Start with the event, then the headcount
The right quantity depends on how the group will eat, not just how many people show up. A one-hour lunch meeting with a hard stop behaves differently from a birthday where adults linger and come back for seconds, and a condo party room fills in waves instead of sitting down all at once. So the first planning question is simple: is the food light support for the event, or is it the main meal?
Shared party trays in Toronto are the format this guide assumes. Trays let 10 to 50 guests build their own plate from a few large dishes, which is easier to size, easier to serve, and more economical per head than individual boxed meals.
Three event patterns cover most downtown Toronto requests:
- Office lunch or boardroom meeting: one eating window, predictable appetite, food must be room-ready on time.
- Birthday, family celebration, or condo party room gathering: longer service window, guests arrive in waves, expect seconds.
- Campus, club, or workshop event: younger or more active eaters, staggered breaks, higher starch demand.
Decide which pattern fits before looking at a single dish name.
The baseline: 1.25 to 1.5 lb of food per guest
For most office catering in downtown Toronto, plan around 1.25 to 1.5 lb (about 600 to 700 g) of total food per person across appetizers, mains, rice, and noodles combined. That is the number to start from before any adjustment for event type or appetite.
Baseline by situation:
- Standard one-hour lunch meeting: 1.25 lb (600 g) per person
- Working lunch that runs through the meeting: 1.4 lb (650 g) per person
- All-day session with one served meal: 1.5 lb (700 g) or more per person
- Dinner event: 1.5 lb (700 g) per person
- Active or younger group (students, athletes, trades): add 10 to 15 percent
- Light-eating team or short window: subtract 10 percent
Vegetarian catering does not need less food per person than a meat-based order. The total volume stays the same; what shifts is the distribution, with slightly more rice and noodles and slightly less protein-heavy tray volume. Curries pair with rice, so a curry-forward menu needs more jasmine rice than a stir-fry-forward one.
Rice planning ranges: about 3 lb of cooked jasmine rice for 10 guests, 5 to 6 lb for 20, and 6 to 7 lb for 30.
Tray counts for 10, 20, 25, 30, 40, and 50 guests
Tray counts scale with headcount, but variety has to grow alongside volume. Two mains plus a lot of rice feels stingy at 30 guests even when the total weight is correct. Tray sizes vary by dish, so treat these as planning ranges and confirm exact sizes when ordering.
10 guests: 4 to 5 trays
A 10-person lunch needs about 12 to 15 lb of food across 4 to 5 trays. Keep the dish list short: one standout main, one support main, one side, and a rice base. Two or three strong trays outperform five small ones. A sample structure is a medium tray of Vegetable Pad Thai, a medium tray of Green Curry or Mixed Vegetable Curry, a small tray of Spring Rolls, jasmine rice, and one optional protein tray such as Cashew Chicken for a mixed group.
Orders in the 10 to 20 range are the sweet spot for a group order in downtown Toronto, which qualifies for direct group delivery on orders over CAD 200 within 5 km of 175 Dundas St W.
20 guests: 6 to 8 trays
Plan 25 to 30 lb across 6 to 8 trays. At this size two starches (rice plus a noodle tray) beat doubling a single one, because variety keeps the line moving. Include at least one labelled vegan tray if the team has plant-based members, and size vegetarian trays to serve more than just the declared vegetarians. A working lunch needs a little less variety than an evening social, which benefits from more shared items and a slightly wider spread.
25 to 30 guests: 8 to 10 trays
A 30-person order runs 38 to 45 lb across 8 to 10 trays, and 25 guests sit just below that. This is where shared catering stops feeling like a big takeout order and starts feeling like event food, so organize the menu by category:
- grab-and-share appetizers
- one fresh or lighter item such as Mango Salad
- three or four mains with familiar flavours
- a vegetarian or vegan dish with enough volume to stand on its own
Thirty-person office lunches run in waves, so favour dishes that hold heat and texture, such as curries, Pad See Ew, and Pineapple Fried Rice, over anything that wilts.
40 guests: plan for flow, not “just enough”
At 40, stop building around the most optimistic assumption. Guests arrive early or late, skip dishes, and take second helpings when the event feels social. Make sure vegetarian guests have real coverage, avoid leaning on one hero main, and pick dishes that serve cleanly from a tray. Scale the 30-person structure up by roughly a third rather than adding new dish types.
50 guests: simplify execution, not flavour
The biggest risk at 50 is operational complexity. Repeat the same core structure in larger tray sizes rather than adding one-off dishes; a predictable serving flow with clear labels beats a fragmented menu. Beyond 50, planning shifts toward buffet lines and staged service, which the guide to catering for 100 to 1,000 employees covers.
Assign tray roles before choosing dish names
Every tray in a group order should have a job. Deciding roles first and dish names second is the single habit that reduces both over-ordering and the “full table, hungry team” problem.
The four roles:
- Core mains: the trays that actually feed people. Green Curry, Massaman Curry, Basil Stir Fry, Cashew Chicken, Tofu Basil. Allocate spend here first.
- Starch anchors: Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, Drunken Noodles, Pineapple Fried Rice, jasmine rice. These absorb appetite variance.
- Protein bridge (mixed groups only): one chicken or beef tray that lets meat-eaters feel served without doubling the order.
- Freshness and contrast: Mango Salad, Spring Rolls, Tom Yum or Tom Kha soup. These make the table feel complete but should support the meal, not carry it.
Appetizers are the most common place to overspend. A small tray of Spring Rolls and a shared salad help a birthday or celebration feel welcoming, but noodles, curries, and stir-fries do the real work of feeding the group. When two trays overlap in role, one of them is usually wasted budget.
Budget bands: around CAD 300, CAD 500, and CAD 800
Budget-first planning works when each spend level has a clear tray strategy instead of random substitutions. These are planning ranges from past group orders, not quotes; the final figure depends on dishes, tray sizes, and dietary requests, so confirm with your headcount.
Around CAD 300: compact, high-utility trays
This band suits roughly 10 to 12 guests for a full lunch, or a light spread for a slightly larger group. Focus on two substantial mains, one starch anchor, and rice, and skip appetizers unless the event is social. A vegetarian menu for 10 at this level: Vegetable Pad Thai, Mixed Vegetable Curry, Golden Tofu, and jasmine rice.
Around CAD 500: balance between variety and volume
This is the most-requested band, and it maps to about 20 guests, a planning figure near CAD 25 a head. One sample Thai order at this level for an office lunch or team dinner:
- 1 small tray Spring Rolls
- 1 small tray Mango Salad
- 1 small tray Pad Thai
- 1 small tray Drunken Noodles with chicken
- 1 small tray Panang Curry with chicken
- 2 extra-small trays Tofu Basil for vegan guests
For a vegetarian-friendly version at the same budget, use two vegetarian-forward mains (Mixed Vegetable Curry and Tofu Basil), one optional protein bridge, one noodle anchor, and one lighter balancing side. Both versions can support gluten-aware and vegan requests when stated at order time.
Around CAD 800: premium spread with stronger dietary coverage
At this level a 30-guest lunch can carry three or four mains, two starches, a labelled vegan tray, a salad, and an appetizer, or a 20-guest dinner can move up to larger tray sizes with a second protein. Spend the extra on a second labelled vegan tray or a second meat tray depending on the team’s mix, not on more appetizers. For larger celebrations, the Thai buffet catering menu and pricing guide explains when a buffet setup becomes more efficient than trays.
Mixed dietary needs change the math
Mixed groups need more than a simple chicken-versus-vegetarian split. A typical downtown Toronto office includes guests who want chicken or beef, guests who prefer vegetarian, one or two vegans, someone avoiding egg, and someone avoiding gluten. The menu does not need to get complicated; the quantity of the flexible dishes just matters more.
The working ratio for mixed teams is 60 to 70 percent vegetarian content and 30 to 40 percent meat content. Meat-eating colleagues happily eat the vegetarian trays, but vegetarian colleagues cannot eat the meat ones, so vegetarian volume should reflect crossover demand rather than the declared vegetarian headcount. A vegan noodle tray also feeds lighter eaters and anyone wanting a second option, which is why it belongs in the core rather than as a specialty extra.
Ordering notes that keep dietary coverage honest:
- Thai curries at Evergreen Thai use coconut milk, not dairy, so Green, Red, Massaman, and Panang curries are natural dairy-free choices.
- Fish sauce and oyster sauce are in the kitchen, so vegan versions of noodle, curry, and rice dishes must be requested when ordering.
- Gluten-aware and no-egg versions are available on request; ask when ordering rather than assuming.
- Label trays clearly for self-serve so nobody has to guess.
For fully vegetarian groups, the sister restaurant Vegedelight next door on Dundas serves only vegetarian Chinese and Thai dishes, and a combined order from both kitchens can arrive in one delivery. The mixed dietary preferences catering guide goes deeper on half-vegetarian, half-chicken ordering.
Adjust for timing, appetite, and downtown logistics
Standard numbers work for most lunches, but several situations change either the quantity or the dish mix. Tell the kitchen the meeting length, time of day, team profile, and dietary mix at booking and the recommendation adjusts with it.
Situations that change the order:
- Long all-day event: add 15 to 20 percent per person and plan two service rounds
- Dinner event: keep 1.5 lb per person but add protein-forward dishes
- Vegan-heavy team: add a second labelled vegan tray
- Meat-heavy team: add a second meat tray but keep the vegetarian core
- Senior team or short meeting: subtract 5 to 10 percent and go lighter on starch
- Buffet setup: slightly more variety, similar total volume
Downtown Toronto logistics also shape quantity. Lobby security, concierge handoff, elevator waits, and limited loading access all push the actual eating window later, so choose dishes that hold quality through staggered timing and confirm a room-ready time rather than just a delivery time. The office catering checklist for downtown office managers covers delivery notes, floor and receiver details, and backup contacts.
Lead time matters too. For 30 guests, book 5 to 7 days ahead so dietary headcount, dish selection, and the delivery slot can be confirmed. For 50 or more, 1 to 2 weeks is safer. Shorter notice is often workable, and the last-minute corporate catering guide explains what is realistic on a tight clock, but it leaves less buffer for dietary confirmation.
Avoid the quantity mistakes that inflate spend
Most catering failures trace back to five repeatable mistakes, and each has a simple fix.
- Under-ordering vegetarian mains: size them for crossover, not headcount.
- Over-ordering appetizers, under-ordering core trays: put spend into mains first, then add variety.
- Too many dishes with overlapping roles: assign roles before names and drop duplicates.
- Finalizing headcount late: lock a guest-count band early and keep one contingency tray for attendance variance.
- Adding premium extras before core coverage is secured: upgrades come last.
A simple budgeting sequence prevents all five: lock the guest-count band, define the vegetarian coverage target, allocate spend to core mains, add variety only once portions are sufficient, then include a small contingency. After the event, note the leftover ratio by dish type and how well the room-ready time held.
What to send for a quantity-sized quote
The fastest path to the right quantity is a short message with the planning details, so the kitchen can shape the order around the real use case instead of dish names alone. Evergreen Thai Kitchen & Bar has been sizing group orders from 175 Dundas St W since 2007, and the same six details make every recommendation faster:
- guest count, or a confident range
- event type, and whether the food is a light spread or the main meal
- budget band
- dietary needs, including vegan, gluten-aware, and no-egg requests
- pickup or delivery, with building and floor details
- the time the room needs to be ready
Orders serving 10 or more guests are best handled through the catering path rather than a standard delivery app, and the full menu is the easiest place to shortlist dishes before writing in. With those details ready, get a catering quote sized to your headcount and budget, or call +1 416-581-8668 to talk it through.