Restaurant Catering or Outside Catering? What the Terms Mean, and Which One You Need
Hummus trays, paneer kebabs and chicken shish turning up at the office at 12:30 is restaurant catering: a restaurant's kitchen cooking its own menu, boxed or on platters, delivered to you. Outside catering is a menu written for your event, cooked and served on site by the staff who arrive with it. In-house catering is the venue's own kitchen, which you get whether you asked for it or not. Those are three service models, not three types of company. A restaurant with a catering kitchen can do the first two.
The three, in one table
| Format | What you get | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant catering | The restaurant's own dishes, sized for a group, delivered or collected. Food, and not much else. | Office lunches, team days, parties at home, anything where the food is the reason you chose the restaurant. |
| Outside catering | A menu written for the event, with chefs, floor staff, equipment and clear-down as the event needs them. | Weddings, receptions and formal dinners, anywhere the food has to fit a fixed running order. |
| In-house catering | The venue's kitchen and staff. Usually fixed menus, sometimes a minimum spend. | Venues and offices that bundle the catering with the room. |
How to choose in one question
Can the guests serve themselves? If yes, restaurant catering does the job at a fraction of the price, because you are paying for food and delivery rather than for a team. If the event needs timed courses, plated service or a kitchen built in a field, you need the outside-catering version, and you are paying for the staff as much as the food. If the venue insists on its own kitchen, the choice has been made for you; ask to taste before you sign.
What Le Bab does: both
Delivered. The restaurant menu, sized for a group and driven to you hot or cold as the dishes need. Hummus, kebabs and salads for an office lunch; sharing trays for a party at home. The terms:
- Within five miles of central London. Further out, ask.
- 48 hours' notice. Same-week is fine; same-day is not.
- £150 minimum order.
- Corporate from £28 a head, private events from £32, wedding reception and late-night food from £15.
- Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and halal planned into the menu, with an allergen guide on the catering page.
Cooked for the event. Off-menu food, designed around what you are doing rather than lifted from the restaurant menu, with chefs and floor staff on site. There is no cap on numbers and no fixed format: the budget sets the scope, and any of the prices above can go bespoke. Lead time is by enquiry rather than a fixed number of weeks, and short notice is often workable, so send the date even when it is close.
The hummus tends to turn up either way, and so does a paneer kebab that the meat-eaters order.
When you want the food and a room
Private hire is the third route. Le Bab Soho and Le Bab Covent Garden take private events for up to 100 seats with a custom menu, full bar service and a sound system, and Kebab Queen seats ten for a private takeover on selected days. For a large group in central London, bringing people to the restaurant usually costs less than putting a kitchen and a team into another building.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between catering and a restaurant?
A restaurant feeds you at its tables. Catering is the same kitchen feeding you somewhere else: delivered to your office or home, or cooked and served on site by staff. Le Bab does both, and hires out its own rooms as a third option.
Can you cook something that isn't on the restaurant menu?
Yes. Off-menu menus are designed for the event, with chefs and staff on site. Send the date, the numbers and the budget and you get a menu back.
What does in-house catering mean?
The venue's own kitchen and staff, tied to the room. Menu flexibility is usually lower and you cannot bring another caterer in without permission.
Is outside catering more expensive than restaurant catering?
Usually, because it includes people: chefs on site, floor staff, equipment, clear-down. Delivered catering is food and driving, which is why the corporate menus start at £28 a head.
How much notice do you need?
Forty-eight hours for the delivered menus, £150 minimum, within five miles of central London. For anything cooked on site the lead time is by enquiry: the kitchen can move quickly, so a short-notice or last-minute event in London is worth asking about rather than assuming it is too late.
How many people can you feed?
No upper limit on the on-site service. The delivered menus scale from a £150 order upwards.
Can you feed a mixed group of meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans from one order?
Yes. The hummus is vegan, the paneer kebab is vegetarian and gets ordered by the meat-eaters, and the chicken and lamb kebabs cover everyone else. Gluten-free and halal are planned in when you book.
Send the date, headcount, postcode and budget through the catering enquiry form and you get a menu and a price back.
