Installation & Activation

Flavor – Restaurant Menu is a WordPress plugin. Install it like any other plugin — no build tools or FTP required.

Install from WordPress.org

Install via ZIP (Pro)

After purchasing Pro, download the .zip file from your Freemius account. Then:

1. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
2. Choose the downloaded flavor-restaurant-menu-premium.zip
3. Click Install Now → Activate

Quick Start Guide

Create your first restaurant menu in under 5 minutes.

Free vs. Pro

Flavor is available in a free version on WordPress.org and a Pro version with all features unlocked.

Dishes & Categories

Adding a Dish

Open a dish under Menu → Dishes. Every dish has the following fields:

Categories

Go to Menu → Categories to manage categories. Categories are hierarchical — you can create parent categories (e.g. "Food") and subcategories (e.g. "Starters", "Main Courses").

Category Sort Order

The same screen has a Sort categories section underneath — drag the rows there to reorder them. The order set here controls the display sequence in all layouts.

Shortcode Reference

The [flavor_menu] shortcode renders the menu on any page or post. All parameters are optional.

[flavor_menu
  title=""
  description=""
  category=""
  location=""
  layout="card-grid"
  style="dark"
  columns="3"
  image_ratio="4-3"
  show_filter="yes"
  sticky_filter="no"
  hide_all_btn=""
  default_category=""
  show_badges="yes"
  currency="€"
  currency_position="auto"
  limit="150"
  el_class=""
]

All Parameters

Examples

[flavor_menu layout="price-list" style="light" title="Our Menu"]

[flavor_menu layout="card-grid" columns="2" category="drinks" currency="$"]

[flavor_menu layout="sectioned" style="earth" location="berlin" limit="50"]

Currency Symbol & Position

Set your currency with the currency parameter — any text works (€, $, £, CHF, kr, …). By default, Flavor places the symbol on the side that matches it: symbols that belong in front of the amount ($, £, ¥, ₹) are shown before the price, and everything else after it.

Need a different placement? Use currency_position to override the automatic choice:

[flavor_menu currency="$" currency_position="before"]

In the Gutenberg, Elementor and WPBakery builders the same setting is available as a Currency Position dropdown next to the currency field.

All 7 Layouts

Flavor offers 7 distinct layouts to match any restaurant style. Card Grid is available in the Free version — all others require Pro.

Card Grid Free

The default layout. Dishes displayed as photo cards in a 2–4 column grid. Includes a category filter bar and subcategory scroll navigation.

• Category filter buttons at the top
• Subcategory scroll navigation (subnav)
• Allergen abbreviations shown as circled badges on the front of each card (bottom-left)
• Nutritional values revealed via a 180° card flip on click
• Guest ratings displayed as stars below the price

[flavor_menu layout="card-grid" columns="3"]

Price List Pro

A classic restaurant menu list. Each row shows dish name, dot leaders and price in a single line. Descriptions appear below the name.

• Dot leaders between name and price
• Allergen ⓘ button after dish name → floating popup
• Multiple prices stacked below the name

[flavor_menu layout="price-list" style="light"]

Table Pro

A structured table format. Ideal for menus with many dishes across categories. Allergens are shown as abbreviation chips with inline popovers.

[flavor_menu layout="table"]

Horizontal Card Pro

Each dish is displayed as a wide card with the photo on the left and content on the right. Allergens trigger a 180° flip showing allergen info and nutrition values.

[flavor_menu layout="horizontal" columns="2"]

Featured Pro

The dish with the lowest Sort Order in each category becomes the hero — displayed large at the top. Remaining dishes appear in a smaller grid below.

[flavor_menu layout="featured"]

Compact List Pro

A dense, text-only list ideal for large menus or drinks cards. Prices appear as chips. Clicking a row opens the allergen popup.

[flavor_menu layout="compact"]

Sectioned List Pro

Categories appear as large decorative headings. Dishes are listed beneath each category heading. Ideal for print-style menus.

[flavor_menu layout="sectioned" style="earth"]

Themes & Colors

Flavor ships with 3 built-in themes and 3 fully customizable custom theme slots.

Custom Themes

Go to Design → Themes to configure up to 3 custom color themes. Each theme has 7 color pickers:

• Card Background — surface color of dish cards
• Border Color — subtle separators and outlines
• Accent Color — prices, badges, highlights
• Heading Color — dish names and category titles
• Text Color — descriptions and body text
• Muted Text — subtitles and secondary info
• Dot Line Color — price list dot leaders

Typography & Fonts Pro

Go to Design → Typography to set a heading font and a body font for your menu. Choose from 40 curated Google Fonts across 3 groups.

Font Groups

• Serif — elegant, classic restaurant feel (e.g. Playfair Display, Cormorant Garamond)
• Sans-Serif — modern, clean (e.g. DM Sans, Inter)
• Display — decorative, unique (e.g. Josefin Sans, Abril Fatface)

Local Font Caching (GDPR)

Flavor can download font files to your server so no request is made to Google's CDN. Go to Design → Typography → Local Font Cache and click Download Fonts Locally.

• Font files are saved to wp-content/uploads/flavor-fonts/
• Once cached, zero requests leave your domain
• You can clear the cache at any time to revert to Google CDN

Allergens & Nutrition Pro

Flavor supports all 14 EU mandatory allergens (Regulation 1169/2011) and optional nutritional values per dish.

Setting Up Allergens

In the dish edit screen, scroll to the Allergens & Nutrition meta box. Tick any applicable allergens:

The 14 EU Allergens

Gluten · Crustaceans · Eggs · Fish · Peanuts · Soybeans · Milk · Nuts · Celery · Mustard · Sesame · Sulphites · Lupin · Molluscs

Nutritional Values

Below the allergen checkboxes, enter optional values per 100g: Calories (kcal), Fat (g), Carbohydrates (g), Protein (g).

How Allergens Display per Layout

Guest Ratings Pro

Allow guests to rate dishes from 1 to 5 stars directly in the Card Grid layout.

Enable Ratings

Go to Add-ons → Guest ratings and toggle ratings on. The star widget appears on every dish card.

How it Works

• Guests click a star (1–5) on any dish card
• Rating is saved per IP address — one vote per dish per visitor
• Average rating and vote count are displayed below the price
• Clicking stars on a flippable card does not trigger the nutrition flip

Badges Pro

Badges are small colored labels (e.g. "Popular", "New", "Vegan") that appear on dish cards and in list layouts.

Create a Badge

Go to Add-ons → Badges. Enter a badge name, choose a background color and an optional emoji. Save.

Assign a Badge to a Dish

In the dish edit screen, select a badge from the Badge dropdown in the meta box. Each dish can have one badge.

Multiple Locations Pro

If you run multiple restaurant branches, assign dishes to specific locations and show a location-specific menu per page.

Setup

[flavor_menu location="berlin" layout="price-list"]

Locations and reservations

A single location is cosmetic: with only one branch every view still runs as if there were none, so nothing changes for existing bookings. The second location is the moment branches become real — from then on every view has a concrete branch selected, and guests choose one when they book.

Because of that, creating the second location asks a question first: your existing reservations do not belong to a branch yet, and left that way they would disappear from the timeline and the room. Flavor tells you how many there are — split into upcoming and past — and lets you assign them to the branch that took them (usually the one you already had) or to the new one. The room you drew before goes to the branch that carried the business, so seated guests keep their tables.

QR Code & Table Stand Pro

Generate a print-ready table stand card with a QR code linking to your menu page — directly from the WordPress admin.

Steps

CSV Import / Export Pro

Go to Tools → CSV Import / Export to bulk-import dishes from a CSV file or export your entire menu.

CSV Column Format

Import Behavior

• Update existing — a dish with the same title is updated, not duplicated
• Auto-create categories — categories that don't exist are created automatically
• Preview — the first 5 rows are shown before the actual import runs
• Result report — each row shows ✓ Created / ↻ Updated / ✗ Error
• Encoding — UTF-8 (with or without BOM)
• Separator — comma , or semicolon ; (configurable)
• Max file size — 2 MB

SEO & Schema Markup Pro

With Flavor Pro, every menu automatically outputs Schema.org structured data as JSON-LD. This helps search engines and AI assistants understand your menu — your dishes, categories, prices and nutritional values — without any configuration.

What gets generated

The plugin mirrors your rendered menu as a Menu → MenuSection → MenuItem graph, embedded in a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag inside the menu. It includes:

• Categories & subcategories as nested MenuSection entries
• Each dish as a MenuItem with its name, description and image
• Prices as Offer entries — one per price variant, with the variant label and an ISO 4217 currency code (€ → EUR, $ → USD, …)
• Nutrition as NutritionInformation (calories, fat, carbs, protein) when entered

Example output

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Menu",
  "name": "Our Menu",
  "hasMenuSection": [
    {
      "@type": "MenuSection",
      "name": "Starters",
      "hasMenuItem": [
        {
          "@type": "MenuItem",
          "name": "Bruschetta",
          "description": "Toasted sourdough, vine tomato, basil",
          "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "price": "8.50", "priceCurrency": "EUR" },
          "nutrition": {
            "@type": "NutritionInformation",
            "calories": "320 kcal",
            "proteinContent": "9 g"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Verify it

Paste your published menu URL into Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org Validator to confirm the menu data is detected.

Table Reservations Free Pro

Let guests request a table online. Each booking is a request that you approve or decline — there is no automatic confirmation, so you stay in control. Capacity-based booking is free; the visual room, per-location settings, seating and analytics are Pro.

Add the reservation form to any page with the shortcode, or use the native Reservation Form element under the Flavor Restaurant category in Gutenberg, Elementor or WPBakery.

[flavor_reservation]

Everything on the operator side lives in the Flavor admin panel under Reservations, split into four screens:

Setup & Settings

Open Reservations → Settings. The settings are grouped into three cards.

Bookable

The rules a guest's booking has to satisfy.

Capacity & hours

Turn time by party size

A party of eight does not leave as quickly as a two-top, and treating them alike skews availability, the timeline and the seating suggestions. With a base of 120 minutes covering up to 4 guests and 30 extra minutes per further group of four, you get:

1–4 guests: 120 min · 5–8: 150 min · 9–12: 180 min

The ladder is printed under the fields so you can see what you just described. The extra minutes default to 0, which behaves exactly like a single flat turn time — nothing changes until you opt in.

Contact & privacy

Several locations Pro

With more than one location, Settings shows a pill per location. Each location holds its own full settings — capacity, turn time, opening hours and closed days. There is no shared "global default" that branches inherit from, so changing one branch never moves another.

Each location can also have its own notification e-mail, set on the same screen. A request is routed to the location address first, then the account address, then the site admin.

The same applies to the room: every location draws its own — see Room & Seating.

Shortcode parameters

Booking Flow

For the guest

For you (the operator)

Everything below happens on Reservations → Service. A context bar at the top fixes what you are looking at — which day, which location — and stays put while you switch between List, Timeline and Room. It also shows the day's covers and the peak against your capacity.

Two nudges that keep the numbers honest

• Overdue arrivals. A confirmed booking whose time passed more than 20 minutes ago without anyone marking the guest as arrived is flagged Overdue. The timeline has a "now" line; the list did not, so a 19:00 booking still untouched at 19:25 looked exactly like one at 22:00.
• "Did they turn up?" Confirmed bookings from days already over that were never closed out are collected in the approval strip, with Arrived and No-show next to them. Nothing is decided for you: marking them automatically would count absent guests as present, and the no-show rate in Analytics would measure button-pressing rather than reality.

Which emails go out

Every message is sent by your own site — there is no external service in between.

Your copy goes to the notification address in Settings → Contact & privacy; with several branches, a location's own address wins, and the site admin address is the fallback. Adding a booking yourself is the one case you control per booking: the confirmation is only sent if you leave the box ticked and gave an address.

Room & Seating Pro

Draw your room once, then seat guests on it during service. The two are separate on purpose: you build the room on Reservations → Set up room, and you run service on Reservations → Service.

Set up the room

Three views of the same day

On Service, the day and location stay fixed while you switch view:

• List — the scannable day, one line per booking.
• Timeline — one lane per table across the service, from opening to closing (past midnight included), with a "now" marker. Good for spotting a gap you could still sell. A booking whose table has since been removed from the plan shows up under Unassigned rather than disappearing.
• Room — the live plan. Scrub the time slider (it starts at the current time) and tables colour live: green free, amber reserved, red seated. Chairs are drawn around each table, one per seat.

Seat guests — two ways

• Guest first. Each confirmed booking has a Seat button. A dialog suggests the best-fit free table, already selected, so it is usually one click. Tables that are too small or already taken are shown but cannot be picked; the time comes from the booking.
• Table first. In the Room view, unseated guests wait in a "to seat" queue: pick one and click a highlighted table, or drag them onto it. Click a seated table to see who is there or to free it.

How long a table stays blocked follows the booking's own turn time, so a large party holds its table longer than a two-top if you staggered it in Settings.

Walk-ins

Seat someone who just walked in — no prior booking:

• + Walk-in in the context bar — enter party size (name optional), pick a free table, done.
• Or, in the Room view, click a free table and seat the walk-in right there.

Walk-ins carry a Walk-in label and count towards capacity like any seated guest.

Analytics Pro

Reservations → Analytics summarises the last 7, 30 or 90 days. With several locations you can look at one branch or at all of them together.

• KPIs — covers (guests), confirmed bookings, no-show rate, average party size.
• Covers over time — guests per day across the range.
• Busiest times — covers by hour of day, so you can staff the peaks.
• Status breakdown — the split across requested / confirmed / arrived / no-show / cancelled / rejected.

Page Builders

Flavor integrates natively with Gutenberg, Elementor and WPBakery. All page builders use the same renderer — the output is always identical.

In every builder, Flavor's elements are grouped under a dedicated Flavor Restaurant category. You'll find the Menu Card element there — plus the Reservation Form element if you use table reservations.

Gutenberg Block

Open the block inserter and look under the Flavor Restaurant category to add the menu block. It provides dropdowns for all shortcode options — no shortcode knowledge needed.

• Layout, Theme, Columns, Image Ratio — all configurable in the sidebar panel
• Category and Location dropdowns are populated from your existing data
• Preview renders server-side in the editor

Elementor Widget

In the Elementor editor, open the Flavor Restaurant category in the widget panel — or search for "Menu Card" — and drag it onto the canvas.

• All options available in the Elementor Content tab
• Live preview in the Elementor canvas
• Works with Elementor Free and Elementor Pro

WPBakery

In the WPBakery editor, click Add Element and open the Flavor Restaurant category — or search for "Menu Card".

• All shortcode parameters available as form fields
• Works in both Classic and Grid modes

FAQ

Do I need a page builder?

No. Flavor works with the standard WordPress shortcode [flavor_menu] — paste it into any page or post. Page builder integrations (Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery) are available but not required.

Will my data be lost when I update the plugin?

No. All dishes, categories, images and settings are stored in the WordPress database. Plugin updates only replace code files — your content remains untouched.

Does it work with my theme?

Yes. Flavor uses fully encapsulated CSS scoped to its own wrapper class .flavor-menu. It does not interfere with your theme's styles.

Can I show different menus for different locations?

Yes. Create locations under Locations, assign dishes to them, then use the location="slug" shortcode parameter on each page. See the Locations section for full details.

How do I control which dish appears first?

Set the Sort Order field on each dish. Dishes are sorted ascending — a dish with Sort Order 1 appears before one with 10. In the Featured layout, the dish with the lowest sort order becomes the hero.

Can I use multiple menus on one page?

Yes. Place multiple [flavor_menu] shortcodes on a single page — each with different category, layout or location parameters. Each instance is fully independent.

Is the menu responsive?

Yes. All 7 layouts are fully responsive and tested on mobile, tablet and desktop. The column count is automatically reduced on small screens.

How do I translate the plugin?

Flavor uses the WordPress standard translation system (Text Domain: flavor-restaurant-menu). Use a plugin like Loco Translate or WPML to translate admin strings and frontend labels.

The menu doesn't show — what should I check?

• Is the plugin activated? Go to Plugins and verify.
• Have you added at least one dish and assigned it to a category?
• Is the shortcode [flavor_menu] on the page (not just in a widget)?
• Check the limit parameter — the default is 150, up to a maximum of 999. Increase it if you have more dishes than that.