What's the best way to order family meals for a group of six or more people?

The most efficient way is to place a single Family Meal Pickup order sized to your full headcount rather than several small orders. Mai Thai's five rotating dishes - American Hearty Beef Stew, Lemon Herb Grilled Chicken, Grilled Pesto Salmon, Lemon Herb Grilled Steak, and Tenderloin Roast Beef - are priced individually from $21 to $26 per person, so you can add any combination of them to one cart until it matches your group size. Order online through Toast at least a day ahead, choose a pickup window for the next day, and pay securely at checkout - no phone call or quote required for groups up to around ten people.

Is there a maximum number of people Family Meal Pickup can serve?

There's no hard cap built into the ordering system, but individually packed meals stop being the most practical option once you're feeding more than about ten guests. Family Meal Pickup is built around sealed, per-person containers, which works well for a household dinner but becomes a lot of separate containers to manage at a larger event. Past roughly ten people, or if you need a self-serve buffet instead of packed meals, Office Catering is the better structure - the Atlanta Fajita Bar starts at $16.99 per person and Atlanta Brack's grain bowl bar starts at $17.99 per person, both quoted directly against your headcount and date.

Can I order different entrees for different people in the same Family Meal Pickup order?

Yes. The 3-person minimum applies to the total number of portions in the order, not to any single dish, so you can mix and match freely across all five entrees in one cart. A family of six could order two Lemon Herb Grilled Chicken, two Grilled Pesto Salmon, and two Tenderloin Roast Beef in a single checkout, for example, and each portion still comes with its own appetizer, salad, side, and Mixed Fruit Cup. That makes it easy to cover different tastes and price points - from $21 to $26 per person - without ordering multiple separate packs.

How far ahead do I need to order Family Meal Pickup for a larger group?

Family Meal Pickup requires at least one day of advance notice regardless of order size, and that lead time doesn't change for larger groups - the order is placed online through Toast, and pickup happens the next day in a time window you select. For groups approaching ten or more people, it's worth placing the order early in that window so there's time to confirm the mix of dishes across the household, but there's no separate multi-day lead time requirement for bigger orders the way there can be with quoted event catering.

July 15, 2026

Best Family Meals for Big Groups: Feeding 6+ People in Atlanta

Individually packed family meal containers with grilled chicken, roast beef, and grilled salmon spread across a table for a big group dinner

Feeding six, eight, or ten people off one order is a different problem than feeding three. The per-person pricing on a family meal menu looks simple until you're staring at a group text trying to figure out how many packs to order, whether everyone can get a different entree, and at what point you should stop ordering individual meals altogether and book an actual buffet. That's the math and logistics question this post answers for Family Meal Pickup: how the ordering scales past the minimum, when mixing dishes makes sense for a group with different tastes, and the rough headcount where it's smarter to switch to full catering instead.

How the 3-Person Minimum Actually Works for a Bigger Order

Every Family Meal Pickup order has a 3-person minimum, but that minimum is a floor, not a per-dish rule - you can mix and match across all five dishes in a single order as long as the total hits three portions or more. A party of six isn't two separate minimum orders; it's one order with six portions split however the group wants them. That matters because it means a family of seven doesn't have to round up to eight or awkwardly split into two checkout sessions - they just build one cart with seven total portions, whatever the mix.

Mixing Dishes Instead of Ordering the Same Thing Six Times

The five rotating dishes - American Hearty Beef Stew, Lemon Herb Grilled Chicken, Grilled Pesto Salmon, Lemon Herb Grilled Steak, and Tenderloin Roast Beef - are priced individually per person ($21 to $26), and every portion already comes with its own appetizer, mixed green salad, starch or veggie side, and a Mixed Fruit Cup for dessert. That per-dish structure is what makes mixing work for a bigger group: the picky eight-year-old gets the $21 Lemon Herb Grilled Chicken with brown rice, the grandparent who wants red meat gets the $26 Tenderloin Roast Beef with mashed potatoes, and nobody has to eat the same entree as anyone else. Compare that to a single family-size tray from a grocery deli counter, where the whole household gets one protein whether they want it or not - see Family Meal Deals in Atlanta: What You Actually Get for more on how packaged trays differ from individually plated pickup meals.

Stack of individually packed family meal containers with beef stew, grilled steak, and grilled chicken ready for a large group pickup order

Sample Math for 6, 8, and 10 People

For a household of six mixing two chicken, two salmon, and two roast beef: 2 x $21 + 2 x $25 + 2 x $26 = $144 before tax, or $24 per person average. For eight people running three chicken, three steak, and two salmon: 3 x $21 + 3 x $26 + 2 x $25 = $191 before tax, about $23.88 per person. For ten people with four chicken, three roast beef, and three salmon: 4 x $21 + 3 x $26 + 3 x $25 = $237 before tax, roughly $23.70 per person. None of that requires a phone call or a custom quote - it's built entirely inside the Family Meal Pickup online ordering flow on Toast, where you just add however many of each dish you need to one cart and check out.

Where the Line Is: Family Meal Pickup vs. Office Catering

Ten people is roughly where the math starts to tip toward a different product. Family Meal Pickup is built around individually packed meals - each portion is its own sealed container with its own sides, which is exactly right for a household dinner or a small gathering where people eat on their own schedule. Once you're feeding more than about ten guests, or you need a self-serve buffet setup instead of pre-portioned containers, Office Catering is the better fit: the Atlanta Fajita Bar starts at $16.99/person and Atlanta Brack's grain bowl bar starts at $17.99/person, both quoted directly against your headcount, date, and menu rather than assembled dish-by-dish in an online cart. A 12-person office lunch on the Fajita Bar runs about $203.88 before tax and any upgrades - cheaper per head than stacking four separate family-meal packs, and it comes with the serving trays and setup a buffet needs instead of a dozen individual containers. If you're weighing which structure fits your situation, Food Catering vs. Family Meal Pickup in Atlanta breaks down the difference in more depth.

Buffet-style catering table with a fajita bar and grain bowl bar set up to serve a large office group

What's Included in Every Portion, Regardless of Group Size

Scaling the order up doesn't change what each person gets. Every portion, at any headcount, includes an appetizer choice of falafel or cauliflower falafel, a mixed green salad with a choice of ranch or blue cheese sauce, a starch or veggie side specific to the entree, and a Mixed Fruit Cup for dessert. That consistency is what makes the per-person math reliable for a big order - you're not paying a premium for the tenth portion or getting a stripped-down version of the meal because the group got large. The full lineup with sides is on the menus page if you want to see exactly what's paired with each entree before building a mixed order.

Ordering and Pickup Logistics for a Larger Group

Everything above ten portions still runs through the same process as a three-person order: place it online through Toast, no phone call or quote required, at least one day ahead of when you want to eat. Pickup happens the next day in a time window you choose, and payment is handled securely online at checkout. The only thing that changes with a bigger order is that it's worth confirming your pickup window has enough slack to grab everything at once - a ten-portion order across three dish types means more individual containers to load into the car than a three-person pack. If your group's schedule or size is unpredictable, How Family Meal Pickup Ordering Works walks through the Toast ordering steps in more detail, and How Far in Advance to Order a Family Meal covers timing if you're planning around a weekend gathering.

Ordering for Your Group

For anywhere from three to about ten people, Family Meal Pickup is the straightforward option: pick your mix of dishes, place the order a day ahead, and pick up individually packed meals the next day with no quote needed. Past that headcount, or if you need a buffet setup rather than sealed containers, get a quote for Office Catering through the quote form with your headcount, date, and menu preference and Mai Thai will build the number from there.