ezPlatter Office catering budgets vary more by format than by menu. See our office lunch catering picks for a starting point. Two orders built around the exact same sandwiches can differ by $15 a head depending on whether the food arrives boxed, as a self-serve buffet, or with staff included. Understanding where that gap comes from makes it much easier to set a realistic budget before you ever call a restaurant.
National averages by format
- Drop-off catering: $10 to $20 per person. Food simply arrives and your team sets it out.
- Boxed lunches: $12 to $22 per person. Individually packaged, and the easiest format for getting headcount exactly right.
- Buffet, drop-off: $15 to $40 per person, depending on how complex the menu is and how many dishes are included.
- Staffed buffet: $45 to $85 per person, including setup and someone to keep the line moving and trays refilled.
Looking at it by meeting type instead of format, industry data puts an average team lunch around $21 per person, a client meeting closer to $35 once presentation matters more, and a board meeting or executive event around $60 or more per person once staffing and higher-end menu items are added in.
A worked example: budgeting a 30-person team lunch
Say your team has 30 confirmed people for a Friday lunch meeting. If you choose boxed lunches at $16 per person, the food cost alone is $480. Add a typical delivery fee of around $50, and you are at $530 before tax. Spread across 30 people, that delivery fee adds a little under $2 per head, keeping your effective cost close to $18 per person, well within the $12 to $22 boxed lunch range for the format.
Compare that to choosing a drop-off buffet instead for the same 30 people at $25 per person: that is $750 in food cost alone, plus the same roughly $50 delivery fee, landing near $800 total, or about $27 per person once delivery is factored in. The format choice alone accounts for nearly $270 of difference on the exact same headcount.
Where the budget actually leaks
The biggest overspend is almost never the per-person rate itself. It is ordering for the invite list instead of confirmed attendance. A meeting with 40 invitations rarely seats 40 people, and ordering against the full invite list every time is one of the most common ways offices quietly overspend on catering month after month without noticing.
The second common leak is a format mismatch: ordering a hot buffet for a working session that runs long or has an unpredictable start time, so food sits out losing quality before anyone actually eats it. Boxed lunches hold up much better on an unpredictable schedule, and they usually cost less per head than the hot buffet they end up replacing once people realize the mismatch.
Dietary accommodations add cost, but not as much as people assume
Expect to pay roughly $6 to $14 more per person for specialized dietary options like vegan, gluten-free, or kosher meals, when the caterer has enough notice to plan for them properly. Sending a short dietary survey 3 days ahead of a small order, or a full week ahead of a larger one, is usually enough lead time for a restaurant to accommodate requests without a rush surcharge. Our dietary restrictions guide covers exactly what to ask.
A simple budget check before you order
Multiply your confirmed headcount by the per-person range (our catering calculator does this automatically) for your chosen format, then add 15 to 20 percent on top of that for tax, delivery, and any last-minute additions like extra drinks or dessert. That total gives you a realistic number to compare against actual quotes before you commit to a specific restaurant or caterer, rather than being surprised by the final bill.
Recurring meetings: negotiate a standing rate
If your office orders catering weekly or monthly for the same type of meeting, ask the restaurant about a standing order discount or a simplified repeat-order process. Many locations will offer a small discount or at least guarantee availability for a recurring order, since it is predictable business for them.
Quick answers
Should I tip on office catering? For drop-off orders with no delivery staff interaction, tipping is optional. For orders with a delivery driver, a tip in the 10 to 15 percent range is standard, similar to any other food delivery.
Is boxed lunch really cheaper than buffet for every group size? Not always. For very large groups over 75 or 100 people, a buffet can sometimes come out cheaper per person than individually boxed meals, since packaging costs add up per box. Ask for both quotes on large orders.
A step-by-step approach to setting your lunch budget
Start with your confirmed headcount, then pick a format based on the nature of the meeting: boxed lunches for working sessions where people may eat at different times, buffet for a social team lunch where everyone eats together. Multiply headcount by the per-person rate for that format, add 15 to 20 percent for fees and tax, and that is your working budget to compare against actual restaurant quotes.
A second worked example: a client meeting for 12
Client meetings often justify a slightly higher per-person spend than an internal team lunch, since presentation matters more. For 12 people at $35 per person, the food cost is $420. Adding a $45 delivery fee brings the total to $465, or about $39 per person all-in. That is well within the $35 average for client meetings mentioned earlier, and the extra polish compared to a $15 boxed lunch is often worth it when a client is in the room.
Setting a monthly or quarterly catering budget
If your office orders catering regularly, it helps to set a rough monthly budget based on expected meeting frequency rather than approving each order individually without context. For example, an office running 4 team lunches and 1 client meeting per month at the averages above would budget roughly (4 x $21 x average headcount) plus one client meeting cost, giving finance a predictable number to plan around instead of surprises each month.