Sourcing catering supplies can be tough because you never know if you’re getting a good deal or if the products are quality. There are obvious places like Walmart, Amazon and your local restaurant supplier, but it can become a lot more fragmented because those places don’t always have everything you’re looking for. Here is a list of some of our favorite catering supplies websites in no particular order. We hope this list will help you narrow your choices next time you order.
This place has EVERYTHING you could ever need to run a catering business. Including 17 different categories of take-out containers. Yes, 17 CATEGORIES of take-out containers. Each category has several dozen to hundreds of options. Not that take-out containers are that critical, but now you have an idea for how big their selection is. Their website is easy to navigate and comes with lots of pictures, reviews and often times videos of the product. They ship to the USA and Canada, so if you want one stop shopping this is a great place to go. They also offer a shipping service similar to Amazon Prime where you receive unlimited shipping for a monthly fee. They have a map of the country with shipping times so you always know what to expect. Great place to check out.
This is a great site with a catchy name. Round Eye has a huge selection of catering supplies and a lot of food items as well. They even sell Lucky Charms, in case you want to grab some cereal while buying your chafing dishes. The site features a "Quick View" where a small box hovers over the item and you can enter the quantity of items you need without going into the product detail page. Our only complaint is that it takes you to the cart every time you click "add to cart" from the quick view. If you have a big list this could be quite annoying but all you have to do is hit the back button, so it's not a huge deal. But this site is definitely a favorite of ours due to the visual nature of it and the competitive prices. Round Eye does awesome charity work through Better for Kids, a non-profit who cares for and teaches children in Nairobi, Kenya among other places. 100% of all donations made through their website go directly to the Better for Kids organization.
Katom is another one of our favorite suppliers. They have a very easy website to navigate and allows you to look as narrow or as broad as you would like. My favorite thing about Katom is that their selection includes standard items but it also includes very unique items, like this wooden chafer. I’ve never seen one like this before and thought it was pretty cool. They have tons of other unique items on the site. If you're in the market for some out of the ordinary pieces, this is the place to go.
This is a good store on par with most of the others on our list. They have a very clear and easy to use interface without spammy ads hovering everywhere. The thumbnail picture quality of their items isn't great, but once you click on the item, it gets better. One thing that differentiates them from a lot of the companies listed above is that they seem to have a bigger selection of fixtures and equipment rather than supplies. They do have supplies like napkins, straws, etc. but the majority of their inventory seems to be equipment. This would be a great place to go when first getting started in the business.
Tiger Chef is will most likely have what you’re looking for. Tiger Chef has both, less expensive and some of the higher end products. They have reviews on their items, but there aren’t a lot on some items so they can be misleading. Make sure you do your own research before purchasing. Overall, it’s a great site and has a very clean, easy to operate interface.
We know how difficult it can be to manage a catering business and we understand the challenges of ordering supplies. We hope this curated list will help you in your journey. But we know you have other challenges running a catering business.
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