How much food do you actually need for Shabbos?
The most common thing we are asked on the phone is not what to order, but how much. Order too little and you are stretching a kugel across nine people; order too much and half of it is still in the fridge on Tuesday. Here is how we work it out.
6 min read · updated 17 August 2026
Start with how many meals, not how many people
A Shabbos with guests is not one meal, it is two or three. Friday night, lunch, and often shalosh seudos. People plan for the number at the table and forget they are feeding them more than once.
Work out your total portions first: eight people across Friday night and lunch is sixteen main-course portions, not eight. Most over-ordering and under-ordering traces back to this one step.
The rough per-person guide
These are the numbers we use ourselves when someone asks us to build an order over the phone. They assume a normal Shabbos meal with several dishes, not a single-dish dinner.
- Salatim and dips: a 250ml container serves about two people across a meal. Four or five different ones on the table is more generous than one of each for everybody.
- Soup: one litre serves three to four as a first course.
- Fish: a side of salmon serves about eight as a course; a gefilte fish loaf, about eight to ten slices.
- Chicken: allow one to one and a half pieces per adult. A 9x13 pan of six pieces feeds four to six.
- Meat: 1.5kg of brisket serves six to eight as the main event, more if there is also chicken.
- Kugel and sides: a 9x13 pan serves six to eight alongside other dishes.
- Composed salads: a 3-litre container serves eight to ten as a side.
Worked example: Friday night for ten
Ten adults, one meal, a normal spread. Four or five salatim (so around five 250ml containers), three litres of soup, one side of salmon, two 9x13 pans of chicken or 1.5kg of brisket plus one pan of chicken, two kugels and one large salad.
That looks like a lot written down, and it is roughly right. The mistake people make is doubling the mains and keeping the salatim the same — in practice the starters and sides are what make a table feel full.
Where people usually go wrong
Three patterns come up again and again. Ordering one main per person, when a mixed table of chicken and meat means nobody eats a full portion of either. Under-ordering salatim, which are the cheapest way to make a table look abundant. And forgetting shalosh seudos entirely, then raiding the lunch leftovers.
If you would rather not do this arithmetic at all, our packages are built to serve the number of people they name, with the balance between courses already worked out.
Rather not work it out?
Our packages are balanced for the number of people they name.