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Ideas needed for catering for ~80 people @ ~$8/person

U

udonoogen

Diamond Member
Hi Folks!

The guys from my church are putting on an event for the gals. We are looking to cater (because we can't cook complicated things well ... or at least reliably well). We were considering catering from Buca di beppo or Maggiano's and supplementing with a salad creation that we could probably conjur up. Italian is preferred.

We are trying to feed ~80 people but if there is less, the guys won't eat. 🙂

Budget right now is ~$600 for ~80 folks. How can we feed ourselves cheaply but nicely as well? Also, any dessert recommendations that are tasty and inexpensive and come in decently large amounts?

We'll be in the Irvine/Newport Beach area

Thanks all!
 
It's really not that hard to make a load of nice pasta with salad & garlic bread 🙂 Costco is your "bulk" friend 🙂

Then you can use the money you save to buy even more goodies 🙂

Cheers,
Aquaman
 
any of you guys can handle a knife? You pay a lot less if you buy a whole striploin compared to individual steaks. Do you have access to big kitchen with big ovens? Maybe prime rib roast? Do you need to provide variety or is fixed menu acceptable?

Calling catering is not exactly what I would classify as putting on an event.

 
Thanks for your comments guys. No really close kitchen access so cooking is slightly more difficult and involves several factors that could go wrong ( not excepting our questionable ability to cook a respectable meal). Haha! Anything is really an option. I will call pasta bravo and that other yelp joint tonight. If y'all have any additional recs it would be appreciated. Thanks again!!
 
One of the chains - dominos? - has lasagne or stuff like that. Main dish plus bags of salad plus bread plus big bottles of soda & water. Paper plates, plastic utensils, napkins, paper cups. Big garbage bags. Ice cream cake plus cookies, brownies and mints. And balloons, balloons make it look festive.
 
Pizza Hut has cheap lasagna (sorry I've only seen the commercial so I can't comment on the quality).
 
Originally posted by: RKS
Pizza Hut has cheap lasagna (sorry I've only seen the commercial so I can't comment on the quality).
Click to expand...

Their Mac and Cheese is great. The rest is crap and it can get expensive.
 
Check in with a local Mom & Pop italian franchise in your area. Pretty much any town over 20,000 people should have something that offers some catering/bulk carry out options.

The one in my town offers spaghetti by the half gallon for under $7.00 a bucket. Alfredo is about $8.00. You can feed about 4 people per bucket, so you'd need approximately 20 buckets worth. That's under $200. Toss in bread sticks and maybe some gondolas (italian subs) for another $200 and you still have $200 left over for drinks and desserts.

Lemon bars and Tiramisu are both Italian'y dessert options that can be made in sheet cake size batches. You can also check into Sam's Club for very reasonably priced, decent sheet cakes (chocolate, white, or marble). $60 in cakes from there would go very far.
 
I remember going to Marco Polo I think.. on Bison in Newport now and then when I was at Irvine. Decent food and they had coupons quite a bit. See if they can do some kind of discounted thing? Seemed like a mom & pop.
 
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