My husband and I will be hosting a small gathering at a nice restaurant for about 20 people. Any ideas on how to keep costs under control? I don’t really like the idea of a pre-selected menu.
Pick a nice restaurant within your piece range.
Or ask the restaurant if you can have a selection of choices on a special menu for your guests. They might be willing to do this.
Choose a restaurant that has most all items in your budget??? Nice, but afforable to your budget??? Or are you saying you have already selected the restaurant and will not change it?
^ a choice of 2-3 items on a preselected menu is the only way to maintain control.
Brunch.
The restaurant is already booked. I feel awkward about the preselected menu. On the other hand, if guests order the $35 entree and lots of extras, it could really become a huge bill.
make arrangements with the manager a fixed cost of meals choice of 4 on the menu?- one drink each, and free tea or coffee. hand out the menu printed with the 4 choices. arrange small desserts. otherwise not sure what you can do.
Go to a BYOB place where you bring your own alcohol and have entrees in your price range. Let folks choose among 2-3 different entrees. That’s the only way I am aware where you can keep costs predictable. Some restaurants also let you bring your own cake & ice cream. Other options are having a breakfast, lunch or brunch, especially on a weekeday, which tends to be slower and they are much more willing to meet your price point at the restaurant. You could also go to a Chieses restauraant and have banquet style dining where you’ve pre-ordered everything. Those places are often BYOB and no corkage.
Could you have a spread of pre-ordered appetizers and salad perhaps and then a pre-determined 2-3 entrees for guest to choose from and finally a signature chosen dessert or two - then besides alcohol, you are controlling the appetizer/extras and dessert and have a handle on the range of entree prices.
I’m surprised the restaurant will even accommodate a party of 20 without a pre-selected menu. Most won’t. What’s your objection to a pre-selected menu? It is much nicer and more efficient for everyone. Service tends to go a lot more smoothly. You could offer a choice of entrees. And the restaurant will always have a vegan meal available for the vegetarians. The restaurant almost certainly can print up nice menu cards with the occasion indicated at the top.
One thing to make absolutely clear with management is (1) the drinks that will be served (ie whether cocktails will be offered, and if so, only one round before dinner); (2) if you are serving wine, pre-selecting the wine and soecifying how many bottles of wine you are ordering, with instructions that any additional bottles must be approved by you personally; (3) guests are to pour their own wine after the initial modest pour for those who want wine and waiters may NOT top off glasses; and (4) (if you prefer this) tap water only, no bottled or sparkling water.
Without these strictures, you run the risk of unscrupulous waiters jacking up the bill by topping everyone’s glasses off multiple times and quietly asking the lush at the table if he wants more wine, thus justifying the opening of bottle after bottle. Or the waiters will start the water orders at the end of the table opposite to the host. This has happened to me more times than I can count.
Also, see if you can get a menu price without dessert, and pay for dessert only for those who order it. Most people won’t. Also, guests should NOT be offered extras that add to the bill unless it has been cleared with you in advance of the event.
Really, a pre-set menu is the ONLY way to control costs and much more gracious than trying to impose limitations on guests ordering from the full menu.
I’d go with the pre-selected menu (if you are not comfortable only offering 2-3 choices, maybe go with 4-5 choices) not only to control costs, but it will make it much more likely that the kitchen will be able to get 20 meals out at the same time. I would also limit drinks to a list of pre-selected wine and beer.
If you could negotiate a price that charges per head to include one drink, one appetizer/salad, one entrée and one dessert that would help control costs. You are going to have add additional gratuity for a large party.
A menu card with several variety of entrees to pick from narrowed down from a big menu also helps.
You can have them only offer a couple of kinds of wine (a red and a white) along with non-alcoholic beverage choices.
Oh, and even with pre-set menus, substitutions will be made for those with food allergies or sensitivities.
We have found that the bar bill is almost always equal to or greater than the food bill. We learned our lesson the hard way and have found that they won’t let you pre select the wines then if made aware ahead of time many good restaurants will allow you to bring your own wine and pay a $20 per bottle corking fee. We got around this with our guests by mentioning that these particular white and red wines are special to us and we wanted to share them with our special friends.
Do an attractive menu - with the date and the occasion. It serves the purpose of budget control and is a nice souvenir. I’ve attended anniversary and milestone birthday parties that did this.
Wow, I’ve never heard of a restaurant that doesn’t let you preselect the wines and I host dinners for 12-15 people at nice restaurants around town several times a year. I have literally never come up against that. Do you make the arrangements with the manager ahead of time? For the dinners I host, I always talk to the manager and sommelier ahead of time to select the menu and wine to complement it.
By the way, at a nice restaurant, it is considered very bad form (if it is even allowed at all) to bring in wines with the expectation of paying the corkage if the wines you are bringing in are on the restaurant’s wine list. And it is bad form at a nice restaurant to bring in a bottle from the local 7-11 with the expectation of paying the corkage. The point of the corkage is really supposed to be for people who have a special or unusual bottle they want to share with guests.
On the other hand, there’s no shame in ordering from the least expensive bottles on the wine list.
I would lean toward Italian vs Steak. Steak can be much more $. There are a lot of nice byob places around and that would help a lot with keeping costs down, therefore you won’t have to worry as much about pricey entrees. Around here the byob tend to be Italian so that’s a double win. Perhaps you could pre-order appetizers and let folks know as they arrive that you have ordered appetizers so that they don’t all splurge and order them. I would never order expensively, but I know there are a few gems out there that view a free meal as a blank check, or those who never worry about the cost of things may nott think twice either.
I agree with other posters that the alcohol is going to be the big ticket item. Especially with 10 couples. I find that with a larger group the night always ends much later - and people tend to linger and drink more. I like the idea of a BYOB if the restaurant has not already been chosen. Then you can pick your favorite wines and reduce costs at the same time.
Definitely have a personalized menu for the entrees if for no reason than the guests don’t have to see the costs. I like the ideas of the pre-ordered appetizers and salads, and maybe dessert of fruit and cheeses, or a special cake.
If you control the appetizers/salad, desserts, drinks/wine, it won’t really matter if the guest orders the $25 trout or $35 steak. It’s all the extras outside the entree that add up fast. The special menu can have many choices from all categories. It is also easier for the wait staff to have only 3 meat choices rather than 7, or 2 chicken options, not 9. Sometimes easier on the guests too who don’t have to read through a 5 page menu.