Automattic has a new theme in the WordPress Themes Directory. Bibimbap, named for a beloved Korean comfort food, is a restaurant theme. It is described as “simple and fun” but does not come with a live demo, so users will need to be prepared to work with patterns to get their restaurant sites put together.
The home page pictured in the screenshot displays a full width Cover block with an image as the background, a call to action, and some contact information. Bibimbap features the Cooper Hewitt typeface throughout for paragraph text and headers.
![](https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bibimbap-screenshot.webp)
The theme comes with five custom block patterns for building restaurant websites:
- Contact pattern with a map, location, and hours
- Cover block pattern for restaurant Specials
- Default footer
- Restaurant menu
- Menu add-ons
![](https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-23-at-5.49.49-PM.png)
I took the theme for a test drive and found that is not very intuitive in its current state, although the patterns are nicely designed. When first installed and activated on a new site, the theme looks blank with nothing in place and no hint of how it can be made to look like the screenshot.
![](https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-23-at-4.28.49-PM.png)
The most ideal experience a block theme can provide gives the user a ready-to-go website that looks like the demo, or at least provides a full-page pattern that is easy to insert. Bibimbap has missed a few opportunities to make the theme more user-friendly. Although it is also available on WordPress.com under the Business plan, the preview is similar to the experience of installing it on a self-hosted site. With no live demo available, it’s difficult to know where to go after installing it.
In the Site Editor, users will need to navigate to the wp-custom-template-home template to edit the home page template. If this is a new website, users will also want to create a new page and assign it to use the wp-custom-template-home page template to get the right design.
The home page header design is not available via a pattern, which would make the theme so much more versatile and easy to use, especially in the case of multi-page websites.
Although the theme comes with just a handful of patterns, they work well dropped onto the page in any order.
![](https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bibimbap-homepage.png)
Overall, this theme is a good option for those who know their way around WordPress and the Site Editor. It makes it fairly quick to build a restaurant website with a cohesive design. The problems with user-friendliness can be easily remedied with a few full-page patterns and a bit of thought towards the experience after activating the theme. Bibimbap is available for free from WordPress.org.