The short version: Jimmy John’s catering centers on party boxes of sandwich thirds and individual box lunches that run roughly $10 to $14 per person. The quick sizing math: an 18-piece party box feeds 6 to 9, a 30-piece feeds 10 to 15, and same-day orders are usually possible for smaller groups. Two things planners should know before ordering: ask for no mayo with packets on the side so the sandwiches stay fresh, and watch out for Slims in the online box lunch menu, which are plain sandwiches with no veggies or sauce.

Prices vary by location. Figures in this guide were last verified September 2026.

Jimmy John’s is one of the easiest office catering orders there is: sandwiches everyone recognizes, formats built for groups, and stores that genuinely specialize in short-notice orders. The catch is that the format names confuse first-time orderers, and a couple of small ordering decisions make the difference between a fresh spread and a soggy one.

We have been delivering office meals since 1995, and sandwich catering is a staple of the lunch programs we run. This guide covers the party box math, the box lunch details, real costs, and the ordering tips that catering staff themselves recommend. Waiter.com is not affiliated with Jimmy John’s.

Does Jimmy John’s cater?

Yes. Jimmy John’s offers catering at locations nationwide through party boxes, box lunches, catering bundles, sides, and desserts, available for pickup or delivery. The chain built its reputation on speed, and that carries into catering: staff describe a few 30-piece boxes as an easy same-day order, though 24 hours of notice is the standard courtesy and large orders need more.

Jimmy John’s catering at a glance

Question	Answer
Formats	Party boxes (sandwich thirds), box lunches, catering bundles, wrap boxes, sides, desserts
Typical cost	Roughly $10 to $14 per person for box lunches; party boxes usually less per head
Lead time	Same-day often works for small orders; 24 hours is standard; multi-hundred box lunch orders need several days
Delivery	Available; catering is usually delivered by store staff, but confirm, since regular delivery is third-party in many markets
Payment	Many stores require prepayment on large orders
Dietary notes	Any sandwich can be made as a gluten-free Unwich lettuce wrap; vegetarian and vegan options are minimal

Party boxes explained: 18-piece vs 30-piece vs 12-Pack

Party boxes are the shareable format: 8 inch sandwiches cut into thirds, wrapped for grab-and-go, no utensils needed. Sizing them is the question every planner Googles, so here is the math straight from Jimmy John’s own guidance.

Box	What’s inside	Feeds	Best for
18-Piece Party Box	18 sandwich thirds (6 sandwiches)	6 to 9 people	Small meetings
30-Piece Party Box	30 sandwich thirds (10 sandwiches)	10 to 15 people	Mid-size office lunches; usually the best value per person
12-Pack Party Box	12 half sandwiches or wraps	6 to 9 people	Lighter meals; wrap crowds
Catering Bundles	Sandwiches plus chips, cookies, sides at a bundled price	Small feeds 6 to 10; Large feeds 15 to 20	The easy button for a complete spread

Plan on 2 to 3 thirds per person. Both the 18 and 30-piece boxes let you mix any Original or Favorite sandwiches, on bread or as Unwich lettuce wraps, so one box can cover most of a team’s preferences.

Box lunches: what’s inside, what they cost, and the Slims trap

A box lunch is one complete meal per person: an 8 inch sandwich or wrap, chips, a pickle spear, and a cookie, typically $10 to $14 each depending on location and sandwich choice. It is the standard format for seated meetings, trainings, and any event where handing each person their own labeled box beats a shared spread.

The Slims trap: when you order box lunches online, the menu lists both Original sandwiches and Slims, and they look similar. Slims are just bread, meat, and cheese: no lettuce, no tomato, no mayo, no sauce. They are cheaper for a reason, and store managers say offices mis-order them constantly and only find out when 40 plain sandwiches arrive. If you want dressed sandwiches, pick Originals or Favorites, and if the menu confuses you at all, order by phone and let the store walk you through it.

The flip side: Slims can be a deliberate strategy for large events. Staff suggest ordering mixed Slims and setting out a self-serve toppings table, which costs less per box, sidesteps everyone’s topping preferences, and keeps sandwiches from sitting dressed for hours.

What Jimmy John’s catering costs by headcount

Group size	Party box route	Box lunches
10 people	$70 to $110	$100 to $140
20 people	$140 to $210	$200 to $280
50 people	$330 to $520	$500 to $700

Add chips, cookies, pickle buckets, and gallon drinks per person as needed, plus delivery fees and tax. On tipping, staff are candid: around 10 percent on a pickup catering order is appreciated and gets split among the crew who made it, delivery tips go to the driver, and cash is the surest way a tip reaches the people who did the work. They are equally candid that regular customers who tip well get noticeably attentive service.

Sandwich math for large groups: how many boxes for 40 guests

Jimmy John’s retired its old sandwich platters, so party boxes are the platter format now. For 40 guests as a full lunch, order three 30-piece boxes (90 thirds, just over 2 per person) and round up to four if appetites run big or the sandwiches are the whole meal. For 40 guests as one of several foods, two 30-piece boxes covers it. The same math scales: one 30-piece box per 10 to 15 people as a meal, per 15 to 20 as a snack.

Ordering, lead times, and the no-mayo rule

How far ahead: 24 hours of notice is the standard ask and guarantees the store lays out enough bread for your order. That said, small orders move fast: staff describe a few 30-piece boxes as doable within an hour or two, and same-day catering is a point of pride at many stores. Multi-hundred box lunch orders are a different animal, planned days to a week out with a final headcount about three days before. Expect to prepay on large orders.

The no-mayo rule: the most consistent advice from Jimmy John’s workers and managers is to order catering with no mayo and request mayo and mustard packets on the side. Catering is made ahead of your pickup or delivery window, and mayo is what makes sandwiches soggy by the time they are eaten. Some stores do this by default on every catering order. If your event is hours after pickup, go further and ask for tomatoes or all veggies on the side; stores can pack them separately.

On delivery: catering orders are generally delivered by the store’s own drivers. If delivery timing matters for your event, confirm when ordering that a store driver is bringing it.

Dietary options: the Unwich, and what’s missing

The Unwich is the genuine strength here: any sandwich, including every party box and box lunch, can be made as a lettuce wrap, which cleanly covers gluten-free and low-carb teammates at no coordination cost. Specify it per sandwich when ordering.

Vegetarian and vegan coverage is the weak spot. The only meatless sandwich is the veggie, and the vegan version of it is essentially lettuce, tomato, and avocado spread on bread, which plant-based employees describe as bleak. One more planning note: the condiment lineup was simplified in recent years, so yellow mustard is the only mustard, and specialty sauces vary. If your team skews vegetarian or has layered dietary needs, this is where a single-chain order starts to strain.

Is Jimmy John’s catering right for your office?

Order it when: you need reliable, fast, crowd-friendly food at roughly $7 to $14 per person, especially on short notice. The party box format is well designed for offices, the Unwich handles gluten-free without drama, and stores routinely execute huge orders when given lead time.

Look elsewhere when: your team has real vegetarian or vegan representation, delivery reliability is mission critical and the store cannot confirm an in-house driver, or, the big one, you are feeding the same office every week. After three decades of running office lunch catering programs, the pattern is universal: sandwiches are a beloved week one and a mutiny by week four. Variety is what keeps a lunch program alive.

Want sandwiches Tuesday and something different Thursday? Waiter.com’s recurring meal programs rotate hundreds of local restaurants so lunch never gets stale. We have delivered office meals since 1995. Get a quote for your team at Waiter.com.

Jimmy John’s catering FAQ

How many people does a 30-piece Jimmy John’s party box feed?

A 30-piece party box feeds 10 to 15 people as a meal, at 2 to 3 sandwich thirds each. As a snack alongside other food, it stretches to 15 to 20 people.

How much is Jimmy John’s 30 party box?

Pricing varies by location and sandwich selection, but a 30-piece party box generally lands in the $75 to $100 range, which works out to roughly $5 to $8 per person for a group of 12 to 15. Premium sandwich choices push the total up.

How much does Jimmy John’s catering cost?

Plan on roughly $10 to $14 per person for box lunches and less per head for party boxes. Sides, drinks, delivery fees, and tax are additional, and prices vary by location.

How many sandwich platters do I need for 40 guests?

Jimmy John’s uses party boxes rather than platters. For 40 guests eating sandwiches as the meal, order three 30-piece party boxes, and add a fourth for bigger appetites. If sandwiches are one of several foods, two 30-piece boxes is enough. Feeding a bigger crowd or setting up a recurring program? Get a quote, or browse restaurants that deliver to your office at Waiter.com.

The short version: Chick-fil-A catering runs roughly $7 to $13 per person for individually packaged meals, with shared trays often coming in lower per head. The menu splits into two formats, self-serve trays and boxed packaged meals, and most locations deliver with their own staff. The two things that catch office planners off guard: every Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday, and the app or website will not always accept large or short-notice orders that the store itself will happily take by phone.

*Note that prices may vary by location. 

Chick-fil-A is arguably the default office catering order in America, and for a reason: predictable quality, broad appeal, and a price point most managers approve without blinking. But the catering program has more moving parts than the drive-thru, including a separate menu, location-dependent minimums, and a Sunday closure that has surprised more than one event planner.

We have been delivering office meals since 1995, and Chick-fil-A comes up constantly in the lunch programs we run. This guide covers the real costs, the tray versus packaged meal decision, ordering mechanics that only catering staff usually know, and an honest verdict on when it fits an office and when it does not. Waiter.com is not affiliated with Chick-fil-A.

Does Chick-fil-A cater? The short answer

Yes. Chick-fil-A offers catering at most of its 3,000+ US locations through a dedicated catering menu of trays, packaged meals, breakfast items, salads, and gallon beverages, available for pickup or delivery. Many locations run dedicated catering teams and deliver with their own drivers rather than third-party couriers, which is rare in fast food. Orders can be placed online, in the Chick-fil-A app, or by calling the restaurant, and the phone is often the most flexible channel for large or short-notice orders.

Chick-fil-A catering at a glance

Question	Answer
Formats	Shared trays (nuggets, strips, sandwiches, wraps, salads, fruit) and individually packaged meals
Typical cost	Roughly $7 to $13 per person for packaged meals; trays often less per head
Minimums	No universal pickup minimum; delivery minimums vary by location (some run $200+)
Lead time	Same-day is often possible by phone; 24 to 48 hours for large orders; several days around holidays
Delivery	In-house at many locations; drop-off style, no staffed setup
Sundays	Closed. Chilled trays picked up Saturday are the sanctioned workaround (details below)
Dietary notes	Grilled options and salads exist; vegetarian and vegan choices are thin

Trays vs packaged meals: which format fits your event

This is the first real decision, and it changes both the budget and the logistics.

Trays are the buffet approach: large platters of nuggets, strips, sandwiches, wraps, or fruit that people serve themselves. They are the cheaper per-person option and work best when the group is mingling, grazing, or eating in shifts. You will need plates, napkins, and serving space.

Packaged meals are individually boxed portions, typically an entree with waffle potato chips and a chocolate chunk cookie. They cost more per head but eliminate serving logistics entirely, which makes them the standard choice for seated meetings, trainings, and any office where grab-and-go matters. 

One quirk worth knowing: waffle fries are not on the catering menu because they do not hold quality in transit, so waffle chips are the standard side. Catering staff also note that the online catering menu is a subset of what stores can actually do. Order by phone or in person and most locations will cater nearly anything on the regular menu for pickup.

Chick-fil-A nugget tray sizes and prices

The nugget tray is the signature catering item, and sizing it correctly is where most planners either overspend or run short. Trays come hot, or chilled with reheating instructions.

Tray size	Piece count	Feeds (as a meal)	Typical price
Small	64 nuggets	About 8 people	$30 to $37
Medium	120 nuggets	About 15 people	$55 to $67
Large	200 nuggets	About 25 people	$90 to $110

Plan on roughly 8 nuggets per person as a main with sides, and more like 4 to 5 per person if the tray is one of several items. A large tray works out to well under $5 per person, which is why it anchors so many office spreads.

What Chick-fil-A catering costs by headcount

Real-world budgets, assuming packaged meals or a tray spread with sides and a gallon beverage. Businesses that order regularly report landing around $10 per person for a sandwich, chips, cookie, and drink with delivery included, which is a fair planning number.

Group size	Tray-based spread	Packaged meals
10 people	$70 to $110	$90 to $130
20 people	$130 to $200	$180 to $260
50 people	$300 to $475	$450 to $650

Delivery fees and taxes are on top, and vary by location. If your office orders on a regular schedule, it is worth talking to the store directly: operators have discretion on pricing, and catering staff report that some locations extend pickup pricing on delivery for reliable repeat business accounts.

How to order, and how far ahead

Under about 15 people: skip formal catering. Catering team members consistently say an order this size is easily handled as a regular app or phone order. Place it in the app with a scheduled pickup, or call the store 20 to 30 minutes ahead, and it will be ready.

15 to 50 people: use the catering menu at chick-fil-a.com/catering or the app, ideally 24 hours out. Same-day catering is often possible, but the app sometimes will not accept next-day or large orders even when the store can do them. When the app balks, call. Mobile orders can also be capped at $50 to $125 depending on the location, which is another reason big orders fail online.

50 people and up, or a major event: call and coordinate with the store’s catering lead directly. Stores routinely handle four and five figure orders, but the ones that go smoothly are planned days to weeks ahead. Around holidays, book several days early: individual stores juggle anywhere from 50 to several hundred catering orders on peak days like Christmas Eve.

Three pickup tips from catering staff: First, bring your own insulated bags, because stores generally do not lend out their thermal carriers for pickup orders. Second, be on time. Catering orders are not finalized until handoff, food is timed to your pickup slot, and arriving very late, especially near closing, is where things go wrong. Third, if you order through the app while picking up in store, scan your Chick-fil-A One account: catering orders earn points like any other order, and on office-sized orders those add up fast for whoever places them. Receipts can be claimed retroactively for about a week.

The Sunday problem, and the chilled tray workaround

Every Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday, with no exceptions for catering. If your event is on a Sunday, no location will deliver or open for pickup, and this catches planners off guard every football season.

There is a sanctioned workaround that most guides never mention: the chilled tray. Request it about a day in advance and the store prepares your nugget or strip tray cold, chilled for at least six hours, with instructions for reheating in your own oven. You pick it up Saturday and serve it Sunday. Catering staff describe these as a staple of Super Bowl weekends and holiday closures; one location reported converting more than a hundred Christmas Eve orders to chilled trays. It is the only way to serve Chick-fil-A at a Sunday event, and it works.

The other honest limitations: this is drop-off catering, not staffed service, so setup is on you. And the menu is thin for vegetarians and vegans beyond salads and sides, which matters more the larger and more varied your team gets.

Is Chick-fil-A catering right for your office?

Order it when: you need a crowd-pleaser for a weekday lunch, meeting, or celebration, the budget is around $10 per person, and someone can handle setup. Few options match its cost-to-quality ratio, and the in-house delivery is genuinely reliable.

Look elsewhere when: the event is on a Sunday and a reheated tray will not cut it, your team has significant dietary variety, you need staffed service, or, the big one, you are feeding the same office every week. After three decades of running office lunch catering programs, we can tell you the failure mode of any single-restaurant plan is monotony. Even the most beloved chicken sandwich gets old by week four.

CTA BLOCK: Love Chick-fil-A, but need Sunday coverage, dietary variety, or lunch handled every week? Waiter.com has delivered office meals from hundreds of local restaurants since 1995. Rotate cuisines, cover every diet, and never think about pickup logistics again. 

Chick-fil-A catering FAQ

How much does Chick-fil-A catering cost?

Plan on roughly $7 to $13 per person for packaged meals and less per head for shared trays, with businesses commonly reporting about $10 per person for a sandwich, chips, cookie, and drink. Prices vary by location, and delivery fees and tax are additional.

How much is a 200 nugget tray at Chick-fil-A?

The large nugget tray holds 200 nuggets and typically runs about $90 to $110 depending on location. As a main course it feeds around 25 people, which puts it well under $5 per person.

How many people will 30 Chick-fil-A nuggets feed?

A 30-count feeds 3 to 4 people as a main course at about 8 nuggets each, or 6 to 7 people as a snack alongside other food. For groups of 8 or more, a small tray is usually the better value.

Does Chick-fil-A cater on Sundays?

No. All locations are closed Sunday, including for catering pickup and delivery. The workaround is a chilled tray ordered a day ahead and picked up Saturday, which comes with reheating instructions so you can serve it hot at a Sunday event.

Planning a spread for a bigger crowd or a recurring program? Get a quote, or browse restaurants that deliver to your office at Waiter.com.

Somewhere along the way, “can you order lunch?” became a second job.

You’re collecting orders in a spreadsheet, chasing down the one person who didn’t reply, remembering who’s gluten free, and hoping the food shows up before a noon meeting. 

This guide covers the situations admins actually deal with and how to make each one somebody else’s problem. Specifically, ours.

How do I set up recurring lunch delivery for my office?

The short answer: pick a provider that treats it as a program, not a series of one-off orders.

With Waiter.com, you set the schedule, whether that’s weekly, twice a week, or daily, along with the budget per person and any dietary parameters. From there, we handle restaurant rotation, ordering, and delivery. You approve menus instead of building them from scratch.

Menu fatigue can wear down even a well-run office lunch program. Rotating across local restaurants and cuisines, Thai one week, Mediterranean the next, keeps lunch feeling like a benefit instead of another repetitive routine.

Because Waiter.com has been working with restaurants since 1995, there’s enough variety in our markets to keep a recurring program from feeling like the same few menus on repeat.

Setup takes one conversation. Tell us your headcount, schedule, and budget, and we’ll send a sample menu plan asap. Start that conversation here.

What’s the best way to handle dietary restrictions when ordering for a group?

Collect restrictions once, then build them into the process instead of starting over every time you order.

The spreadsheet-per-order approach doesn’t work because dietary needs usually don’t change weekly, but the collection process resets every time.

When you set up an account with Waiter.com, dietary requirements can be incorporated into the way meals are planned, including vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, halal, kosher-style, and allergy considerations. Individually labeled meals can also make it much easier for employees to know which order is theirs when the food arrives.

For a 50-person office with a typical mix of needs, this can mean the difference between placing an order quickly and spending the afternoon chasing people down in Slack.

I need lunch for a meeting tomorrow. Who can I actually count on?

For last-minute orders, reliability matters more than having hundreds of choices.

A client meeting with no food at 12:15 is a visible failure, and it usually lands on the person who placed the order.

This is where working with a provider that regularly handles workplace delivery can make a difference. Waiter.com coordinates office meal delivery in the markets we serve and offices have relied on us for decades when timing matters.

For especially tight turnarounds, call us and we’ll tell you what’s realistically doable rather than accepting an order we can’t confidently deliver on time.

Our headcount changes every week. Can catering flex with us?

Yes, and it should.

Hybrid schedules mean Tuesday’s 80 people might be Thursday’s 45, so a recurring lunch program needs to flex with attendance instead of forcing you into a fixed headcount.

Waiter.com programs can adjust headcount from one order to the next. Update your number by the cutoff and the order can be adjusted accordingly.

Can I get one invoice instead of fifty receipts?

One consolidated invoice can make office food much easier to manage, especially if you’ve ever ended a quarter reconciling a pile of lunch receipts against a corporate card statement.

Corporate accounts with Waiter.com are designed to simplify billing and give finance a clearer record of what was ordered and when.

Companies like Microsoft, Intel, and EA have worked with Waiter.com and enterprise-friendly billing is an important part of making an ongoing meal program manageable.

What if we’d rather support local restaurants than a national chain?

That’s a big part of how Waiter.com works.

We work with restaurants in the markets we serve, giving offices access to local options and a broader mix of cuisines instead of defaulting to the same few national chains.

For employee appreciation events especially, bringing in a great local restaurant can feel more thoughtful than another round of standard catering trays. It gives your team something they may already know and love without creating more work for the person organizing lunch.

The bottom line for busy admins

You don’t need another app to manage. You need the food part of your job to quietly disappear into someone else’s competent hands.

That’s been our business since 1995.

Here’s the easiest next step: Request a quote with your city, and approximate headcount. We’ll come back with a plan, a sample menu, and a real human you can email when anything comes up.

The short version: Chipotle catering runs roughly $12 to $13.50 per person for a standard Build Your Own spread, but real orders land closer to $15 to $20 per head once you add a second protein, delivery, fees, tax and tip. Minimums are 6 people for pre-made Burritos by the Box and 10 for a Build Your Own spread, and you need at least 24 hours notice. It is genuinely good for a one-off: familiar, easy to order, and hard for a big group to dislike. It is a weak fit for a recurring office program, because everyone eats the same cuisine every time and there is no way to give people individual budgets or ordering choices. The single biggest source of disappointment is a menu wording trap we explain below, so read the cost section before you order.

---

Does Chipotle cater?

Yes. Chipotle has offered catering nationwide for years and it is one of the most popular fast-casual catering options in the country. You order through Chipotle’s catering system at chipotle.com/catering, through the app, or by calling your local store, you give at least 24 hours notice, and you can order for groups from 6 people up to around 200.

One point that trips people up right away: Build-Your-Own Chipotle is not the same as Chipotle Catering. Build-Your-Own Chipotle is a small meal kit for four to six people that you order like a normal online order. Chipotle Catering is the large-format service that requires 24 hours notice and hits the minimums above. If you have a small team and a same-day problem, the meal kit is what you actually want.

Chipotle catering at a glance

Formats	Burritos by the Box (pre-made, individually wrapped) and Build Your Own spread (buffet-style)
Minimum order	6 people (Burritos by the Box), 10 people (Build Your Own)
Maximum order	Around 200 people
Cost per person	About $12 to $13.50 base for Build Your Own, $8.75 to $11 for Burritos by the Box. Real all-in cost runs higher (see below)
Lead time	24 hours minimum. 3 to 5 days for groups over 50
What’s included	Proteins, rice, beans, salsas, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, fajita veggies, tortillas, plus serving utensils, plates, napkins and ingredient labels. Guacamole and queso cost extra
Proteins	Chicken, steak, barbacoa, carnitas, sofritas (vegan), fajita veggies
How to order	chipotle.com/catering, the Chipotle app, or by calling the store
Delivery	$10 to $30 depending on distance, often free over $150. Delivery runs through third-party drivers

What’s on the Chipotle catering menu

The catering menu is a curated version of the regular menu: same ingredients, same proteins, packaged for groups. There are two core formats.

Burritos by the Box

Pre-rolled burritos, individually wrapped and labeled, packed in boxes. You pick the proteins and Chipotle builds them, and each box typically comes with chips, salsa and sour cream on the side. This is the simplest option and the fastest to hand out, because nobody assembles anything. The tradeoff is that you are choosing for other people. It works best for a small group where everyone likes similar things.

Build Your Own spread

A buffet-style setup with proteins, rice, beans and toppings in separate trays so everyone builds their own bowl, burrito, tacos or salad. It comes in Single, Double and Triple protein versions, and the price scales with how many proteins you include. This is the format most offices choose, because it solves the customization problem and covers mixed preferences at one table. It also needs a table, someone to set it out, and a few minutes of your time. Chips and dips are an add-on, usually around $40 for a tray that serves 10 to 15.

What “Double” actually means, and why it matters

Here is the one thing to understand before you order, because it is the root of nearly every “we got shorted” complaint out there: on the catering menu, “Double” does not mean double the food. It means you get to choose two proteins. The total amount of meat is still portioned at roughly one serving per person, just split across the two proteins you picked.

This is not obvious, because on a regular in-store entree “double meat” literally means more meat. Catering uses the word differently, and the gap between those two meanings has burned a lot of people. In one widely-read r/Chipotle catering thread, an office admin collected $15 a head for a 20-person “double protein” order expecting a generous spread, and was stunned by how little arrived. Chipotle employees in the same thread, including a store manager, confirmed the food was portioned correctly to spec. Nobody was cheated. The order simply did not mean what the word “double” led them to expect.

If you want genuinely larger portions, order Triple, or step up your headcount, or order individual entrees instead. Do not assume “Double” solves a portion-size worry, because it does not.

What Chipotle catering does not do

• No breakfast. Morning meetings are out.
• One cuisine. Everyone eats Mexican-inspired food. Fine once, a problem on repeat.
• Basic allergen labeling only. Labels list contents and name the item, but they do not carry explicit gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan callouts. The upside: because a Build Your Own spread is separated and self-serve, people with common dietary needs can usually pick what works for them. Sofritas covers vegan, and bowls without tortillas cover gluten-free.
• No staff. Nobody sets up, refills or cleans up. The food arrives and the rest is on you.

What Chipotle catering actually costs

Published per-person rates as of mid-2026 run about $12.50 for chicken or sofritas, $13.50 for steak, barbacoa or carnitas, and $12 for fajita veggies on a Build Your Own spread, with Burritos by the Box lower at roughly $8.75 to $11 per person. Pricing appears to be fairly consistent nationally, with less regional variation than Chipotle’s in-store menu.

But the sticker rate is not what people actually pay. Here is the honest all-in picture, drawn from what real customers reported ordering across a dozen catering threads. Treat these as reported real-world figures, not a quote, and confirm current pricing when you order.

Headcount	Format	Reported all-in total	Effective per person	Notes
10	Build Your Own, single	~$170 minimum	~$17	The 10-person minimum sets a price floor
20	Build Your Own, double	~$300 to $310	~$15 to $15.55	The most common office order, and the most common complaint
50	Build Your Own	~$700 to $900	~$14 to $18	Frequently described as not enough food for the price
100	Build Your Own	~$1,600+	~$16 to $23	Large orders often need 3 to 5 days notice and may be split

Now the part that surprises almost everyone, and it is the loudest, most repeated theme across every thread we read: the per-person price does not drop as your group gets bigger, and catering often costs more per head than ordering individual entrees.

Most catering rewards volume. Chipotle catering is priced per person at a fairly flat rate, so feeding 100 people costs close to ten times feeding 10. There is no bulk discount to chase. Worse, multiple people did the math and found that catering ran them $14 to $17 per person for the same food that costs $8 to $12 as an individual bowl or burrito ordered in store. That is backwards from how bulk pricing usually works, and it is the number one reason experienced office admins in these threads say they would just order individual bowls next time. On a $1,600 order and a widely-discussed $700 Friendsgiving order, the near-universal reaction was that the food on the table did not look like what was paid for.

What else lands on the bill

• Delivery fee, roughly $10 to $30, often waived over $150
• The protein upcharge for Double or Triple, which buys variety, not more total food
• Add-ons like chips, guacamole and queso, around $40 a tray
• Tax
• Tip, if you use delivery. One important catch: tips added through the delivery app go to the driver, not the crew who assembled your order. If you want to reward the people who made your food, tip in store.

If you are working a tight budget, read our guide to cheap catering ideas for the office alongside this one.

How to order and how far ahead

Order at chipotle.com/catering, through the app, or by calling your local store. For anything complicated or close to the deadline, calling is the better move.

Lead times, realistically:

• 24 hours is the stated minimum and it is firm. There is no same-day catering.
• 3 to 5 days for groups over 50. Bigger orders need more runway.
• Capacity is real. Stores cap how many catering units they can produce per hour. One customer had to split a large order into separate spreads placed in 15-minute increments just to get it through the system. For very large orders, plan early and expect it may need to be arranged in pieces.

The step nobody tells you: call the store after you order online

This is the most useful piece of advice in this entire guide, and it comes straight from Chipotle employees venting about catering. Placing the order online is not enough. The order lands in the system, but the store needs a human heads-up to actually staff and prep for it. An entire thread exists begging customers to call ahead, because crews get blindsided by large orders due right at open and end up running the regular lunch line dry to fill them. So: place the order online, then call the store, confirm they see it, and confirm they are staffed for your pickup or delivery time. This one phone call prevents most catering disasters.

Pick up if you can

On large orders, picking up in person lets you check everything before you leave. Delivery, by contrast, is where missing items get discovered too late, and the classic casualty is the forgotten bag of chips or tray of queso. If the order is important and the logistics allow it, send someone to pick it up and eyeball it at the counter.

What actually shows up: food, serving utensils, plates, napkins, forks, ingredient labels, and warming trays on Build Your Own spreads to hold temperature. No staff, no setup, no cleanup.

How much Chipotle catering do you actually need?

Most people over-order, especially first-timers, and especially when there is other food at the event. Chipotle portions catering to roughly one serving per person, weighed to spec, which feels smaller than the heaping bowl you get in store. That mismatch is exactly why so many people feel shorted even when the order is technically correct.

A few practical adjustments:

• Order for who will actually eat a full meal, usually 80 to 90 percent of your headcount for a standard lunch.
• If Chipotle is alongside other food, drop the count further. A burrito bowl is a complete meal and people will not build a full one if they have already grazed.
• Do not count on “Double” to add food. It adds a protein choice, not volume.
• Chips and guac get eaten regardless. Order for the room.

For groups over 50, or when mixing Chipotle with other catering, our guide on how to order food for large groups walks through the math.

Is Chipotle catering worth it for an office lunch?

For the right occasion, honestly yes. We have coordinated office meals since 1995, and Chipotle is a legitimately good answer to a specific question. It is a poor answer to a different one, and the difference is what decides whether you will be happy.

Where Chipotle wins

• Low base cost per head for food people recognize.
• Universal appeal. Almost nobody objects to Chipotle, which matters for a big mixed group.
• Fast and simple to order. One transaction, done in five minutes.
• Easy basic dietary coverage. Sofritas and fajita veggies handle vegan and vegetarian without a special order.
• Scales to large groups, up to around 200 from one order.

Where it breaks down

These are structural, not fixable with a better order:

• One cuisine, every time. Serve it weekly and you will hear about it fast. Menu fatigue is the top reason offices rotate away.
• No individual ordering. Everyone eats from the same spread. Nobody picks their own meal.
• No per-employee budgets. You cannot give someone an allowance to spend. It is one order, one total.
• No invoicing or central billing. Someone fronts a card and files an expense report, every time.
• No recurring scheduling. There is no standing weekly order. You place it manually, forever.
• No dedicated contact. If something goes wrong at 11:45 on a Thursday, you are calling a store mid rush.
• Delivery is third-party. No dedicated setup and no clean accountability chain when an order is late or short.

Choose Chipotle when

It is a one-off, the group is large and mixed, budget matters more than variety, you have at least a day of notice, and nobody needs a specially handled meal.

Choose something else when

You are feeding the same people on a schedule, your team has real dietary complexity, it is a client-facing meal, you need invoicing and clean expense reporting, or you want people to have a say in what they eat. Worth noting: the most common alternative real customers recommend in these threads is ordering from a local Mexican restaurant or taqueria, which frequently delivers more food for the money. That is precisely the model a managed program like ours is built on.

Chipotle catering vs other office catering options

	Chipotle direct	Managed program (Waiter.com)
Base cost per person	Lowest	Mid
Cuisine variety	One	Wide, rotating
Recurring scheduling	No	Yes
Individual ordering	No	Yes
Per-employee budgets	No	Yes
Dietary accommodation	Basic, self-serve	Managed per person
Invoicing / central billing	No	Yes
Delivery and setup	Third-party, no setup	Dedicated
Best for	One-off large groups	Recurring team meals

Credit where it is due: on base cost per person, Chipotle beats almost everything, including us. If your only variable is budget and you are ordering once, order Chipotle and call the store to confirm.

---

Feeding the same team every week?

Chipotle is a solid pick for a one-off. Feeding the same people on a schedule is a different problem: rotating cuisines so nobody gets bored, dietary needs handled per person, per-employee budgets, and one invoice at month end instead of thirty expense reports.

That is what a managed meal program handles, and it is built on the exact thing people keep recommending, real local restaurants instead of a chain. We have run these programs for offices since 1995.

See how our office lunch ordering system works

---

Frequently asked questions

How much does Chipotle charge for catering?

Published rates run about $12 to $13.50 per person for a Build Your Own spread and $8.75 to $11 for Burritos by the Box, as of mid-2026. In practice most people report paying more per head once delivery, add-ons, tax, tip and a second protein are included, often landing in the $15 to $20 range. Prices vary by location, so confirm at chipotle.com/catering.

Is Chipotle catering worth it?

For a one-off lunch with a big group on a budget, yes. It is affordable, familiar and easy to order. For a recurring program it is a weaker fit, because everyone eats the same cuisine every time and there is no way to handle individual budgets, individual orders or centralized invoicing. Many experienced buyers also point out that ordering individual entrees can be cheaper per head than catering.

What does “Double” mean on the Chipotle catering menu?

It means you choose two proteins, not double the amount of food. Total protein is still portioned at roughly one serving per person, split across the two meats. This is the most common misunderstanding in Chipotle catering, so if you want more food, order Triple or increase your headcount rather than relying on Double.

How far in advance should I order Chipotle catering?

At least 24 hours, which is the firm minimum, and 3 to 5 days for groups over 50. There is no same-day catering. Whatever you do, call the store after ordering online to confirm they are staffed for it, because online orders can catch a location off guard.

How many does Chipotle catering feed?

Burritos by the Box starts at 6 people and Build Your Own spreads start at 10, scaling up to around 200. For groups under 6, look at the separate Build-Your-Own Chipotle meal kit, which serves four to six and needs no advance notice.

Does Chipotle deliver catering orders?

Yes, for roughly $10 to $30 depending on distance, often free over $150, through third-party drivers. Pickup is free and lets you check the order before you leave, which is the safer choice for large or important orders.

---

Written by the team at Waiter.com, which has coordinated office catering and recurring meal programs since 1995. Real-world cost and logistics observations in this guide are drawn from public Chipotle customer discussions as of mid-2026; menu formats and published prices reflect Chipotle’s catering information at that time and vary by location. Waiter.com is not affiliated with Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Individual orders work well for teams of five or fewer, but if you’re ordering for more people, switch to a group option with three to four curated choices. The one exception is when dietary needs are complex enough that a shared menu cannot cover the team. In this case, individual labeled orders are worth the extra coordination, regardless of group size. Follow along to find out more. 

---

The Number That Changes Everything

When it comes to catering, five people is the consistent cutoff that surfaces in EA and office manager communities online.

In a Reddit thread on r/ExecutiveAssistants where the question of group ordering came up, an experienced EA said, “I wouldn’t do individual orders over 3-5 people.”

The reason comes down to coordination overhead. For more than five people, collecting individual preferences, tracking who ordered what, managing dietary requests, and making sure everything arrives correctly start to take more time and mental energy than it’s worth. 

The same insight appeared in the thread titled “Lunch Ordering for Large Group” on r/ExecutiveAssistants, where an EA was asked to coordinate 80 individual orders for an all-day training. The thread’s response was immediate and unanimous: “80 individual orders sounds like a nightmare.” Another commenter said, “80 individual meals will be so difficult to manage.”

Professionals agree that personalization for more than five people is not the best course of action.

---

The Key to Group Ordering

Group ordering does not mean one person picks for everyone. What works best is a curated short list—three to four options that cover the range of the team’s preferences and dietary needs—that allows people to choose within it. The coordination is minimal, the variety is real, and the admin is not solely responsible for whether the food lands well.

One EA in the r/ExecutiveAssistants thread on how offices decide what to order described her system: “I gave them 3-4 options and sent an email with voting buttons. People had to respond by Monday. Outlook compiled the votes, and I placed the order with a few extra meals. People will always complain, but at least they had a say.”

The ideal approach is a short menu sent early in the week, a deadline for responses, and a single order placed. 

Another EA in the same community described a rotation system that removes even the weekly decision: “We do each catering with a different theme each week, such as Mexican, Italian, etc., and just order a variety and always include vegetarian. Makes life so much easier.”

The theme rotation is the most efficient group ordering method because it removes the menu selection step entirely. The decision is already made, and the only question is quantity.

---

When Individual Orders Still Make Sense at Scale

There are two situations in which individual orders are worth the extra work, regardless of group size.

The first is complex dietary needs that a shared menu cannot cover. If your team has a concentration of restrictions, such as multiple food allergies or a combination of halal, vegan, and gluten-free requirements, a curated group menu may not cover everyone without a separate order. In this case, individually labeled meals remove the risk of something arriving that someone cannot eat, and the coordination cost is justified.

The other is high-stakes, client-facing events. When the meal is meant to signal intentionality, like an executive lunch, a client meeting, or a presentation where the food is part of the impression, individual orders communicate care and personalization in a way that a shared buffet does not.

For the 80-person training scenario that came up in the r/ExecutiveAssistants thread, one commenter pointed to a solution: “EZcater has a separate platform called Relish as well, where all meals come individually marked with the employee’s name, which will make this much easier for you.” 

Forkable was mentioned as another solution in a separate EA thread. Employees choose from four to five restaurant options, the company sets a coverage amount, and meals arrive individually labeled. This model lets you order individually without coordination overhead, since the platform handles logistics.

Waiter.com’s Custom Cafe operates on the same principle: Every team member orders directly from their own inbox, the restaurant provides individually labeled meals, and the admin does not have to oversee the order collection process. For teams where individual choice is genuinely important, this is how to get it without the nightmare of manual management.

---

Catering Options by Group Size

Now, what is the best catering option based on your group size? 

Under 15 people, casual gathering: Shared platters or a buffet. The social format works here as people serve themselves, allowing conversation to flow naturally around the food. The setup is minimal, and build-your-own options (taco bars, grain bowl setups) work especially well because they handle dietary variety without requiring separate orders.

15 to 50 people, working lunch or meeting: Individually boxed meals. Faster distribution, less cleanup, and dietary needs are addressed at the individual level when people select their meal from a short curated list. The EA who described wanting boxed lunches as her default had it right, saying, “More than anything, I want boxed lunches available, with chips, a side, and a cookie. If I can do them for as few as six people, that’s incredible.”

15 to 50 people, team event or celebration: Build-your-own buffet option. Taco bars, Mediterranean spreads, and grain bowl bars all generate consistently positive reactions because the interactive element suits a more social occasion. These options also solve dietary restrictions—when everyone builds their own plate, almost no one goes without.

50 or more people: Buffet with clearly labeled stations or individually labeled orders through a dedicated platform. At this scale, manually managing individual selections is not practical. The caterer who posted in r/catering described their rule for large group orders: “Minimum of 12 servings of any item ordered. Instead of every person choosing from our full menu, the whole office is eating 2-3 different meals max.” A buffet offers higher quantities and less coordination.

---

If your team eats together on a regular schedule, neither ad hoc individual orders nor per-event group catering is a long-term solution. Instead, turn to a recurring meal program that handles the decisions for you. 

Waiter.com’s group food-ordering programs are built for exactly this. You set a schedule and a budget, and your employees order from a rotating selection of restaurants. Everything arrives together without weekly coordination. See how it works at waiter.com/group-food-ordering.

---

A Checklist for Your Next Group Order

Before placing a group order, run through this checklist: 

Headcount. For five or fewer people, individual orders are manageable, but for six or more, select a group option with three to four choices.

Dietary complexity. Can three to four menu items cover the entire team’s needs? If yes, select a group option with a curated menu. If not, order individually labeled meals through a platform or choose a build-your-own option that offers variety.

Event type. For a casual team lunch, choose a buffet or build-your-own option, but for a working meeting or training, go with individually boxed meals. As for a client-facing or high-stakes event, select individual orders with intentional presentation.

Frequency. For a one-off event, place the order using this framework, but for recurring weekly or monthly orders, set up a meal program and stop making decisions every time.

Group ordering doesn’t have to be a pain every time you place an order. Simply follow this advice, and the only things that change are the headcount and the occasion. Those two inputs tell you everything you need to know.

The most practical way to address dietary restrictions is to collect the information once, store it in a readily accessible place, and stop asking about it before every order. A Google Form sent at onboarding, with responses stored in a shared spreadsheet and refreshed once a year, covers the vast majority of what you need to know. Pair that with build-your-own options, such as taco bars, Mediterranean spreads, and grain bowl setups, and most dietary needs are handled without a separate order for anyone.

That is the system, and here is how to create it.

---

Why You Keep Having This Problem

The issue is rarely that your team has unusually complex dietary needs. Instead, it’s that most admins approach dietary needs from scratch for each order, asking people what they can eat, getting partial responses, making guesses, and still ending up with someone having nothing to eat when the food arrives.

In r/ExecutiveAssistants and r/AdminAssistant on Reddit, this topic comes up constantly. One thread on r/ExecutiveAssistants asked, “When ordering food for the office, how do you deal with people with food allergies, dietary restrictions, or just plain picky eaters?” 

The top answer, with 11 upvotes, explained, “You ask them, ‘Do you have any allergies or preferences?’ And you add that to their contact information. Pretty standard.”

The second-most upvoted response said, “I have a spreadsheet and a form that I have all new hires fill out when they start, so I can easily cover all the bases.”

Simply ask once, store the information, and reference it forever.

---

Step 1: Collect Restrictions One Time 

Create a short Google Form and send it to every new hire during onboarding. Ask these four questions:

1. Do you have any food allergies? If yes, please list them. (It’s important to flag the severity, such as a mild sensitivity or one that requires an EpiPen, so you know which restrictions are preferences and which are medical requirements.)
2. Do you follow any dietary practices we should know about? (Vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher, gluten-free, etc.)
3. Are there any cuisines or ingredients you strongly prefer to avoid?
4. Is there anything else you want us to know when ordering food for team events?

Make the form optional, and note that responses are used only for catering purposes. Some people are not comfortable disclosing religious dietary requirements or medical conditions in a group setting. An optional, confidential form with a clear, limited purpose helps remove hesitation.

For existing team members who never filled one out, send it to them as well. Frame it as a quick two-minute form to help with future team lunches. Most people will fill it out immediately because it is in their interest to do so.

---

Step 2: Store It Where You Can Actually Find It

The form responses are automatically entered into a Google Sheet. Keep that sheet somewhere you will actually reference when placing an order, such as linked in your catering Slack channel, bookmarked in your browser, or saved in whatever folder or tool you use to manage recurring office logistics.

The format that works best is one row per person, with columns for name, restrictions, severity level, and any notes. You do not need anything elaborate. The goal is to open it and quickly scan it before you start looking at menus.

We recommend sending the form out once a year to capture changes. After all, people develop new allergies, start new dietary practices, or their situations may evolve. An annual refresh keeps the list current without any ongoing effort.

Another suggestion from the Reddit EA community was that, even with a complete list, always include at least one solid vegetarian option and one gluten-free option when ordering. People do not always disclose these preferences, and newcomers may not have filled out the form yet.

---

Step 3: Review It Before You Open Any Ordering Platform

The list is only useful if you look at it before you start browsing menus. The mistake most admins make is choosing a restaurant first, then checking whether it works for their team. That puts you in a position where you are trying to retrofit accommodations onto a menu that was not designed for them.

Before you open your delivery platform or call a restaurant, reference the spreadsheet. Check how many people need gluten-free options. Determine whether you have anyone with halal or kosher restrictions. And look into whether the vegans on your team have been well served by the last few orders. Then choose a restaurant that meets those needs from the start, rather than scrambling to make substitutions after the fact.

This single change removes most of the last-minute chaos that can make it challenging to accommodate dietary restrictions.

---

The Option That Solves Everything

The Reddit EA community has a strong consensus on the food option that removes dietary restriction-related stress: build-your-own setups.

Taco bars, Mediterranean spreads, grain bowl bars, and BBQ buffets all share the same advantage: They do not require anyone to make a special request or eat a modified version of what everyone else is having. The proteins, bases, and toppings are separate, everyone builds their own plate, and carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-free eaters can all find something that works without a dedicated side order.

From r/AdminAssistant on Reddit, one EA described her standard approach: “If it’s a larger meeting I do ‘build your own’ lunches, like Mexican or Mediterranean bowls, or order a mix of boxed lunch options. Smaller groups I have saved emails with ordering options.” This was the most upvoted practical advice in the entire thread.

The comment that stuck with us from a Fooda community thread said, “Whatever it is, make sure to provide twice the amount of stuff that doesn’t have meat and cheese because 100% of the people who do eat meat and cheese will eat ALL the stuff without it, leaving the people who can’t with nothing.”

Build-your-own options solve that problem by default. The topping bar is not an afterthought—it is the meal.

If you want to make rotating through these options even easier, Waiter.com’s office lunch delivery lets you filter restaurants by dietary accommodation at the search stage, so you are only looking at options that already work for your team rather than hoping the menu has something for everyone once the food arrives.

---

The Four Main Restrictions to Address 

The good news is that you do not need to anticipate every possible dietary situation before every order. These four categories cover the vast majority of any office team:

Vegetarian: No meat or fish, but dairy and eggs are fine. A vegetarian option should be a real entree, not a side salad. Build-your-own setups are ideal for vegetarians. 

Vegan: No animal products at all, including dairy and eggs. This is stricter than vegetarian and easy to miss when ordering. Hummus, grain bowls, roasted vegetables, and legume-based dishes cover this well.

Gluten-free: No wheat, barley, or rye. Treat every case as a medical requirement, not a preference. The difference between celiac disease and a casual preference is invisible at the ordering stage, and the consequences of getting it wrong are serious. Ask the restaurant about cross-contamination protocols before ordering for anyone on your list with a gluten restriction.

Halal: No pork, and meat must be prepared according to halal standards. This is a religious requirement, not a preference. Many Middle Eastern, some Mediterranean, and dedicated halal restaurants can reliably accommodate this.

Include these four accommodations in every order, and you will cover the overwhelming majority of your team without needing to investigate every specific case. 

---

Label Everything at the Table

When the food arrives, clear labeling at the serving area is crucial. A small card that says “contains dairy” or “gluten-free” allows people with restrictions to serve themselves confidently without having to ask. This also prevents situations where someone accidentally eats something they cannot have because the container resembles another dish.

Ask your vendor to label by allergen and dietary category before delivery. Most catering restaurants will do this if you ask when placing the order. For boxed lunches, individual labeling is usually included by default.

---

The Short Version

Collect dietary preferences and restrictions once via Google Form at onboarding. Store it in a shared spreadsheet, refresh it annually, and check it before you open any ordering platform. Default to build-your-own options when you can, and label everything at the table.

When you know what you’re doing, it’s easy to handle dietary restrictions when catering. It takes very little time to set up and monitor, and it saves you from having to re-solve the same problem before every order.

---

Waiter.com works with over 1,300 restaurants nationwide, and its ordering platform includes dietary filters so you can narrow down restaurants that already accommodate your team’s needs before you browse a single menu. See how office lunch delivery works at waiter.com, or contact us to set up a recurring meal program for your team.

Ordering lunch for your team is supposed to be a simple administrative task. But if you’re an executive assistant (EA) or office manager who does it regularly, you know it rarely feels that way. Between chasing headcounts, fielding complaints about the food, managing dietary restrictions nobody told you about, and praying the delivery shows up on time, it has a way of taking over your entire day.

And you’re not the only one who feels that way. We reviewed hundreds of Reddit threads by executive assistants and office managers who openly discussed this exact problem. 

However, we found that the admins who stopped dreading this task were the ones who stopped treating it as a new decision each time. They built a system and let it do the heavy lifting. 

Follow along to learn how to create your own system. 

The Real Problem is Decision Fatigue

In a thread on r/ExecutiveAssistants with over 80 upvotes, one EA put it plainly, “My executive tends to have a lot of meetings with food. I usually get catering but am getting sick of having to plan this so many times a month.”

The replies flooded in from people who felt the same way. Not because catering is particularly challenging, but because doing it from scratch every single time is a time suck.

Another EA in a separate thread that pulled nearly 500 upvotes wrote, “I am so tired of catering. The specialty meals, the random dietary needs, the complaints. Bosses completely underestimate how much time this takes.”

In a thread titled, “I HATE the food aspects of this job,” the most upvoted comment (737 upvotes) said, “Someone always has a complaint if you’re catering for a group.”

If any of this sounds familiar, you are not alone. And more importantly, there is a fix with actionable steps that will actually make a difference in the way you order for your office. 

Step 1: Build a Vendor Rotation and Stop Choosing Every Week

Rather than recommending platforms or offering cuisine tips, the most common piece of advice from experienced EAs was to stop ordering from scratch each time.

One EA described her system, saying she gives each week a specific catering theme: “Mexican, Italian, and so on—just order a variety and always include vegetarian. Makes life so much easier.”

Another said, “I used to use a caterer who sent out their menu quarterly, and I could just email them what I wanted and when. They would show up and handle everything.”

The pattern is the same in both cases: Pick three to five vendors you trust, rotate them, and add them to a calendar. Deciding “what should we order this week” is no longer a decision because it’s already been decided: it’s Italian week. This creates a completely different cognitive load when you don’t have to make a choice each time. 

As for the cuisine itself, the Reddit community has a strong consensus here, too. Build-your-own options, like taco bars, Mediterranean bowls, and BBQ buffets, repeatedly came up as the crowd-pleasing default because they solve both variety and dietary-restriction problems at once. When everyone builds their own plate, no one goes hungry and almost no one complains.

Step 2: Collect Dietary Restrictions Once and Keep a List

This advice came up in thread after thread. The admins who have figured this out all landed on the same answer: Provide a Google Form during onboarding and update it annually.

From r/ExecutiveAssistants, one commented, “I have a spreadsheet and a form that I have all new hires fill out when they start, so I can easily cover all the bases.”

From r/AdminAssistant, another said, “Keep a list of people’s dietary restrictions. Maybe a Google Form or something of that nature, and send it out once a year to be updated.”

The key here is “once.” You are not asking people before every order. You collect the information, store it somewhere accessible, and reference it when you need it. The form takes minutes to build, but it will save you hours over the course of a year.

As a general rule when ordering, always include a vegetarian option and something that is gluten-aware, even if nobody on your current list needs it. People do not always disclose restrictions until the food is already there.

Step 3: Use the Headcount Formula

The most-upvoted thread we found on the logistics of food ordering was from an EA who was mortified when she ran out of food at an all-hands meeting after 20 years of always having leftovers.

The advice that came up most often was to confirm your headcount 24 hours out, then add 10 percent. One EA explained it this way: “I always add five people to my count because my boss had a bad habit of inviting extra people on the fly, and I didn’t want to run out of food.”

For specific quantities, let the restaurant guide you. One commenter noted, “I save myself the hassle and take the restaurant’s recommendations. If they cater, they’ll tell you how much to order for your group size.”

For hybrid offices, specifically, use RSVPs rather than total headcount. Send a quick form or Slack message asking who expects to be in the office and would like to be counted. It takes 90 seconds and removes the guesswork entirely.

The Goal: Turn Ordering Into a Process

If ordering office lunch feels like a drag, it is probably because it lives entirely in your head, from the vendor choices and dietary needs to the quantities and individual preferences. Every time you place an order, you’re going back to the drawing board. 

The admins who stop dreading it have made it a documented, repeatable process. They set vendor rotation on their calendars, place dietary restriction lists on a shared drive, and use a headcount formula. They only make these decisions once. 

If you want to make the process even easier, it’s time to turn to a meal program for recurring office deliveries, which removes almost all of the coordination work. Waiter.com’s corporate meal programs let you set a schedule, manage dietary needs across your team, and order from a rotating set of restaurants, without starting from scratch every week. The only decision you make is how often you want lunch delivered.

That is what “set it and forget it” actually looks like for office catering.

One More Thing: It Is Okay to Lower the Bar Slightly

One of the most honest comments we came across was from an experienced EA who said she used to drive herself crazy trying to make everyone happy. Her solution: “I let the caterer or restaurant choose. They are the experts. They know their bestsellers. My only requirement is that there is a vegetarian option.”

You are not a chef, a nutritionist, or a professional event planner. You are an EA or office manager who has a hundred other things on your to-do list. A lunch that arrives on time and has something for everyone is a success. It does not have to be remarkable every time.

Simply build the system, establish rotations, and maintain the list of dietary restrictions. And most importantly, allow yourself to stop treating this like it requires your full creative energy every single week.

Ready to take the coordination off your plate? Waiter.com has been handling corporate meal delivery since 1995. We offer full menus, full-time drivers, and flexible programs built for teams that order regularly. See how it works at waiter.com.

When catering, how much food should you order? For most office catering orders, select one main dish and two sides per person, based on confirmed RSVPs, and add a 10% buffer for last-minute additions. From there, adjust up for longer events and social gatherings and down for short working meetings. If you are unsure about quantities for a specific cuisine, call the restaurant. If they cater regularly, they know their portions better than any formula.

That is the short answer, but let’s take a closer look. 

Start Here: The Two Numbers That Matter Most

Before you pick a restaurant or even think about cuisine, you need two numbers.

1. Confirmed headcount, not invited headcount.
Base your order on the number of people you have confirmed, not the number of people on the calendar invite. This sounds obvious until you have ordered for the 60 people you invited, only for 42 to show up. In hybrid offices, especially, the gap between “invited” and “confirmed in-office” can be 20-30%, and for most office events, actual attendance runs closer to 75-85% of the invite list. 

2. That confirmed number, plus 10%.
Once you have your confirmed count, add 10% to cover last-minute additions, larger-than-expected appetites, and the boss who always shows up with two extra people. If 45 people confirm, order for 50. 

On Reddit’s r/ExecutiveAssistants thread, an EA with 20 years of experience posted about the one time she ran out of food at an all-hands meeting. She had always over-ordered before and had leftovers, and the one time she tried to cut it close, the hybrid headcount tripped her up. The comment got 611 upvotes because every admin reading it clearly felt the same dread. A 10% buffer exists specifically to avoid that problem.

Quick-Reference Guide by Types of Food

The following section is the one to bookmark, as we recommend how much of each type of meal to order: 

Boxed lunches. Select one per person. This option is the easiest to portion because it is already done for you. Order your confirmed headcount plus the 10% buffer—no math needed beyond that.

Sandwich platters or trays. Plan for 1.5 sandwiches per person, or use the standard industry ratio of 12 sandwiches per 10 people. If sandwiches are the only food (no sides), round up to two per person for a hungry lunch crowd.

Taco bars. Order two to three tacos per person as a main dish and chips and salsa for 100% of the headcount because chips disappear faster than any other item at a taco bar. If you are doing burritos instead of tacos, drop to one per person as they are significantly more filling.

Pizza. Plan for two to three slices per person for a standard lunch order. Round up to three to four slices per person for longer meetings or especially hungry teams. A standard large pizza yields eight slices, so divide headcount by eight and multiply by your per-person slice count.

Bagels and coffee (breakfast meetings). Order one to 1.25 bagels per person. Keep in mind, a Panera or Starbucks coffee traveler serves 10 to 12—not 15—despite what the label implies. One EA on Reddit asked specifically about ordering for 125 people and got this answer in the thread: “Order 140 bagels and 13 to 14 coffee travelers.” That is the +10% formula applied directly.

Buffet-style (BBQ, Mediterranean, grain bowls). Plan for 6-8 oz of protein per person for plated or individually served buffets. For self-serve trays, where people portion their own plates, move to the higher end (8 oz) because self-serve portions tend to run larger. Add 4 oz of each side dish per person. A typical full catering tray feeds 15 to 20 people as a side, or 10 to 12 as a main.

Adjust Based on the Type of Meeting

The type of food gives you the baseline, while the event type adjusts it.

Short working meetings (under an hour): Order standard portions or slightly under. People eat less when they are focused on an agenda, and no one is going back for seconds between slides.

Lunch-and-learns and training sessions (1-3 hours): Add 10-15% to your total order. People linger and graze during presentations, while someone always goes back for another taco when the speaker transitions to Q&A.

All-day events: Plan for two meal equivalents spread throughout the day. For example, select a morning bagel spread and an afternoon boxed lunch, rather than trying to make one catering order that covers six hours.

Celebrations and team events: Round up on sides and desserts. At social events, people tend to graze more than they eat a full plate. They will likely skip the entree but demolish the chips, cookies, and anything bite-sized. One EA in a Food-focused Reddit thread put it this way: “Charcuterie boards and dessert items disappear first, every time.”

The Hybrid Office Problem (And How to Solve It in 90 Seconds)

This is where most admins go wrong. The old math—order for everyone in the office—no longer works when no one is sure how many people are actually coming in on a given day.

A confirmed RSVP list is the solution. 

A quick Slack message or calendar note asking people to confirm if they expect to be in the office and want to be counted for lunch takes 90 seconds to send and removes most of the guesswork. Do it 24 hours before the order is due, and base your number on the responses you get, not on the invite list or the total office headcount.

For recurring weekly or monthly lunches, keep a simple running spreadsheet—even just a column in a Google Sheet—tracking how many people actually showed up versus how much food was ordered. After three to four orders, you will have a reliable attendance rate for your specific team, making the math much easier.

If managing this every week still feels like a headache, turn to Waiter.com’s corporate meal programs. They handle headcount and portion coordination as part of the service. Simply confirm the count, and they’ll manage the rest. This is how offices that order regularly get out of the estimation business entirely.

When to Ask the Restaurant

Want to know the most underused move in office catering? Call the restaurant and tell them your headcount.

If a restaurant offers catering, it has done so countless times. They know how much chicken tikka masala their tray serves, how many tacos a typical lunch crowd eats, and whether their sandwich tray feeds closer to 10 or 15 people. 

One highly upvoted comment in an EA Reddit thread said, “I save myself the hassle and take the restaurant’s recommendations. If a restaurant caters, they’ll list how much to order for your group size, and the people who work there will tell you exactly.”

This one move eliminates most of the math anxiety and shifts the responsibility to the people who actually know their product. Use it every time you order from a new vendor or select a new menu option. 

The One Rule That Covers Most Situations

Let’s simplify all of this:

• Use the confirmed headcount plus 10%
• Order one main plus two sides per person
• Let the restaurant provide specific quantities

The admins who get this right consistently are not doing complicated math. They are simply using a reliable process and adjusting from there.

---

Waiter.com has been handling corporate meal delivery since 1995 with full-time drivers and menus from over 1,300 restaurants nationwide. If you regularly order for your team, our corporate meal programs handle the logistics, including portioning, so you spend less time on the math and more time on everything else. See how it works at waiter.com.

Before You Choose the Food, Know Your Group Size

The most common mistake when ordering for a large group is treating all large groups the same. Ordering lunch for 20 people and organizing food for 200 people are genuinely different problems — different vendor types, different formats, different lead times, and different levels of coordination required.

We spent time in office manager and EA communities on Reddit reading how admins actually handle this, and the scale signal was consistent. When one admin posted about organizing a work lunch for 200 employees in r/FoodNYC, the top response had 67 upvotes: “You need a catering company. They volunteered you for this?” For 20 people, a taco bar from a local restaurant works beautifully. For 200 people, you are in a different category entirely.

Here is a quick framework before you start choosing food:

20 to 30 people: Standard catering delivery works well. One restaurant, buffet or boxed, ordered 24 to 48 hours in advance. Most of the food options below fit this range perfectly.

30 to 75 people: Still manageable with a single catering order, but format matters more. Build-your-own setups (taco bars, grain bowl bars, Mediterranean spreads) handle dietary variety better than fixed menus at this scale. Order at least 48 hours out.

75 to 150 people: You need a dedicated catering company or a platform built for corporate volume. Self-ordering from a restaurant website gets complicated fast. Lead time should be 3 to 5 business days minimum.

150 or more: This is a catering company conversation, full stop. Building access, setup and teardown logistics, hot-holding equipment, staffing — these are not things a restaurant delivery handles. Start planning at least a week out, ideally two.

At Waiter, we’re all about food — and we love feeding large groups of people. That’s why we’ve put together this list of food for large groups. All of the options listed can be scaled up to feed whatever size group you end up hosting.

Speaking of hosting…you aren’t planning on doing any of the below alone, right? The planning and cooking hours behind the choices below are…intense. You can go right ahead, if that’s your jam, or arrange for an office potluck…or…you could let someone else do the catering work while you just kick back and eat.

With that in mind, here are the food formats that work best for large groups, organized by what scales well and why.

Now, on with the meal!

1. Taco Bar

Taco bars are pretty much universally popular, so they deserve the #1 spot. Bring in the tortillas, the protein (chicken, beef, carne asada, and more), the veggies, the salsa…and of course the cheese.

Alternates: Got some dietary restrictions to work with? Cue up some vegan meat and cheese options!

2. Pastapalooza

Take the beloved concept behind the taco bar and swap in pasta. You can go with tried-and-true familiars like spaghetti, macaroni, and fettuccine, or branch out with gnocchi, tortellini, and orzo. You’ll also want plenty of sauces (marinara and Alfredo are only the beginning; have you thought about pesto?). And let’s not forget the add-ons like various meats and cheeses, or herbs like rosemary and basil.

Alternates: Most, if not all, of the food described has gluten-free and vegan versions available.

3. Baked Potato Extravaganza

This is still technically a bar, but we’re aiming for festiveness. Set out large potatoes with all the fixings: cheese, bacon, broccoli, chili, salsa, and any herbs and spices. Oh, let’s not forget butter.

Alternates: Vegan-friendly and dairy-free varieties of cheeses (and yes, even vegan bacon) are available.

4. Breakfast-for-Lunch (or Dinner) Buffet

While breakfast food is usually consumed in the earlier hours of the day, there’s no law stating you can’t have it for lunch or dinner or any other time of day. So go big! Bring in scrambled eggs and sourdough to make toast. Set up a pastry plate loaded with croissants and bear claws. Yogurt parfaits and fruit are always winners, as are pancake- and waffle-making stations.

Alternates: If you’ve got vegans, gluten-free folks, or other dietary needs, you can find all sorts of breakfast alternatives available.

5. Pizza Party

Pizzas are pretty much the go-to meal for big groups. Some pies have 12 or more slices to go around, and there are so many varieties to choose from! There’s vegan pizza, vegetarian pizza, meat-lover’s pizza…and that’s just scratching the surface. Bring in Chicago and New York-style pizzas and judge the crusts. Throw in Greek-style pizza, too. And don’t get us started on the toppings, which are endless.

Alternates: None needed. There’s a type of pizza for everyone.

6. Salad Station

Salads are sometimes viewed as side dishes, but a good salad can be a fine meal on its own. Bring in an assortment of greens to serve as the base (spinach, lettuce, kale, arugula, and more) and then go nuts with the toppings or proteins like chicken, shrimp, nuts, and vegetables. Don’t forget about dressing, which is, for some, the most important part; ranch, Italian, and more are out there.

Alternates: Set up a fruit station so folks can have a sweet alternative!

7. Sushi Soiree

Nigiri and sashimi and maki, oh my! There’s a sushi roll that fits pretty much every set of taste buds. Most sushi contains a base of rice and seaweed, accompanied by other fillings (or toppings, depending on the roll). Salmon and tuna are popular, as are the beloved California rolls, but that’s just scratching the sushi surface. Crab and tofu, along with other types of seafood and vegetables, may also make appearances.

But…sushi can be hard to serve buffet-style, and you may have to accommodate colleagues who are just not into seafood. This might be a good time to turn to Waiter’s Meals on Demand, which lets you choose a restaurant (like a Japanese place that has sushi and non-seafood options) and place a customized order. The folks who want sushi can get it; those who don’t can choose something else. Everyone eats!

8. Dessert Decadence

Sometimes you just want something sweet. Dessert-for-Lunch (or Dinner) can cover a lot of bases. Ice cream sundae bars are often a hit; just bring in several flavors of ice cream and enough toppings to give people a sugar buzz that will last into the next century. But you can also look into cupcakes, brownies, cookies, or cakes and pies.

Alternate: Once again, the fruit platter can save the day. There are also dairy-free, vegan ice creams out there, as well as sugar-free sweets!

How to Serve Big Meals for Groups Without Losing Your Mind

Getting the whole office together for a meal can be stressful. But look, you don’t have to do all of the above on your own. Waiter.com’s Catering Delivery gives you a direct line to restaurants that make exactly the kind of meals you’re looking for, and in the quantities you need when you’re ordering office food for many people. All you really need to do is tell us where to put the food and herd everyone over when it arrives (although to be fair, most people follow their noses and don’t need the help).

So go ahead: dream big. Let us bring you the perfect pies from a local pizza parlor, or the region’s best baked potato. Japanese, Mediterranean, Thai, Indian, Mexican, and other cuisines are all on offer, and we even deliver the food in recyclable containers. Who isn’t doing dishes after the party? You!

Seriously, though, check out our group food ordering. We’d love to keep your entire team fed.