Easter Catering Ideas for Restaurants & Takeaways

Easter weekend is one of the biggest trading periods of the spring for restaurants, takeaways, cafés and event caterers. Families gather, bookings spike, and demand shifts quickly from everyday covers to celebration feasts, brunch tables and buffet service. The operators who trade best over Easter are the ones who plan the menu and the packaging together - so service stays quick, food travels well, and the presentation matches the occasion. Here are Easter catering ideas you can adapt for your outlet, along with the packaging that makes each one work.

1. Build a spring menu around Easter classics

Anchor your Easter offer on a handful of dishes customers already associate with the season: roast lamb, spring vegetable sides, hot cross buns, simnel cake and Easter egg desserts. A short seasonal menu keeps your kitchen fast and your ordering simple, and it lets you push specials without rewriting the whole list. Rotate one or two dishes per day rather than overhauling everything, and price a family sharing option alongside individual portions so groups order up.

2. Hot cross buns and Easter bakery service

Bakery is where Easter trade really shows. Warm hot cross buns, pastries and savoury bakes sell quickly at the counter and travel well in takeaway orders. Greaseproof bags are the practical choice: our Greaseproof White Paper Baguette Food Bags are built for chips, pasties and other greasy foods, and they work just as well for buns, sausage rolls and warm bakes.

For serving rather than wrapping, kraft takeaway food tray boats come in small, medium and large base sizes - open-top, easy to fill, and simple for customers to eat from. They are equally at home on a bakery counter and at a busy event stand, so browse the full kraft takeaway food tray range before you commit to a size. If bakery is a big part of your Easter trade, our wider bakery supplies range covers the rest of the counter.

3. Lamb roasts and family feast takeaways

Roast lamb is the centrepiece of many Easter tables, and more customers now order it as a takeaway or delivery feast instead of cooking at home. For hot, wet dishes, No4 Brown Kraft 98oz Square Paper Food Containers hold rice, curry and roast portions, are leak and grease resistant, and are fully microwaveable for easy reheating.

Where you want the main and two sides kept apart, Black Base 3 Compartment Microwaveable Meal Containers give you a neat, plated look in one box. For sharing platters and Indian-style feasts, Thali Food Trays 6 Compartment Punjabi White Bagasse keep portions separate and are a compostable option for events and places of worship.

4. Easter afternoon tea and dessert packaging

Afternoon tea, Easter egg desserts and cold puddings are a simple way to add margin over the bank holiday. 2oz Round Hinged Deli Containers with Lids are ideal for clotted cream, jam, sauces and dips, so you can send cream teas as takeaway boxes. For larger cold desserts - trifle, Eton mess, fruit salad - Medium 26oz / 750ml Brown Kraft Salad Bowls are thick, biodegradable and made for pre-packed chilled meals.

Easter drinks sell alongside the food. Clear plastic smoothie cups come in sizes from 8oz to 24oz with matching lids, which makes them a good fit for iced drinks, milkshakes and layered dessert cups over the weekend - see the full smoothie cup range. Finish cold drinks with Kraft Paper Drinking Straws - Compostable for a plastic-free serve.

5. Buffet and chafing set-ups for Easter events

Easter brings gatherings that need hot food held at temperature for hours: christenings, family parties and community events. If you are catering a buffet, plan your chafing dishes and fuel together and match the burn time to your service window so nothing has to be swapped mid-event. Order fuel and warmer supplies with the rest of your Easter packaging so your setup is complete before the weekend.

6. Picnic boxes, hampers and Easter weekend trade

With families out and about over the long weekend, picnic boxes and hampers are a strong add-on. 12" Plain Brown Kraft Corrugated Pizza Boxes are strong, keep heat in, and double up as picnic boxes and children's party boxes. For fried favourites, Corrugated Medium Kraft Plain Fish and Chips Boxes travel neatly, and the kraft tray boats from section two are just as useful for picnic snacking at venues and stadiums.

7. The finishing touches

Small details decide whether an Easter order feels like a treat. Purple Paper Napkins 2 Ply 33cm 4 Fold are made from recycled raw materials and are fully biodegradable, making them a smart pick for caterers buying in bulk - our full napkin range covers other colours and plies. Add individually wrapped wipes for messy dishes, and keep hot drinks moving with the cups range and cup carriers.

Order your Easter supplies early

Easter packaging sells out fast, so plan your menu, then order the boxes, bags, bowls, cups and napkins to match it well before the bank holiday. Thali Outlet supplies wholesale catering supplies and food packaging to restaurants, takeaways, cafés, caterers and event businesses across the UK from our base in Leeds, with trade pricing, click & collect and free delivery on orders over £75. Order before the weekday cut-off for next-day shipping, and you will have everything you need to trade a busy, profitable Easter weekend.