Help needed - buffet food costings

tonymaull

Hi everyone. Can I get your advice?

We had a buffet as part of a function last year. Prior to the meeting we were given a menu, with prices per 'portion'. We worked with the venue organiser to create suggested numbers of portions for the people attending. We agreed an amount and paid in advance. On the evening, we ran out of food, and complained to the venue there seemed a significant amount of food missing. We asked the venue to organise additional food, they did say there would be a further expense. We had no choice but to do this as we had people in the queue waiting for more. The venue produced more food, but they chose the amount of items without any agreement from us or quotes.
We spoke to the catering manager afterward, who then provided us with some information on portion size. We felt that the portion size was very small for the money (2 strips of chicken for £3) and offered bad value for money. He agreed that they had to do some work on this for future events. He offered a discount, but was still some considerable money (hundreds).
Since then we have had an email chain between us and the event organiser, where we explained our feelings on the poor value for money and lack of transparency. She acknoledged this, but continues to ask us for the amount.
For reference, it would have been cheaper to pay for everyone to have a main meal in their restaurant than have the buffet, which only fed 70% of the people attending.

How do you think we should proceed with this?

Thanks in advance

unholyangel

Are you a business?

Any caterer I've ever dealt with for buffet has always given a price per head. This has ranged from £3 to £12 per head. The £12 per head was a proper full buffet though and the £3 per head one was just finger foods mostly with no hot options.

Did they not tell you what the portion sizes were prior to ordering?

HappyMJ

tonymaull wrote: »

Hi everyone. Can I get your advice?

We had a buffet as part of a function last year. Prior to the meeting we were given a menu, with prices per 'portion'. We worked with the venue organiser to create suggested numbers of portions for the people attending. We agreed an amount and paid in advance. On the evening, we ran out of food, and complained to the venue there seemed a significant amount of food missing. We asked the venue to organise additional food, they did say there would be a further expense. We had no choice but to do this as we had people in the queue waiting for more. The venue produced more food, but they chose the amount of items without any agreement from us or quotes.
We spoke to the catering manager afterward, who then provided us with some information on portion size. We felt that the portion size was very small for the money (2 strips of chicken for £3) and offered bad value for money. He agreed that they had to do some work on this for future events. He offered a discount, but was still some considerable money (hundreds).
Since then we have had an email chain between us and the event organiser, where we explained our feelings on the poor value for money and lack of transparency. She acknoledged this, but continues to ask us for the amount.
For reference, it would have been cheaper to pay for everyone to have a main meal in their restaurant than have the buffet, which only fed 70% of the people attending.

How do you think we should proceed with this?

Thanks in advance

Were the attendees expecting a meal or a snack?

It sounds like the option you purchased was enough for a snack each...the 2 strips for £3 implies that and those strips would be small. If people were expecting a meal then they would take much more than had been catered for.

Snacks always cost more per portion than whole meals and therefore look like poor value for money. Meals can be accompanied by drinks and the restaurant can make money on drink sales thereby making the meal look like the better option. Snacks are rarely accompanied by more than one drink so they make much less in wet sales.

swingaloo

Were you aware beforehand that the £3 got you 2 bits of chicken, if so were you happy to accept that. Also did your guests help themselves to more than a 'portion' each?

PasturesNew

It's a bit unclear how much you paid "per person" .... some seem to think you've got a "£3/person" expectation, which I am not sure is the correct understanding.

But, if that is - and if 2 small strips of chicken is £3s worth ... lead me to a buffet table and I'll show you how one, small, person will demolish 8 portions without even noticing it's a bit much

unholyangel

HappyMJ wrote: »

Were the attendees expecting a meal or a snack?

It sounds like the option you purchased was enough for a snack each...the 2 strips for £3 implies that and those strips would be small. If people were expecting a meal then they would take much more than had been catered for.

Snacks always cost more per portion than whole meals and therefore look like poor value for money. Meals can be accompanied by drinks and the restaurant can make money on drink sales thereby making the meal look like the better option. Snacks are rarely accompanied by more than one drink so they make much less in wet sales.

That may be true when you purchase a snack portion versus full portion from a take away or restaurant, but this is a buffet.....you are buying in much bigger bulk then you would even if you purchased a full portion.

And yes the cost can seem like a lot when you look at the total. But when you break it down per head.....well, there's a guy here who will put on a buffet for £6 per head and that includes chicken breast curry with rice and/or chips, an entire salmon, pies, pakora, sandwiches, sausage rolls, stovies etc. Admittedly he is perhaps the best caterer to this area but as a result, he's the preferred caterer for a range of venues.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Last time I organised a buffet for a number of people, including vegetarians and the carnivores amongst the attendees, I asked the caterer at the pub to suggest a mix, and the price quoted was £10 a head, We had more than enough wobbleade (extra!) and food. Everyone left happy.
If you asked me to pay £3 for a buffet, I would had gone to the bar myself and got another beer and a packet of crisps and be done with your celebrations!

tonymaull

unholyangel wrote: »

Are you a business?

Any caterer I've ever dealt with for buffet has always given a price per head. This has ranged from £3 to £12 per head. The £12 per head was a proper full buffet though and the £3 per head one was just finger foods mostly with no hot options.

Did they not tell you what the portion sizes were prior to ordering?

No they didnt mention portion size. I did question it in the initial meeting and raised a concern that we had no idea how much food we needed. We were given the impression that a portion was more than what it actually was. We are a couple, not a business.

tonymaull

HappyMJ wrote: »

Were the attendees expecting a meal or a snack?

It sounds like the option you purchased was enough for a snack each...the 2 strips for £3 implies that and those strips would be small. If people were expecting a meal then they would take much more than had been catered for.

Snacks always cost more per portion than whole meals and therefore look like poor value for money. Meals can be accompanied by drinks and the restaurant can make money on drink sales thereby making the meal look like the better option. Snacks are rarely accompanied by more than one drink so they make much less in wet sales.

We believed that it was a buffet meal, as included desert in the options. I can understand that individual snacks can add up, but event the salad portions were small. I would have thought that a spend of £15 per person should have been enough of a spend to provide them a sensible sized meal

tonymaull

swingaloo wrote: »

Were you aware beforehand that the £3 got you 2 bits of chicken, if so were you happy to accept that. Also did your guests help themselves to more than a 'portion' each?

We didnt know. We did ask about portion size but the organiser couldnt provide us an answer. We were only told what the sizes were the day after the buffet. There was a chance the guests had more than 2 peices each, however if we knew there was only 2 each we would have spent more on that.

tonymaull

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's a bit unclear how much you paid "per person" .... some seem to think you've got a "£3/person" expectation, which I am not sure is the correct understanding.

But, if that is - and if 2 small strips of chicken is £3s worth ... lead me to a buffet table and I'll show you how one, small, person will demolish 8 portions without even noticing it's a bit much

We ordered a range of options, each one about £3-5 each. Some somosas, spring rolls, chicken strips, salad, wedges etc. So we spend around £15 per person approx. I would have expected this to cover the guests, and had this confirmed from the organiser. As we didnt know portion size, and they were unable to provide us this information, we took their advice.