Does this sound like an okay party spread?

[bdaypartyfood]

Currently planning a surprise 30th birthday for my partner and catering it ourselves. It’s a family party so a mix of ages and some children there! Probably about 60-70 people coming.

I’ve never really done a buffet before but my current plan is this:

Ham sandwiches (1x platter)
Cheese sandwiches (1x platter)
Egg mayo sandwiches (1/2 platter)
Tuna sandwiches (1/2 platter)

Cherry Tomatoes (500g bag)
Celery
Carrots (1kg bag cut into sticks)
Cucumber (2 whole cucumbers)
Pepper (1 pack of 3 peppers)
All served with various dips

Mini sausage rolls (50)
Cocktail sausages (50)
Vegetable spring rolls (24)
quorn cocktail sausages (1 pack, only one vegetarian that I know of!)

Cheese & onion crisps
Sweet chilli crisps
Salted crisps
Tortilla chips
Onion ring crisps
(All one big share bag per flavour)

Chicken bites (72 pack)
Cheese pizza (x2)

Breadsticks (2 packs)
Coleslaw (1 pack)

Strawberries (2 packs)
Grapes (2 packs)
Watermelon (1)

Fairy cakes (24)
Mini flapjack (20)
Mini brownies (20)
Mini rolls (20)

Also doing some gluten free sandwiches and some gluten free cakes (only one person is wheat intolerant not coeliac so no cross contamination concerns)

Obviously a proper birthday cake as well!

Does this sound like a good spread of food? Too much or not enough?

Trying to stick to a budget where possible as the room hire was expensive!

Thanks in advance for advice!

Can you rope in people to help cook the sausage rolls/mini sausages/pizzas as you’ll need a lot of oven space? I love your buffet, sounds delicious! I think the fancier you make sandwiches, the trickier it is as people might not like cress or spring onion or mustard whereas plain ham or plain tuna mayo is foolproof. People who like ham and mustard will still like plain ham whereas people who don’t like mustard can’t really scrape it out!
crisps are cheap and easy and you can keep any unused bags if you don’t eat them. I love beige food and it’s easy whereas fussy food tends to get left! I’d forget the hot chips, they’re expensive and you’ll be queuing ages to get enough.

More pizza, sandwiches and sausage rolls.

I actually think ditching food is the best idea and sticking out some crisps and then maybe cake.
As others have now pointed out it will take you ages to make the buffet.
Also I think you said you don't want/don't have kitchen access so no one will want to eat pizza you cooked hours ago.

Just say you are hosting a get together and will provide crisps, also make it clear you are not buying drinks as some people will expect you to provide the first one.

I’d use the money on providing a first drink for everyone of Prosecco to toast the birthday boy

I would add some extra, such as a big bowl of new potatoes with seasoning, coleslaw, quiche and maybe a cut up pie like corned beef so can be eaten cold. Xx

If you’re ordering chips, order a few pizzas from a takeaway to go with it.

So for you every social occasion has to involve a meal?

Agreed.

I think you’ve been given sone really rough responses on this thread OP.

In the real world people will appreciate any food you give them, and their focus will be on celebrating, catching up with family and friends etc. And while food is a part of this it’s only a small part. I don’t go to parties expecting an amazing spread of top quality food. I go to parties to socialise and if there’s some food there that I want to eat then great. But if not I’ll survive. A few sandwiches, some crisps and a mini brownie or slice of cake each is perfectly fine for mass catering.

Also, you know your guests - their food preferences, what’s likely to be eaten, what is going to be seen as too posh or fancy etc. So have the confidence to ignore the posters who have obviously misjudged this and are advising all kinds of things you know your guests wouldn’t eat or wouldn’t care about.

And enjoy the party!

Not necessarily but I do love food, so I’d like it to 😋 😋

How about Quiche? Usually popular and quite filling

If you do food have a look at Morrisons. They do great party food to order and you could select a collection time that’s on your way to the venue so you won’t have the worry about fridge space etc

another idea is just lots of desserts, a friend did this at a party but made it clear on invites and it went down very well!

I think it's enough if it's just nibble food your eating at a bar party with alcohol!
Specially cus most people be eaten before they come !

Also pasta salad can be made in a large quantity and it's cheap just an idea and those huge pork pies always go down well at buffets
Morrisons do great Perry food reasonable priced as well x

More like 8 pizzas (we do 2 for group of 12)

Drop the chips.
Increase the pizzas

Then you're probably in the right ball park

None of that 12 can be teen boys

I'd be happy with your buffet but if it were me I'd be having a pudding party!

If folk have already eaten and you make it clear it's pudding only, you can get to any supermarket or Iceland etc and spend whatever you want on a selection of desserts, add fresh/squirty cream or ice cream if there's the facility. Make a jelly? And then spend out on a beautiful cake 🎂

Disposable bowls/spoons etc and it's a doddle.

I was at something similar a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing!

Agree. Get guests to eat before or get take away food and then provide the desserts. Much easier.

Terrible advice for someone on a budget IMO, not everyone will be drinking alcohol, so you would have to accommodate that with extra drinks, not everyone likes prosecco (I think it is bilge personally), it's a nice idea for a wedding, where you would actually have an opportunity for speeches and toasts etc, but an informal (surprise) birthday party is not exactly the same as that, there will be a bar and normally the first thing people will do is go in and get themselves a drink.

OP will be fine to cater for her crowd with £200 of carefully thought out food.

Hi OP @bdaypartyfood

I do buffets/platters as part of my business and we cater often externally.

An average sandwich platter (8 full sandwiches) serves around 8-10 with other picky bits.

We do a savoury platter consisting of:
30 mini sausage rolls
30 cocktail sausages
15 small pork pies chopped in half (30 pieces)
30 savoury eggs
15 mini quiche

This serves around 12-15 (appetite depending and depending on what other offerings)

We do cake platters:
36 pieces of small cake— think an average rectangle slice of lemon drizzle or carrot cake from a cake shop etc sliced into 3. Again this is around 12-15 people appetite depending.

I always ask for feedback with my customers on the serving size and I’ve never had someone come back and say it wasn’t enough. We’ve catered for many different parties.

A usual cater size for our parties is around 30 people and we would offer 3 sandwich platters, 3 savoury platters, 3 cake platters and this covers it. We do have other options as well, but this is like your “basic” option for anyone who wants a cheaper catering.

With all your other picky bits, I’d say you’d need a minimum of 5 sandwich platters but ideally 7 and then your picky/savoury/cake bits accompany that.

Some ideas we do for our sandwich platters which are usually well received:
Egg mayo and cress
Cheese & Tomato & Pickle
Those cover your veggies.
Chicken mayo
Gammon Ham slices with pickle and cheese
Gammon Ham, Cheese & Salad
Tuna Mayo crunch (Tuna, Mayo, red onion)

We cook off our meat like chicken and large joints of ham and have a meat slicer etc as it’s cheaper and fresher, but you can buy large filling tubs at local wholesalers like Costco & Booker if you know anyone with a card.

Hope this helps

P.S 15 large eggs boiled will cover a whole platter of 8 sandwiches

Looking at the variety on offer, I think I would make the assumption that on average, everyone has 1x of everything.

So, 1x ham sandwich, 1x cheese sandwich, (for sandwiches, it's obviously a 1/4 segment, not the whole sandwich!), 1x sausage, 1x sausage roll, 1x chicken bite, etc, for everything in your list.

Crisps overall, I would go for, say 30g-50g per person as people tend to graze on them throughout, 30g-50g is around equivalent to an individual bag if bought at a shop. So in total, around 3.5kg in total for the various flavours including onion rings and tortilla chips.

In my experience, at buffets most people don't tend to go for fruit and salads, I think the amount is fine.

You can always gauge throughout the day, if things are disappearing quickly, then you can get the chips (or more chips) from the takeaway as mentioned.

Too much variety not enough quantity. Ditch the coleslaw as that’s the only thing you need cutlery for. More sandwiches and pizza, 3 varieties of crisps is plenty. Loads of mini sausages and sausage rolls, you can keep some unopened and top up if needed.

You don’t live anywhere near Bolton by any chance do you?!

100 sausage rolls and cocktail sausages is anywhere near enough OP.

You need at least 300 of each probably.

Kids often don't eat sandwiches but will eat MULTIPLE cocktail sausages. I organised a party for 80 recently and some of the kids had easily 15 cocktail sausages on their plates.