Every family we cater for asks this, usually about a week before the event, usually at eleven at night. Here is the honest version.
The short answer
For a full Indian buffet, budget roughly 600 to 750 grams of food per adult across all dishes combined. That sounds like a lot until you remember it includes rice, breads, raita, salad and dessert alongside the curries. For a lighter corporate lunch you are closer to 400 grams.
Why the number moves
Three things change it more than anything else.
Time of day. A lunch crowd eats noticeably less than a dinner crowd. An evening reception where guests have been at a ceremony since morning will eat more than any figure on a chart.
How many dishes you put out. This one surprises people. The more dishes on the buffet, the more each guest takes overall, because everyone wants to try everything. Eight mains does not mean smaller portions of each. It means a fuller plate.
Who is in the room. A wedding with a large young crowd eats differently from a religious program with a lot of elders. We ask about this at booking and it genuinely changes what we cook.
The mistake we see most
Ordering too many dishes for too few guests. A hundred person function does not need nine mains. It needs four or five good ones in the right quantity. You end up spending more and sending more food home in trays, and the buffet looks picked over rather than generous because nothing gets replenished properly.
What we do about it
When you send us a guest count we tell you how many dishes it supports, not how many we can sell you. If you ask for nine mains for a hundred people we will say so. It is a shorter conversation than the one where you call us the next day asking what to do with fourteen trays of leftover food.
Planning something?
Send us the date and a rough guest count and we will come back with a menu and a real per plate price.