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!

You need more substance and less variety. If you give four flavour of sandwiches - most people will want to try one of each. Similar with cakes - if you put three kinds of cake, most people will put one of each on their plates. If you just had one type of cake on offer, people are likely to take a lot less. When you say dips do you mean the little plastic trays split into quarters? They'll be a complete mess in no time - I'd honestly ditch all the crudite and dip suggestions, do more sandwiches, more sausage rolls, more pizza. If you're making the quorn sausages specifically for a vegatarian make sure they're clearly labelled - nothing worse than all the meat eaters snaffling them before the veggie has a look in

Morrisons do big fresh quiches for a fiver, you can probably get 8-10 slices from one, get a few of them

No need to be rude. It’s exactly the food OP is already making, but better quantities, more variety, less waste. Makes perfect sense.

If you’re trying to do this on a budget, then I’d scrap the whole beige buffet thing altogether and do a huge chilli con carne with rice and/or jacket spuds (a meat one and a vegetarian one) and simple green salad. Or huge lasagnes (again a meat one and a veg one).

It will be far cheaper and much easier.

Have a great party xx
Have you considered a catered hot pot supper.. red cabbage and beetroot plus Cheese & onion pie
That would be in your budget ✔️
Much easier than a buffet and no waste
Been to some great evening parties where everyone has tucked in . 👍🏻

Are you being deliberately sneery? It's not very well hidden in your fake surprise. And some of what you suggested is very time consuming when prepping for a large number.

simple classic party food🙄

If funds are limited invite less people or do a simple pie and peas supper followed by birthday cake - costco, cheaper, less hassle

Simply factual and none of what I suggested is time consuming at all.

Some harsh responses here for you OP! Im assuming you aren’t personally a big eater, which probably makes it easy to underestimate how much you will need. Just make sure you don’t estimate how much kids will eat too, I know you said some are under 10, but there is a big difference between a 3 and 9yr old in terms of food consumption! A 3yr old might just pick at a bit of everything, but an active 9yr old could easily eat a couple of slices of pizza, a few sausage rolls (sssuming the mini ones) and some spring rolls. My kids could eat more than me!

I think you should just be ok to get some additional serves of hot chips etc, but maybe reach out to your in-laws and ask if they are happy to bring the desserts!

@4timesthefun the issue isn’t the OP’s size of appetite

it is that she has a budget of £200 for 70 people!!!

Well, yes, but a big eater would know that it’s quite limited food for 70 people!
On that budget it would make more sense to do a gourmet hotdog type station (with a vego option and some salads). Pizza and cocktail food is probably not the cheapest way, as people also tend to eat a lot more!

I am far from a big eater but my word I know this is a meagre amount for a crowd of 70

Oh give over.

sandwiches, crusts cut off, cut into fingers and arranged like jenga in towers..

mini celery pieces with philly, an individual prawn and a sprinkling of paprika..

120 x cocktail sticks with 3 items.

Not to mention the 'tartlets', the sliced french stick with 3 wafer thin slices of stuffed olives or the marinated skewers.

All very nice, but the party would be over by the time OP even gets there after doing all that time consuming faffery.. and she's already told you her family would eat only 10% of what you have suggested so there is little point keep flogging it.

Does everyone like sandwiches? I may get a couple of ready-made quiches, which can be eaten cold. If there's only one vegetarian, keep their food separate, in the kitchen, or prepare a plate for them, so the non-vegetarians don't nick their only food option.

Some of the comments on here have been quite harsh towards you.
You are just trying to do a nice thing.
A previous poster has mentioned making some pasta. That sounds like a decent idea and budget friendly with some sauce.
I don't know why I didn't think of that because I adore pasta.

It might be simpler to skip sandwiches altogether and do some meat joints (Gammon for budget friendly option), chicken legs, pasta salad, cous cous salad, Greek salad, potato salad and bread rolls, some popular cheeses like cheddar and Red Leicester and then your little finger foods, mini pizzas, cocktail sausages, sausage rolls, onion bahjis, samosas, a few quiches etc.

You can make big batches of the salads and split between a few bowls.
They go far and look good on the table.

I’d skip the crudités and dips for such a large party and stick to bowls of various salads as above, chopping the required amount of veg for crudités would be time consuming.

You’re catering for a large number of people so you want to minimise the work load, increase the bulk and have a few bowls and platters of each item at different points of the table to keep the queue moving faster and for visual appeal.

Why be unkind to OP?

It wasn’t unkind - I made lots of suggestions of how she could do it better which is what she asked for

Every party needs a cheese and pineapple hedgehog! 😁 ♥️

To be honest OP with £200 for 70 people I would forget all the sandwiches etc and just get plenty of crisps, nuts , cheesy biscuits and more of your hot chips with tomato sauce and mayo - possibly a sausage each if funds will stretch.
Then a nice birthday cake and maybe mini brownies or flapjacks.
Some of the suggestions already made are ridiculous for your budget and number of people.

I love this kind of thread 😁
OP - what about this, or this?

MN - "that's kiddie food! What you need is hand spun profiteroles in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo, olive foccacias and tubs of homemade lentil hummus.

Everybody else me "gerroff my sausage rolls and crisps!" 😂

I do agree though that there's nowhere near enough food for 70 people. Most people are realistically going to take at least two sausage rolls over the course of the night.
£10 per person sounds more than reasonable and about right. So that's presumably what it takes to feed people properly but you're not able to/want to do that. 😕

I bloody love "chippy chips" but surely they'd go cold? They're greasy and not very nice if you don't have them straight away which I'm assuming you wouldn't with it being a buffet.

What issue with drinks????? People will buy their own like the rest of us do.

You called her childish and said more akin to a 5th birthday party

if you don’t think that’s unkind, I worry what behaviour you do constitute to be unkind @BakersKitchen

She literally asked for feedback and whether it was okay. The resounding response has been that no, it’s not okay and I and many others have pointed out that one of the reasons for that is because the menu is too childish. I think you’re a bit sensitive tbh.