There are quite a lot of situations in which catering companies may advise their clients who want to serve food at events to provide a sit-down meal instead of a buffet. Below are two such situations.

The client has a small budget

Whilst catered buffets are often touted as the best option for those with small budgets, the reality is that a sit-down meal can often work out cheaper, which is why catering companies often advise their budget-conscious clients to opt for the latter. There are a couple of reasons why sit-down meals can be more economical than buffets.

The first is that when a person asks their caterer to prepare a buffet, they cannot just order a number of portions of each dish that corresponds to the number of guests they have to feed. Instead, they will often have to order far more. This is because when some people plate up their own food at a buffet, they'll often end up putting more than one portion of each item on their plate or they will return to the buffet table for a second or third helping after they're finished with their initial portion. This means that, if a person wants to ensure that all of their guests get enough food, they may need to order twice as many portions as they actually need.

Conversely, at a catered sit-down dinner, the guests are not given the option of requesting second helpings of any dish they are served and instead only have one portion of each item. This means there is no chance of some people taking more than their fair share and of the event organiser having to order a lot of food from their caterer to ensure everyone gets fed.

The client is concerned about hygiene

The other situation in which catering companies might advise their clients to opt for sit-down meals is if these clients are worried about hygiene and the possibility of people getting ill after attending their events. When provided with a buffet, some people can be a bit careless about the way they handle the shared dishes on the table and the way that they plate up their own food.

They may, for example, use their hands instead of the tongs that the caterer provided when selecting sandwiches and may pick up certain ones and then put them down on the buffet table without thinking about the fact that doing this will have led to germs on their hands being left on those discarded sandwiches. Likewise, there is a chance that people might use their spoons to double-dip. Whilst most of the time, these thoughtless mistakes don't cause any real harm, they could do if there is a serious virus going around and they have it.

As such, when a person is concerned about guests getting ill, having a catered sit-down meal could be their best option, as due to the lack of shared dishes and how scrupulous caterers are about food hygiene, the chances of anyone getting ill at their event will be incredibly low.