Boost Catering Sales with This Simple Menu Hack 

Hey everyone! Aidan here with Catering Launch. Today we're going to talk about something that's extremely important for restaurants to do with their catering menus. When I owned my restaurant, I came to this realization way too late, so I'm hope to save you some time here.

Basically, we all know that the easier something is to do, the more people will do it. When then do so many restaurant owners have incredibly complex catering menus with 100 different options, each of which feeds a different amount of people? It doesn't make sense, right?

At Pier 49 Pizza, I spent way too long just giving people a choice of our 16 specialty pizzas and figuring that people would figure out their perfect order size on their own. Everything changed when I created a "per person" menu, telling people the prices of different tiers of meal. If you want pizza for 50 people, it costs $7.49/person. If you want pizza and salad for 50 people, it's $8.99 per person. And if you want pizza, salads, cheesy breadsticks, and dessert pizzas for 50 people, it's $9.99 per person.

This is what you have to do at your restaurant. You can have a complex catering menu if it works for your case, but at the top of that menu you need to have a couple of different options—3, 4, 5 at the most—of "per person" options. Doing this at your restaurant is going to increase the number of people who look at your catering menu, then decide to actually order.

It's a really simple change, but the catering program at my restaurant didn't really start to take off until I did this.

I can’t overstate the importance of creating a catering menu that is simple, clear, and designed for easy decision-making. If you’re in the catering business—and if you're a restaurant, you have to be—your menu has to be structured in a way that makes ordering a no-brainer. You want someone planning an event to look at your menu and immediately know what to choose, without having to do any extra math or guesswork. 

Using per-person pricing means that the office manager, executive assistant, receptionist, or whoever is buying food for that office can do some quick math and determine if a meal at your restaurant fits within their budget.

If the person in charge of ordering food for an office or a wedding can’t quickly figure out how much feeding their group is going to cost, you’ve lost them. If they have to guess how many trays or platters they need, they’ll get overwhelmed and move on to a competitor who makes it easy. 

This is something I learned the hard way. Back when I started focusing on catering, my menu was just a long list of pizzas and add-ons with no clear way to estimate cost. People had to call and ask, "How much food do I need for 50 people?" or "What’s the total cost for 100 people?" That extra effort turned people away because they didn’t want to do the mental gymnastics required to figure it out 

But when I switched to simple, per-person meal packages, everything changed. The calls became, "I’ll take the Silver Tier for 75 people. How soon can you deliver?" That’s the power of a well-structured menu. Ordering becomes effortless, and the barrier to making a purchase is drastically reduced.

And the best part? Once people experience how seamless it is to order from you, they keep coming back. They trust you. They know they don’t have to stress about quantities, dietary preferences, or surprise costs. They know you’ve already done the work for them, and that makes all the difference. 

Why Clarity is Your Best Sales Strategy

A confused customer is a lost customer. When potential catering clients look at your menu, they should know exactly what they’re getting. If they have to call and ask too many questions, there’s a good chance they’ll just move on to a competitor who presents the information more clearly. 

Your menu should be designed for quick decisions. Think about it—catering orders are placed by people who are already juggling a hundred other responsibilities. They don’t have time to piece together an order like a puzzle. Make it simple for them by grouping everything into logical, easy-to-understand packages.

A great example is how fast-food chains create combo meals. Instead of picking a burger, then fries, then a drink separately, they bundle it all together and make it an easy choice. The same logic applies to catering menus. The easier you make it for your customers to order, the more they will order. 

The Three-Tiered System: Gold, Silver, and Bronze

One of the best ways to structure your catering menu is with three clear tiers: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. This lets customers pick a package that fits their budget while ensuring they always feel like they’re getting value, no matter what they choose.

So, how did we do this at my pizzeria? Let's take a quick look.

• Gold Tier: Pizza, Salad, Dessert Pizza, and Breadsticks ($9.99/person)

• Silver Tier: Pizza & Salad ($8.99/person)

• Bronze Tier: Just Pizza ($7.49/person)

No one feels bad about ordering Bronze, because in their mind, even if they’re on a budget, they’re still "medaling." It’s a subtle psychological trick, but it works. People want options, but they don’t want to feel like they’re sacrificing quality. 

Imagine you’re planning an event. You have a budget. You want to provide a good meal for your guests, but you’re also trying to keep costs reasonable. If you only have one catering option, you might hesitate. But when you see tiers, you naturally weigh your options and find the best fit for your event’s needs. 

How This Works for Other Restaurants:

If you’re a BBQ restaurant, your menu could look like this: 

• Gold Tier: 3 meats, 4 sides, and cornbread

• Silver Tier: 2 meats, 3 sides

• Bronze Tier: Pulled pork sandwich with 2 sides

If you run a Mexican restaurant: 

• Gold Tier: Beef, Pork, Chicken, and Veggie tacos with beans, rice, a salsa bar, and dessert

• Silver Tier: Pork and chicken tacos, with beans, rice, and a salsa bar

• Bronze Tier: Chicken tacos with rice & beans

The structure is what matters—not the specific food items. Give people a clear progression from basic to premium, and they’ll naturally find their ideal option without feeling overwhelmed. And because the Gold Tier feels like such an upgrade for just a few dollars more, you’ll find that a lot of people choose it. A lot of catering menus I see leave money on the table, because they accidentally push people towards the cheaper options or are so confusing and overwhelming that people go with the cheaper options.  

Revamp your catering menu with "per person" options at the top, and everything else below, and you'll increase conversion by 50% or more.

So, building off this "per person" menu, it also makes sense to have a "Meal for 10" option. This is a bundled deal that's basically just your gold tier (so highest tier "per person" option) for 10 people. At Pier 49 pizza, we had a lot of folks order our "per person" items, but a ton of people just ordered our meal for 10 too.

At my pizzeria, our "Meal for 10" included: 

• Two 16” pizzas 

• A 14” cheese pizza 

• A 12” cheesy breadsticks 

• A 12” dessert pizza 

• A family-sized salad 

Total price: $99.95

Having 3 "per person" meals and a meal for 10 is a great option. Lots of folks order for even numbers of people, so this option is exactly what they need. We'd get plenty of people ordering 1 meal for ten, and others ordering 20 or 30 of them.

Why did this work so well? Because it was a no-thinking-required option. Customers didn’t have to do any math or planning. They just saw "Meal for 10" and knew it was exactly what they needed.

It was also a way to introduce catering customers to our food. People would order one "Meal for 10" to test us out. Next time? They’d order for 50 or 100 people. This was our foot-in-the-door strategy, and it worked wonders. 

Your "Meal for 10" should be priced slightly lower than if they ordered everything separately but still profitable. The goal is to make it feel like a deal without giving away too much.

Pro tip: Use high-margin items to make the meal look even more valuable. In my case, dessert pizzas and cheesy breadsticks had almost no food cost but added perceived value. Customers thought they were getting an extra $30 worth of food when, in reality, our cost was only $5 or $6.

At the end of the day, catering customers want an easy process. They’re not looking to browse a complex menu or make a hundred little decisions. They want to check a few boxes and be done.

Make their lives easier by: 

1. Offering per-person meal packages.

2. Highlighting a "Meal for 10" front and center.

3. Using clear and familiar tiered pricing.

If you do these three things, you will book more orders, faster.And let’s be honest—once you book an order and deliver an outstanding experience, that customer will return. People remember restaurants that make them look good. If an office manager can order from you and get compliments from the team, they’ll stick with you for the long haul. 

So, our final takeaway from this training is that you need to make your menu a selling machine. When you remove friction (those little, pesky decisions that food buyers don't want to have to worry about) catering sales will skyrocket.

If you apply everything I’ve shared here, I promise you—you will see a massive difference in your catering sales. The easier you make it for customers to choose and order, the more orders you’ll get. It’s that simple. And once those orders start rolling in, the best part is knowing that you’ve set up a system that brings in business again and again.

If you need help creating a "per person" menu and a meal for 10 for your restaurant, reach out and we can chat for a few minutes to come up with something amazing.

As always, to everyone out there, thanks for watching, and let's crush it with catering this week!