Catering in Palo Alto

Palo Alto feeds a lot of meetings. Startups order lunch for all-hands. Law firms order breakfast for early depositions. Parents order trays for team parties after Saturday games. The good news is that many local restaurants, cafes and markets publish catering menus with clear notice times, so you can plan an order without a dozen phone calls.

The businesses on this page all publish catering menus or catering pages on their own sites, as summarized in our business directory. Notice times and delivery terms are the ones they list. Check the current menu before you order, since catering offers change more often than restaurant menus.

Lead times at a glance

Others on this page do not publish a fixed notice time. For those, call at least a day ahead and more for a large event.

Breakfast and coffee for early meetings

• Hobee's, 4224 El Camino Real. The long-running Bay Area breakfast chain publishes a catering menu on its website that is also available through ezCater. Breakfast catering suits an early office meeting. Ordering through ezCater lets a team assistant order online without a call.
• Tootsie's at the Stanford Barn, 700 Welch Road. A small Italian cafe near the medical center that caters office meetings with coffee and tea containers, Italian pastries including bombolini, yogurt and granola, fruit platters, lunch boxes and panini platters. Inquiries go through its catering page.
• Coupa Café. Coupa Catering, the company's catering arm, offers espresso cart service, continental breakfasts, boxed lunches and lunch and dinner catering. An espresso cart is a popular choice for all-day events and offsites.

Sandwiches, salads and boxed lunches

Boxed lunches remain the simplest way to feed a meeting where people eat at their desks or around a conference table.

• Driftwood Deli and Market, 3450 El Camino Real. A family deli with a full sandwich catering menu. It asks for 2 days' notice for about 80 to 100 sandwiches and 5 days for orders of up to 500. Larger orders can be delivered with 24 hours' notice.
• Fambrini's Cafe, 2500 El Camino Real. Family-style sandwich boxes hold 12 full sandwiches cut in half, which the cafe says feeds roughly 12 to 20 people. Salad trays come in two sizes for about 10 to 12 or 15 to 18. Orders need 48 hours and go through its catering coordinator.
• World Wrapps, Stanford Shopping Center. Wraps, bowls and salads with global flavors. Catering can be ready as early as 10:15 a.m. The menu marks vegan and gluten-free items, which helps with mixed groups.
• The Market at Edgewood, 2170 West Bayshore Road. An independent family-owned market whose catering menu covers artisan platters, breakfast and brunch, sandwiches and wraps, hot entrées, salads, sushi, desserts and custom cakes.

Hot food and party trays

For a dinner meeting, a party or anything where people expect a hot meal, restaurant catering is the way to go.

Asian flavors

• Chef Zhao Kitchen, Edgewood Plaza. Shanghainese cooking with business catering and party trays. Its Toast ordering page includes a separate catering menu.
• Mamahuhu. Chinese-American dishes from a small San Francisco group co-founded by chef Brandon Jew. Its catering form lists Palo Alto as a pickup location. It asks for 5 hours of notice, or 24 hours for large orders.
• Asian Box, Town & Country Village. Vietnamese street food. Catering comes in big boxes that serve five people, family-style sides that serve five to seven and drink boxes for 10 to 15. The company says its whole menu is gluten-free.
• Ramen Kowa, 445 South California Avenue. A catering menu of ramen, katsu, Japanese curry, handmade gyoza, salads and bingsu, the Korean shaved ice dessert.
• Fuki Sushi, 4119 El Camino Real. Catering is a large part of the business. Its catering page leads with sushi boats, handcrafted wooden boats filled with sashimi, nigiri and specialty rolls.

Mediterranean and comfort food

• Anatolian Kitchen, 340 South California Avenue. A family-run Turkish restaurant that posts a separate catering menu as a PDF on its website.
• Hummus Mediterranean Kitchen, Stanford Shopping Center. Publishes a separate catering menu for the Palo Alto location. Spreads, salads and grilled meats travel well.
• Zingsters, 220B University Avenue. Hot chicken and burgers. Its catering page lists packs for small teams, office lunches and larger parties, plus trays of tenders and sliders, rice bowl trays and loaded fries. Orders are picked up from the restaurant.

Choosing a caterer by location

Distance matters more for catering than for a restaurant meal, since food cools and traffic on El Camino Real can be slow at noon. Offices downtown are close to Zingsters and Coupa. Teams in Stanford Research Park and around California Avenue are a short drive from Fambrini's, Driftwood Deli, Anatolian Kitchen and Ramen Kowa. Near the Stanford medical center, Tootsie's sits on Welch Road and World Wrapps and Hummus are at Stanford Shopping Center across the street. Near Highway 101 at Embarcadero Road, Edgewood Plaza puts The Market at Edgewood and Chef Zhao Kitchen close by. Picking a caterer within a couple of miles keeps pickup quick and hot food hot. For events on campus, see our visiting Stanford guide for parking and access, since campus parking rules apply to delivery drivers as well.

How to place a smooth catering order

1. Count heads and diets first. Collect vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy needs before you order. Ask the caterer to label each tray.
2. Order for 10 percent more than the head count if people will graze over several hours. For a fixed boxed lunch, order exactly.
3. Confirm pickup or delivery. Some caterers deliver and some are pickup only. Ask about delivery fees and minimums.
4. Plan the setup. Ask whether serving utensils, plates and napkins are included or extra.
5. Mind the time. Office lunches cluster around noon. An 11:30 a.m. delivery gives time to set up before people arrive.
6. Get it in writing. An email confirmation with the menu, count, time and address avoids surprises on the day.

Allergies and dietary needs

Catering adds risk for guests with allergies, since trays sit out and people serve themselves. Label everything and keep allergen-free dishes on a separate table with their own utensils. Asian Box says its whole menu is gluten-free and World Wrapps marks gluten-free and vegan items. For a guest with celiac disease, ask the caterer how it handles cross-contact. Our gluten-free guide and vegetarian and vegan guide list more options.

Bigger events

For a wedding, a large company party or a graduation celebration, restaurant catering may not be enough on its own. Several restaurants offer private rooms and on-site events instead, covered in our private dining rooms guide. If you are hosting in a park, check the city's picnic reservation rules first in our picnic spots guide. Out-of-town teams on an offsite can also browse Bay Area food tours as a group activity.

Frequently asked questions