◆ Online ordering for catering

EzCater takes 18% of every corporate lunch. $499/month flat takes it back.

Catering is the biggest single-order revenue source for most restaurants — 10-100x ticket value, higher margin, repeat corporate accounts. Zay-OS is commission-free direct catering ordering with party-tray builder, corporate accounts, scheduled delivery, and full-setup service tiers. Live at Naya Grill today.

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Quick answer

Zay-OS is commission-free catering ordering built for corporate, wedding, and party-tray catering. It includes a party-tray builder that converts headcount to pan ratios, corporate account workflow, repeat-customer auto-quote, scheduled delivery windows, and full-setup service tiers. $499/month flat replaces EzCater\'s 15-18% commission on every catering order.

Catering specific

What a catering operation actually needs from an ordering platform.

Party-tray builder UX

The diner picks pan size (half / full / extra-large), feeds-X-people sliders, picks entree/side/salad combos. Zay-OS auto-calculates serving counts so a 30-person corporate lunch gets the right pan ratios, not three half-pans of rice and no protein.

Corporate account workflow

A corporate office manager creates one account, adds their company billing info once, and can place repeat orders for the Monday lunch crew in two taps. PO numbers, billing emails, and accounting CC fields are all captured at the order level.

Repeat-customer auto-quote

When the same office places its 4th lunch order, Zay-OS surfaces "your usual order" as a one-tap reorder. Custom quote calculations carry forward — discount tiers, custom dietary notes, the always-add-extra-bread requirement.

Scheduled delivery windows

Catering needs delivery at 11:45am for a noon meeting, not "in 30-45 minutes." Pick the exact delivery window 1-14 days out, with the lead time gated by the order size (5-person box: 4 hours; 100-person setup: 48 hours).

Custom quote flow for large orders

Orders above a configurable threshold (default 50 people or $1,500) route to a quote-first flow. The customer submits headcount, date, and dietary needs; the operator returns a custom quote within 1 business hour. Accepted quotes convert to a paid order.

Delivery vs pickup vs full setup

Three fulfillment tiers per order. Pickup (customer comes to you), delivery (you drop at the office), full setup (you arrive with chafing dishes and serving utensils, set up the buffet, leave). Each tier has its own pricing and lead-time rules.

EzCater alternative

EzCater takes 15-18% on every order they route. A $500 corporate lunch loses $75-90 to commission. Zay-OS direct catering ordering at $499/month flat pays for itself in 7-9 corporate orders per month.

Monday lunch + Thursday afternoon scheduling intelligence

Corporate catering traffic concentrates on Monday lunches and Thursday afternoon office events. The kitchen schedule view shows the upcoming-week catering pipeline grouped by day so the chef can prep ahead and the operator can staff up for the volume peaks.

Per-account custom pricing tiers

A repeat law firm that orders every Monday gets a 10% loyalty discount. A first-time order pays full price. Tiers are configurable per account, applied automatically at checkout — no manual coupon codes to manage.

Allergen and dietary flagging

Each catering item carries allergen tags (gluten, dairy, nut, shellfish, vegan, vegetarian, halal-friendly, kosher-friendly). The diner filters their order builder by the office's dietary needs. The kitchen ticket prints the flags so prep does not cross-contaminate.

The catering revenue reality

10-100x ticket value. 40-50% gross margin. Highest-leverage channel in the building.

Catering is the single highest-margin revenue line for most independent restaurants. A typical regular-service order is $25-40 with food cost at 30-35% and labor cost spread across the entire kitchen for one dish out the window. A typical catering order is $300-$5,000 with food cost at 25-28% (pan-scale prep is more efficient) and labor cost amortized across one large delivery instead of 20 individual orders. The result: catering carries 40-50% gross margin on the order, versus 25-30% for regular service.

The problem is that the existing catering infrastructure routes most of that margin to EzCater, ezCater Plus, and the catering aggregators. EzCater takes 15-18% on every order they route to you. A $500 corporate lunch ordered through EzCater nets you $410-425 instead of $500 — and the customer relationship belongs to EzCater, not to you. They place their next order through EzCater again, and the next one, and the lifetime margin you should have captured at 0% commission instead bleeds away at 18% per order for years.

Zay-OS is built to convert that EzCater-routed corporate customer to a direct-ordering corporate account. The party-tray builder handles the headcount-to-pan-ratio math that the regular ordering flow cannot do. The corporate account workflow stores billing info, PO numbers, and dietary preferences once. The repeat-customer auto-quote turns a $500 Monday lunch into a 90-second reorder. Scheduled delivery windows tie to the meeting time (11:45am for noon, not "in 30 minutes"). Custom quote flow handles the 100-person wedding rehearsal that needs a chef confirmation. And at $499/month flat, the platform pays for itself in 7-9 corporate catering orders per month versus the EzCater commission alternative.

Imagine your catering running on Zay-OS

Naya Grill — already live. Your catering channel next.

Naya Grill runs two FL locations on Zay-OS with both regular-service and party-tray catering channels live. The same kitchen tablet shows a Monday morning view: 3 catering orders for noon (1 office, 1 law firm, 1 medical clinic), regular pickup orders for 11:30am-1:30pm, and DoorDash/Uber Eats inflow — all in one prep queue, color-coded by channel.

2
FL locations
0%
on direct catering
14d
advance scheduling
3
fulfillment tiers
Catering flat pricing

$499/month. Pays for itself in 7 corporate orders.

Operator is $499/month per location. Operator + Marketplace (Otter-ingested DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) is $599. Concierge for up to 5 locations or virtual catering brands is $699 flat. The corporate customer pays a $2.99 per-order fee — the catering operation keeps 100% of food revenue.

Full pricing breakdown →
Catering operator questions

Asked by catering operators we have talked to.

How is catering ordering different from regular online ordering?
Three things. First, ticket value is 10-100x larger ($300-$5,000 vs $30 average). Second, lead time is 4 hours to 14 days ahead, not "in 30 minutes." Third, the order builder needs to handle servings-for-X-people math, pan sizes, and dietary restrictions across a group — not the single-diner one-meal flow. Catering orders also typically need delivery scheduling tied to a specific meeting time (11:45am drop for a noon lunch), not the "soon as possible" delivery default.
Can I replace EzCater with Zay-OS direct catering ordering?
For the direct-channel piece, yes. EzCater's 15-18% commission on every order is replaced by Zay-OS at $499/month flat. The discovery piece (EzCater is also a search engine where corporate customers find new caterers) is different — many operators keep EzCater on for new-customer acquisition but route their existing corporate accounts to direct ordering at zero commission. The repeat customer math is where this saves the most: a law firm ordering every Monday pays you 18% less when they order direct instead of through EzCater.
How does the party-tray builder handle "feeds 30 people"?
The builder converts headcount into pan ratios. 30 people = 2 full entree pans + 2 full side pans + 1 full salad pan + 30 dessert servings + 30 utensil sets. The diner can override individual ratios (more rice, less salad) and the system flags if the order is undersized (warning: "this order may not feed 30 — consider adding 1 more entree pan"). Prevents the call-back-30-minutes-before-the-meeting embarrassment.
What does the corporate account flow look like for a repeat office manager?
Office manager creates an account with their company name, billing email, PO number field, and credit card or invoice-bill setup. Future orders auto-fill the billing details. Repeat orders surface as "your last order" with a one-tap reorder. Per-account custom pricing tiers (10% loyalty discount after the 5th order) apply automatically. Total time to place a repeat order: under 90 seconds.
Can the kitchen actually handle a 100-person corporate lunch?
The system enforces lead time gates by order size. A 5-person box can be ordered 4 hours ahead. A 30-person catering order needs 24 hours. A 100-person order needs 48 hours. A 200+ person order routes to the custom quote flow with a chef-confirmed lead time. The kitchen never gets blindsided by a too-large order with too-little prep time.
What about the Monday lunch rush — is there a way to spread the catering volume?
The catering pipeline view shows the upcoming-week schedule so you can see Monday is at 80% kitchen capacity by Friday afternoon. Some operators close new Monday orders at that point or offer a small discount for Tuesday/Wednesday slots to redistribute. Others use the data to staff up for Monday specifically — 2 extra prep cooks the morning of, paid for by the catering revenue itself.
Does Zay-OS handle the full-setup service tier (chafing dishes, buffet arrangement)?
Yes. Full-setup orders include the setup fee in the quote, schedule the delivery + setup arrival time separately from the pickup-of-dishes return window, and route a setup checklist to the delivery driver (chafing dishes count, sterno count, utensil sets, signage). The driver checks each item off on the kitchen tablet before leaving the office.
How much does a catering channel actually move the P&L?
Catering is the highest-margin channel for most restaurants — food cost runs 25-28% (vs 30-35% for regular service) because pan-scale prep is more efficient, and labor cost per dollar of revenue is lower (one delivery vs 20 individual orders). An average independent restaurant doing $30-50k/month in catering on top of $80k/month regular volume sees the catering line carry 40-50% gross margin. Direct catering ordering protects that margin from EzCater's 18% bite.
Keep reading
For fine dining →
Chef-driven catering and event menus.
For halal →
Halal-friendly catering for corporate.
Zay-OS vs ChowNow →
Direct-ordering commission and feature breakdown.
Also: restaurant online ordering 101 · how it works · integrations · pricing

Built for catering. Onboarding for July 1.

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