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A birthday celebration party is easy to plan – until it gets too close! But suddenly, the to-do list just keeps getting longer. The birthday catering venue or house has to be cleaned and made ready, the decorations and cake, presents, and of course somehow the food needs to be taken care of too. Many families in South Auckland and Papakura have taken the easy way out and ordered catering from an Indian takeaway restaurant.
It’s the cooking why. Preparing and laying out a full buffet takes time and effort – time and effort that you’d rather be enjoying with your guests. At Indian Zaika, we’re often contacted by parents who are looking for something more than the usual kid-party fare, but who are not quite prepared for a morning spent in the kitchen! (And, of course, the food has got to be quite suitable for kids who are less comfortable with spice, yet hopefully not dull the adults too much either, and be able to stand a couple of hours on a buffet table).
What seems to work best is a short, sharp menu rather than a long list of dishes. Most birthday plates are butter chicken or a creamier korma, one vegetable curry, rice or a little bit of biryani, and an abundant amount of naan or roti. Sometimes there is a not-so-saucy dry tandoor dish too, to round it out. A couple of easy sides and something sweet at the end helps balance it out. The specific menu will vary with the kids’ ages and where most of the adults fall on the spice scale; many households will order a mild butter chicken for the little visitors and a different dish for the grown-ups, cutting down on ongoing spice-related jostling and reducing the number of kid-plate scraps.
The second part is the delivery. We deliver most of our birthday catering to homes in Papakura, Takanini, Drury, Manurewa and the surrounding suburbs. The food is made on the day, packed so it arrives hot and is ready to serve. Most of our clients would like the food to be delivered early enough to allow the hosts to get it all out and look reasonably ready when the crowd arrives. Smaller parties who have flexible time frames sometimes have their own transport and pick up the food themselves. Our goal is the same in either case: we don’t want the hosts still cooking when the first guests arrive.
Another option is to have the party in the restaurant. This is more popular these days. It is perfect for those families where the house is to small to cater for how many you want to invite or the weather might be a bit iffy. We can always combine a few tables and keep the service casual so the kids can move around and still have a good time. Usually parents opting for a restaurant party tell us this takes a lot of work out of hosting at home and the adults get to sit down to a proper meal and don’t have to worry about reheating or food safety once the party is underway.
Cost tends to be the first thing people ask. They are happy to have good food but they don’t want it to keep changing every time an extra tray is added. Pricing is based on the number of people and the menu items selected, so the quote is fixed when the menu is decided. Changes can usually be accommodated a few days before an event, without a big shock on the final bill, which is why families return for future parties.
The last few months of the calendar get booked up quickest of all. School holidays, work breaks and the run-up to Christmas all generate additional bookings, so if you’ve got a date that isn’t essential it’s best to get booked in early. A brief message with the date, an idea of numbers, and whether there will be children of any age, is enough to get a quotation and menu suggestion.
The majority of the families who order Indian catering for a birthday in the Papakura region follow the same path for other functions in the future. It is one less thing to worry about when food is sorted and comes along looking and tasting the same as the dishes that have been previously enjoyed in the restaurant. It is all about the people and not the logistics.
For a birthday you are organizing and want the food looked after, then the catering page is the best place to begin. Alternatively you can locate the complete menu and contact details from the main Indian Zaika website. A short note with the essentials is generally all the information that is required to provide a simple quote and a menu that is suitable for everyone.
