Market Hall Caterers FAQs

• Our food is honest, heartfelt and handcrafted. We are passionate about sourcing, making and serving the very best food possible.
• We begin with wholesome ingredients—like sustainable seafood, conscientiously raised meats and the freshest fruits and vegetables available.
• We make almost everything in-house daily—from smoking our own seafood and crafting our own charcuterie and award-winning pâté to making all of our own desserts, cakes and pastries.
• We offer a wide selection of tried-and-tested menus representing an array of cuisines.
• As part of Market Hall Foods, we offer access to a practically limitless array of the world's best specialty products.

See Our Food for more about what makes our food so special.

Absolutely! We can offer menus for gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, vegetarian, and more. We will be happy to guide you through our menus and suggest variations to accommodate your dietary needs. We also offer many light menus, menus featuring whole grains, and lighter Mediterranean and Asian dishes. (We do not operate a gluten-free or a nut-free kitchen, so we cannot guarantee there will not be cross-contamination.)

We are passionate about provenance. All of our meat and seafood is GMO-free and from humane sources—like Mary’s Free Range Air-Chilled Chicken, hormone and antibiotic-free beef from Golden Gate Meat Company, Beeler’s Pure Pork ham and bacon, Diestel Turkey Farms turkey, Hiddenfjord salmon from the Faroe Islands in Denmark and wild-caught Gulf Shrimp from Four Star Seafood & Provisions. We use only local, cage-free eggs. We're in the produce market every morning at 4am to find the freshest fruits and vegetables available. Our yogurt is organic from Straus Family Creamery and Wallaby, and our cheeses are thoughtfully sourced by our award-winning cheesemongers. We serve locally ground, organic coffee from Oakland Coffee.

Our team is available by phone and email Monday through Friday 9am–5pm; Saturday and Sunday 9am–3pm. If we are unavailable, please leave a message or send us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Delivery is available from 7:30am–4pm Monday through Friday, and 8am–3pm on Saturday and Sunday. 

For pickup at our Oakland location, pull into our parking lot off of Shafter Avenue and drive to the back of the lot. You will see a banner with the pickup phone number to text, 510-575-0636 for service.

Pickups are available Monday through Sunday during Market Hall Foods store hours. Please be sure to check store hours, as there are seasonal changes.

Orders always depend on our availability. When our calendar permits, orders must be placed at least 48 hours ahead of time. Earlier is always better as our Pickup schedule often closes a week or two in advance, especially around the Winter holidays and the month of May (because of graduations). Please call as soon as possible to book your date; your menu can be finalized later. Orders for the weekend or Mondays must be confirmed by noon on Friday.

Please contact us via our Contact Us page.

There is no minimum for Pickup. There is a $350 food minimum for Delivery & Setup (not including beverages or delivery fee).

Yes, a list of ingredients for every menu item is available upon request. Please ask one of our Catering Specialists.

• Orders always depend on our availability. Please call as soon as possible to book your date; your menu can be finalized later. Our schedule often closes a week or two weeks in advance. When our calendar allows, orders must be placed at least 48 hours ahead of time. If you’re in a pinch, contact us anyway! If we can make it happen, we will.
• Our schedule is especially busy around the holidays and the month of May (because of graduations).
• Orders for the weekend must be confirmed by Wednesday; orders for Mondays must be confirmed by noon on Friday.

Our deliveries locations are within Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Our primary delivery locations include Oakland, Piedmont, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Alameda, and Lafayette.

Yes, heating instructions (if applicable) are available upon request for every menu item. Please ask one of our Catering Specialists.

• Let us know if you prefer to pick up your order at our Oakland location, or if you prefer that we deliver to your home or office.
• For Delivery & Setup, we will ask you details about your location and we’ll need an on-site contact name and phone number.
• We’ll need to know how many guests you expect, the time of your event and any food ideas you have—we’ll be happy to guide you through our menus.
• We require your credit card information when you place your order.

Most orders require a credit card in advance. The credit card will be held securely in order to charge your final balance. Businesses and larger organizations may apply for Net 30 terms.

• For Pickup or Delivery & Setup, our food is presented on compostable, ivory-colored serveware (platters and bowls), and on wicker baskets and bamboo trays, with recyclable serving utensils.

We deliver every menu item on our website. We can also deliver beverages and compostable tableware.

You will receive a confirmation email from Market Hall Caterers. Please read it carefully and reply to confirm. A credit card is also required to secure your order, credit card information needs to be called into our office.

• Orders always depend on our availability. When our calendar allows, you must place your order at least 48 hours ahead of time. Earlier is always better, as our Delivery & Setup schedule often closes a week or two weeks in advance, especially around the Winter holidays and the month of May (because of graduations). Please call as soon as possible to book your date; your menu can be finalized later.
• Orders for the weekend or Mondays must be confirmed by noon on Friday.

Most of our menu items are designed to be served at room temperature. We can provide disposable chafing dishes for those items that should be served hot.

Please see our Beverages menu, featuring a delicious selection of fresh, housemade iced teas, lemonades, infused waters and aguas frescas. We can also provide additional specialty beverages—just give us a call to discuss options.

We are genuinely concerned about our planet's welfare and are a little obsessed with finding new ways to reduce the amount of disposable items our food and service requires. All of our packaging, serveware  (trays, bowls and lids), and tableware is compostable (plates, bowls, utensils, containers, cups and napkins). It is made from BPI certified renewable and reclaimed (from bio-waste) sugarcane. Our black plastic serving utensils are recyclable.

There is a $350 food minimum for Delivery & Setup. The delivery charge to the cities of Oakland, Piedmont, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville is $60 for weekdays, $70 for weekends. Delivery fees are higher for cities farther away. 

Our policy is to limit any changes to 5 days prior to your event, but we understand that sometimes unexpected things happen. We will try to accommodate  last-minute increases whenever possible. Together, we’ll review which menu items we might be able to increase, and recommend other items to supplement those that we can’t.

Yes, we offer Market Hall Foods Gift Baskets and Boxes to suit every taste and occasion: for customers, clients, guests, friends and family. Choose from tempting snack boxes for the office to Mariage Frères gift sets for the avid tea drinker to our bestselling Taste of Market Hall gift basket—or dream up your own custom gift to suit your needs. Call us to discuss options. We’ll help you find just the thing!

Platters and Menus are delivered on serveware as specified in each category.  We can provide compostable and recyclable disposables, table coverings, beverages and disposable chafing dishes.

We're so glad you asked. Our ongoing, shared efforts to respect the environment and reduce waste will make a difference. Here's a guide for properly disposing of our serveware, tableware and packaging. This guide is applicable to the City of Oakland only.  If you live outside of Oakland, please consult your local municipality's guidelines. Do be sure to rinse all containers before recycling them. And thanks again for caring!

We require 15–30 minutes to set up a buffet. It’s best to be fully set up a half an hour before guests arrive (our delivered food is designed to be served at room temperature). Please take this into consideration when planning your event.

For weekday orders, you may cancel your order up to 10am the day before. For weekend or Monday orders, you may cancel your order up to 10am on the Friday before. For Pickup and Delivery & Setup orders, we charge 50% of the total charge for any cancellation after 10am.