For managers and administrative professionals, it’s a challenge to avoid lifeless cold cut platters and endless boxes of greasy pizza and still find quality food in bulk. When attempting to please employees with increasingly diverse dietary needs (gluten-free, vegan, macrobiotic), navigating the office catering landscape can leave you crying in your cubicle.
But, thanks to technology, several companies have popped up in the corporate catering landscape, making it easier than ever to get quality dishes delivered straight to your cubicle, both for individual orders and en masse. As someone responsible for feeding my office — I’m an executive coordinator at a West Village-based television production company — I wanted to discover which service could make my life easiest and my colleagues happiest. So I road-tested three (Cater2.me, Caviar and Seamless Corporate Accounts) and rated them on a scale of one to five forks (one being the worst; five being the best). Which ones were appetizing — and which ones made me want to lose my lunch?
Cater2.Me
Founded in late 2010 in San Francisco, Cater2.me launched in New York in July 2012, changing the game by feeding working stiffs with food from 150 to 175 of the hottest local food trucks, sous chefs and small businesses like food festival vendors.
“We make them come into the office and do a catering order for us,” explains co-founder Alex Lorton of the company’s vigorous vetting. “We have to eat all this food — sometimes we have lunch three times a day. It’s the worst part of the job, but someone’s got to do it,” he adds, with a wink.
The experience: Within five minutes of entering my name, e-mail and phone number at Cater2.me, I received a phone call from a real person (not a bot!) asking about my needs. A few hours later, a customer service representative sent me three complete menus to choose from. I opted for Nuchas, an empanada cart in Times Square.
On delivery day, a representative from Cater2.me and the owner of Nuchas arrived right on time with all the ingredients and labels in tow for lunch for my 40 colleagues.
An hour later, stuffed with way too many empanadas, I realized the dessert Nutella empanadas never made it to my office. I called the Cater2.me representative and told him to just take it off the bill, and he happily obliged.
Rating: 4.5 forks
Caviar
Caviar’s fleet of 75 couriers delivers hot meals from restaurants that did not previously offer delivery. Started in San Francisco in late 2012, Caviar expanded to New York in November. With a delivery range anywhere south of 59th Street (with plans to expand up to 72nd Street later in 2014), you can now order Dan Dan Noodles from the East Village’s Han Dynasty directly to your cubicle in Midtown for a flat delivery fee of $9.99 per order, plus the cost of food.
The experience: Creating an account at trycaviar.com is quick and easy — all you need is your name and e-mail to sign up.
The site’s user experience is visually appetizing — every item on Caviar’s menu has a photo — and we chose to order from 5oz. Factory, a Wisconsin cheese melt and frozen custard shop in Greenwich Village.
After placing my order, I tracked our courier via GPS on Caviar’s Web site. Unfortunately, the sandwiches were not labeled when the food arrived, so I had to touch my co-workers’ food a little (sorry, guys!) to figure out what was what. As I was unpacking, I noticed we were missing two custards, so I called Caviar to alert them to the problem. Thoroughly embarrassed, the courier returned 20 minutes later with the missing items, and Caviar deducted them from our bill, which was much appreciated.
Rating: 4 forks
Seamless Corporate Account from GrubHub Seamless
With 26,000 restaurants in their national network, GrubHub Seamless, the new delivery superpower — a result of a GrubHub and Seamless merger in August — is the goliath of the delivery
industry.
The experience: Creating a Seamless corporate account requires a credit check, which takes a few days — so plan ahead if you need an order for a specific day.
After some friendly representatives set up my account, I created a group order for my colleagues. After scanning through 124 restaurants — mostly neighborhood delis, diners, sushi and pizza — I picked West Village fish shack Ditch Plains as one of the more adventurous options.
Seamless sent individual e-mails to my co-workers, guiding them in selecting their orders and the cutoff time for submissions.
Our order arrived 45 minutes after the scheduled time, which was probably partly due to heavy rain and high delivery traffic. But, as a result, our food was lukewarm. The names on all of the food containers were mixed up, too. But GrubHub Seamless was successful at something Caviar and Cater2.me weren’t — everything we ordered was delivered the first time around.
Rating: 3 forks