Office Lunch Catering in Scarborough and North York: What Works

Most catered office lunches are forgettable. Here is how to order one people actually talk about, for the same budget.

The catered office lunch is one of the cheapest culture wins a manager has, and most people waste it. Same sandwich platters, same lukewarm pizza, nobody talks about it, half of it gets binned.

Hot food beats cold food, for the same money

This is the whole insight. A hot, aromatic spread costs about the same as a decent sandwich platter and lands completely differently. The smell alone pulls people out of their chairs. Nobody has ever been excited by a wrap.

What to order for a mixed team

One rice centrepiece, usually a biryani. One protein curry. One vegetarian dish, always. One mild option, always. Something fresh. That is five items and it covers essentially everyone in a Toronto office.

Halal as your default is the practical move. It works for far more of your team than it excludes, and nobody who eats non-halal is bothered by a halal lunch.

Budget

Plan 18 to 25 dollars a head for a real hot spread. For a team of 30 that is roughly 600 to 750 dollars. Below that range you are buying volume, not food.

Timing

Give the caterer your serving time, not an arrival time. Food should land 30 to 45 minutes before you eat, hot, in chafing dishes. Confirm the window in writing.

Order 20 percent over

Office lunches attract walk-ins from other teams. Running out is the fastest way to make the whole thing feel cheap. The extra tray is cheap insurance.

Catering the east end

We are a family-run halal Sri Lankan and Indian kitchen in Scarborough and we deliver office catering across Scarborough, North York and the wider GTA. Catering starts at 20 dollars per person with a 20-guest minimum. See corporate catering pricing and setup, or start on our catering page.

See our halal office lunch catering page for how we handle team orders.

Distance from our kitchen

Our kitchen is at 328 Passmore Avenue in north Scarborough. Most Scarborough offices are 10 to 20 minutes away and North York is about 25 minutes, roughly 20 km. Both are short enough to schedule a lunch drop-off with confidence.

A four-week rotation for a recurring team lunch

If lunch is monthly or weekly, rotating the menu keeps people interested. All prices below are per person with a 20-person minimum:

  1. Week 1: Chicken Biryani Combo 1, $20. The safe opener.
  2. Week 2: Ghee Rice Combo 5, $15. Ghee rice, any meat and two vegetable dishes.
  3. Week 3: Chicken Biryani Combo 2, $25. Adds deep-fried chicken and custard dessert.
  4. Week 4: Manipittu and Babath, $20. A traditional Sri Lankan delicacy for the adventurous month.

Mix in the Vegetable Biryani Combo ($15) every week for your vegetarians.

Boxed lunches or trays

Boxed lunches suit teams who eat at different times or in different rooms. Trays suit a shared lunch in one place: small feeds 5 to 8, medium 10 to 15, large 20 to 30. Neither has a published price, so ask for a quote.

A dietary sign-up that takes five minutes

  • Send one form a week ahead: meat, vegetarian, allergies.
  • Flag allergens from our menu descriptions: eggs in egg masala, kottu and vattalappam; cashews in green-pea cashew curry; dried fish in maasi sambal; dairy in yogurt sambal and mango lassi.
  • Our meat is HMA-certified halal, and documentation is available on request.

Who sets out the food

Our catering is drop-off or pickup. There are no servers and no on-site staff. Food arrives packed and ready to serve, so name one person on the team to receive it, light the chafing fuel and set out spoons.

Picking a serving time

Give us your serving time, not just a delivery window. For a North York office, allow for the 25 minute drive plus building check-in, loading dock queues and the elevator. A noon lunch usually means food at the door by around 11:15 to 11:30.

Leftovers

Get leftovers into the office fridge within two hours of serving and let people take containers home. Biryani reheats well in a microwave with a splash of water.

Office lunch questions

We have 15 people. Is that too few?

Combos need 20, but trays and boxed lunches work for smaller teams. Ask for a quote on our corporate lunch catering page.

Do you cater North York offices too?

Yes. See catering in North York or call (647) 449-2924.