Graduation Party Catering in Toronto: Feeding a Crowd of Teenagers and Aunties

A grad party is two completely different crowds in one room. Here is how to feed both without doubling the bill.

A graduation party has a strange guest list. Half the room is nineteen and will eat anything in enormous quantities. The other half is your extended family and has opinions. You have to feed both, in one spread.

Feed the volume, respect the palate

Teenagers eat far more than you plan for and are not fussy. Family eat less and notice everything. So the strategy is: get the volume from one big, cheap, universally loved dish, and get the credibility from one or two proper dishes.

Biryani solves the first problem completely. It is the best value per person in catering, it feeds a crowd, and no teenager has ever refused it. Then add a good curry and a vegetable dish for the adults.

Quantity, honestly

Order for at least 25 percent more than your headcount. Grad parties attract friends-of-friends who show up at 9pm. Running out at your own kid’s celebration is the thing you will remember.

Timing

People arrive late and stay long. Do not serve at your stated start time. Have something light out early, then serve the main food 60 to 90 minutes in, when the room is actually full.

Cover the room

One mild dish. One vegetarian dish. Halal as the base so you are not managing two menus. This is not complicated and it means nobody is standing there eating chips.

Budget

At 20 dollars a head, a 50-person grad party is around 1,000 dollars for a full hot spread. That is the real number.

Booking

We are a family-run halal Sri Lankan and Indian kitchen in Scarborough. Catering starts at 20 dollars per person with a 20-guest minimum. June is grad season and it fills up, so book two weeks out. Start on our catering page, or read how to cater large groups affordably.

See our graduation party catering page. For a crowd with lots of kids, add whole fried chicken.

Three grad party sizes, priced out

These use real menu prices. Combos are per person with a 20-person minimum, before tax and delivery.

A small backyard party, around 25

25 Chicken Biryani Combo 1 at $20 = $500. You get chicken biryani, eggplant mojo, egg masala and acharu. Add a few Chilli Chicken orders at $14.99 each for the friends who will hover by the food all night.

The full family party, around 50

30 Chicken Biryani Combo 1 ($600) plus 20 Vegetable Biryani Combo ($300) = $900. The vegetable combo comes with yogurt sambal and pineapple curry, which also suit relatives who avoid heat.

A hall or community room, around 80

60 Chicken Biryani Combo 2 at $25 ($1,500) plus 20 Vegetable Biryani Combo ($300) = $1,800. Combo 2 adds deep-fried chicken, green-pea cashew curry and a custard dessert, which helps if you do not want to order a cake on top.

The teenager table and the auntie table

Different groups go for different things. The graduates and their friends go for fried chicken, chilli chicken and kottu. The older relatives go for the biryani, the eggplant mojo and the sambol. Set up the food so both groups can get at it without a single slow line: rice at one end, fried items at the other, curries in the middle.

Serving in two waves

Grad parties stretch over hours. Put out half the trays when the room fills, and keep the other half covered and warm for the late crowd that arrives after their own family dinners. Our catering is drop-off or pickup with no servers, so give one cousin the job of swapping trays.

Parents planning a grad party ask

Can teenagers with allergies eat everything?

Not everything. Egg masala and kottu contain egg, the green-pea cashew curry has cashews, and maasi sambal has dried fish. Tell guests at the table.

Can we pick the food up ourselves?

Yes. Pickup is from 328 Passmore Avenue, Unit 59, on Saturday or Sunday, which suits most weekend grad parties. Bring a helper and clear the trunk so trays can sit flat.

Is chilli chicken very hot?

It is spicy, with a garlic sauce, and boneless, which makes it easy to eat standing up. See chilli chicken or graduation party catering.