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Coordinating office lunch can quickly turn from a perk into a logistical headache. For small or occasional teams, food delivery apps can be convenient. For larger or hybrid teams, lunch becomes an operational challenge that requires a leaner solution.
This guide compares corporate catering and food delivery apps on the factors that matter most: reliability, admin effort, cost predictability, dietary options, adoption, and sustainability.
Planning office lunch in Berlin? Tell us your team size and office schedule, and we’ll suggest the setup that fits your reality– app-based, catering, or a hybrid approach. Contact us.
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First, a quick definition check
What “corporate catering” means today
When people hear “catering,” they often picture a one-off event: buffet trays, fancy chafing dishes, and someone carving something dramatic.
Modern corporate catering (for office lunch) is different. It’s a repeatable meal program designed for recurring office days – built around:
planned delivery windows
centralized billing
dietary systems that work for big teams
predictable execution and support when things go wrong
What “food delivery apps for companies” usually means
Popular delivery app setups for office lunch:
employees order individually
you do a group order
the company provides credits or reimburses receipts
This can work – until office lunch becomes a daily coordination project… and your kitchen turns into a messy pile of bags and cartons from five different restaurants arriving at ten different times.
The framework: 6 criteria that decide the winner
1) Reliability: “Will lunch show up on time – and in a good state?”
If lunch arrives late, cold, incomplete, or split across 12 different riders, your “benefit” becomes a weekly stress test.
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Corporate catering tends to win because it’s designed for:
fixed office delivery windows
routes planned around offices (not random consumer deliveries)
one accountable partner and a real escalation path
Delivery apps can be great – but they’re exposed to:
restaurant capacity (especially at noon)
rider availability
peak-time delays
multiple points of failure when dozens of people order separately
ChefCoco specifics (Berlin)
99.2% on-time before 12
5,000+ meals delivered per week in Berlin
delivery with an own fleet, which helps keep food at the right temperature and condition
In other words: lunch is treated like a planned logistics problem, not a “good luck, see you at some point between 11:15 and 13:40” situation.
2) Admin effort: Who’s doing the invisible work?
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Food delivery apps often shift the workload onto the office manager / EX team:
collecting preferences
coordinating group orders
handling missing items
chasing refunds
managing receipts and reimbursements
answering “Where’s my food?” 18 times
Corporate catering aims to reduce this by having one process and one point of contact.
ChefCoco specifics
Employees order individually in the app until 9:00 a.m. the same day
That means you don’t have to forecast attendance or guess portions
Typical Office Manager time saved: ~2 hours/week (ordering + coordination)
Two hours per week doesn’t sound dramatic until you realize it’s basically: “Congrats, you just got your Wednesday afternoon back.”
Want fewer ETAs and fewer Slack messages? Send your headcount + lunch window – we’ll recommend a simple operating model. Get a lunch plan.
3) Cost predictability: Can Finance plan it without chaos?
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Finance usually loves anything that looks like:
consistent invoicing
one supplier
fewer exceptions
fewer “we’ll expense it later” situations
Corporate catering is typically easier to standardize: a structured plan and a predictable billing flow.
Delivery apps can get messy fast:
fees vary
receipts are scattered
refunds don’t always map neatly
reimbursement policies become a second job
ChefCoco approach (keeping it high-level)
one consolidated monthly invoice
multiple pricing plan options for companies
4) Dietary coverage: Does it work for real teams?
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Real teams include:
vegan and vegetarian eaters
halal requirements
gluten-free needs
allergies
people who just… don’t want cheese today
Corporate catering programs usually win when dietary needs matter, because they can implement a consistent system: labeling, allergen tracking, and guaranteed options.
Delivery apps are inconsistent because each restaurant is different – ingredients and allergen info vary widely, and availability changes daily.
ChefCoco specifics
Default coverage includes vegan, vegetarian, halal, and gluten-free
Chefs maintain a central database of recipes and ingredients
Employees can see nutrition and allergen information in the app (calories, fats, allergens, etc.)
5) Adoption: Do people actually eat it (and like it)?
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A benefit only works if people use it.
Delivery apps can win on variety – everyone can pick their own thing. But variety also comes with:
decision fatigue (“what do I order today?”)
inconsistent quality across restaurants
a drift toward “treat food” (great sometimes, not ideal daily)
less shared team experience
Corporate catering can win on repeatability:
meals designed to be eaten regularly
consistent quality
a predictable experience that teams come to trust
With a 92% meal satisfaction rate, ChefCoco is designed to be reliably good day after day – not hit-or-miss.
6) Sustainability & waste: How much ends up in the bin?
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Delivery apps usually create:
lots of packaging (often single-use)
multiple deliveries
limited control over waste
Corporate catering can reduce waste when ordering is tied to real demand.
ChefCoco specifics
No bulk guessing – even with many participants: whether 30 or 300 people are in, ChefCoco matches production to real attendance because employees only order when they’re actually in the office.
packaging options that fit your needs: disposable or reusable bowls (ChefCoco handles pick-up)
Reality Check
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If you’ve ever tried to run office lunch purely via delivery apps at scale, you probably recognize at least one of these:
Lunch arrives in waves: half the team eats at 11:20, the rest at 12:40
Support ping-pong: restaurant blames rider, rider blames restaurant, everyone blames “high volume”
Refund theatre: someone’s missing item becomes a 6-step process
Cold food: because your lunch rode around Berlin doing side quests
Admin spiral: the office manager becomes the human router
Apps aren’t “bad.” They’re just not designed as an operational lunch system for recurring office days – especially not for hybrid teams with fluctuating attendance.
What a good corporate meal program should include (quick checklist)
If you’re evaluating corporate meal program alternatives, look for:
Planned delivery windows and office-ready routing
Accountability and escalation (a real support channel, not a chatbot loop)
Central billing (monthly invoice)
Dietary filters + allergen transparency
Flexibility for hybrid attendance (so you’re not guessing headcount)
Sustainability options (reusables, waste reduction)
Formats that meet real needs (boxes, buffet, hybrid – depending on the day)
How ChefCoco fits into this
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ChefCoco is a Berlin-based office lunch program trusted by brands like Delivery Hero, HelloFresh and Netflix. Designed for hybrid teams that want corporate catering reliability without the traditional catering friction.
What that means in practice:
Employees order individually via the app until 9:00 a.m.
Deliveries run on planned office routes, using our own fleet
99.2% on-time before 12
Weekly rotating menu: 15 meals to choose from (changes every week).
Dietary coverage by default (vegan, vegetarian, halal, gluten-free) with clear labels and nutrition/allergen transparency in-app.
Employee name stickers + alphabetical sorting on-site so everyone finds their meal fast.
Flexible company plans and one monthly consolidated inovice
Packaging: disposable boxes or reusable bowls (with pick-up).
Want to see what this could look like for your office? Tell us your headcount and lunch window – we’ll send a tailored lunch plan for your Berlin team. Get a lunch plan.
FAQ
Is corporate catering more expensive than food delivery apps? Not always. Delivery apps can look cheap on paper until you add fees, inconsistent baskets, refunds, and the hidden admin cost. Corporate catering is often chosen because it reduces operational overhead and creates predictable outcomes.
At what team size does corporate catering beat delivery apps? A common tipping point is around 30+ people, especially with hybrid attendance. That’s when coordination, reliability, and billing complexity start compounding.
What’s the biggest admin drain with delivery apps? It’s not ordering – it’s everything around it: missing items, delays, refunds, receipts, and answering questions. Admin effort grows with every additional person ordering.
How do you reduce food waste in office lunch? Tie ordering to real attendance (not bulk estimates). Systems where employees order only when they’re actually in the office tend to reduce leftovers significantly.
Can you run a hybrid setup (some days catering, some days something else)? Yes. Many companies choose a hybrid approach: e.g., more “social” buffet-style days and more streamlined boxed-meal days. The key is keeping the ops predictable.
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