It’s hard to keep up with orders during busy times. If too many orders come in at once, your kitchen gets slammed, deliveries run late, and customers get upset. RestroFood, a WordPress plugin for online food ordering, has a simple fix: the Order Limit On Time Slot setting. This lets you cap how many orders each delivery or pickup slot can take.
That way, your food stays good, your service stays on time, and your team doesn’t get overwhelmed.
This guide shows you how to set it up, what your customers will see, and how to fine-tune it over time.
Why Order Limits Matter
Setting an order limit helps you stay in control and keep customers happy. Here’s why it works so well:
- Stops peak-hour chaos: Busy times, like Friday night, can flood your system with orders. Without a cap, your team may fall behind, and food may arrive late or cold.
- Keeps service steady: Customers like knowing what to expect. A cap on each slot means every order goes out on time.
- Protects your staff: Too many orders at once can burn out your team and cause mistakes. A cap keeps the pace manageable.
- Matches your real capacity: Your kitchen and drivers can only do so much. If two cooks can make 6 orders each in 30 minutes, a 12-order cap fits that.
- Adapts to change: Since RestroFood uses one limit for all slots, you can lower it on slow days and raise it again before a rush.
If you leave this blank, RestroFood won’t cap orders at all. That can overload even a well-run kitchen during busy hours. Here’s how to set it up.
Step 1: Find the Time Slot Setting
Log in and find RestroFood
- Go to yourwebsite.com/wp-admin and log in with an admin or Shop Manager account.
- In the left sidebar, look for RestroFood. It has its own icon and menu, with Settings and Orders underneath.
- Click Settings, then click Delivery Settings.
Find the field
- Make sure the General tab is open (the other tabs are Delivery/Pickup, Pre Order, and Checkout).
- Under General Options, you’ll see Order Limit On Time Slot, next to Minimum order amount and Free shipping require minimum order amount.
- This one field sets the order cap for every time slot on your site.
Step 2: Set Your Order Limit
Pick a number
- Type in a number that fits how much you can handle. For example, “10” means each slot can take up to 10 orders. Think about:
- How many orders your kitchen can cook (2 cooks x 5 orders = 10).
- How many orders you can deliver (2 drivers x 5 deliveries = 10).
- If you leave this field blank, every slot allows unlimited orders. That might be fine on a slow Tuesday, but risky on a busy Saturday.
One number, every slot
- This setting isn’t split up by day or by slot. The number you enter applies to your whole schedule. If you want a lower cap on weekdays and a higher one on Friday nights, you’ll need to come back and change the number by hand.
- Start with a safe number, like 8, and adjust after watching how the week goes.
Step 3: Save and Check Your Settings
Save your changes
- Scroll down and click the orange Save Setting button. Your new limit takes effect right away.
- If you skip this step, your slots stay uncapped.
Double-check it worked
- Go back to the Order Limit On Time Slot field to make sure your number is still there.
- Try it out on your site: place a few test orders to fill up a slot, then check that new customers see it as full.
Step 4: What Customers See
A full slot
- Once a slot reaches its limit, it stays in the time dropdown, but the text changes to let customers know. For example: “04:00 pm – This time slot is full. Try another time slot.” Customers see this right in the list, before they even reach checkout.
Picking another time
- Since the full slot stays visible (just marked as full), customers can quickly spot an open time and pick it, without any guesswork.
Changing the message
- Want different wording? Check RestroFood’s Status Text or Text Edit settings in the sidebar. Just make sure this exact message is one you can edit there before you count on it.
Step 5: Tips for Better Results
Watch demand and adjust
- Since this is a single number, plan to check it often instead of setting it once and forgetting it. Look at your past orders and delivery times, raise the number before a busy night or holiday, and lower it again once things quiet down.
Match staff to your limit
- Only raise the cap if you also have more cooks or drivers ready to handle it.
- If customers keep finding slots full, that’s a sign to raise the limit a bit (as long as your kitchen can keep up). If your team is falling behind, lower it instead.
Running more than one location
- If you use RestroFood’s Multibranch add-on, note that it lets you set delivery time windows for each branch. Check your own setup to see if the order limit itself can also be set per branch before you plan around that.
Conclusion
Setting an order limit on time slots keeps your delivery and pickup orders in line with what your team can really handle. Find the setting under Delivery Settings, pick a number that fits your kitchen and drivers, save it, and check back as demand changes. This keeps your service fast and reliable, without the stress of unlimited orders.
