Olena Food – Online Ordering for Food Trucks & Restaurants

Olena Food is a WordPress food ordering plugin built for small restaurants, food trucks, cafés, bakeries, and other food businesses. Create an online menu, allow customers to customize food with add-ons, accept orders through a mobile-friendly checkout, receive online payments with Stripe, and manage orders directly from WordPress. The plugin is designed to provide the essential tools needed for online food ordering without requiring WooCommerce.

From your WordPress dashboard

1. Go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for Olena Food.
3. Install and activate the plugin.
4. Configure the plugin settings.
5. Optionally import the demo menu items and add-ons.
6. Add your own menu items and start accepting orders.

Manual installation

1. Download Olena Food.
2. Upload the plugin directory to /wp-content/plugins/.
3. Activate Olena Food from the Plugins page in WordPress.
4. Configure the plugin settings.
5. Optionally import the demo menu items and add-ons.

2.0.1

• Uninstall issue fixed.

2.0.0

• Added Add-on Availability to mark individual add-ons as available or unavailable, so a sold-out extra can be pulled from every dish at once without removing it from any menu item.
• Marking an add-on unavailable hides it from customers everywhere it is assigned; making it available again restores it automatically, with no reassignment.
• Availability is a global property of the add-on and can be set from the add-on editor, while creating an add-on, or from an expandable settings area on each add-on in the Menu Item Add-ons manager.
• Unavailable add-ons stay fully visible and manageable in the WordPress admin, with an "Unavailable" marker in the Menu Item Add-ons manager and a new Availability column on the add-ons list table.
• The storefront hides unavailable add-ons, hides categories that become empty, and shows an "Unavailable" badge on an already-selected add-on that becomes unavailable.
• Orders that include an unavailable add-on are blocked securely on the server, so an unavailable add-on can never be purchased.
• Existing add-ons without this setting are treated as available, so nothing changes after updating.
• Added Required Add-ons to mark specific add-ons as mandatory on individual menu items, so a required extra is added automatically at a fixed quantity and cannot be removed or changed by the customer.
• Required is set per menu item, so the same add-on can be optional on one dish and required on another, each with its own required quantity.
• Required add-ons are enforced securely on the server, so an order that omits a required add-on or changes its fixed quantity is rejected.
• Unavailable always takes priority over Required: an add-on that is unavailable is not shown, added, or enforced, and resumes as required automatically once it becomes available again.
• Existing menu items without this setting are unaffected, so nothing changes after updating.
• Customers can now remove individual add-ons directly from the cart page, without editing or re-adding the item.
• Each add-on in the cart shows a delete button next to it, so unwanted extras can be removed with a single click.
• The item price, subtotal, and order totals update instantly when an add-on is removed.
• Added a smooth add-on selection animation on the single item page: the chosen add-on visually flies into your customizations while the remaining add-ons gently close the gap.
• The animation is purely visual and never affects add-on selection, pricing, or the cart, and is automatically skipped when the browser's reduced-motion setting is enabled.

1.5.2

• Added Order Canceled email notifications, sent automatically when a customer cancels a pending order.
• Order cancellation emails can be enabled or disabled independently for administrators and customers, each with its own subject and template.
• Cancellation emails reuse the same recipients and placeholders as the other order emails, so historical order details are preserved.
• Improved the Live Orders dashboard so a customer-cancelled order re-surfaces in the monitor and plays the sound alert, so cancellations are never missed.
• A cancelled order is clearly labeled "Cancelled by customer" on the Live Orders monitor and reuses the existing order card instead of creating a duplicate.

1.5.1

• Added an optional storefront search box that finds menu items by their title and description.
• The search box shows the latest menu items when opened and updates results as the customer types, in a popup that overlays the menu without shifting the page.
• Added optional Categories and Tags navigation above the storefront menu for one-click filtering.
• Only categories and tags that contain at least one menu item are shown in the navigation.
• Enable Search, Categories, and Tags independently from the Designs settings page; all default to off, so existing stores are unchanged after updating.
• Added backend duplicate-order protection so double-clicking or retrying Place Order no longer creates two orders.
• Made order creation race-safe, so two simultaneous requests from the same visitor can never both create an order.
• Added per-visitor order rate limiting to reduce order abuse, without using IP-based blocking.
• Added a private, secure storefront session for guests (stored only as a hash) that powers the new protection and is compatible with cached pages.
• Added reusable database infrastructure that installs and upgrades the new sessions table automatically on activation and on plugin updates.

1.5.0

• Added a new Minimal store design — a clean, squared, flat look with thin borders, subtle shadows, and a muted terracotta accent.
• Choose your store design (Default, Basic, or Minimal) on the Designs settings page; the selected design styles both the storefront and the Olena Food admin screens.
• The selected design loads only when chosen and is remembered across visits, so Default stays lightweight.
• Built to be extended, so companion add-ons can register their own designs.

1.4.7

• Added a first-run Setup Wizard to configure the store step by step after installation.
• Choose between importing the demo content or setting up the store manually.
• Guided steps cover currency and store page, working hours, payments and tips, and order notification emails.
• The wizard checks the permalink structure and can apply a compatible one with a single click.
• Every step saves through the plugin's existing settings, so nothing is duplicated.
• Existing stores are detected automatically, so the wizard only appears on a fresh install and never overwrites your configuration.

1.4.6

• Added Tips support to let customers leave a tip during checkout.
• Admins can enable Tips and choose one percentage option from 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, or 25%.
• Customers can choose No Tip or the configured percentage, with the total updating instantly.
• Percentage tips are calculated only from menu items and their add-ons, excluding tax, delivery, and other fees.
• Tips are included automatically in the final order total and payment amount.
• The saved tip is shown on the customer receipt and in order management.
• Added the {tips} email placeholder for admin and customer notification templates.
• Built to be extended by companion add-ons with multiple tip percentages and custom tip amounts.

1.4.3

• Added Menu Item Sizes to offer a dish in multiple sizes, each with its own price.
• Each item keeps a Normal price and can enable additional sizes such as Small and Large.
• Customers choose a size on the storefront and the price updates instantly.
• Selecting different sizes of the same item adds them as separate cart lines.
• The chosen size is shown across the cart, checkout, receipt, and order management.
• Additional sizes without a price are automatically hidden from customers.

1.4.2

• Added Live Orders, a real-time monitor of new (unviewed) orders on the settings page.
• New orders appear automatically without reloading; an online/offline indicator shows the connection status.
• Opening an order in the WordPress editor automatically marks it as viewed and removes it from the monitor on the next update.
• Added order sound alerts with four selectable sounds, a volume control, and a Test Sound button.
• Added a live "New Orders" counter to the WordPress admin bar linking to the orders list.
• Historical orders created before this feature are never shown as new.

1.4.1

• Added Menu Item Availability to mark items as available or unavailable.
• Unavailable items show an "Unavailable" label and hide the Add to Cart button on the storefront.
• Unavailable items already in the cart are highlighted so customers can remove them before checkout.
• Orders containing unavailable items are blocked securely on the server.
• Added an Availability column to the menu items admin table and a highlight on the item editor screen.

1.4.0

• Added Pause / Open Orders feature to temporarily pause and reopen online ordering.
• Added synced pause controls in the settings tab, admin floating button, and admin bar.
• Added a customizable paused notice for the storefront.
• Added an option to keep the menu visible or hidden while ordering is paused.

1.3.2

• Customer Additional notes.
• Admin Additional notes.

1.3.1

• Payment integration improved.

1.3.0

• Added Stripe payment gateway.
• Added email notifications for administrators and customers.
• Added configurable working hours.
• Added order management improvements.
• Added cart and checkout improvements.

1.2.0

• Tested with WordPress 7.1.

1.1.0

• Added menu item filtering by categories and tags.

1.0.1

• Compatibility and required improvements.

1.0.0

• Initial release of Olena Food.