Costco party platters for a 30-person birthday — actually cheaper than a local deli caterer?
Saw Costco party platters are one of the biggest rising food searches this week (22k+ searches), so clearly I am not the only one thinking about this. Doing a birthday for ~30 people next month and a local deli quoted me $18/person for sandwich platters. Costco platters come out to like $5-6 a head by my math, but is the food actually decent? Has anyone done the head-to-head — Costco platters vs a real caterer — and was the savings worth it, or did you end up ordering pizza anyway?
1 answer
- Costco platters, but skip the sandwich tray
Did this for my sister birthday last year, 25 people. The wrap and croissant platters are genuinely good and feed more than the label says — we had leftovers. Skip the pinwheel sandwich tray though, it dries out by hour two and looks sad. My move now: two Costco platters (wraps + the chicken salad one) plus a homemade big-batch pasta salad for volume. Total came to about $7/head and people raved. The $18/person deli quote is not buying you 3x better food, it is buying you zero work, which is a fair trade if you are already drowning in party prep.