Melbourne Cup Catering Sydney

Melbourne Cup Day falls on the first Tuesday of November (3 November in 2026). It is a public holiday in Victoria and a working day in Sydney, which is why most CBD offices mark it the same way: the team downs tools around 2pm, the sweep gets drawn, the food comes out and everyone stops for the race at 3pm.

Cup day catering is built around that window. Food that sits well on a table for an hour or two, that people can eat standing up with a glass in the other hand, and that looks like an occasion rather than a Tuesday. Grazing boards, seafood platters, canapes and sandwich trays do most of the work. A dessert platter at the end keeps people in the room after the race.

Spring Carnival food is long-lunch food, and our Cup collection leans into it: fresh seafood platters, Italian grazing boards with cured meats and cheese, canapes and hot finger food, sandwich and slider platters for the people who skipped lunch to make a meeting, and cannoli and tartlets for after the race.

For a team of 10 to 15, a grazing board, a seafood platter and a sandwich platter cover the afternoon. For 30 or more, add hot food (a pasta tray, roast chicken, hot finger food) so it holds as a proper lunch. If you are not sure where to start, read our guide to Melbourne Cup Day in the office or the seafood edition, or call us and we will build a menu by headcount.

We cook everything in-house at our Martin Place kitchen, on Cup day as on any other day of the year. The chefs who run the cafe make every platter that leaves for a Cup lunch, so the seafood is fresh that morning and the boards are built the day they are eaten.

We deliver ourselves, in our van, to your floor. On Cup day the whole CBD is ordering for the same two-hour window, so we plan the run the day before and confirm your delivery time with you. We know the loading docks and delivery rules at Aurora Place, Quay Quarter, International Towers, 1 Bligh Street and Governor Macquarie Tower, among dozens of other addresses.

Every EATALO catering menu, the Cup collection included, carries vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free options as standard, and Halal-certified options across most menus. Tell us about any allergies or intolerances in your group when you order and we cross-check every item before it leaves the kitchen: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, shellfish, eggs, gluten, dairy.

Every platter is labelled clearly so nobody has to guess at the table, which matters more than usual when the whole office is grazing from the same spread. For groups with complex dietary needs, call us rather than ordering online. It is faster, and we can confirm every item before we cook.

We deliver Cup day catering across the Sydney CBD, Barangaroo, Wynyard, Martin Place, Circular Quay, Pyrmont, Ultimo, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Potts Point, Woolloomooloo, North Sydney, Crows Nest, Chatswood, Macquarie Park and the inner Eastern Suburbs. For other addresses, contact us to confirm.

Cup day is our busiest Tuesday of the year. The usual rule applies, order by 2:30pm the day before for next-day delivery, but the good delivery windows go first, so book the week before if you can. Same-day on Cup day itself is a phone call before 9am and we will tell you honestly whether we can fit you in. Ask for a late-morning or early-afternoon window so the food is on the table well before the 3pm race.

Browse the collection above and add to cart, or contact us to talk through your order. Minimum order for delivery is $100, and pick-up from the cafe has no minimum. There is no maximum. We have catered Cup day lunches for a team of eight and for a whole floor.

If your office already has a standing account with us, your delivery time and dietary preferences are on file and the Cup order goes on the usual invoice. And if you are reading this in October: good, you are ahead of most of the CBD.