Your restaurant is almost ready to appear digitally, but you are still scrolling for a better theme idea. Maybe you are asking in forums like “suggest me the best restaurant theme," right? Have you got your answer yet? Yes, or No, whatever is your answer; I have the precise answer you are searching for a long time. I am not saying you are in the right place; I would say: you are in a place where we nurture authenticity. You will get the proof within 10 minutes through the answer. Before that, let me share an essential resource summary for your restaurant business. It was first released back in 2019 in Forbes. Here is the simple summary: The title was “How does online order help to improve restaurant profit." An online order can reduce your cost; it can enhance your profit by 30% (When you signed in with a third-party food delivery company). That is the simple answer. Now think, if you can earn 30% from a third party, you can earn at least 70% without them. It is possible if you have a proper marketing plan and a reliable appearance. I will write about reliable appearances in this post. For that, I divided the section into three parts. The first session will give you a general idea about choosing WordPress themes. Next, you will know about the major restaurant features. And finally, I will recommend the theme based on the writing. Let’s start 12 Things To Consider Before Choosing A WordPress Theme: I am starting this section with some basic questions. These queries will help you to solve the major problems. So ask yourself these 10 crucial queries before choosing your best restaurant theme. 1. Does the theme meet your business purpose? It would be best if you thought about the business purpose before choosing a theme. It will ease up your hassle up to 50%. For example, some restaurants offer reservation service; others may offer food delivery. Or, it can be both. So decide which purpose you want to serve. If it meets your demand, go for the next assessment. 2. What is your website personality? Most entrepreneurs get confused about website personality. Here is what I have seen: their theme looks highly corporate; it results in a weird impression to the audience. Remember, first impressions always matter. Therefore, keep your digital personality free-and-easy. It will make your business comfortable for the customer. 3. Is your website licensing alright? General Public License is now a common licensing; it is used for open-source software. WordPress, in fact, has this licensing feature, including its plugins. Now, what are the benefits of this feature? You can edit the code to make the website flexible. You can also use the theme for multiple sites. 4. Is the theme responsive? Your website will be browsed from different devices; It can be from a smartphone, desktop, tablet. Each user of this platform needs equal experience. And that’s why your site has to be cross-platform responsive. It’s even a mandatory SEO factor to have a good search result. 5. Is it cross-browser supported? The present internet has a lot of major browsers; your theme must support those browsers. It is also a good SEO signal. If your theme supports a major browser without lag, it means you are ahead of the competition. So make sure the theme supports a cross-browser. 6. Does the theme support WordPress 5.0 or more? This is a really crucial factor. Why? In 2018, WordPress added a fantastic feature l called Gutenberg. Gutenberg is a block editor; it eases up the post-editing better. You can create pages, layouts, post, and edit everything on your website. It even gives you full control through editing the shortcodes; this means removing or adding a feature is like a piece of cake. Thus look at the theme, if it supports Gutenberg. 7. Are you getting the common plugins? Usually, all WordPress themes come with basic plugins like SEO, speed optimizer, contact forms, and more. This list can be 10 or more. No matter how big the list is, make sure your theme does not conflict with the plugins. Conflict means the code of your theme does not match with the plugin. Try to pick those themes, which have a dedicated editing option to match with plugins. 8. Is the theme support page builder? Page builder helps you make an interactive page; you can design text, photos, and total layouts. And every WordPress theme comes with page builder compatibility, yet some themes have slight problems with page builders. For Example, some supports Elementor, a thrive architect; other supports visual compressor, king compressor. So, try to pick a cross-page builder competent theme. It will later help you to switch your desired page builder. 9. How good is the theme speed? Your theme speed will depend on its weight. If it’s heavy, then it will take up to 3 seconds to load. This speed is a bad SEO signal. Remember, a visitor leaves your page when the speed is more than 2 seconds. I suggest you look at the speed and weight. 10. Is the theme extendable? Sometimes your basic customization doesn’t work. At that time, it’s essential to extend your theme through a child theme. This is crucial for your user experience. So, is your theme allowing you to extend a child theme? If so, consider the theme for your buying list. 11. How often the theme updates? A schedule based update helps your theme to stay in competitive advantage. It boosts your user experience by fixing bugs and issues. Therefore, check how often your theme updates. 12. How good is the documentation and customer support? One of the crucial factors you need to know. Let’s explain one by one: documentation helps you to solve your problem faster. Inside that, you will find a total guideline about the theme installation to fixing issues. 24/7 customer support is something more than documentation. It’s like a representative fixing your bug live. I would recommend this for stubborn issues. 30 Features To Consider Before Choosing The Best Restaurant Theme: Now, you have the basic consideration before choosing a WordPress theme. Let’s start the second step. Here I will write about the major features and their benefits. It will assist you in reaching your desired answer. 1. Block editor ready Block editors are a super easy form for creating the page faster; it allows you to set separate columns, pages, posts, and more within a second. You hover onto the search bar and write what box you need. Done! It will appear. Just add the feature and make your product lucrative. 2. Custom page templates: It’s like representing your business section differently. I think the statement sounds a bit confusing. Let me clear: WordPress themes come with a custom template; it allows you to set different appearances for each section. For example, your homepage theme can be different from your single blog page. What is the benefit of this layout? It allows you to make your user experience better. 3. Homepage widget areas Widgets are an essential area for your restaurant website – remember this. It ensures a good selling upscale. How? Home widget used to stay on top or side of the homepage. In this area, you can show your business promotions. It’s like, “new arrival dishes" “discount up to 30% on your first order" this sort of promotion can help you grab better engagement. 4. Online reservation system Reserving online is now a common trend for customers. For that, a theme must have a responsive reservation system. How good is your service? Sometimes measured based on your digital response. So, try to watch this feature. The more flexible the reservation process, the less chance to lose your customer faith. It can, in fact, enhance your profit up to 10% 5. Location maps support Integrating with Google maps is now easy, but all themes do not come with this support. Only the best restaurant theme comes. Why? Because they know how location impacts SEO and customer experience. Having a location map in your restaurant means your business reach is high. Who does not want to get a better reach? Think wise. 6. Color styles As I said, “first impressions always matter." Color style plays a big role here: your business personality reflects through it. To make a better digital presence, you have to make an elegant color choice. It’s possible when you have enough options: some WordPress comes with thousands of color variants. So, choose the highest color features for a better style guide. 7. Custom layout settings Most beginners ask about layout. Here is the short overview: layouts are frame or pattern. It organizes the website information in a precise way. How does it help? It allows the user to navigate information faster. As a result, user engagement enhances. If you have enough layout options, you can make sure what users should navigate. 8. Built-in SEO Yoast is the basic SEO signal for WordPress themes. It shows the SEO strength of your post. Based on the signal, it’s easy to optimize the content. So, watch this feature very consciously. This built-in feature assists you in meeting the primary ranking factors. 9. Integration with WooCommerce A must-have feature for every restaurant owner; it is a proven plugin that garnered around 40% of the profit from online selling. You can ask, how does it work? Well, having a Woocommerce plugin means you are turning your business into E-commerce. Customers can order food from a variety of food menus that you offer. Is not it a feasible way to make some good cash during Covid-19? 10. Header option When visitors enter your site, they look closely at your image first. This area should be interactive and eye-catching, and most WP themes come with this facility. Using this feature, you can easily reflect your logo attractive. You go to the header option then choose an image from your directory. That’s it – your website is ahead to have a good engagement. 11 . Unique page elements A unique page element allows you flexibility. Using this feature, you can select which post to display or not. Most WP themes have this feature; you need to see the layout distribution when you check for a theme. Compare the feature with a regular theme. If you find something effective, you can consider it. 12 .Compatible with popular WordPress plugins I already mentioned it at the beginning stage. Here I will write about the common plugins for restaurant WP: These are the common plugins for your restaurant theme. There are many more compatible plugins; before choosing one, I will recommend seeing the theme compatibility. 13. Image galleries It’s always a privilege to have a quality image gallery; this facility can enhance the order. Trust me! I have tested the ten best restaurant themes. They picked better orders, not for proper organization, but a quality image. Detail picture is essential to meet the quality and customer needs, so if the theme blooms, your picture better. Please take it in your consideration list. 14. Font and text styling Around 80% of the theme comes in 800+ font and text style. Now how are customers influenced psychologically by the font and text style? Our six senses work equally when we see a new thing. And eyes are the first thing that decides yes or no. It means the presentation; if it’s good, you are staying ahead to grab the customer. Your customer will see the presentation first. Inside the presentation, font, and text style lies. These factors sometimes lured the customer to stay on the page. Long -time page engagement ensures better ranking results. 15. Parallax scrolling I call this feature a “beautiful marketing strategy," why? Here is the answer. Parallax scrolling is an optical illusion; it engages users through 3D effects while they are scrolling. It means, each time you scroll, the background image changes. Inside that mage, you can add your top-selling food. It will keep your user engaged while they are scrolling. 16 . Animations Animated product always gets sustainable engagement. Themes that come with this feature enhance a better user experience. It is also a great way to describe your offer. Many restaurants rated this as the signal of the best restaurant theme. 17. Slider and video header Another amazing feature for engaging the audience. Yes, videos and carousels are now a trending marketing strategy. WP theme developer realized it, especially for restaurant owners. They introduced a slider and short video feature for website heading. With these, an owner can show a quick overview of the restaurant and its food. This tremendous feature allows the customer to make quick decisions. Not only that, foodies can decide whether they stay on this page or not from that. 18 .Advanced blog options Creating value can enhance your customer; you can add an advanced blogging feature in your theme. It will make a good face value in front of foodies. How can you make it? Writing a blog about food nutrition and hygienic can help you. It will constrain your customer to think about how good your business policy is. Advanced blogging includes -infographics, videos, etc. 19. Translation and RTL selection People are now traveling more; it’s almost 10x. This signals a connection between food and culture. Foreigners, when they land in a country, they search the nearest restaurant on google. If your website shows on top with translated their language, think how good it would be? Your sales will rise to 3x. So, count this feature in your theme. 20. Testimonial sections Top SEO experts suggested this section, then the developer added in some themes. This update trended quickly for increasing profit. Here is how it increases the profit? When a satisfied customer put their review, it showed to the visitor instantly. This helps to make decisions better for the food enthusiast. I strongly prefer testimonials for our growth. 21. Recipe filters and ingredients list sections Sometimes restaurant owners share “fan recipes." It’s like they share some recipes that you can make at home. This sort of suggestion works best with a special category. For that, the recipe filter works well. Visitors can easily navigate to their desired recipe through this. The ingredients list also works as a recipe filter. Here the foodies get a precise list for the signature recipe. I noticed these both features in some best restaurants websites. 22. Order form integration One of the common features of the best restaurant theme is the order form. Customers can order their food by using this form. So, before choosing a theme, try to see the order from compatibility… 23. 1-click demo content import The fast and convenient theme gets extra attention: it’s for integrated tools. One-click demo import is one of those tools which allows users to install demo and widgets. By installing this plugin, you can import your content fast. 24. Mobile responsive Mobile responsiveness is considered as the crucial SEO factor. At present, 70% of users browse websites from their smartphones. So, it’s essential to have a responsive theme. It will boost your traffic at least 40% 25. Call to Action Copywriters always use this as their hook. But now, it is not limited to copywriters; entrepreneurs are also using it. A call to action button helps your customer to navigate your desired goal. 26. Social widget Social platforms integrations are easy through this feature. You can connect Facebook page, Instagram account, and more with it; it will easily post whenever the content is published. This widget is essential for generating potential traffic. 27. Child theme included Parent themes always work fine, but in some complex cases, developers need to make a sub-theme: this ultimately speeds up the total website performance. A quality theme has the child theme functionality. 28. Infographic creation: So far, the best restaurant theme offers this feature. It reduces your 50% hassle: I mean, you don’t need to spend time behind illustrator or PowerPoint. The built-in feature will help you to create lucrative infographics. 29 .Portfolio Showing up your experience and profile can increase your authority. It’s possible through the portfolio feature. Here you have to update your data, that’s it, you are good to go. 30. Drag N Drop Every Wp theme comes with this feature. It allows you to design the theme without prior coding knowledge. This will ultimately save your time and money. Answer: I mentioned almost 40 essential checklists before choosing the best restaurant theme. Now, it’s time to share the final answer. It’s wise to choose a theme that has all the 40 basic features. If you find more than that, don’t hesitate. Just don’t forget to check the documentation and changelog. I know the answer is technical, here is what we recommend: EATSHUB or SAVORY could be the time and money saver for you. ( Disclaimer: if you buy one of the mentioned themes, we may survive ourselves for producing better content) Final words: It’s always tough to find a suitable theme for a fresh entrepreneur. I know how time-consuming work is; that’s why my effort is to ease your search based on my research. I am sure it will help you to reach your desired theme. Let me know what theme you choose or your queries. I will try to cover it in the coming post.
