What a banquet menu is and how to price one.

What does banquet menu mean?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a banquet as "a large formal meal for many people". In the trade, the word covers far more than black-tie dinners. A wedding, an awards night, a company lunch and a retirement party are all banquets to the venue's events team.

The word has changed a lot. Wikipedia notes that the word first meant an extra course of sweet foods after a feast, often served in another room. It became fashionable in the 1500s, as sugar grew more common in Europe. "It was a grand form of the dessert course."

A banquet menu works differently from your regular menu in one big way. The guests don't order at the table. The host orders for everyone, usually weeks ahead, and pays per person for a guaranteed number of guests.

What are the main types of banquet service?

Most banquet menus come in a few styles. Many venues sell the same dishes in more than one of them, at different prices.

Plated service needs the most staff but gives you the tightest control over portions. A buffet menu needs fewer servers, but you have to cook extra, because you can't control how much each guest takes. Family-style dining sits in between.

How is a banquet menu priced?

Banquet packages are usually priced per person. On top of that, most venues add a few rules:

• A minimum. Many venues set a minimum guest count for a buffet or stations, or a food and beverage minimum for a private room.
• A guarantee. This is the final count the host pays for, due a few days before the event. Chase Center's catering team in San Francisco asks for the count seven days before. After that, it says, "you may add to this guest count but you may not lower it."
• A service charge and tax. When we checked in November 2026, the same page listed a 22% service charge and an 8% health and wellness fee for staff healthcare, plus California sales tax.

A service charge isn't a tip. The IRS says "Service charges added to a bill by the employer and distributed to an employee are not tips." Hosts may not know the difference, so say on the package whether staff expect a tip on top.

Event planners read these lines closely. Walter Nemeth, director of catering at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, told BizBash: "It's important to understand the tax and service charge percentages and what they are applicable to." Make that easy for them. Say whether the charge applies to food and drinks only, or to room hire as well.

To set the per-person price itself, start from food, staff and rentals for the whole event. Our catering pricing guide works through a 60-guest example.

What goes on a banquet menu and event sheet?

A banquet usually needs three pieces of paper, and each one has a different reader.

The package sheet is what the host sees before booking. It should show the price per person, what's included, the minimum, the deadline for entrée choices, the guarantee date, the service charge and tax, and the drink options.

The event sheet, often called a banquet event order or BEO, is for your team. It lists the timeline, the room setup, the count for each entrée and every dietary need, with table numbers. As Nemeth puts it, the BEO is "the document the staff will be working from", so it has to be right.

The menu card sits on each table. It shows the courses and dish names, with no prices, since the host has already paid.

What does a per-person package look like?

Take 80 guests on this example package with the drinks package. That's $86 a head, or $6,880. A 20% service charge adds $1,376, so $8,256 before tax. Show the host that math in the quote, so the final bill holds no surprises.

Keep the packages easy to forward

The person who books rarely decides alone. They forward your packages to a partner, a boss or a committee. A link that opens on any phone travels better than a PDF.

In Menupresso, each package can be its own section with Individual dish prices switched off and the price per person written in the introduction. Dietary labels like Vegetarian and Gluten-Free show next to each dish. Swap a dish for the season and press Publish changes, and the link you sent stays the same. December parties have their own rules, so see our holiday set menu guide for deposits and pre-orders.