Short answer: there is no single market price for an office lunch in the Netherlands. What you pay per person depends on the menu, how many people eat, how often you order, the city, and how many separate dietary needs the kitchen has to cook for. The useful question is not "what does it cost", but "what does it cost for a team like mine, at the cadence we want".
This guide walks through the variables that actually move the number, gives you a way to model your own budget, and shows what to ask for so a quote is comparable.
Start from the budget you can defend, not from a menu
Most office managers work the other way around: they pick something that looks nice, get a number, and then try to justify it. It is easier to start from an amount per person per lunch that finance will sign off, then look at what fits.
Two numbers make the case for you:
- Cost per lunch = amount per person × number of people eating.
- Monthly cost = cost per lunch × lunches per week × 4.33 (the average number of weeks in a month).
Our office lunch budget calculator does this for you, including a yearly view, so you can bring a full picture to a budget conversation instead of a single figure.
A worked planning example
The amounts below are planning assumptions you choose yourself, not Homemade prices. They only show how the maths behaves.
| Team eating | Assumed per person | Per lunch | One lunch a week, per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | €12 | €144 | about €623 |
| 25 | €12 | €300 | about €1,299 |
| 25 | €16 | €400 | about €1,732 |
| 60 | €14 | €840 | about €3,637 |
The pattern worth noticing: frequency moves your monthly spend far more than the menu does. Going from one lunch a week to two doubles the monthly cost, while moving a per person assumption by a euro or two changes it by a fraction of that.
Six variables that move the per person number
1. Headcount you actually order for
The people who eat, not the people on the payroll. On a hybrid team the two numbers are rarely the same. Ordering for everyone on the contract list is the most common way to overspend. See how a shared lunch changes hybrid office days for a way to pick one day and let attendance concentrate on it.
2. Menu style
Shared platters that people serve themselves are more forgiving than individually plated portions: one dish that runs low is topped up by another. Individually packed meals are easier to hand out, but every portion is fixed in advance.
3. Frequency and predictability
A fixed weekly slot lets a kitchen plan purchasing and prep. Ad hoc orders placed at short notice are the least efficient way to buy food. If you want a rhythm, read how a recurring office lunch works.
4. Dietary requirements
Vegetarian and vegan dishes are a normal part of a shared menu. Requirements that need separate handling, such as halal or specific allergens, are confirmed per menu and can change what a kitchen can offer that week. Our guide to handling dietary needs in one office lunch covers how to collect this once instead of every week.
5. City and delivery window
Where your office is and what time food has to arrive both matter. A narrow window in a busy city centre is harder to serve than a flexible midday slot.
6. What is included around the food
Serving items, labelling and clearing up are part of the real cost of a lunch even when they are not on the invoice. If one option includes them and another does not, the per person numbers are not comparable.
Want us to send a few lunch options for your team?
What to ask for so quotes are comparable
- A price per person for the menu you would actually serve.
- The headcount and the date the price assumes.
- Which dietary alternatives are inside that price.
- What arrives with the food: serving items, labels, anything to clear away.
- What changes if headcount moves up or down by a few people.
Anything that cannot be answered before you commit is a cost you have not seen yet.
Common budgeting mistakes
- Budgeting per employee instead of per attendee. Order for the office day, not the org chart.
- Ignoring frequency. A great menu once a quarter does nothing for office culture. A modest menu every week does.
- Forgetting the leftovers question. Slight overordering is normal and worth planning for, but it is money.
- Treating lunch as a perk line rather than an attendance line. Lunch that pulls people in is easier to defend than lunch as a treat.
How Homemade prices it
We do not publish a fixed price per person, because it would be wrong for most teams. We look at the menu, headcount, city and dietary needs, and put a clear price per person in the proposal before you commit to anything. You can start with one trial lunch and decide afterwards.
If you are still shaping the plan, the office manager's guide to organising lunch covers the practical side: headcount, timing, dietary handling and how to run it without it becoming a weekly job.
For what a shared lunch actually looks like at this level of spend, see office lunch.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard price per person for office lunch?
No. What a lunch costs depends on the menu, the number of people, the city and the dietary requirements involved. That is why a per person price belongs in a written proposal for your specific team, not in a generic price list.
Does a bigger team make lunch cheaper per person?
Usually the per person number is more stable for larger groups, because shared platters are easier to portion accurately. Very small groups are the least predictable, since a full menu still has to be cooked.
How do I compare two lunch options fairly?
Compare the same headcount, the same number of lunches per month, and whether serving items and dietary alternatives are included. A lower headline number with items missing is not a lower cost.
Tell us your office and team size. No payment required.
