Menus that work for four rarely scale. Serving fifty or a hundred people means feeding a range of ages, appetites and heat tolerances at once, with the food sitting out for a couple of hours. The principles are different, and they are not complicated.
Build it in five parts, not fifteen dishes
- One rice dish that everyone will eat, usually a biryani or a pulao
- One mild gravy, so there is something for guests who do not want heat
- One stronger dish, for the guests who came for exactly that
- A grill selection, which is the part people graze on and the easiest to eat standing
- Bread, salad, sauces and dessert, which should be assumed rather than chosen
Five well-chosen things beat fifteen. A long buffet slows the queue, increases waste and makes the whole spread look picked over sooner.
Get the heat balance right
This is where most party menus fail. Put out only mild food and half the guests are disappointed; put out only spiced food and the other half eat bread. You need at least one dish in each direction and something neutral that anyone can fall back on.
A pulao is the reliable neutral. A butter or white handi covers mild. A karahi covers the other end. How spicy each dish actually is sets it out dish by dish if you are choosing for people whose tolerance you do not know.
Plan for children separately
Not with a separate menu, which nobody eats, but with one thing children will reliably take. French fries and nuggets at AED 5 per person, available on the AED 45, 65 and 85 packages, does more for a family party than any amount of menu tuning.
One live counter, not three
A live counter is the single best value addition to a party menu, because it gives guests somewhere to stand and something to watch. A live BBQ, tandoor or jalebi counter is AED 10 per person, and live puri is AED 15.
One is enough. Three splits the room and takes the atmosphere out of each.
What it costs
Rather than costing dishes individually, our packages price the whole spread per person: AED 45 vegetarian, AED 65 classic, AED 85 zouq, AED 110 premium, each covering salads and sauces, a soup, mains, a grill selection, bread, dessert and drinks.
Fifty guests on the classic is AED 3,250. A hundred is AED 6,500. Add a live BBQ counter for a hundred guests and it is AED 7,500. Outdoor catering has a minimum order of AED 3,000.
Timing
One to two weeks for a family party of this size, and final numbers three days before. The deposit is 50 percent on booking with the balance on that same deadline.
The 160-dish list is on the catering menu. For the cost breakdown by headcount, see catering for 50 guests and catering for 100.
Planning a party?
From AED 45 a head with everything included, across Sharjah, Dubai and Ajman.
See Home Party Catering
