Catering Quote Template (Free, Printable)

This catering quote template gives your restaurant one format for every catering order: client and event details, itemized menu lines, delivery and service fees, totals, and the terms that protect your kitchen. Copy the whole quote or one section, paste the tables into a spreadsheet, or print it from your browser and save it as a PDF. It's part of our restaurant catering revenue guide.

How to use this template

1. Catering quote. Give every quote a number and a "valid until" date. The number ties the quote to the order and the invoice. The date gives you a natural reason to follow up.
2. Client and event details. Fill in what the kitchen and the driver need, not just the date and headcount. A missing on-site contact, serving time or building-access note is what turns a drop-off into a late delivery.
3. Menu. Put each package or item on its own line with its labels, the allergens it contains, quantity, unit and price. Use only labels and allergen codes your kitchen has checked against current recipes. Price office orders per person and party trays per tray. Build the prices from your food cost: the catering pricing calculator divides food cost per person by your target food cost percentage to give a price per person.
4. Service, delivery and fees. Give delivery, setup, staff and rentals a line each, so the buyer can see what each one costs. If you add a service charge, say what it covers, and don't bill servers by the hour if the service charge already pays for them. The IRS says "a payment is a tip only if the customer voluntarily decides to pay it and determines the amount," so a mandatory charge is a service charge, not a gratuity. Ask your accountant how to run it through payroll, and check your state's disclosure rules.
5. Totals. Keep the price per person before tax line: food and fees divided by headcount. Buyers often compare one restaurant's total with another's food-only price, and this figure makes the comparison fair. Show sales tax as its own line, and check with your accountant how your state taxes catering, delivery fees and service charges.
6. Terms. Fill in every bracket once, then use the same terms on every quote, whoever writes it. Have a lawyer read them before the first one goes out.
7. Approval. Use one booking rule everywhere: on the quote, the order form and your follow-up emails. The template's default is "To reserve the date, approve this quote and pay the deposit through the payment link. We'll send written confirmation after both are received." Approval can be a reply or a signature; the deposit goes through the link. If you invoice approved accounts instead, the template includes a marked alternative for those customers only. Don't send both versions to the same buyer.

Worked example: Say an office orders 25 boxed lunches at $18.00 per person. The food subtotal is $450.00. Add a $30.00 delivery fee and a 10% service charge on the food ($45.00), and the fees subtotal is $75.00, for $525.00 before tax. The price per person before tax is $21.00 ($525 ÷ 25). Sales tax at your local rate goes on its own line below that. These are example numbers to show the arithmetic, not a recommended price.

For published per-person ranges and the fees buyers expect to see, read how much catering costs.

Tips that win the order

• Send the quote the same day. A buyer planning Thursday's lunch is often asking several restaurants at once. The first clear, complete quote sets the standard the others are judged against.
• Offer two options, not one. Quote your recommended package and one alternative: a smaller headcount, a lower price point or a mostly vegetarian spread. A choice between two of yours beats a yes-or-no on one.
• Repeat their dietary needs back. "Four vegetarian, one vegan, and our kitchen's answer on the peanut allergy" shows you listened, and it gives the buyer something to forward to colleagues.
• Lead with the price per person. Office buyers budget by headcount, so put the per-person figure where they'll see it first.
• Set the expiration date on purpose. A date a week or two out gives you a polite reason to check in before it lapses.
• Follow up two days later. A quote that goes quiet often means a busy buyer, not a lost order. Email 2 in our catering follow-up email templates is written for exactly that moment.
• Turn the yes into an order on the spot. Once the approval and deposit are in, send the written confirmation, fill in the detailed catering order form template, and confirm the headcount, address and on-site contact again two days before the event.

Who writes the quotes?

In a busy restaurant, quotes often get written after close by whoever has time. Kutlerri.ai's Catering Sales Agent answers catering inquiries by phone, email, text and web form, and drafts each quote from your catering menu and prices. You approve every quote before it goes out, and the agent then drafts the invoice and closes the order. Kutlerri is paid out of the catering revenue the agent brings in, not through a software subscription.