Enter your headcount, pick what you are serving, and get kitchen-friendly quantities in pounds, ounces, and counts. Plan about 5.5 oz of cooked meat per guest for a taco bar and 6 oz for BBQ, three tortillas or 1.15 buns per guest, and roughly 4 oz per guest for each side. Children count as 0.65 of an adult portion, and a 5 to 10 percent buffer protects the end of a buffet line. These are planning estimates — appetite, event length, age mix, menu variety, and serving style change actual consumption.
Order Meals — View This Week's Menu
Order Meals — View This Week's Menu
Write down how guests will receive the food before using a portion formula. A plated meal, a staffed serving line and an open buffet create different quantities. Enter adults and teenagers separately from children, choose the menu style, and review every add-on. The calculator uses general planning defaults; it does not establish the portions in your SmashMeals order. If you have agreed on a fixed serving, use that written serving rather than adding an automatic buffet allowance.
Meat quantities are cooked weights. Raw purchasing weight depends on the recipe, trimming and cooking yield. Keep pounds, ounces, counts and beverage gallons in separate columns. Review tortillas, hard shells, buns, chips and drinks individually: selecting a service style does not mean every extra is included. If several sides are offered, confirm the amount of each side per guest instead of treating their combined weight as one side.
Include guest count, event date, serving time, venue, service style, menu choices and any fixed portion requirements. Review the estimate, then open the quote form with your summary. The form prepares an email draft for you to review and send. A calculation or draft does not reserve a date, confirm availability or place an order. Keep the final written quantities and total with your event checklist.