Employee Appreciation Day Food Ideas

Looking for employee appreciation day ideas for your team? 

We may be biased, but we think there is nothing says 'thank you' to your employees better than a delicious meal. Surprising your team with a free lunch is one of the best ideas to celebrate your employees and show gratitude on Employee Appreciation Day. While everyone loves free food, we also know a run-of-the-mill, boring lunch spread just isn't good enough for your awesome team.

So this Employee Appreciation Day, skip the cold sandwich box and surprise your team with a delicious, craveable, and savory meal with Noodles & Company Catering.

Our catering packages and individual pasta and noodle pans are a crowd-pleaser for teams of all shapes and sizes. Whether you're celebrating your small team, or looking to feed the entire office, our noodle, pasta, mac and cheese, and salad catering options make it easy to please everyone.

 

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Catering Mac Bar - Wisconsin Mac and Cheese Close Up

What's a good meal for an office lunch?

Office lunches can be tricky. Not only do you have to find and order something that makes a wide ranges of tastebuds happy, you also have to deal with the logistics of getting everything ready, and somehow make it all happen while already dealing with a busy schedule. Who has time to drive and grab the food, set everything up, and make sure there are enough clean plates and silverware for everyone?

If you are looking for office lunch catering ideas, Noodles & Company makes it easy to get something delicious for every taste.

With convenient delivery options, Noodles & Company Catering can be brought right to your office. Delivery also includes the convenience of set-up, and we offer hot food hold kits to ensure the food stays warm, savory, and delicious.

Our noodle and pasta pans are easy to serve from, and our catering packages include plates, forks, knives, napkins, cups and serving utensils, to help take the stress out of making sure everything is ready for your team.

We recommend ordering a few options so your team can fill their plates with a bit of every flavor. Add on some desserts, and your team will happily take a cookie or crispy back to their desk (and keep that reminder of being appreciated throughout the afternoon!).

Catering Mac Bar Packages

How Can You Make Everyone Happy with An Office Lunch?

We get it, it can be hard to find any type of office food that makes everyone happy. And when you are trying to celebrate and thank your team, there's nothing more stressful than trying to make sure everyone's preferences are accounted for, and there's nothing worse than one veto vote ruining the entire meal.

With the Noodles & Company catering menu, we have a wide variety of globally-inspired noodle and pasta dishes, as well as desserts, sides and salads, to cover a whole range of flavors. We do what we can to avoid the 'veto vote', and make sure that your meal is a hit with your entire team.

Looking for some traditional pasta and Italian catering flavors? Our Chicken Parmesan features our classic marinara and parmesan-crusted chicken breast, or our Alfredo MontAmore® with Parmesan-Crusted Chicken is a time-tested crowd pleaser.

Have a team that craves spice? Order a pan of Penne Rosa, with a spicy tomato cream sauce, or go even bolder with our Spicy Korean Beef Noodles.

Want something more veggie-forward? Our catering menu includes three catering-sized salads, or pick one of our zucchini noodle pans.

 

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Noodles & Company Catering Pans

Lunch Ideas for Staff Appreciation

#1 - Order a catering package for an easy way to build a complete meal for your team.

Our pasta catering packages are a perfect place to start when trying to find the right food for an employee appreciation luncheon or dinner. 

Our 'Feed the Few' package feeds 10, with 1 pan, a Caesar salad to share, cheesy garlic bread as a side, and either a drink or dessert tray. Plus, the hot food hold kit is included to keep everything warm and delicious.

Have a larger team? Our 'Feed the Many' package has everything from above, plus a second pan, so that you can feed up to 20.

#2 - Pick some individual pasta and noodle catering pans to get the flavors you want.

If you have a smaller team, or want to add on more options, we also offer individual pans so you can pick specific pasta and noodle dishes.

You can order these alongside our catering packages, or order the pans by themselves.

#3 - Pick up a Mac and Cheese Catering Bar and let your team run wild with lunch creativity.

One idea we love is ordering our famous Mac Bar, a great mac and cheese catering option. Your team will get to enjoy our world-famous cheesy, delicious, and gooey mac and cheese, while making it their own with 8 toppings, 2 sauces, and a choice of protein. (Nothing builds creativity like the chance to build your own mac and cheese!)

Plus, experts say that bringing creativity into workplace helps foster innovation and increase productivity, so really the Mac Bar is an obvious choice for showing positive ROMI (return on mac and cheese-investment) to your broader organization.

#4 - Add some gluten-sensitive and vegetarian options to appeal to everyone.

We know it's important to have options for everyone to make your employee appreciation lunch a success. Whether you’re team is gluten-sensitive, vegetarian, counting calories or just counting on something delicious, there's an option for everyone with Noodles Catering.

Our Gluten-Sensitive Pipette Mac is a gluten-friendly crowd-pleaser, or our zucchini noodle catering pans keep things veggie-focused. Most of our catering pans can be ordered without protein, or you can pick IMPOSSIBLE™ Panko Chicken Made From Plants or seasoned tofu for vegetarian protein options.

#5 - Don't forget dessert!

Our dessert tray includes a mix of sweets that are the perfect end to a meal (or the perfect afternoon pick-me-up when everyone is back at their desks!). The dessert tray includes chocolate chunk cookies, snoodledoodle cookies with cinnamon and brown sugar, and our house-made famous rice crispies. 

For a team with a sweet tooth (which might actually be every team....), our desserts can be one of the biggest crowd-pleasers, and one of the best ways to show your gratitude.

 

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