You are ordering lunch for the team. Twelve people. You have got one vegan, two who are gluten free, someone who is dairy free, and eight people who will eat anything. Sound familiar?
Dietary catering is one of the most stressful parts of ordering for an office. Get it wrong and half the team feels forgotten. Over-order “special” meals and you blow the budget. Put the dietary options on a separate plate in the corner and you have basically announced who has restrictions and who does not.
At Urban Foodies, dietary catering is not a bolt-on. It is built into how we design every menu. Here is how we approach it and how you can make it easier on yourself when ordering.
Stop Thinking About Dietary Meals as “Special”
The old approach to dietary catering was to order a standard spread and then add a couple of sad-looking alternatives on the side. One lonely gluten free sandwich. A fruit plate labelled “vegan.” It works in theory. In practice, it makes people feel like an afterthought.
A better approach is to choose items that naturally cross multiple dietary requirements without being labelled as “the dietary option.” When the food is just good food that happens to be gluten free or vegan, nobody feels singled out.
Take our vegan frittata with roasted capsicum and parsley. It is vegan, dairy free and gluten free. It is also genuinely delicious, and non-dietary people eat it just as happily. That is the kind of item that does the heavy lifting in a mixed-dietary order.
How Our Menu Labelling Works
Every item on our menu is marked with clear dietary labels. V means vegetarian. VG means vegan. DF is dairy free. GF is gluten free. VO means there is a vegetarian or vegan option available. GO means there is a gluten free option.
This is not just a nice-to-have. It means the person ordering (usually an office manager or EA who has a hundred other things to do) can scan the menu and build a dietary-inclusive spread in minutes without emailing the kitchen to ask what is in the tarts.
Items That Work Across Multiple Requirements
The secret to good dietary catering is finding items that tick more than one box. Here are some of our most popular cross-dietary options from the menu:
Seasonal acai pots: vegan, dairy free, gluten free. A superfood breakfast option that works for almost everyone.
Fruit cups: vegan, dairy free, gluten free. Simple, seasonal and universally popular.
Vegan frittata: vegan, dairy free, gluten free. Roasted capsicum and parsley. Substantial enough to be a real meal component.
Rice paper rolls from our Asian Feast Box (vegan version): vegan, dairy free, gluten free. Bold flavours with sweet chilli and gluten free soy.
Our healthy salads range also includes options across all major dietary categories. When you are putting together a lunch order, salads are your best friend for dietary coverage because they naturally lean plant-forward.
How to Build a Mixed-Dietary Office Lunch Order
Here is how we would approach an order for a team of twelve with mixed dietary needs:
Start with a base that works for most people. A lunch package or a selection of bread items gives the non-dietary majority something solid. Then add items that cross dietary lines: a tray of mixed frittatas (including vegan), a healthy salad, and fruit. The dietary people have real options, and the non-dietary people eat the same food. No separate plates, no labels, no awkwardness.
If you are ordering individually boxed meals, our individual lunch box range lets you select specific options for specific dietary requirements, so everyone gets a complete meal that suits them.
Breakfast and Morning Tea for Mixed Dietary Groups
Breakfast and morning tea can be trickier because pastries and baked goods tend to default to gluten and dairy. But there are smart ways around it.
Our breakfast menu includes naturally gluten free frittatas, vegan acai pots, fruit cups, and a gluten free banana bread box. For morning tea, savoury tarts come in vegetarian options, and our mixed morning tea boxes can be supplemented with dietary-specific items.
The key is not to order a completely separate spread for dietary needs. Add a few cross-dietary items to the main order so everything sits on the same table.
What We Do in the Kitchen
Labelling is one thing. What happens in the kitchen is another.
Our chefs prepare dietary options with care and attention to allergens. When an item is marked gluten free, it is prepared as gluten free. When something is labelled vegan, there are no hidden dairy or animal products.
We have been doing this for over 20 years across hundreds of Melbourne offices and events, so our kitchen team understands that dietary catering is not a trend. It is a responsibility. People rely on accurate labelling, and we take that seriously.
Make It Easy on Yourself
If you are the person in your office who ends up ordering the food (and let us be honest, it is probably you), here is the simplest way to handle dietary catering:
Check dietary requirements before you order. A quick Slack message or email saves a lot of last-minute scrambling.
Use our dietary filters on the menu to find items that cover the requirements you need.
When in doubt, add cross-dietary items to the main order rather than ordering separate meals. It is better value and nobody feels excluded.
If you have a complex brief with multiple dietary needs across a larger group, get in touch for a catering quote. We will put together a tailored menu that covers everyone without overcomplicating it.
Browse our full office catering menu to see every item with dietary labels, or explore our dedicated dietary menu pages for gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options.
