen gives a particular style to the site.
- The demo content to import, which helps you go faster.
Disadvantages
- Many plugins to install and activate to make the theme work properly.
- Some menus are not very useful and are too generic, such as the “Utilities” menu, like for the Carbon theme.
Price of this theme: $49
Download the Korina theme:
Delicio
Delicio presents itself as a theme for creating websites for restaurants and cafes, but also for any establishment just looking to create a “captivating” online presence.
Design
This theme from the WPZOOM store welcomes you with a full screen slider. Not bad for dazzling your future customers with beautiful photos of your dishes. But as we’ve seen before, be careful with image carousels; they should be used with caution.
Also on the homepage, the “Order online” button, immediately visible upon arrival on the site, encourages visitors to take action. A click on this button triggers the display of the menu.
On the navigation side, two menus are available. The first one, quite standard, is horizontal and is positioned at the top of the site. The second one, vertical, is located on the right side of your page, as a burger menu. Both can be easily modified in the WordPress administration.
Unfortunately, the restaurant’s contact information is not displayed at the top of the site. They are visible in the footer, along with the restaurant’s opening hours and social media profiles.
An Instagram widget allows you to display the most beautiful photos of your dishes, by connecting your WordPress website to your Instagram account, via your WPZOOM account.
Join the WPMarmite subscribers
Get the last WPMarmite posts (and also exclusive resources).
Installation
Several plugins are required to install the Delicio theme: the Beaver Builder page builder, Jetpack, and Beaver Builder Addons by WPZOOM, a plugin made in WPZOOM, as its name suggests, which allows you to add features to Beaver Builder.
WPZOOM also recommends installing these plugins: Contact Form by WPForms, WPZOOM Instagram Widget & Block (to display your Instagram feed on your WordPress site), Restaurant Reservations (to manage online reservations), and Social Icons Widget by WPZOOM (to display social network icons on your site).
After activating the theme, Delicio allows you to import some demo content.
A six-step wizard allows you to:
- Import the demo
- Generate new thumbnails for the imported images
- Load the default settings for the widgets
- Configure the menus, assigning an existing menu to each available menu location
- Define whether the home page should display the latest posts or a static page (the theme recommends selecting a static page)
- Install a child theme
On this last point: using a child theme is designed to allow you to preserve the changes made to your theme after an update of the parent theme, but it’s not always necessary. See our article on this topic for more information.
Once the import is complete, you will see a success message (yay!). Click the blue “Customize theme” button to start customizing your site with the Delicio theme.
Customize
Once in the Customize Tool, you’ll notice that menus specific to the Delicio theme have appeared (“Typography,” “Header Options,” “Homepage Slider,” “Footer”). This is a good thing, because it’s convenient to be able to edit your theme directly in the familiar interface of the WordPress Customization Tool.
Here, you will be able to modify the colors, layouts, and fonts of your site. You can also select a background image, edit the slider height, fade opacity, configure widgets, etc.
In the “Food Menus” menu, you will be able to create the menu of your restaurant. You will need to install and activate Jetpack and connect it to WordPress.com, which can be a bit tricky, especially if you are resistant to doing so.
You can create your menu items in Food Menu > Menu Items. You can add a single menu item or multiple menu items at once. You will first need to create the sections of your menu (if there are several: appetizers, entrees, and desserts, for example), in Food Menus > Menu Sections, so that you can assign a section to the menu items you add.
Then, create a page, and give it the template “Food menu (Jetpack).” This page will automatically include the menu items you just added.
The other option is to edit your menu page with Beaver Builder and add a Food Menu widget. You can then easily add and customize the menu items of your choice (colors, fonts, spacing, etc.).
Benefits
- Modern design.
- Demo content to import to go faster.
Disadvantages
- Delicio requires you to install a number of tools such as Beaver Builder and Jetpack. Having to install many tools in addition to the theme can weigh down your site.
- The layout is not the easiest, and some options are a bit outdated, such as the edition of the slideshow on the homepage. We would have preferred to be able to customize it directly in the Customization Tool, with a live preview.
- The customization of the menu remains limited.
Price of this theme: $69
Download the Delicio theme:
Astra
Design
Astra is one of the most popular themes on the WordPress directory. We presented it to you in detail on the blog in this post.
It is multipurpose and offers several templates specifically for restaurants, with a wide range of designs.
They include attractive images, menu sections, a gallery to showcase dishes, contact or booking forms and more. All are colorful, include lots of whitespace, and could fit many different types of restaurants.
While everything is fully customizable, the default templates include a clear navigation, hero sections to show off signature dishes, menu elements, call to action buttons, booking sections, testimonial areas, location maps and more.
All designs can be customized using global controls can change the color and typography across the entire website, which is quite convenient.
Menus can be changed in a few clicks to clearly display the current offers.
Contact areas contain essential information and usually a map to help visitors find you.
Installation
Astra can be installed the same way as any other WordPress theme, using Appearance > Themes.
Once installed, you can install the optional Starter Templates plugin (free) if you want to use one of the 240+ readymade templates. Install the Starter Templates plugin using Plugins > Add New or let Astra install it automatically.
Once installed, you can activate the theme when you’re ready and explore the new Astra menu item in the WordPress dashboard. Select Astra > Dashboard to see the controls.
From here you can control everything Astra does, access advanced tools like the Header Footer Builder, install optional extras such as the Spectra page builder and much more.
To install a template, select the Starter Templates tab at the top of the main Astra Dashboard window. Preview any template, select one and work through the configuration wizard to set up your site.
Customization
While the restaurant templates are of good quality, you may need to change a few things to brand it.
To do this, you can use a page builder like Elementor or Beaver Builder, or use the WordPress Customizer.
Each Starter Template is compatible with a page builder or the WordPress block editor.
Advantages
- Over 240 readymade site templates including for restaurants
- Easy to use and to customize
- Compatible with most popular page builders and WordPress Customizer
Disadvantages
- There is a slight learning curve due to the number of options.
Price of this theme: Astra has a free option with premium costs from $49.
Download the Astra theme:
Pearl
Installation
At the time of writing the update of this article, Pearl is a multipurpose theme, which offers two demos designed for the restaurant industry, out of the fifty demos offered:
- Food Delivery
- Restaurant (this is the one that we focused on in the first version of this article and what we will also focus on here)
To find the demos, go to Pearl > Demo import, navigate to “Install demos,” and click on the demo you want. A window will open showing the additional plugins required to use the demo:
When you click on “Setup Layout,” you will initiate the installation and activation of the plugins in question and the demo content.
The Pearl theme integrates the WPBakery page builder, which includes many widgets to add to your posts, but this one is outdated compared to what the competition on the page builder market offers, like Elementor for example.
Build your website with Elementor
Design easily the look and feel of your WordPress website with the famous page builder.
Design
The homepage of the provided demo offers a modern design, displaying beautiful images of the dishes and the establishment. The colors are soft and the sections are well spaced.
However, the navigation menu is not very readable. You’ll be integrating your own photos in the background anyway, but make sure that the colors of the menu items and the background image are sufficiently contrasted (always in accordance with the restaurant’s style guide). If necessary, add an opacity effect on your background image.
For the call to action button, the title should be replaced by “Reserve a table” or “Order” for example, which will encourage visitors to take action on your website. Speaking of reservations, Pearl offers a nice reservation module, displayed just below the demo header, which links to the OpenTable service.
Just below, the restaurant menu is well highlighted, and the tabs save space while leading to the full menu via a dedicated button.
The opening hours and contact information of the restaurant are displayed in the footer, as well as a photo gallery (why not, to showcase your dishes).
It would be worthwhile to put the contact information of the restaurant at the top of the page as well, in a bar above the header for example, so that the user doesn’t have to scroll all the way down the page to access it.
Customization
In the Pearl > Theme options menu, you will be able to select settings for the site logo, spacing, button style, forms, and other elements, and configure the header.
You can choose a color scheme for your site, with a main color, a secondary color, and a third color (keep in mind the visual profile of the establishment), as well as a set of fonts for your site content and titles. Advantage: you can see a preview of the fonts you select.
You can also decide to show or hide the page title and choose a style for your 404 page, but the options are very limited. So I advise you to choose a dedicated plugin, which will allow you to easily customize your 404 page or “Coming Soon” page.
If you plan to integrate a blog on your restaurant website, you will be able to choose between different layouts available, choose between a list or grid view, and configure the sidebar (it can be shown or hidden, on computer and mobile, and the position can be changed).
Benefits
- Once again, the demo saves time.
Disadvantages
- The settings are manipulated via a dedicated menu, “Pearl.” it would have been more convenient to be able to edit them directly in the Customization Tool, because its interface is familiar and allows you to avoid going back and forth to see the result of changes.
- The Pearl theme uses the WPBakery page builder, which is outdated compared to the competition.
Price of this theme: $59
Download the Pearl theme:
Rosa LT
Rosa LT is published by Pixelgrade, a niche WordPress theme publisher. It is the new version of Rosa 2, which was included in the initial version of this article. Rosa LT is a theme compatible with the Full Site Editing project.
Installation
To work, Rosa LT is based on several elements:
- The Anima theme, Pixelgrade’s universal FSE theme
- Their custom blocks editor integrated in the Nova Blocks plugin
- The customization system of the site design delivered with the Style Manager plugin
- The demo content of the Rosa LT theme itself
Nova Blocks and Style Manager are Pixelgrade plugins, available on the official WordPress directory, integrated with the block editor at post level and at site level.
A Rosa LT installation wizard guides you through the steps to set it up on your WordPress site.
You will first have to connect your site to your Pixelgrade account, choose the theme to install (here, Rosa LT), install the required plugins (Nova Blocks, Pixelgrade Care and Style Manager), then import the demo content (starter content) if you feel like it, and off you go!
Design
The first thing that jumps out at you when you look at the demo is that it has great pictures. And this is a very important aspect: use beautiful photos on your site, and hire a photographer if your budget allows it. Showcase your dishes and your establishment to make your visitors’ mouths water. 😉
The banner at the top of the page to indicate that the restaurant is closing soon is a good idea too (closing times and days are some of the information visitors look for first on a restaurant website).
The different content sections are separated by nice, customizable dividers.
The presence of the restaurant’s menu and a reservation link in the navigation menu is a good thing, but the latter deserves to be highlighted more by a call-to-action button.
The contact information and opening hours of the establishment are well highlighted in the footer, but they should be visible at the top of the page as well.
Customization
In the Customization Tool, the “Style Manager” menu allows you to modify colors, typography (font size and creation of a font palette), and spacing in the site.
The “Color System” menu allows you to define a main and a secondary color for your site. The color system then generates a whole palette of colors. You can configure the structure of the palette in detail (shades, contrasts, etc.), and also choose among pre-made palettes (which helps the graphic consistency of the site).
The “Theme Options” menu allows you to choose a separator between titles and paragraphs, to apply a coloring to certain elements of the site (buttons, titles, links, etc.), to customize the fonts (titles, paragraphs, menu, etc.), and to configure the color and font palette.
Some of the menus under “Style Manager” and “Theme Options” can be confusing, such as “Typography” and “Fonts,” or “Color System” and “Color Usage.” It might have been more convenient to centralize these options in order to manage colors and fonts in one menu.
Advantages
- The quality of the design!
- The many options to manage the design of the site while ensuring graphic consistency (color and font palette, etc.), all without touching a single line of code. Be careful not to get lost in the menus.
- The demo content to save time.
- This theme is compatible with the Full Site Editing project (and it’s the only one in this selection!).
Disadvantages
- It takes a little time to master all the options (I don’t advise you to venture into Full Site Editing if you are a beginner site builder). Some menus can be confusing.
Price of this theme: $75/year or $95 one-time fee
Download Rosa 2:
Conclusion
You have reached the end of this article. I hope it will help you to choose the right WordPress theme for your restaurant, cafe, or food truck website.
However, take the time to look at the demo sites and don’t rush into anything. Keep in mind that the theme you choose will require some customization to fit your establishment.
Whatever theme you use, it is only a base; remember to customize it so that it fits the style profile of the establishment for which you’re creating the site.
From my side, I don’t recommend the Delicio and Pearl themes, because their customization options are limited compared to the competition, and because Pearl embeds WPBakery, which is an outdated page builder.
Rosa LT, on the other hand, is a much more up to date theme, with a clean design and many options, and it’s perfectly integrated with the WordPress editor.
Now, I’d like to hear from you.
Start by telling me in the comments: Which theme did you like and/or which one would you like to buy?
Also, do you know of any themes that I haven’t mentioned in this article? Tell me all about it right below. 😉