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How to Build an Online Catering Menu with 5 Examples
Building a quality catering menu demands an understanding of your clients' needs, whether it's for corporate meetings, academic events, or large-scale gatherings. This blog post, "How to Build an Online Catering Menu with 5 Examples," is a helpful guide for designing a catering menu that meets the needs of each catering segment.
We recognize that variety, dietary considerations, and cost efficiency are top priorities for your customers. The focus here is on practical insights and actionable strategies to refine your menu offerings. We present five curated menu examples that serve as a template for crafting a flexible and effective catering menu.
Each example is a testament to menus that have consistently delivered in real-world scenarios, balancing customer satisfaction with kitchen efficiency. As we unpack these case studies, we'll highlight the aspects that meet and exceed client expectations in various catering contexts.
This post is an essential read for industry leaders aiming to optimize their catering services. Join us as we explore the crucial components of a winning catering menu that can set your business apart in a competitive marketplace.
5 Digital Catering Menu Examples for Success
Below are five real life examples of successful catering menus from leading QSR multi-unit brands.
Dos Toros Taqueria: Build Your Own Style Catering Menu
The Dos Toros menu is built to support any group size and customizations. With their highly customizable Catering Bar options, the menu allows guests to build their own taco or bowl bar— picking and choosing add-ons such as proteins, vegetables, dips, and sides.
With their direct online ordering experience, guests are offered a convenient way to order, flexible payment options (great for B2B corporate catering accounts), and can specify how many individuals they’re ordering each selection for, a helpful feature for Dos Toros when packing napkins and cutlery.
See the full Dos Tors ordering experience here.
Chopt Creative Salad Co.: Group Platters or Custom Selections
The Chopt Creative Salad Co. menu offers three different styles of ordering: Craft Your Own, Wrap Platters, or Large Salads. This menu is designed to serve catering groups of any size.
Groups larger than ten can build a salad bar with a variety of lettuce, choppings, goods, and dressings—making it the ideal menu for large offices, events, and any catering account looking for a buffet-style serving.
The Wrap Platter and Large Salad menus serve groups of up to ten, ideal for smaller offices, intimate gatherings and parties, sports teams, and events. The Wrap Platters come with individually wrapped items, a safety requirement for many catering guests in 2023. The Large Salads menu includes one of their popular salads served in a bowl, ideal for parties and meetings. Companies ordering catering from one of these menus can choose multiple platters or just one, depending on their group size.
With over 90 locations nationwide, Chopt has localized its catering menu to different regions, offering foods based on local preferences. Using Lunchbox Catering, Chopt easily manages its menu via one central order management dashboard that syncs in real time with its online ordering system.
See the full Chopt ordering experience here.
O’Bagel: Order Catering via Mobile App or Online
The O’bagel catering menu offers convenience and variety. With guests being able to order on web or via app for pick-up and delivery, the O’Bagel online catering experience is ideal for today’s digital audience.
Customers can choose from a selection of individual items, platters, buffet-style servings, add-ons, and beverages in bulk, such as their Large Coffee Tote.
The menu is built to make it easy for guests to modify based on dietary needs, preferences, and group size. The notes field provides guests with a simple way of specifying additional needs, such as food allergies. With built-in substitution modifiers, guests who prefer not to eat meat can easily swap proteins with turkey bacon or other vegetarian options.
To learn more about Lunchbox Catering, visit lunchbox.io/catering. To see the online O’Bagel ordering experience, visit https://order.obagel.net/ or download the app.
Bareburger: Allergy-Friendly Catering Menu
Bareburger is already known for its clean, ethically sourced ingredients, allergy-friendly menu, and bold flavor combinations, and its catering menu offers nothing short of the same.
With a catering bar option, individual items for those wanting something different from the group, platters, and mini sliders to bring quick bites to any party or gathering, the catering selection is full of customizations and easy-to-order items.
The mini slider menu contains seven modifier options, allowing guests to choose the type of buns, confirm allergies, swap in vegetarian options, cheese, and sauces, and remove selections. This menu is an amazing example of how restaurants can provide dietary-friendly catering options to accommodate guests and groups.
A dietary and allergy-friendly menu packed with flavor and fun is key to winning and retaining corporate catering customers, schools, and events.
See how the Bareburger online catering platform is built for modifications.
Sophie’s Cuban: A Lesson in the Different Types of Catering Packaging
Sophie’s Cuban has over 30 years of experience catering and serving NYC, so it’s no surprise that they’ve mastered the art of serving and packaging their catering meals. Catering packaging not only serves as an extension of your brand but is also the key to making today’s consumer feel comfortable grabbing food off a common-area table.
Sophie’s menu is ripe with different options of packaging, including individually packed items (great for customers on the go like sports teams and sporting events), buffet packages with individual meal trays (great for large groups), buffet trays (great for offices), and sandwich and empanada boxes (perfect for friendly gatherings and parties).
When building your catering menu, it’s important to keep in mind how the food will be packaged and what options you can provide to the variety of guests ordering from your restaurant.
To make operations smoother for your catering managers and kitchen staff, consider a catering order management system like Lunchbox, which provides custom digital, printable prep sheets, allowing your staff to know exactly what to pack and reduce waste.
Check out the Sohpie’s Cuban catering menu here.
Wrapping Up:
To wrap up, an exceptional catering menu is defined by its capacity to address varying client requirements across corporate, academic, and social segments. We’ve explored five diverse menus from Dos Toros Taqueria, Chopt Creative Salad Co., O’Bagel, Bareburger, and Sophie’s Cuban, each demonstrating adaptability in offerings, customization for dietary preferences, and packaging solutions that enhance the catering experience.
These cases highlight the importance of variety, attention to dietary needs, cost efficiency, and the seamless integration of technology for ordering convenience. As the catering landscape evolves, these examples are blueprints for creating menus that resonate with customers and streamline operations, a synergy achievable with tools like Lunchbox.
For those leading the charge in catering management, these insights pave the way for designing menus that fulfill and exceed client expectations, ensuring a competitive edge in the market.
To learn more about Lunchbox catering, visit lunchbox.io/catering or book a demo today. About Lunchbox Lunchbox is the premier restaurant technology solution for Enterprise restaurant chains to scale their digital presence. Lunchbox enables restaurant chains to build the most efficient technology stack to optimize their digital growth strategy through its suite of products specializing in app and web ordering, catering, order aggregation, guest engagement, marketing, and its OPEN API platform. The company has empowered over 5,000+ restaurant locations nationwide, including Firehouse Subs, Torchy’s Tacos, Taco Bueno, and Clean Juice. To learn more, visit www.lunchbox.io
