Add online order option or improve existing process. FW Food Menu will convert your website into comprehensive food directory with unique design and online order option. This solution works for existing and brand new websites. Introduce your customers to online order feature right from your website or improve current ordering process to get most of it. Customizations to any part of ordering process reflecting your business specifics are available on demand.

Simple configuration. All food directory websites contain categories and meals and/or drinks. With FW Food Menu managing categories is a simple and creative process, allowing you to get layouts that represent your food concept the best. Managing food and drinks is easy with import/export features and "Quick" functions. Lots of add-ons available for meals enhancements to add pricing layers and discounts, images, meal bades or even multilingual menu versions. Daily specials or chef's meals can be promoted with special promos. Exploring the options is quite exciting and entertaining process, but if you look for a quick result we are happy to help with configuration of any difficulty.

Unlimited design options. While FW Food Menu comes with neat and minimal responsive design there are 4 more designs available for coffe houses, italian restaurants, sushi places and pizzerias. Any design can be modified to your taste by adding backgrounds and changing font colors. Menu can be presented as a plain list or as a tabbed structure. Categories can be designed as slideshow on top of meals with changing just a few parameters in configuration. Current variety of settings allow to replicate almost any printed menu into online version or at least make it look very similar and! responsive. It is up to you if you want to go with standard design, get one of specific designs we have or get an exclusive design for your business.

Get orders from desktops and mobiles. Responsive layout is a key in everyday life as we use smartphones everywhere. Having a nice desktop version was okay some time ago, but these days many websites make only mobile versions to make sure people with smartphones can order food on a website. Our approach is to have both versions fully usable. Why not to make a desktop version as attractive and atmospheric as your business is, and just remove some design elements for smaller screens, keeping customers focus on a food order. We test layouts as we add new features and options to make order process easy and predictable. A well-fed customer is a happy customer )

Allow take aways or delivery. Depending on a business model take aways can be as good as a delivery, if a place is busy and is located in a right spot. More often people prefer a delivery for various reasons. Often delivery layers may vary depending on distance or timing. FW Food Menu covers that all and allows to have as many delivery options as you need. If your business requires a specific delivery procedure with multistep flow, we would be happy to consult on possible solutions.

Get payments online. Most typical ways of paying online are cards and online payment systems. At the moment we have all cards option implemented with Stripe platform and PayPal payment. These 2 payment systems cover most popular approaches. Should your business require a new payment system implemented on your website online menu, we are ready to assist.

Works with Wordpress and Joomla!.These 2 platforms are the most popular platforms for websites. They are easy to use and proved their efficiency to the market during decades of online presence. Whatever platform you prefer we are ready to support you with a choice you make. Choose FW Food Menu for your food business and you will get a reliable developer and support, working with Fastw3b for years.

Many years we have developed extensions and sites thinking of a simple way to control all plugins, modules and templates in one place. Now this solution is implemented into all our 3 extensions in free platform with add-ons.

Reading time: 6 mins.

Just to make it clear we call a Platform a free extension (FW Gallery, FW Real Estate or FW Food Menu) which has Add-ons. Add-on can be Joomla! Plugin, Module or extension specific Template, designed with its own system which can be still overwritten in the main Joomla! template.

Benefit 1 - Free extension

Despite demo website we have it was harder to get an idea if our porduct is the right tool for you. Now being completely free we offer functional Joomla! extension with some free an paid add-ons which extend functionality in a way you need exactly for particular website. Every add-on can be downloaded and installed separately adding its own parts to a platform and extending platform possibilities or changing its look.

Benefit 2 - Quick start

All you need to have the latest Joomla! installed and a free component. As soon as you install a platform you must link it to your account on fastw3b.com and you can instantly download and install all available add-ons instead of individual download and installation.

The next tool you may use would be Batch operations available in all our free extensions. Batch operations allow to input data in a very simple way to get a skeleton or your extension categories and items ready in few clicks. Just copy paste key elements following suggested format and you can add as many items as you need to fill in your website with data within minutes.

Benefit 3 - Centralized management

Add-ons section is now available in every extension. It helps to see all available and owned add-ons when you are signed into Fastw3b account by using Access Code. It is a fast and convenient way to track available functionality and design and update your add-ons in one place. Whatever is available or comes out would be listed in Add-ons section of your extension. No need to visit website every week to see what is new. All the information you need will be listed right there in your Add-ons section.

Benefit 4 - Ease of configuration

Add-ons has a huge benefit of selecting what exactly you need for a particular project. It does not only mean less add-ons it means less configuration in a platform. Add-ons architecture  helps to exclude parts of code that relates to a certain functionality and keep you platform clean. The only functions and settings you will see would be those that come from the platform itself and enabled add-ons. Pretty cool, right?

Benefit 5 - Designs

With a new concept we introduce a new design system which has its own set of layouts allowing to assemble design from different bits. This system is very important to provide another level of flexibility in data presentation. Now we can use totally different design approaches in different designs as they may redefine core layouts and have theis own CSS files which adds another level of flexibility and control. This year we plan to have a design release at least every other month.

Benefit 6 - Detailed demo and documentation

Since every Add-on is a separate unit with its own releases it will have its own page, example page on demo website and documentation section. Breaking down bigger product into smaller parts allow to take a closer look of every bit and its functional purpose. Through the years we had numerous situations when people asked in support about features we had for years just because they were poorly described or hard to find. Now when every add-on is a single item customers will have a chance to read all about it and browse documentation before they use it.

Benefit 7 - Quick releases

At this point we have platform and add-ons as totally independent parts which do not affect each other. Of course, platform is a ground for all add-ons, but changes in a platform will not affect add-ons and vice versa. So now it is extremely easy to release a fix or an update as we don't have to test the whole system from scratch as we use to do. We only test parts that relate to add-on or a platform and release a new version. Get ready for a regular monthly releases this year.

Benefit 8 - Customization independence

Customization has always been tricky in terms of future updates as there were simply no way to factor in all changes made in different files of different projects. With new concept all customizations can be wrapped as a customer add-on and keep all needed modifications there without affecting other parts. This innovation means no more worries about updates after customization. From now on update will never wipe out all changes made or break the main part. Forget to write the notes on which files to rewrite after updates and pray they don't break anything. It is all much simpler and safer now.

As you can see new concept came out as a result of our decade in Joomla! development with all out best practices and observations of hundreds of projects made through the years. We are happy to finally release it and share all the benefits of this innovation with our customers.

We are always glad to hear your comments and suggestion either in social networks or on our website.

Reading time: 10 mins. 
Implementation time: 50 mins.

Page with meals categories

Meals list page

A good pizza place needs attractive and informative pizza menu. Have a look at a pizza menu we created with FW Food Menu. A live version is available on FW Food Menu Pizzeria showcase demo.

Reading time: 10 mins. 
Implementation time: 50 mins.

Check out our Pizzeria restaurant Guide for more details on configuring Pizzeria menu. The pizzeria menu should be intuitive, well-organized, and attractive so the customer could be inspired by your menu and easily find out what’s included into a desired Pepperoni pizza.

Our Pizzeria menu is a great example of an effective and good-looking 3 columns menu with beautiful meals images, stylish meals backgrounds, tiered pricing, and descriptions of ingredients. You can create the same pizza menu all by yourself, and you don’t need to be a professional. This showcase can be a good fit to any other fast food restaurant type -  fish and chips, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, ice cream, etc. The only difference will be in meals’ types and the number of categories you will need to create. We will describe the page of the menu, its elements, and the business idea behind each element. Make sure to understand that to proceed with creating the same menu you need to prepare media content and install FW Food Menu to your Joomla website. To learn how to get started with FW Food Menu, review Getting started documentation page. If you have media content and FW Food Menu ready, it takes less than one hour to create a similar online menu. The overall process for creating such a menu looks as follows:

1. Prepare media content - images of different pizza types (30 mins).
2. Install FW Food Menu to present your online menu with a simple and elegant design that fits your pizza place (5 mins).

3. Display all meals to show their images, pricing, portion sizes, and descriptions (40 mins).
4. Configure promo options to highlight and style specific meal items (5 mins). Let’s review the Pizzeria restaurant menu we created below. Pizza menu page

Pizza menu page

A pizza menu should be colorful with appetizing images and complete details. A customer should be able to look through the menu before they start ordering. Make sure you have a clear list of the meals you have on offer. Aside from a clear list, it is also a great tool that you can promote your meals with.

This page is created based on the Menu layout allowing to display a category along with meals included in this category on the same page. The meals are arranged in three columns and each meal has a list of ingredients, available sizes and respective price for each size. Some of the meals are marked with Recommended and New promo emphasizing that the meal is worth paying attention to. Let’s review each element of the menu below:

1. Page title. A title of the Pizzeria restaurant.

2. Menu section title. A clear title of the menu section. You can add as many menu sections as it is provided by your menu.

3. Menu section description. We added a text and image for a menu section description. You can add either of them or both.

4. Meal. Meal referring to the Pizza category.
5. New promo. A new meal highlighted with a blue label. You can choose between 4 promo options - Special, Recommended, New, and Meal of the Day. Each promo is styled differently.
6. Meal background image. We placed a paper styled background image for each meal. Aside from a background image, you can set a background color.
7. Meal image. An appetizing meal photo attracting the eye.


8. Meal title. A beautifully styled and easy-to-find meal title.
9. Meal description. A description of meal ingredients to provide your customers with more details.

10. Prices and sizes. Clear pricing terms outlining meal sizes and corresponding prices for each size.

Our Pizzeria menu features a simple layout and design, allows to emphasize specials, style meals with beautiful background images and color, and many more. We have clearly outlined all the steps for creating such a menu in our Pizzeria Restaurant guide. Should you have any problems while configuring the menu, feel free to ask questions in the comments section at the bottom of the documentation page or contact us using General Questions form in your Client Section.

New free FW Food Menu has become the best we've ever developed so far. Breaking down significant functionality pieces into separate add-ons and introducing new design concept to make any design of menu possible extensions has now dropped all its limits and will satisfy any needs.

Free Component

From now on FW Food Menu will be free. Even free version has lots of features that would allow building most online menus. Among the most powerful features we would name:

• Batch Operations - very simple text mode to quickly build category structure and fill in categories with meals;
• individual Category settings -  allow to override global configuration by some or all parameters;
• free Columns Layout plugin - allows aligning meals into columns;

Add-ons Section

Separating functionality and designs into add-ons helps make releases faster and more stable, focus on every add-on in particular, have its own demo and documentation for every product.

In Add-ons section in administrator panel on your website you can always:

• access all available, purchased and free add-ons;
• see if any updates are available at the moment;
• download and install all add-ons on a clean installation by using your Access Code in free FW Food Menu component.

All new add-ons (plugins, modules, designs) and services related to main component will become available and appear in Add-ons section as soon as they are published on official Fastw3b website.

New Functionality

Let's have a look at all add-ons we have for FW Food Menu 2.0.0.

• Coffee Shop Design - Coffee Shop inspired design with coffee palette colors and font that helps to create right atmosphere for a coffee menu. Has special design for Promo badges which would become available with Promo plugin and promo badges switched to Text Badges.
• Itallian Design - Design inspired with Itialian menu stylimg and colors. Will look authentic with any Pizza & Pasta meals menu. Traditional colors palette and selected fonts help to bring some Italian touches to menu design. Has special design for Promo badges which would become available with Promo plugin and promo badges switched to Text Badges.
• Category Navigation Module - Coffee Shop inspired design with coffee palette colors and font that helps to create right atmosphere for a coffee menu. Has special design for Promo badges which would become available with Promo plugin and promo badges switched to Text Badges.
• Meal Category Module - Category meals presentation in different layouts with many prams to ahieve best presentation. It works and looks almost the same as component layout, but in a form of a module which can be used in different positions and with various parameters even on the same page.
• Cascading Layout Plugin - The best way to show menu on a single page. Selecting any categories you want to show on a page you will see them exactly the way they were designed. So if you need to show very different menu styles or if all categories are styled the same way Cascading Layout will help to show them in one place without reloading the whole page.
• Category PDF Plugin - Adds functionality to upload PDF version of online menu into a category and show Download PDF link next to category title. PDF can be created for each category individually or one file for parent category to have full menu in one file.
• Color & Background Plugin - Ultimate design option to create unqiue category styling by setting text color, background color and image for category in whole or menu items. Can be used in combination with designs. Custom CSS Styles will help to configure element details that may be needed.
• Columns Layout Plugin - Adds Columns option for Categoris layout allowing wrapping meals and subcategories into columns. Different number of columns can be configured for different categories or can be set to Default inheriting global Settings.
• Images Plugin - Adds images to meals listing with option to show them on to the left, right, top or hide. Having images for the category it would add a nice slide show of meals in Category List view when hovering a category.
• Prices & Discounts Plugin - Extends meal price field to a pricing grid, allowing to create a set of price for different meals or extras that come with a meal. Special price field allows to create discounts and can be used with combination of Promo Special or other promo features to emphasize meal value.
• Promo Plugin - A set of promo icons or text badges (depending on configuration) that allow to make a meal stand out. Meal of the day, Special, New and Recommended options are available. This options canbe used to create a separate page with all meals from different categories shown all together. Designs may have special styling for promo text bages.

Design Approach

Starting version 2.0.0 designs transformed into separate themes with its own layouts and CSS files which allows full flexibility for menu presentation. Besides, all published designs CSS will appear in read-only tabs in CSS Styles section of FW Food Menu, allowing to look up styles you may need to change.
New concept for designs make them totally individual and allows to designs and customize design much easier and quicker. Try it and you will see it yourself.

Updates and Pricing

Same as before we have 2 main sale options:

• Version. Cost less, but as soon as new minor version comes out you will need to buy it again. This approach is good for testing a product or a quick job where you don't plan to maintain a website.
• Subscription. Higher cost, but you get 12 months free updates which would be a huge saver considering discounts available for subscription and release frequency. This option is best for long-term users and loyal Fastw3b customers. We encourage you to subscribe using deals and get most discounted full packages if you had a chance to try Fastw3b products quality and support.

Enjoy using our new best FW Food Menu version 2.0.x and wait for new releases coming monthly!

FW Food Menu Joomla is a plugin for creating a menu on the site. Great for cafes, bars, restaurants and delivery sites. The main task of the plugin is to provide the consumer with a tool for convenient food choice, this is realized by: adaptability, downloading files, displaying special offers, and more. In this review - information about the possibilities and benefits of the FW Food Menu plugin.

Key features

Adaptive menu. Layouts are created considering all current trends in the web industry. Therefore, they are correctly displayed on different mobile devices, show a fast loading speed.

Menu in pdf format. Joomla restaurant menu component automatically generates a PDF file that contains all establishment menu. It is available for download.

Marketing. You can select a meal of the day, set new icons for it, formulate special offers and more.

All possibilities

The plugin consists of two parts: the FW Food Menu component and the FW Menu Categories module. This gives the site the following:

• Layout adjustment. You choose by yourself how to display meals: menu with all categories, special meal, no images, etc.
• HTML support. Developers can give the plugin a unique look due to HTML code changes support. You can change the appearance of the menu, an individual meal, etc.
• Categorization. Highlight drinks, cuisine, type of meal. Creating categories is possible under any criteria and in any sequence.
• Meals image. Use your own images to make your meal card even more attractive.
• Currency settings. Joomla food menu module allows you to select the currency displayed on the site.
• Additional information about the meal. Specify weight, proteins, fats, carbohydrates and calories.

Benefits of FW Food Menu

There are four main benefits of the Joomla food menu extension:

• Functionality. The meal menu management using a component is implemented simply, kind of, on an intuitive level. In 10 minutes, it's easy to figure out how to specify calories, make special offers, load images, etc.
• Ease of use. You can add a new category, menu item or meal in a few clicks, without going into complicated code structures.
• Developer support. The developer unlimited support is available to those who selected a premium subscription. The team will answer all questions and quickly eliminate the arisen difficulties.
• Documentation. It is polished and leaves no questions after reading. Everything is reviewed and described to the last detail.

Joomla food menu installation

The process of the plugin installation and configuration is described in detail in FW Food Menu documentation. We give the setup instructions:

1. Download the plugin archive from the official site.
   
   
    
2. Log in to the Joomla administrator panel.
3. Find the "Extensions" menu item in the top section of the screen.
4. In the drop-down list will be the "Manage" item. You should select "Install" in it.
   
   
    
5. The tab for the archive downloading will open. Download the file in any convenient way. If the download was done successfully, you will see the corresponding green notification message.

Now the plugin is ready for use.

Conclusion

FW Food Menu Joomla warrants the attention of those who are planning to create a website for a restaurant, bar or similar establishment. Business owners will appreciate the convenience of updating site content due to the simplicity of the original setting and an intuitive control panel.

Giving the site a unique style that emphasizes the interior of the establishment and the brand's philosophy is extremely simple and effective. Plugin features cover most of the food service owners’ needs.

New:

• Category layout. We created a new layout for meal categories. If earlier categories and meal items were displayed on the same page, now meal categories are the top-level categories leading to a meal items page. The categories are styled with meal images slideshow displayed on hover. You can add a short description to a meal category, for example, a price range or any other specific information. 

• 3 columns layout. We added a parameter allowing to set 3 columns menu. Works perfectly with the image on top new parameter. As a result, the menu looks differently and engaging.

• Image top/right/left parameter. We added a parameter allowing to choose where you want an image to be shown in relation to the text description. This feature adds flexibility to configuring your menu. 

• Meal item color and image background. We added parameters allowing to configure meal item background. Now the meal item background can be styled with different color or image. However, promo meals styling will still overwrite default coloring.

• Recommended promo option. We added a new badge to indicate meals you want people to pay attention to. Now you have more options for promoting your special meal items.  

• Category description left/right parameter. We added a new parameter allowing to place category description at the right/left of the meals columns. Now you can keep the text on the side and show meals in column(s) rather than underneath.


Updates:

• Promo Category filter. The parameter allows to group not only categories but also promo options to show them on a separate page and style the way you need.

Fixes:

• Cascading layout description. We missed description for Cascading layout. Now it is there.

• Select categories for Cascading menu. We added select categories parameter to Cascading layout settings. Now you can choose the categories you want to display on the separate page.


In a highly competitivefood and restaurant industry having a website makes your effort to grow your business easier. We understand that food and restaurant industry is diverse so the menus also should be diverse and reflect the needs of the particular restaurant business. FW Food Menu is a great solution for creating effective food and restaurant industry websites. In this article, we will review a coffee shop showcase created with FW Food Menu.

The showcase is dedicated to the coffee shop. However, you may apply it to any other quick-serve restaurant business - tea room, sandwich bar, bakery, cake shop, etc. The only difference will be in types and number of categories you will need to create. We will describe each section of the menu, its elements, and the business idea behind each element. Each section is realized with a different style to present different menu ideas for your restaurant business, so choose the one that serves your business needs the best.

Make sure to understand that to proceed with creating the same website you need to prepare media content and install FW Food Menu to your Joomla platform. To learn how to get started with FW Food Menu, review Getting started documentation page. If you have media content and FW Food Menu in place, it takes around half an hour to create a similar online menu. The overall process for creating such a menu looks as follows:

1. Prepare media content - meal images grouped by categories/subcategories.
2. Install FW Food Menu to present your online menu with simple and elegant design.
3. Create required categories/subcategories to show different menu positions inside them.
4. Display all menu positions to show their pricing, portion sizes, and description.
5. Configure promo options to highlight and style specific menu positions.
6. Configure Category module to display particular categories.

Check out our Coffee Shop Guide for more details on configuring Coffee Shop showcase. Let’s, review the showcase section by section below.

Component section

This section displayed via FW Food Menu component. All menu items are arranged in two columns to make it look more attractive and structured. Two columns menu is especially helpful when you want to avoid long listings and save some space. An Italian layout design looks cool and will certainly attract customers’ attention.

Here you can see the following elements:

1. Category title. Give a short and clear title to the category.
2. Category description. Specify the description of the category to bring more clarity to what’s included in the category.
3. Meals section. Here are displayed the menu positions referring to the category.
4. Meal image. Upload meal images for better menu presentation.
5. Meal title. Specify the title of the meal using this field.
6. Labels and prices. Labels provide a lot of flexibility. You can use them to specify some additional information or extra ingredient and its respective price. Specify position sizes and respective prices using the pricing grid.
7. Special offer with discounts. Use a Special promo with discount prices to highlight a needed menu position.

Meal Category module sections

The last two sections, Coffee and Desserts, are displayed via FW Food Menu Meal Category module based on the Coffee Shop layout design. A clean and elegant Coffee Shop layout design catersfor even the most discerning customers.

Coffee section

The Coffee section is represented as two column menu, it includes nearly the same elements as the section above. However, there are two conceptual differences:

1. Meal description. Use this feature to specify the recipe or ingredients used in the meal.
2. New special. You can mark a meal as new to highlight it within the category.

Desserts section

The Desserts section is represented as two layers menu - a category with two subcategories. The subcategories are placed in two columns just as in the sections above. Let’s review the conceptual differences below.

1. Category with subcategories. We have split the Desserts category into two subcategories, Pies and Cakes, to create a two layers menu. A two layers menu enables your customers to quickly grasp the menu positions they are interested in. You can create as many subcategories as you need to reflect multi-level structure of your menu.
2. Meal of the day. The Meal of the day promo allows for effective promotion of your special menu positions. It is displayed within the category and at the top of the menu.

As you can see creating a professional and good-looking website for your coffee shop or any other restaurant business is not as complicated as it might seem. Choose the concept that fits your business idea and create your own coffee shop website with your own hands. We have clearly outlined all steps required for creating such a website in our Coffee Shop guide. Should you have any problems while configuring the website, feel free to ask questions in the comments section at the bottom of the documentation page.

The restaurant industry extensively uses a modern technology to promote its business. Good online footprint helps a business stand out among many competitors. A significant part of customers, before visiting a restaurant, look at the menu on a website to understand a range of price, or make an order online. Joomla restaurant menu extension allows you to add to your site a beautiful and convenient menu that will be visual and easy to read on a device with a screen of any size.

Online menu features for visitors

Attractive design. Much depends on the first impression. And in this case, we are talking not only about the beautiful food-shooting, but also about the harmonious placement and combination of elements on the site. Every detail should be “tasty” and encouraging the site visitor to become a customer of the restaurant.

Usability. Simplicity of work with the menu is no less important factor. The visitor should, without hesitation, navigate the menu on the site, easily finding the necessary sections, descriptions, prices, etc.

Fast page load. Whatever may be the number of photos and information on the site, the pages should be optimized to open as quickly as possible.

Responsiveness. The customer can pick a place for dinner using a work laptop, a smartphone on his/her way home, a tablet and any other device with its operating system. Thus, the menu should be displayed properly on each gadget and save the necessary functionality (for example, the ability to order this or that dish).

PDF format. Despite all the advantages of online, sometimes you need the ability to download full information in a file format that can be used at any time. The menu in PDF format, ready for download, is an indisputable advantage for the site of any food establishment.

Online menu features for a site administrator

Settings and layout flexibility. The ability to change the location of elements, appearance, color, font, add or remove individual fields - basic needs that allow you to create a resource individual style using ready-made templates.

Simplicity of adding files and work with them. The ability to download all the necessary information without unnecessary conversions and using photo editors greatly simplifies the work with the menu.
 
Categorization. To place drinks, hot dish, snacks in separate sections is a key necessity, which affects usability and further SEO optimization of the site.

Currency settings. Regardless of whether your restaurant is a local or international establishment, the currency selection in which prices will be displayed on the website is an important aspect.

Special offers, daily specials, new items. This allows you to highlight important offers, to show favorable terms of purchase. For example, display the daily specials at the top of the list or mark a new item in the range of the establishment.

Detailed documentation and support. Polished documentation allows you to install and configure a module for work without exterior help, and supportability guarantees the specialists assistance in case of any questions.

Why consider FW Food Menu for Joomla

Joomla restaurant menu extension is a manageable tool for creating an online menu on your site without the need of outside experts’ technical support. It has all the advantages listed above and allows using a simple set of actions to change the menu design, add and categorize dishes, create and display all the necessary marks and ingredients, indicate the volume, calorie content, etc. The product is fully responsive and looks beautiful on any device.
 
Food Menu product is compatible with Joomla versions 3.8.x and higher. Full details about the product, its use and installation can be found in the FW Food Menu documentation on fastw3b.com.

This release was basically centered around a new menu design. Along with that, there were a series of new features and updates. Let’s review all changes below:

• New menu front-end design. We have updated a menu design. A new modern and clean menu design is perfect for multipurpose restaurant use.
• New design for promo options (New, Meal of the day, Special). We have updated promo icons and boxes to make them look even more appealing and attractive.
• New 2 columns menu layout. Now your menu can be arranged in two columns to make it look more organized and structured.
• New Menu Layout options for a menu item. We have updated menu layout options to add more flexibility to a menu item display.
• New FWFM Meal Categories Module. This feature is especially helpful for those who want to display their menu in a module. FWFM Meal Categories Module has the same settings as the component - choose the categories you want to display, set two columns menu, display PDF download button, etc.
• New multi-price feature. Configure a pricing grid for a separate menu position - set different prices for different portion sizes.
• New price discounts option. This option allows to apply a discount to a specific meal. Discounts can be used in pair with promo options for more effective promotion.
• Revised admin panel. We have updated admin panel design. Now it looks cleaner.
• Revised PDF option. An updated PDF option allows to upload a full menu PDF file instead of generating it live. Earlier, it took too much time to wait for online generation and often had design issues.
• Joomla 3.9.x compatibility. We have tested the component with Joomla 3.9.x.

Get familiar with FW Food Menu documentation to find more information about our product. Please use the comments section at the bottom of each documentation page to comment and suggest improvements that will make the product experience better.

This release includes a set of new features, updates, and minor bug fixes. A multi-level menu and newCoffee Shop layout design have become prominent features of this release. Let’s review all of the changes below:

• Multi-level menu. Earlier, all menu items could be grouped by categories only. Now we have added subcategories for clear and concise menu presentation. Each category can be split into subcategories. As a result, you get a menu that is easy to read and navigate.  As you look at it, you can quickly grasp the required menu positions. 

• Coffee Shop layout design. An elegant and clean design with new fonts and colors is a great solution for coffee shops and other restaurant businesses. Now you have more options for styling your menu

• Italian layout design. We have renamed the old default design to Italian. Now it is available as a separate option.

• CSS styles section. Now you can edit CSS styles of the component directly via Joomla admin panel. Earlier, you could do this only from your hosting via FTP.
• Class suffix in Category module settings. By assigning class suffix to the module you can individually style the module. Now you can assign a class suffix to the Meal Category module in order to change module display, for example, font or background color.
• Coffee Shop design for Category module.  Now you can style Category module using our custom module style - fwfm-coffee-shop. Assign this class suffix to the Meal Category module to add a unique style to the module.
• Images format 100X100. Earlier the allowed format for the displaying images was 100X70. Sometimes this format caused images distortion. We have changed the format to 100X100 to improve images display.
• FWFM Navigation. We have changed the name of the FWFM Meal Categories module to  FWFM Navigation to avoid confusion with Meal Category module.
• Promo options icons display. Bug resulted in inability to display icons for promo options.

• Modules assignment to the page. It was impossible to assign more than one module to the content section of the page.

Get familiar with FW FoodMenu documentation to find more information about our product. Please use the comments section at the bottom of each documentation page to comment and suggest improvements that will make the product experience better.

New:

• Cascading Menu Layout. This feature allows breaking your menu into categories’ tabs allowing to easily switch between multiple categories within the menu. As a result, you create a menu that works differently and looks more organized and structured.

• Promo options display in a category filter. We have added a parameter which helps to show only deals on the separate page. You can choose to display either all promo options or the specific ones. 

• Native Food Menu CSS file in the admin section. We have added the native Food Menu CSS file in Admin section so you could edit Food Menu CSS styles directly via Joomla admin panel.


Updates:

• Renamed Default design to Italian. Following our customers' requests, we have renamed Default design to Italian. The Default title caused confusion with a default option that sets a priority between menu item and global settings.   


Bug fix:

• Category Layout title display. Fixed the display of menu item title.

• Category Module design and title display. Fixed the display of the module design and title.

• Descriptions for CSS Style section. Added descriptions to CSS Style section to help understand how to customize CSS to avoid loss after updates.

• Removed decimal zeros from menu prices.  The menu prices displayed with decimals which make no sense. 


Reading Time: 10 mins. Implementation Time: 40 mins.

1. Prepare media content - meal images grouped by categories/subcategories.

2. Install FW Food Menu to present your online menu with a simple and elegant design that fits your business idea.

3. Create the required categories/subcategories to show different meals inside them.

4. Display all meals to show their images, pricing terms, portion sizes, and descriptions.

5. Configure promo options to highlight and style specific meals.


Cascading menu 

1. Menu item title. A title of the restaurant.

2. Categories titles. All categories you have created are displayed as tabs at the top of the menu. 

3. Meal image. Upload meal images to ensure that your menu looks attractive and appetizing.

4. Meal title. Specify the title of the meal.

5. Meal description. Add a description for each meal to provide your customers with more information about the meal.

6. Labels. Specify additional information for each pricing term using the dedicated pricing grid labels.

7. Prices. Add as many pricing terms as it is needed for a meal.

8. Meal of the day promo. Use Meal of the day promo to highlight specific meals with a grey box and green sticker.

9. New special promo. Highlight your new special meals with a blue sticker.


According to statistics, revenue in the Online Food Deliverysegment is projected to reach 5-15% in 2022 for countries all over the world. While COVID-19 pandemia performs as a booster for transition to online food ordering, for many restaurants it is a matter of staying in the business. When it comes to online presence, some restaurants can barely keep their PDF or JPG food menus actual, never mind taking orders online. How can a restaurant establish and maintain the online presence?

Let's take a look what options a restaurant have from cheap to expensive:

1. Use social networks.
2. Build a website in-house.
3. Use food menu service.
4. Hire a freelancer.
5. Hire a company.

Social networks is a great way to promote business and stay public. But it seems to be the only benefit for the restaurants. There is no special or any functionality to sell meals from any social media so far. You need to be very creative to come up with some meal folders on Facebook or save menu as Instagram stories.

Building a website in-house means the cheapest way, but involves the longest learning curve with unpredictable results. The length of the curve may mean months. It is likely that the website will never be finished and will always be in progress. To a certain degree, it is not a bad thing, but a website will not function as expected. Besides, eventually a person who started its construction will have to become full time website developer.

Food menu services or websites with subscriptions offer some decent functionality, but you lose promotion benefits. Starting as free or very cheap, they charge you more for any new feature or take commissions from every online transaction. Menu is limited to functions that a service has. Very often the only benefit of such services that you make this first step into the online presence. It's really hard to get a branded design or automate data synchronization to keep menu actual.

Freelancer may help to speed up website development process and use the knowledge of the market and technology to utilize the best and get work done with predictable results. The biggest challenge with freelancers is finding a reliable and competent person. Probably freelancer is the best option for small and medium restaurants as you would get personal developer for a reasonable pricing. Promo budget needs to be added on top of all development expenses.

Hiring a company is the more expensive (sometimes it is times expensive) option comparing to developer. You may expect more attention to details, more professional approach, more papers and longer turn-around. Companies do not rush the process and let you feel the importance of the service you pay for. Works well for medium and big restaurants, when there is a budget for online restaurant image.

There is a niche for almost any request and budget in growing food ordering business. With our FW Food Menu online food delivery system, we offer a quick start solution with further customizations and training on key features for the quickest return of investments. Contact us via website or in social networks for alternative expert advice on the best fit online for your restaurant.

Taking orders online has become a necessity for food industry in our pandemic situation. While most people would prefer to hang out with their friends in bars and restaurants face to face, online orders have always been part of a business that had a huge potential and a growing demand. There are businesses that only sell food online, which demand a very friendly ordering service and of course high quality food.

When we think of our favourite food places we imagine an atmospheric website design with interior images, actual menu with prices, locations, working hours, etc. These websites is a huge part of food industry market, but it is very rare when local food places have online food ordering option available. At best you can expect a link to a 3rd party platform where food is sold in a totally different environment and with minimal design references to a place a customer buys from. From the other hand it does the job and these solutions are popular among local providers.

Our today's topic can be an answer to both local food places owners and online food ordering systems. Why not adding an ordering option if you already have a website. Also, if you have an ordering website you can check if your process is smooth enough or it may benefit from replacing your current system with FW Food Menu plugin for Wordpress. All written below would refer to Wordpress websites.

Assuming you have a Wordpress website online and Admin access to it we will show how to turn it into online food ordering system and start taking orders online in 10 mins. The main steps are:

1. Install & verify FW Food Menu plugin - 1.5 mins
2. Create an order page - 1.5 mins
3. Add food categories (4 items) - 0.5 mins
4. Add meals to the categories (39 items) - 1.5 + 1.5 mins
5. Adjust order page layout - 1 min
6. Configure payment - 3 mins
7. Take your first order!

For payment options you will need at least 30 days subscription to FWFM Order Online add-on, which currently costs $34.99 USD. If you skip this option you will get a nice looking responsive online menu. Since our goal was to take orders online you will need that add-on which comes with PayPal and Stripe integrations that cover the most popular card payments and online PayPal payment.

Before we start make sure you are logged into your Wordpress admin, get your stopwatch handy... Ready. Steady. Go.

1. Install & verify FW Food Menu plugin

1. Download FW Food Menu ZIP installation file from the official FW Food Menu page.
   Make sure you are logged in before you download free FW Food Menu plugin. If you don't have an account, register beforehand, please.
2. Open your Wordpress admin.
3. Go to Plugins section, click Add New button on top and then Upload Plugin button.
4. Select FW Food Menu ZIP file you downloaded and click Upload button.
5. Once installation is complete hit Activate button.

Alternatively you can install from WP Admin -> Plugins -> Add New section by typing in "FW Food Menu" in a search box and hit Install button.

Congratulations! You have FW Food Menu installed on your Wordpress website.

In order to verify a website we need go to WP Admin -> Dashboard, enter Acess Code in verification box and click Verify button.

Access code is a unique customer code that can be found in Client Section on fastw3b.com.

Congratulations! Now you can install free add-ons and updates, use Fastw3b support and purchase add-ons in case of need.

2. Create an order page

1. Go to WP Admin top panel, hover your website name and click View Site menu item. Better keep it open in a seperate window so you can make changes and check your progress by refreshihng this page.
2. Open "Hello World" post by clicking the title and edit it with Edit link.
3. Rename it to "Order Page" and replace text with [fwfm_menu] shortcode.
4. Now Updatechanges and click View Post link.

Congratulations! No you have empty FW Food Menu which will be filling with content and new options in a few minutes.

3. Add food categories

To avoid dummy texts and made up examples we went to Trip Advisors's Boston quick bites directory and picked a random food place which turned out to be Thinking Cup Boston. Luckily they had a website with a very typical menu. This is a perfect example to see how easy you can turn a regular website into online food ordering website.

They have 4 categories:

Coffee
Tea & More
Breakfast
Sandwiches

1. Go to FW Food Menu -> Categories in WordPress admin.
2. Click Quick Categories button on top.
3. Copy & paste 4 categories from above into Quick Categories modal window. No need to select parent category as we want them to be top-level categories.
4. Click Process button.

Congratulations! You added 4 categories to your future online menu.

4. Add meals to the categories

Thinking Cup website has different types of meals in terms of data format, also there are meals with price layers. For a start we will ignore long descriptions and will only use first price to get meals imported into categories. All other details would be a good reason to write another post on how to make this menu perfect and add enhancements to make online menu really user friendly and intuitive.

After spending few minutes for copying meals into text file and edit them in a "meal name = price = meal description" format we have 4 blocks ready for import.

Please note that we removed $ dollar signs as a currency would be set in FW Food Menu Settings.

1. Go to WP Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Meals.
2. Click Quick Meals button in top toolbar.
3. In Quick Meals modal select Coffee category and paste 13 meals for this category. See below.
4. Click Process.

Repeat for 3 other categories. Paste items for a category you selected and insert into Quick Meals modal window.

Coffee (13 items)

Coffee = 1.50
Iced coffee = 2.75 = Brew.
Café Au Lait = 2.90 = Coffee with steamed milk.
Espresso = 2.75
Macchiato = 3.00 = Espresso with a dollop of milk.
Latte = 3.50 = Espresso with foamed milk.
Cappuccino = 3.50 = Espresso, steamed milk and milk foam.
Mocha = 2.50 = Espresso, premium home made chocolate sauce and foamed milk.
Americano = 2.75 = Espresso and hot water.
Pour over = 3.30 = Check Board for Single Origins
Hazelnut latte = 4.00 = With Freshly Roasted Hazelnut Paste
Vanilla Ginger latte = 3.90 = Our Original Home Made Syrup
Honey Cinnamon Latte = 3.90 = Our Original Home Made Syrup

Tea & More (5 items)

Hot Tea = 3.00 = Blue Flower Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Decaf English Breakfast
French Hot Chocolate = 3.95 = 64% Tainori Valhrona Drinking Chocolate
Chai Latte = 3.50
Iced Tea = 2.00 = Bergamot Black, Golden Green, Crimson Berry
Orange/Grapefruit Juice = 2.95 = Freshly Squeezed.

Breakfast (12 items)

Egg & cheese sandwich = 2.95
Breakfast Sandwich = 4.95 = Choice of Sausage, Bacon or Ham with Egg and Cheese on English Muffin
Smoked Salmon on Bagel = 7.50 = with cream cheese, tomato, and red onions
Cage-free Eggs = 6.95 = with potato, nitrate-free bacon, and gruyere or with Spinach, Roasted red peppers and mushroom.
Breakfast Burrito = 5.95 = Choice of Sausage, Bacon , Ham or Chorizo with Egg, Salsa, Black Beans, Pepper-jack Cheese on flour Tortilla
Bagels = 2.00 = Plain, Wheat, Everything, Cinnamon Raisin with Butter 2.25 with Jelly 2.50 with Cream Cheese 2.75
Croissant = 3.00
Chocolate croissant, almond croissant = 3.50
Scone = 3.25 = Cherry Ginger, Lemon Poppy Seed
Muffin = 3.00 = Blueberry, Morning Glory, Raspberry Yogurt (seasonal)
Oatmeal = 3.95
Toppings = 0.50 Almonds, Bananas, Raisins, Strawberries, Walnuts, Apples, Cranberries, Blueberries, Brown Sugar, Honey, Maple Syrp

Sandwiches (9 items)

Grilled Cheese = 6.95 = Choice of bread, cheese and plenty of add-ons
The Italian = 8.95 = A mixture of sweet and spicy Italian cold cuts, sharp provolone cheese, red wine vinaigrette and arugula on house baked bell pepper focaccia bread
Jittery Hen = 8.95 = Stumptown coffee braised chicken, house-made BBQ sauce, pickles and smoked gruyere cheese on sourdough bread
B.A.L.T = 8.95 = Applewood Smoked Bacon, Hass Avocado, romaine lettuce, vine-ripe tomato and house made aioli on sourdough bread
Classic Turkey = 8.95 = Maple turkey, swiss cheese, dijon mustard, romaine lettuce, vine ripe tomato pressed on multigrain bread
Smoking Jamaican = 8.95 = Jerk-spiced turkey, roasted red'n yellow peppers, havarti cheese, mango chutney,pickled jalapenos, pressed on toasted multigrain bread
Roasted Chicken = 8.95 = Buttermilk marinated chicken tenders, havarti cheese, roasted wild mushrooms, vine-ripe tomato, romaine lettuce, sweet'n'spicy mustard pressed on multigrain bread
Jimmy the Greek = 8.95 = Red bell pepper hummus, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, vine ripe tomato, roasted wild mushrooms and goat cheese on multigrain bread
Barcelona Bliss = 8.95 = Spanish cured dry chorizo, Aged manchego cheese, roasted garlic aioli and green olive spread on a crusty french roll

After we add meals for all categories let's go to Order page and check the results.

Well done! Now we have 4 categories with real meals on our order page.

5. Adjust order page layout

If we compare the original menu page and what we currently have we will notice that our version is 1 column menu while source has 4 columns which looks much nicer and occupies less space on a screen. Let's do the same.

We need to set global columns rows to 4 while number of columns inside categories should be 1. Since all categories inherit global/parent settings we will have to change number of columns in categories to avoid funky layout.

1. Go to Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Dashboard.
2. Find Add-ons section and click Install button for FWFM Columns add-on.

We can install FWFM Colums right from add-ons section because it is a free add-on. Purchased add-ons will only appear if plugin was verified (see step 1).

When installation is complete, do the following:

1. Go to Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Settings -> Design & Layout tab.
2. Find Columns in a row parameter and set it to 4.
3. Allow category break parameter must be set to Deny.
4. Let's also set Align meal content and Category alignment to Center.
5. Go to Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Categories.
6. Select all categories.
7. Click Batch Operations button in a tool bar.
8. Set 1 column and click Process.

Congratulations! Now you have 4 columns menu. Refresh Order page and check results.

6. Configure payment

Before we go to configuration and have Online ordering configured we need a paid FWFM Online Order add-on. To get add-on right from your website you need to:

1. Go to WP Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Add-ons.
2. Find FWFM Order Online add-on and click Add-on details button.
3. In a pop-up window you should select 30 days or 12 months subscription. Let's go for 30 days for a test, but we definitely recommend get a 12 months subscription.
4. When you click 30 days button your cart will be updated.
5. Close add-on window and click Checkout button on top of Add-ons page.
6. Make the payment and get back to your Wordpress Admin.
7. Go to Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Dashboard -> Add-ons section and find FWFM Order Online with Install button next to it.
8. Install FWFM Order Online and go to  Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Settings -> Add-ons tab.
9. Let's add notification email where we will receive all orders.
10. Set order shift for 2 hours to make sure it can be ready in time.
11. Add a local tax of 7% for all meals which will not be included in meals prices.
12. Enable Show Cash parameter, considering we will have Takeaways for now.
13. Thinking cup has 3 locations. Let's add Takeaway deliveries with 0 cost and without Show Address and Show in total options and call them "BOSTON COMMON", "NORTH END" and "BACK BAY" to allow customers where to pick their orders.
14. Add an order message "We will call you back in 5 mins after order is made." to let customers know what will happen after order is made.

Done! Now we are ready to take the first order!

7. Take your first order

Go to an Order Page and add some items to an order. Try to edit order and add/delete items forth and back. When you are done click Checkout button and fill in Checkout form. After all fields are filled a confirmation will appear on a page and emails will be sent to a recepient we set in point 6.9 and a customer will receive a copy. Also order record will appear in Admin -> FW Food Menu -> Orders section.

Please contact us, if you have questions or need any assistance via Client Section. We would be glad to hear your feedback if setup process is easy enough. We plan to release a video soon on how to do it all and add to this post. Stay tuned.