Not every team lunch calls for hot food. For afternoon meetings, working lunches where conversation matters more than the food, the warmer months, or days when the team has eaten enough heavy lunches that week — light, fresh catering is the right format. The question is not whether to order sandwiches and salads; it is how to order sandwiches and salads that reflect the quality standards your business takes seriously everywhere else.
Vanda's Kitchen delivers fresh salad platters, premium sandwich selections and mixed light lunch catering to London offices from our EC4 base near St Paul's Cathedral. Certified halal, 100% nut-free kitchen, 5-star food hygiene, stocked in Selfridges Food Hall. The same quality standard that puts our products on Selfridges shelves applies to every salad and sandwich we deliver to a corporate meeting room. View our team lunch options.
What "light lunch" should mean — and usually doesn't
The default supermarket or marketplace platter is a specific compromise: bulk-prepared sandwiches cut into quarters, a tub of pre-dressed salad leaves already wilting by lunchtime, a fruit bowl that has seen better mornings. It exists to hit a price point. For a quick internal meeting it may be adequate. For client lunches, board meetings, important internal reviews, or any occasion where the food reflects on your organisation's standards, it is not.
A properly made light lunch starts with fresh ingredients prepared that morning — not assembled from components that have been sitting in central distribution for two days. The bread is baked or delivered fresh, the proteins are roasted or poached to order, the salads are dressed on delivery rather than hours earlier, and the fruit is ripe and in season. Every element is labelled for allergens in line with Natasha's Law, which applies equally to sandwiches and salads as it does to hot meals.
The second requirement is allergen management that actually works in a real mixed team. Among twenty employees, statistically you will have at least one person with a gluten sensitivity, someone avoiding nuts, someone observing halal, likely one or more vegetarians, and increasing numbers opting for dairy-free. A light lunch spread that cannot accommodate that mix forces people to go hungry or leave the meeting to buy something elsewhere — both of which undermine the purpose of laying on catering in the first place.
What we provide for light lunch catering
Our sandwich selection is prepared fresh daily in our Carter Lane kitchen. Options include roasted halal chicken with harissa, slow-cooked beef brisket, roasted Mediterranean vegetables, halloumi with peppers, and classic egg mayonnaise. All fillings are halal-certified where appropriate; all are made in our 100% nut-free kitchen. Gluten-free bread is available for every filling on request — not as a token afterthought but as a proper like-for-like option. Read our halal catering guide for full certification detail.
Our salad platters rotate seasonally but typically include a grain base (quinoa, brown rice, couscous where gluten is acceptable), a leaf base with proper dressing delivered separately so leaves stay crisp, a protein element (roasted halal chicken, poached salmon, roasted chickpeas, or marinated tofu), and a fresh vegetable component. Portions are substantial enough for a main meal, not garnish. See our full allergen matrix for complete filterable information on every product.
Fresh fruit platters, cheese and crudité selections, and bakery items round out the light catering offering. For teams that want a mixed approach — some sandwiches, some salads, some fruit — we can assemble combined platters sized for the exact headcount rather than forcing you to order multiples of fixed formats.
When light lunch is the right choice
Afternoon strategy sessions, client meetings where the discussion is the priority, training days with short breaks, team catch-ups scheduled for 12:00 or 12:30 — all benefit from a format that does not require plates, knives and forks, or significant serving time. Light lunch catering is faster to set up, faster to clear away, and allows meetings to continue while people eat rather than breaking for a full sit-down meal.
It is also the right choice for teams that have had a run of heavier catering. Quality and variety matter over a month of catering rather than a single day. Alternating between hot meal packs and light platters keeps the catering feeling intentional and varied rather than repetitive. For offices that run catering three or more days a week, this rotation is the difference between catering that employees genuinely look forward to and catering that becomes background noise.
Ordering and delivery
We deliver across central London from our EC4 base — the City, Westminster, King's Cross, Shoreditch, Canary Wharf. Standard notice for light lunch catering is 24 hours for orders under 20 portions, 48 hours for 20+. Minimum order value is £100 for delivery within our core zone. Every order is fully labelled with allergen information, delivered in sustainable packaging, and arrives at the time you specify — not a 90-minute window.
For regular weekly orders, standing arrangements, or one-off events, WhatsApp us directly, send an enquiry, or view our team lunch options online. Invoice accounts are available for organisations placing regular orders.
About Vanda's Kitchen
Vanda's Kitchen is an independent food business near St Paul's Cathedral EC4, stocked in Selfridges Food Hall and delivering certified halal, 100% nut-free, freshly prepared catering across London. Our kitchen holds a 5-star food hygiene rating and every item carries full Natasha's Law allergen labelling. Halal certification is independently verified by the Halal Friendly List. Our Freedom Tray individual portion format gives every employee a clearly labelled, allergen-managed individual meal with no sharing required. For the most diverse corporate teams in the world's most diverse city, we are the single-source solution that covers every dietary requirement. To order: WhatsApp us, send an enquiry, or view team lunch options.