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Event Caterers in London

When planning an event in a London venue, catering is one of the most important considerations. Whilst all hotels and residential venues provide “in-house” food and drinks service, there are many museums, historical venues and bespoke spaces where you can select your preferred caterer from an approved list or, in some cases, bring your own event caterer to deliver your exact food and drinks service.

London Venues with a Catering List

The first thing to consider is that, at the majority of these unique and special event spaces, your catering cost will be higher than you will experience at a hotel or conference centre with a sole caterer.  This is due to the additional cost of bringing in kitchen and service equipment (and sometimes furniture) and setting up from scratch in these blank canvass spaces.

Most catering lists include at least six event caterers in addition to specialist ethnic caterers, so you will have plenty of choice and an opportunity to get quotes from several different London catering suppliers.

This is a more complicated process than booking a venue with “in-house” catering, but here at Venue Search London, we have 10 years’ experience in choosing the right caterer from the list at your chosen venue and will support you in this process by getting quotes and negotiating the best deals for this vital element of your next event.

Our Top Tips for Choosing the Right London Event Caterer

1) Get all elements of the event quoted before you contract your caterer.  This may sound a bit obvious, but with the complexity of dealing with several suppliers (venue, catering and production etc.), it is important that you know what the total costs will be before contracting the individual elements and in doing so commit to the event without full knowledge of the facts.

2) Make sure you get like-for-like catering quotations.  There are so many elements to a catering quotation that is it very likely that each quote will contain different elements. For example, one may include furniture hire and some may not include service charges, so it’s best to get them all to quote for all the required elements, enabling accurate comparisons to be made.

3) Understand the implications of attendee number changes.  Your guest numbers are most likely to change from contract to event delivery, so it is vital to understand what the price will be for lower and higher numbers than contracted.  If you can negotiate the same price per person for fewer attendees before contracting, it is much easier to do at that stage.  Prices for additional guests should be lower that the contracted price per person, due to economies of scale with the event caterer.

4) Get all possible upgrades quoted.  Again, getting prices for any potential catering upgrades before contracted is strongly advised, so you are fully aware of the costs of a champagne reception, for example, which you may need to add to the event at a later stage. This will avoid any last minute surprises as the event approaches.

5) Ask the venue who they recommend for your event.  The venue teams have huge experience and knowledge of the most suitable London event caterers for your specific event from their list and are able to tell you which supplier has worked most in the venue in the past few months, which may be a good indicator of which one to choose.

6) Ask for references and a tasting.  Getting references from recent events they have catered at the venue can be very useful and you should be wary if they cannot supply them.  If the catering spend is over £30,000, then it is reasonable to request a free tasting before contracting so you can sample and choose the best menu in advance of committing to a supplier.

7) Read the contract carefully!  Catering contracts can be long and detailed documents, but it is important to get it reviewed by the right people in your company before signing. Pay special attention to the cancellation clauses, which can be onerous and should be renegotiated if so, to offer you additional protection if you need top cancel or postpone the event.

There are around 50 bespoke London venues where you can choose from a list of approved caterers that best suit your budget and requirements.  The individual caterers’ profiles below include all the venues where they appear on the approved lists, and you can use the venue link to see all the other London event caterers that are approved at that venue.

You can also submit an event enquiry to any of the caterers listed from the Venue Search London platform.  If you need help with finding the best venue for your next event, then you can send out team of free venue finders our quick enquiry form or call us on 0207 870 9305.