Office lunches, parties, game days, and events — order catering for a crowd the easy way. Enough food, on time, with zero guesswork.
Find catering near youOrdering for 10 or 100 doesn't have to be stressful. Here's the whole flow.
Get a rough headcount and note any dietary needs — veggie, gluten-free, allergies.
Choose family-style trays and sides that travel well and please a mixed group.
Set your drop-off time and place. Order a day or two ahead so the kitchen can prep.
It arrives labeled and ready with serving utensils. Lay it out and let everyone dig in.
The #1 catering question. A simple starting point by group size — round up for hungry crowds and events with drinking.
| Group size | Mains (entrée portions) | Sides |
|---|---|---|
| 10 people | 12–13 portions | 3–4 large trays |
| 25 people | 30–32 portions | 6–8 large trays |
| 50 people | 60–65 portions | 10–12 large trays |
| 100 people | 120–130 portions | 18–22 large trays |
Rule of thumb: ~1.25 entrée portions per adult, plus one pound of food per person across mains and sides.
They sound similar but they're built for different jobs.
You're feeding a group family-style, need it at a scheduled time, want serving setups and utensils, and would rather have one contact handling a big, planned order. Best for offices, events, and parties.
A handful of people just want their own individual meals from the regular menu, sent together. Simpler, faster, no setup — but not built for serving a crowd from shared trays.
Catering earns its reputation for being stressful only when it's rushed. Give it a little runway and it becomes the easiest way to feed a room. The two things that make or break a group order are quantity and timing — order enough, and order early enough, and everything else tends to fall into place.
On quantity, it's almost always better to have a little extra than to run short in front of a hungry crowd. Leftovers get eaten; an empty tray at a company lunch does not go unnoticed. Build in variety too — a couple of crowd-pleasers, a vegetarian option, and a side or two covers most preferences without a complicated custom order.
For a normal office lunch, ordering 24–48 hours ahead gives the kitchen time to prep without disrupting the regular rush. For a large event, three to five days is safer. Confirm the drop-off window, the exact address and room, and who the delivery person should ask for — small details that prevent a cold, wandering catering order.
Catering and large group orders are some of the most profitable tickets a restaurant can take — high value, scheduled in advance, and paid up front. The challenge is handling them without derailing the line: capturing the order cleanly, scheduling the prep, and keeping the phone free during service. With the right system, a restaurant can take a 100-person order and a walk-in at the same time without missing a beat.
KwickBus runs on the platform restaurants use to take, schedule, and serve big orders:
About 1.25 entrée portions per adult, or roughly one pound of food per person across mains and sides. For mixed groups, order variety and a few extra portions rather than exactly one per head.
24–48 hours for most restaurants, and 3–5 days for large events, so the kitchen can prep the big order without disrupting the regular rush.
Catering is built for groups: family-style trays, setups, utensils, and a scheduled drop-off. A large delivery is just more of the regular menu sent at once.
Yes — a little extra is safer than running short in front of a crowd. Leftovers get eaten; an empty tray at an event does not go unnoticed.