Best WordPress Themes and Plugins for Food and Recipe Blogs

Food, restaurant and recipes blogs are very popular right now and WordPress is one of the easiest ways to manage such a site. Not only is it free to install WordPress, but there are many plugins and themes that can help you create a great looking site.

The right theme can make people want to taste your recipes or try out your restaurant. Plugins can make it easy to post your recipes or menus and they can also help to optimize your site for the search engines. Many of these themes and plugins are free, while some can be purchased at a very reasonable price. In this article we’ll be exploring some themes and plugins that are especially great for food related blogs.

Choosing the right theme

The first thing you have to do when setting up a WordPress site is to choose a theme.

If your blog is on a topic related to food it’s very important to pick an appealing theme that will give visitors a visual “taste” of the food. While people can’t actually smell or taste food online, the right images and layout can spark their imagination and make people want to try the recipe, restaurant or style of cooking you’re describing!

1. MyCuisine Restaurant Theme

   

   One of the best theme for restaurants is the MyCuisine Restaurant WordPress theme. This is actually part of a package sold by Elegant Themes. When you join Elegant Themes as a member, you will have access to 87 different themes for only $69, which is one of the best values around for premium WordPress themes.

   The MyCuisine theme has a clean, professional look and it displays some mouth watering visuals that will whet your visitors’ appetites. This is the perfect theme for a restaurant or eatery that wants to build a great looking website without investing a lot of money into web design.

   Elegant themes have many benefits compared to free themes. You get perpetual updates to ensure that the theme is compatible with the most recent version of WordPress. The code is secure, making your site less vulnerable to hackers. Elegant Themes are also designed to be compatible with all major browsers.

2. Foodie Theme

   

   Another good food related theme is the Foodie theme by MintThemes. This is great for a recipe blog because it contains a built-in recipe builder where you just have to type in the ingredients and quantities. This theme also makes it easy to share images and videos.

   This theme is a little more costly than MyCuisine, as you have to purchase it separately for $79. However, it’s a good choice for recipe blogs, and from my experience, MintThemes provides very good support for their themes.

Food and Recipe plugins

Once you’ve chosen a theme, you should then optimize your WordPress blog with some good plugins. Below are some good free plugins that are designed especially for food and recipe blogs.

1. Recipress

   

   Recipress is a plugin that lets you create a custom meta box where you can include things like ingredients, cooking time, skill level, instructions and level of skill required. This is an efficient way to create recipes for your blog. The plugin is also search engine optimized.

2. Shopeat

   

   Shopeat is useful for converting recipes into shopping lists. This way your visitors can save the ingredients from a recipe into their smartphone and know what they have to buy when they go grocery shopping.

3. GetMeCooking Recipe Template

   

   GetMeCooking Recipe Template allows you to add one or more recipes to a blog post. You can specify if the recipe is appropriate for people with various allergies or dietary restrictions. It also has features such as recipe search, SEO and custom colors and layout.

4. Customizable WordPress Restaurant Menu

   

   Customizable WordPress Restaurant Menu is a premium plugin that is very useful for restaurants that want to be able to create menus quickly. You can create menus, sub-menus, prices, descriptions of dishes and more. Many people like to be able to read menus on a website, before they visit a restaurant so it’s a good idea to have a menu posted. A regular license for this plugin costs $16.

5. Recipe Card

   

   Recipe Card is a plugin that lets you create attractive looking recipes that your visitors can save and print. The snippets tool allows you to post thumbnails on search results which will tempt more people to click on your link! There is also a nutrition box to let everyone know how healthy your recipes are. Great plugin I must say!

Conclusion

People are now more food conscious than ever before. They want to explore new recipes, healthier ways of cooking and find out about the latest restaurants in their neighborhoods. Having a food blog is a way to tap into this and profit from it. Whether you have your own restaurant or just want to share your favorite recipes, a WordPress blog makes it convenient to do this.

Choosing a relevant theme is the starting point for any blog. Beyond this, you can install plugins that make your site more interesting and useful for visitors. The themes and plugins we’ve explored here are just some of the free and low cost options you have to help you create a professional looking food blog.

A nice theme and some useful plugins, however, are just the first step to creating a popular food site. The real key is supplying people with the kind of content that will make them keep coming back to your site. If you can give them a steady supply of original recipes or post your restaurant menu for their convenience, you can have a popular high traffic blog!

MyCuisine Restaurant Theme Demo