Corporate catering
Office and corporate lunch catering
Armenian and Middle Eastern trays, delivered across the Fraser Valley
Salma's Kitchen delivers Armenian and Middle Eastern office lunches across the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver, cooked in our Abbotsford kitchen and dropped off laid out ready to serve. Grilled mains, rice, salads, bread and dips for a mixed team. One to two weeks of notice is usually plenty. Call us with your headcount.
- Event Team lunches, board meetings, staff appreciation days, client sessions.
- Where Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver, delivered from our Abbotsford kitchen.
- Notice One to two weeks is the norm. A few days is often workable close to home.
- Format Drop off. Trays arrive laid out so the room serves itself between meetings.
- To book Phone only. Call (819) 743-5953 with your date, headcount and building.
How far in advance should you book an office lunch?
One to two weeks for a normal team lunch, and often only a few days for a drop off order close to our Abbotsford kitchen. A recurring lunch needs less notice once the pattern is set, because we already know your room.
Two things change that. Large all-hands lunches want two to four weeks, and December fills earlier than any other month of the year, so a holiday lunch should be treated like a bigger event rather than a Tuesday. If you are working out a whole calendar of dates, our note on how far ahead to book a caterer sets out the lead times event by event.
Sizing the order
How much should you order for your team?
Order by headcount and let the shape of the spread do the rest. A shared table scales by adding trays rather than by re-planning the menu, which is why it beats counting individual boxes.
| Team size | Shape of the order | How it gets set out | Notice that works |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 to 20 | Two grilled mains, one vegetarian main, rice, a salad or two, warm bread and two dips. | One table or a long counter. People help themselves as they come out of meetings. | A few days to a week. |
| 20 to 40 | Three grilled mains, a vegetarian main, rice in quantity, two or three salads, all the dips. | One serving line with the dips and bread split to both ends so the queue does not stall. | One to two weeks. |
| 40 to 60 and up | Four or more grilled mains, doubled rice and salads, doubled dips, more bread than feels sensible. | Two lines, or one long table people can approach from both sides. | Two to four weeks, more in December. |
Treat that as a starting shape rather than a rulebook. A crew coming off a shift and a room of people who ate breakfast an hour ago are both "thirty guests" and they do not eat the same thirty portions. If you want the arithmetic itself, our guide to planning food for 20, 50 or 100 guests does the math with you.
What is the difference between drop-off catering and full-service catering?
Drop off ends at your door. We cook the food, pack it ready to serve, deliver it and leave you to set it out. Full service adds people who stay to set up, keep the food hot and topped up, and clear away afterwards.
We are a drop off kitchen, and for an office lunch that is almost always the right answer. A lunch hour is short, the room already has a table and a kitchenette, and nobody wants a service crew standing in a meeting. Where full service genuinely earns its place is a long event in a venue with no kitchen, and that is a conversation to have on the phone. Our journal has the fuller explanation of drop off against full service, including what a chafing dish is and when a room actually needs one.
How do you feed a team with mixed dietary needs?
By building a table most of your room can eat from rather than a stack of separate boxes. Much of a Middle Eastern spread is already vegetarian, several dishes are vegan, and the dips, salads, rice and bread carry a whole meal on their own.
On halal we say the same thing to every caller: we are a small family kitchen, not a certified halal facility. What we can do is tell you exactly what goes into each dish so the people who need to decide are deciding with real information rather than a vague yes. Allergies get the same treatment. Sesame, nuts and dairy run through this cuisine, so raise them when you call rather than on delivery day. There is more in our dietary catering guide.
What arrives, and how does it get to your office?
Trays and platters arranged to go straight onto a table: grilled kabab and shish tawook, toshka, kibbe, rice, tabouli and Armenian salad, warm bread, and dips by the half kilo. Anything on our menu can be ordered as a catering spread.
We deliver across our whole service area. For weekday lunches that most often means Abbotsford, Langley and Surrey, and we travel west as far as Vancouver. Pickup from the Abbotsford kitchen is always an option if you would rather not wait on a delivery window at all. The city pages set out the honest logistics for each drive.
What makes delivery day easy
- A table cleared before the delivery window, not during it.
- Someone named as the person who meets the driver, with a mobile number.
- Parking or loading directions, plus the floor and the suite number.
- Plates, napkins and serving utensils confirmed one way or the other.
- A plan for the leftovers, because a Middle Eastern spread reheats well.
If you want the background on what suits a working room, our journal has longer pieces on an office lunch that is not another sandwich platter, on Langley office lunches and on a Vancouver corporate spread.
Before you call
Corporate catering questions, answered
How far in advance should I book office lunch catering?
One to two weeks is the norm for a team lunch, and a few days is often workable for a drop off order close to our Abbotsford kitchen. Recurring lunches need less notice once the pattern is set. December books out sooner than any other month, so treat a holiday lunch like a bigger event.
What is the difference between drop-off catering and full-service catering?
Drop off ends at your door: we cook the food, pack it on trays ready to serve, deliver it and leave you to set it out. Full service adds people who set up, keep the food hot and topped up and clear away afterwards. We are a drop off kitchen, which is what almost every office lunch actually needs.
Do you cater office lunches outside Abbotsford?
Yes. We deliver across the Fraser Valley and into Metro Vancouver, including Langley, Surrey, Burnaby and Vancouver. The further the drive, the more we build the timing around the food arriving in good shape, so tell us your building and your lunch hour when you call.
How do you feed a team with mixed dietary needs?
Much of a Middle Eastern spread is already vegetarian and several dishes are vegan, so those colleagues eat from the same table as everyone else instead of getting a labelled box. On halal we are straight with you: we are a small family kitchen, not a certified halal facility, and we will tell you exactly what is in each dish.
Can we collect the order instead of having it delivered?
Yes. Pickup from our Abbotsford kitchen is always an option, and it takes the delivery window out of your morning entirely. It suits smaller team lunches and offices close to the kitchen. Tell us when you call so we have it packed and ready at the time you want it.
How do we place a corporate order?
By phone. Call us on (819) 743-5953 with your date, your headcount, your building and the time you want the food on the table. There is no ordering form and no email address, because one short conversation settles the details a form would get wrong.
Office lunches by city
From our kitchen to your table
Tell us your date, your headcount and your building. We will have it there ready to serve.
Call (819) 743-5953