Free Report — Written by Jay, Shilpa Owner
After 20+ years running Shilpa, I've seen every mistake in the book. This is the checklist I give office managers and directors — so your lunch lands perfectly, your guests are impressed, and you look great for organising it.
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— Jay's Letter
I've done thousands of catering orders over two decades. The ones that go wrong — late delivery, forgotten dietary needs, poor presentation — they all follow the same pattern: someone ordered from a restaurant they didn't properly check first.
The person organising the lunch ends up looking bad through no fault of their own. It's not right. That's why I've put together this checklist. Run through these 10 points before you place your next office order, and I guarantee you'll avoid the traps that trip up most people. You'll be the director, manager or CEO who always gets it right.
Many restaurants take walk-in bookings but have no real system for feeding 15–50 people at once. Ask directly: "Do you regularly cater for offices?" A specialist will say yes without hesitation — and will have a structured process for it.
A restaurant that handles a table of four is not the same as one that handles a boardroom of thirty. Ask for examples of previous office orders of a similar headcount. Reliability at scale is what protects your reputation.
When something changes — a guest has a new allergy, numbers increase by five — you need one person to call who knows your order inside out. If the answer is "just call the main number," that's a red flag.
Not "around 12:30" — an exact arrival window. Corporate lunches run to meetings. Food arriving 25 minutes late with no warning is the fastest way to make the person who organised it look unprepared. Get a written confirmation of delivery time.
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, halal, dairy-free — in a modern office, you'll have at least two or three different requirements. A serious catering operation will have a clear system for labelling and separating dishes, not a verbal promise.
Arriving with unlabelled foil trays is amateur. Ask whether each dish comes clearly labelled with the dish name and any allergen information. This matters enormously when people are serving themselves from a buffet layout.
How far in advance must you order? Can numbers change 24 hours before? What happens if you need to cancel? A reliable caterer has clear, written policies — not vague reassurances. Knowing the rules protects you from last-minute chaos.
Mistakes happen. What matters is how they're handled. Ask: "If an item is missing or wrong on the day, what do you do?" A confident, experienced operation will have an immediate remedy plan. Evasiveness here is a warning sign.
A board lunch or client meeting requires food that looks as good as it tastes. Ask whether food is presented in quality containers, or request to see photos of a previous office delivery. Presentation reflects on whoever organised the lunch.
Don't just look at overall star ratings — filter for reviews that mention "office order", "bulk order", "delivery on time" or "corporate". These are the experiences that tell you how the restaurant performs under the conditions that matter to you.