Feeding a team is a narrower problem than feeding a party. Everyone has to eat within about forty minutes, at a desk or in a meeting room, and then do an afternoon of work. That rules out a great deal of what looks good on a catering menu.
The three rules that decide whether it works
- It has to hold temperature for an hour, because people arrive in waves
- It has to be eaten with one hand or one fork, not carved or assembled
- It cannot be so heavy that the afternoon disappears
Almost every office lunch that goes badly fails one of those three, not the food itself.
What holds up well
Rice dishes are the backbone. Biryani and pulao sit in a chafing dish for an hour without deteriorating, portion themselves, and suit almost everyone. A grill selection works for the same reason: kababs and tikka are finger food that does not need assembling.
Gravy dishes work if there is bread and the tray is deep. A handi holds better than a karahi, because a karahi is meant to be eaten straight from the pan and dries out.
What does not
- Anything requiring carving in the room, which creates a queue of one
- Fried food that has travelled, because it arrives soft
- Very heavy mutton dishes before an afternoon of meetings
- Single-serving boxes for a team that eats at different times, since they go cold in sequence
- Anything with a short window, which puts pressure on people in back-to-back calls
A menu that works, and what it costs
Our packages run from AED 45 to AED 110 per person, drawn from 160 dishes, and all four include salads and sauces, a soup, main courses, a grill selection, bread, dessert, and water with soft drinks.
For a working lunch the AED 45 vegetarian or AED 65 classic package is usually the right level. A team of 40 on the classic is AED 2,600. A team of 60 is AED 3,900. The AED 85 and AED 110 packages are better kept for client events and the annual dinner.
The one add-on worth it in an office
A live tandoor or live BBQ counter at AED 10 per person changes a lunch into an event, which is exactly right for a team celebration and exactly wrong for an ordinary Tuesday. Use it deliberately. Table and chair setup is AED 15 per person if the office does not have the space.
Practical notes
Outdoor catering has a minimum order of AED 3,000, which a team of 40 on the classic package clears and a team of 20 does not. For smaller teams, booking a table in the restaurant usually works out cheaper than catering into the office.
Final numbers are due three days before, and the deposit is 50 percent on booking with the balance on that same three-day deadline. We deliver across Sharjah, Dubai and Ajman with our own staff and chafing dishes.
For the commercial side, see office lunch catering and what it costs, and for larger corporate occasions, annual dinners and company parties.
Feeding a team this month?
From AED 45 a head, delivered and set up with our own staff across Sharjah, Dubai and Ajman.
See Corporate Catering
