Catering ordering

Take catering orders on your own website. Paid up front.

MyFoodFast gives your takeaway a catering website with its own menu, so party trays and office lunches come in paid, with the notice you need and a minimum spend you set.

  • Time to prepare

    Ask for 24 or 48 hours’ notice. There is no ASAP button, so a 60-piece platter never lands mid-rush.

  • A minimum worth the work

    Set the smallest order the catering site takes. The basket shows how much more to add before checkout.

  • Paid before you cook

    Every catering order is paid by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay when it is placed. No unpaid party orders.

Set it up once. Every big order arrives ready to plan.

  • Build a catering menu

    Pick the products the catering site sells, such as platters, sharing boxes and party trays, and price them for catering.

  • Set your rules once

    Choose the notice you need, how far ahead customers can book and the minimum order. Your main site keeps its normal times.

  • Orders arrive like any other

    Catering orders drop into the same POS and kitchen screens, with the catering brand printed on every ticket.

  • Office Christmas parties
  • Staff lunches and meetings
  • Birthday and family parties
  • School and club events
  • Match days and watch parties
  • Community and religious events

Busy season

Christmas parties are catering orders.

From late November, offices, schools and families order food for twenty or more. A catering site lets them book days ahead and pay up front, so you can plan the prep, staff the shift and still serve your regulars on the night.

Worked example

A pizza shop that takes office and party orders.

  1. 1Create a catering brand, “Smith’s Catering”, with its own web address.
  2. 2Give it your sharing boxes and party platters, priced for catering.
  3. 3Set 24 hours’ notice, bookings up to 14 days ahead and a £150 minimum.

On Tuesday night, an office manager orders food for Friday’s party. They see “Orders need 24 hours’ notice”, choose Friday at 12:30 and pay by card. If the basket is £120, it shows “Add £30 to reach the £150 minimum” and checkout waits. Your main site keeps taking ASAP orders as normal.

Ordering rules for the catering brand

Minimum notice
24 hours
Take orders up to
14 days ahead
Minimum order value
£150
Payment
Card only

Set under Website & App settings, with the catering brand chosen. Enter 0 to switch a rule off. Your main brand keeps the store’s normal times.

What is a catering ordering website for a takeaway?

A catering ordering website lets customers order large amounts of food in advance, such as party platters, office lunches or food for an event, with rules a normal takeaway site does not have: a notice period, a booking window and a minimum order. MyFoodFast catering ordering is part of MyFoodFast Online Ordering for UK takeaways. Your catering site has its own menu, branding and web address, and its orders go into the same POS and kitchen as everything else.

Most takeaways take catering enquiries by phone, email or a form, then chase payment. Catering marketplaces take the booking but keep the customer and charge commission, which hurts most on a £300 office lunch. A catering site of your own takes the order and the payment in one go, with no aggregator commission, and the customer and their order history stay yours, so the next booking comes straight back to you.

It suits any takeaway that can cook in volume: pizza shops with party boxes, Indian and Chinese takeaways with banquet trays, chicken and wings shops with sharing platters, fish and chip shops feeding a whole office, and cafés doing sandwich platters for meetings.

It is part of MyFoodFast Online Ordering, works alongside Capacity Management so catering never crowds out a busy night, and sends every order to your POS and kitchen display. Running more than one brand? See virtual brands.

Catering ordering — the questions owners ask

Can I take catering orders on a separate website from my normal ordering site?

Yes. Your catering site is its own brand in MyFoodFast, with its own menu, logo, web address and page title in Google. Your normal ordering website keeps its own menu and times.

Can I set a minimum order, a notice period and a booking window?

Yes, all three. For example 24 hours’ notice, bookings up to 14 days ahead and a £150 minimum. Customers see the notice on the menu and at checkout, and the basket shows how much more to add to reach the minimum.

Do customers pay when they order?

Yes. Catering orders are always paid by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay when they are placed, so you never prepare a large order nobody has paid for.

Can a customer get round the notice period or the minimum?

No. The rules are checked again when the customer pays, so an old basket, a page left open overnight or a repeated old order can’t get round them.

Where do catering orders show up?

On the same POS and kitchen screens as your other orders, as advance orders for the time the customer chose. The catering brand’s name is printed on receipts and kitchen tickets, so the team knows what it is.

Can my catering site deliver when my main site is collection only?

Yes. Delivery and collection stores are set per brand, so the catering site can deliver from a store your main site only offers for collection. It uses that store’s delivery areas and charges.

Will catering orders overload my kitchen on a busy night?

They are booked ahead, so you see them coming. If you use Capacity Management, catering orders count towards the same per-slot limit as your other online orders, because they come out of the same kitchen.

How much does it cost?

Nothing extra for the catering website. Catering orders cost the same as any other online order: catering ordering runs on MyFoodFast Online Ordering, included with a base plan from £20 a month, rolling monthly with no minimum term. Card orders carry 1% MFF on online card orders, plus Stripe processing, and no aggregator commission.

See exactly how it’s set up

Step-by-step guides and features worth knowing.

Works with

Better together

Your catering site takes the booking. These get it cooked and out the door.

Make every big order one you planned for.

Catering ordering comes with MyFoodFast Online Ordering, included with a base plan. Rolling monthly, no minimum term.

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7-day free trial. Card required; your plan starts after the trial unless you cancel.

  • No contracts
  • No aggregator commission
  • Cancel anytime