Single-portion ready meals for cafés: how to build a manageable lunch menu
An order for a hot pasta dish comes in while staff behind the counter are busy serving coffee, sandwiches and drinks. For a café, expanding the lunch offering also means deciding who will prepare each dish, where they will prepare it and how much space the equipment will take up.
Single-portion ready meals can complement a café’s menu when the recipes, portion sizes and reheating requirements suit the premises and workflow. Before choosing a supplier, plan how the service will work: how many dishes to offer, how to handle several orders at once and what information to request from your sales representative.
Start with a short menu that meets different needs
A longer menu does not automatically make your lunch offering more appealing. Start by testing a small selection in which each dish serves a clear purpose: a familiar favourite, a more distinctive option and a vegetable-based alternative.
Adapt this approach to your customers. A café regularly visited by staff from nearby offices might benefit from rotating its menu, while one serving mainly occasional visitors may prefer a consistent selection.
For each dish, ask yourself: what customer need does it meet, and how does it differ from the other options? If two products fulfil the same role, consider testing them at different times rather than keeping both on the menu.
Assess the time needed to fulfil the entire order
The time required to reheat a single portion is only one part of the service. You also need to account for retrieving the product from storage, following the preparation instructions, plating and serving it at the table.
Before finalising the menu, simulate three orders arriving in quick succession using the equipment you actually have available. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for each product, without assuming that several portions can be prepared together using the same heating cycle.
Base order quantities on storage space and sales
Single-portion meals make it straightforward to identify the quantity needed for each order. However, planning your purchases still requires information about pack dimensions, storage requirements and how often you expect to sell each dish.
Ask the supplier how many units each case contains and measure your available storage space. During the initial period, record the portions sold, any requests you could not fulfil and products that are slow to sell. Use these figures to discuss restocking rather than increasing quantities across the entire range.
Discover Pronti di Gusto by RC FOOD
Pronti di Gusto is RCFOOD’s range of ready meals for professional foodservice, designed to be reheated before serving. It is an option to consider when building a lunch offering that fits your café’s space, equipment and service requirements.
The catalogue is the starting point for exploring the recipes. Your sales representative can then help you check individual product specifications and the supply terms available to your business.
Frequently asked questions
Can all single-portion ready meals be reheated using the same settings?
No. Heating times, power settings, equipment and preparation methods can vary between products. Follow the instructions for each individual product and check the results during a trial at your café.
How many dishes should a café lunch menu include?
There is no single number that suits every business. Start with a few clearly differentiated options, then expand the selection based on customer demand and your team’s ability to manage the service.
What information should I provide when making a supply enquiry?
Include your café type, location, available equipment and the approximate number of lunches you expect to serve each day. This will help your sales representative identify a suitable selection to discuss with you.
Would you like to add ready meals to your café’s lunch menu?
Browse the RC Food catalogues or request a personalised consultation with our sales team, including your location and the equipment available at your café.
