How much food would you want at an adult birthday party?

[pemberleypearl]

Posting for traffic and to hopefully get more responses as I would really appreciate the help. I've been turning this over in my head for a while and I just don't want to get it wrong.

I am throwing a party for my mum who is turning 60. Local bar/hall. About 70 guests. Party will be 7pm to midnight with DJ. Guests can buy drinks at the bar.

What food would you appreciate? I have to balance convenience of ordering party food versus preparing stuff myself. Ordering in can be expensive and making stuff is time consuming day of especially as I have a toddler to manage.

I'm now thinking of having retro sweet buffet (it's a retro party) and ordering pizza. Dominos have a 50% off £100+ orders. Would that be enough? And when to order it for?

Please help. I am prone to over catering normally but haven't had to cater for his many before and really don't want to mess it up for my mum.

Sounds expensive, 50% off dominoes is still markedly more expensive than regular high street shops, and depending where you'e getting the retro sweets from...

It depends how much money you want to spend vs how much time you're willing to invest. Get a mate over with a bottle of wine the night before and butter 4 loaves of bread, fill with ham or cheese and quarter, put back in bags and in fridge ready to plate up next day, that's sarnies done. Cook a couple of bags of sausage rolls and cool. Make a cake. Cook and cool supermarket pizzas day before. Big bags of crisps etc, a chessboard, crackers, bag of grapes and you're laughing.

If it's soon and you have a garage, you can platter up sandwiches etc and leave under cling film in the garage.

Pizza is handy & good party food but dominos is expensive 🙈 I got dominos for my DD birthday party there. There was 15 x 9/10 year olds, total came to £140ish so with 50% off it was £70. That was pizza and sides only - and there wasn’t much left over after. Obviously if you have the budget go for it but the price surprised me!

Have a great time whatever you decide xx

That's a lot of guests so I'd definitely keep it simple to keep costs down. Personally I'd stick to a cold buffet rather than ordering pizzas

Sandwiches
Quiche and or pizza

Cheese board
Crackers
Crisps
Crudites
Grapes
Bagged salad in bowls

Minimal preparation apart from sandwiches but you'd need to think about quantities.

So nice you're organising it for your mum. Hope she has a great party!

I would stay clear of Dominoes that could end up dearer than you think. Morrison's do great buffet platters very reasonably priced too.

Are you a Costco member? They do nice sandwich/wrap platters for a really reasonable cost. All in lidded platters ready to serve. Perfect for a party, you can preorder them too

I’d go for a cold buffet too. Maybe salads, crisps, potato salad, bread and some sort of centre piece such as a pie or some salmon.

Trifle, fruit salad and pavlova are easy and quick crowd-pleasing puddings.

You could also have bowls of retro sweets but I think there is a limit as to how many people will want to eat. I’d try to get them from supermarkets rather than specialist shops to keep costs down.

I think Costco do big ready-made cakes too.

None of the guests are diabetic then?

Starting at 7 some might think your serving proper food, not party stuff/nibbles.
I'd be making big pots of chilli or something, one veg and one meat. Easy to make, feed lots. Then look at something to serve with them.

I thought this was going to be a kinky food fetish thang! But that is another kind of adult party!

My suggestion is similar to @Xmasbaby11. Simple stuff you don’t have to heat. Baguettes, cheese, pate, grapes, crisps. Easy dessert stuff like chocolate eclairs and the like. I also like the sound of dominoes pizza but not if it’s ridiculously expensive. Hope it’s a good do!

I wonder if this is the record number of posts on a birthday related thread without someone questioning the need for an adult to celebrate a birthday!

I would expect a cold buffet at something like that. If there’s dancing I wouldn’t want a big meal like a chilli. And the sweets are a nice touch but I don’t think people would eat as many as you think.
Dominoes is going to be crazy expensive! I would order some buffet platters from a supermarket. Sandwiches, quiche, salad, crudités and dips, sausage rolls. That kind of thing. Perfect!

You can pre order sandwich platters from Asda that are pretty good for a reasonable price. A load of sausage rolls , cheese and pineapple hedgehogs (you did say retro!) and bobs your uncle!

I would be tempted to borrow some slow cookers and do some big tubs of chilli, jacket potatoes, grated cheese, french stick & butter, maybe some easy salad bits.
You could also buy some platters of cheese/sliced meat too - keep it simple.

Sainsbury’s also do good platters, pork pies, quiches etc. You can buy big tubs of retro sweets in Aldi at the moment too

A big stack of pizza will be great. Quantity-wise you probably need less than you think. Just helped out at a wedding 174 guests expected. Buffet caterer said order for 135 max. Great food but there was tons leftover. Desserts were hardly touched -sweet stuff doesn't mix particularly well with alcohol.

Don't forget to check dietary requirements - vegetarians will be fine with meat-free pizza but you'll need to check if anyone needs gluten free or Vegan or has allergies

I'd aim for 7.30 ( 8 at the latest ) to keep kids and old folks from getting hangry (and to line stomachs for the drinkers.)

I’d go with cold buffet too, though I wouldn’t even bother making sandwiches. Do something easy like a ploughman’s theme. Slice up some breads (Lidl do a great range of fresh baked loaves), crackers, cheeses, meats, salad bowls, carrot, celery and cucumber sticks, bowls of pickles and pickled onions, coleslaw. Get something nice for vegetarians - dressed chickpeas or dhal or similar (again cheap and can be made in advance), cheap olives (you can marinade these with lemon and herbs/garlic a few days in advance). Bowls of fruit - plums, clementines, mini apples and pears (these are usually in bargain bags but go brilliantly with cheese, etc.) always vanish. Lidl and Aldi are your friend here.

I think you need a buffet too.
Pizza not to everyone's taste, and Dominos cost £££ - that's why they always have the tempting sounding offers.

It would be a lot of work for one person, is there no-one you could enlist to help ?
I certainly think it is worth ordering the buffet / sandwich platters that most of the supermarkets do.
Ask you local Indian takeaways if you can collect 50, 75, or 100 samosa's on your way to the party
There are all sorts of finger foods you can just bung on a tray in the oven - might need to ask a few of the people coming if they'd mind cooking a batch.

Or, ask in your local Community Facebook Group for recommendations for people that do buffets - you might be pleasantly surprised. It is a very competitive market and we've had some lovely buffets that way.

Or ask the guests to bring a dish.
Love those types of parties. Not only do you get a chance to eat something, but you also get the chance to try something completely new.

I'm gonna have to side with the majority here and say a sandwich platter - tuna crunch, egg mayo and ham and tomato. Four or five quiches, four or five pizzas. A few bags of mixed salad, some sausage rolls and a few pork pies.

All for the cost of two dominoes pizzas.

Then whack in some grapes, strawberries, some sliced cucumber, celery and carrot sticks with some dip. You're still in pocket.

And then a bunch of cupcakes and other pudding paraphernalia you're still only at 4 dominoes pizzas..

What difference does dancing make?
Just look at weddings, massive meals and lots of dancing afterwards.

I wouldn’t bother with chilli and baked potatoes, very faffy (and also heavy)

Speaking from experience because I work in a function hall at the weekend and I have seen hundreds if not thousands of buffets over the years.

The buffets that go down the best are ones who have ordered from there local Indian take away and supplemented with some sandwich platters and salad

A few pizzas, a platter of pakora, kabab meat. Good to soak up the booze.

Then some nice sandwiches, a salad and a bottle of dressing, cocktail sausages and a bowl of pasta salad should do it !

Hardly anyone touches the sweets. I Mostly just have to vacuum them up at the end of the night when they have been trodd into the carpet lol :)

Everyone seems to love a nice cupcake display though and they go down well especially if you buy the wee individual boxes for people to take them home in.