5 Birthday Grazing Table Ideas on a Budget
Someone in the office has a birthday and you have been asked to sort the food. A grazing table is the easiest answer. People help themselves, nobody needs a seat, and it works whether five people turn up or thirty.
Here are five ways to build one, and what each part actually costs.
1. Luxe cheese boards
A gourmet cheese spread is the safe centre of any grazing table. It holds its own next to a glass of something during the toast, and it keeps for the whole afternoon without wilting.
- Aged cheddar, brie, provolone and pecorino
- Caperberries and walnuts
- Artisan crackers, lavosh and grissini
- Dried apricot, figs and apple, with strawberries and grapes
Label each cheese with a small card, or you will be asked what each one is, repeatedly.
2. Bite-size savoury skewers
Skewers are the tidiest thing you can put on a shared table. People take one in a single hand on the way past, without needing a plate or cutlery.
- Chimichurri beef
- Caprese: tomato, basil and bocconcini
- Lamb kofta
- Grilled prawn with gremolata
Stand them upright in glass jars or bamboo cones instead of laying them flat. They take up less table and people can actually get at them.
3. Mini salad cups
Individual salad servings add colour, and they give the people who don't want to eat cheese for an hour something to pick up.
- Moroccan couscous with roasted vegetables
- Classic Caesar with parmesan crisps
- Watermelon, mint and feta
- Thai noodle salad with sesame dressing
4. The birthday sweet spot
Sweets work better in their own corner of the table than mixed through the savoury. It reads as a proper dessert spread, and it stops the lamingtons ending up next to the brie.
- Mini cupcakes in your company colours
- Macaron towers
- Chocolate-dipped strawberries
- A birthday cake
- Individual dessert pots
Risers and cake stands are worth the effort here, because sweets laid flat across a table read as a shelf rather than a display.
5. Drinks station
Put the drinks at the far end of the table, away from the food. That splits the crowd in two and keeps the queue from forming in one spot.
- Fresh juices and soft drinks
- A tea and coffee station
- Prosecco or mini cocktails, if your office allows it
What a birthday grazing table costs
Two builds for twenty people, priced per person from our menu, so you can put a real number in front of whoever holds the budget.
| The full table | The lean one | |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh fruit skewers | $5.00 each | $5.00 each |
| Fior di latte skewers | $5.25 each | — |
| Greek salad cup | $6.45 each | — |
| Sweet | Chocolate-dipped strawberries $3.15 | Mini muffins $3.90 |
| Tea and coffee station | $4.85 a head | $4.85 a head |
| Per head | $24.70 | $13.75 |
| Twenty people | $494 | $275 |
If you would rather anchor the table with shared boards than count individual serves, the dip platter is $58, the fresh fruit platter $53, the cheese platter $74, the mezze platter $80 and the charcuterie and nibbles platter $84. Each of those also comes in a larger size. Tell us your headcount and we will work out how many you need.
A few things worth knowing before you order: the minimum order is $80, delivery is free to the CBD, Docklands and St Kilda Road precincts on orders over $80, and orders need to be in by 3pm the day before. Everything is priced inclusive of GST and corporate accounts pay by invoice.
Book a birthday grazing table
Tell us the date, how many people and roughly what you want to spend a head, and we will come back with a costed table. Get a quote, or browse the grazing platter range if you already know what you want.
