Menus and meals

Browse the food and drink being served at this event.

1. Open the event, go to the Guests tab, and choose "Menu" under Planning.
2. Guests can see the menu as soon as a course has at least one dish in it. There is no separate publish step, and the note under the menu tells you whether guests can see it yet.
3. Click "Preview as guest" to see the menu exactly as guests do.
4. Use "Share menu" to share or download a copy, for your caterer or family.
5. Guests find it on the event page under Menu. Until a dish is added it says "No menu has been published yet."

You will need a menu published first.

Lay out the food and drink for the event, from scratch or from a menu you already have.

1. Open the event and go to the Menu tab.
2. On an empty menu, pick how to start: "Import with AI" reads a menu you already have (a photo, a PDF, or pasted text), and "Start from blank" gives you an empty one.
3. Use "Add" in the toolbar above the menu to add a food course, a drink course or a shared choice, then add the dishes under each course with a description.
4. Set how guests pick per course: serve it to everyone, let them choose one, or let them choose up to a number you set.
5. Tag dishes with dietary labels. Guests see them spelled out on the menu, and a "contains" tag is what lets Bazaar flag a dish against a guest who told us they react to it.
6. Your changes save as you go. Guests see the menu once the event shares it.
7. Once guests start submitting meal choices the menu locks, so an edit cannot quietly invalidate what they picked. You can unlock it from the banner at the top if you need to.
8. Number the choices on a course by clicking "Number the choices" beside its rule. The numbers come from the order the dishes are in, so they renumber themselves when you move one.

You will need an event exists first.

Decide what the RSVP does once a dish reaches the number of portions coming: warn the guest, or stop them picking it.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, and click "Meal settings" in the toolbar above the menu. "If a dish runs out" is the last section in it.
2. You will only see it once at least one dish has a portion count, because until then there is no number to measure against.
3. "Let them choose anyway" shows guests how many are left and lets them pick regardless. You get the numbers and decide what to do.
4. "Stop them choosing it" takes the dish off the list once it reaches its count. Anyone with meal access can still assign a guest to it by hand.
5. With stopping on, set "Allow a few extra" as a percentage over each count. Not everyone who chooses turns up, so caterers usually cook a margin. At 0 the count is a hard limit.
6. Dishes with no portion count are never limited, whichever option you pick.
7. This is one setting for the whole menu, not per dish. Eight courses would otherwise be eight identical decisions, and one wrong silently changes what guests can pick.

You will need at least one dish has a portion count first.

Turn off the meal question for buffet or family style service. The menu still shows to guests, your servers and your caterer; nobody is asked to pick, and nobody is chased for a choice.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, and click "Meal settings" in the toolbar above the menu.
2. Turn off "Ask guests to choose" under "Asking guests". It saves as you change it, and the line under the toolbar then reads "Reference only".
3. Your guests still see the whole menu, and so do your servers and your caterer. The PDF still exports.
4. The RSVP stops offering a meal step, so nobody is asked to pick a dish.
5. The reminders that chase guests for missing selections stop too, including the automatic ones.
6. Your per-course rules are kept, and each course says it is not being used rather than pretending it is. Switch this back on and they apply again.
7. This is not the same as hiding the menu. To take it off your guest site entirely, hide the Menu tab from the event’s tab settings instead.

You will need a menu exists first.

Ask guests for meal choices on their own schedule, with or without a Bazaar RSVP: with the RSVP, a week before, the day before, or at the event. Anyone with meal access, including your caterer, can open or close it on the spot.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, and click "Meal settings" in the toolbar above the menu. The line under the toolbar already says what is set, so you can check it without opening anything.
2. "Ask guests to choose" has to be on. If the menu is for reference only, nobody is asked to pick and there is nothing to schedule.
3. Under it, pick when to collect. "With the RSVP" is how it has always worked: the meal question lives inside the RSVP form.
4. "A week before" opens seven days out and closes when the event starts, which is the one to pick if your caterer needs numbers in advance.
5. "The day before" opens the morning before and closes when the event starts. "At the event" opens a few hours before doors and stays open through service.
6. Choosing anything other than "With the RSVP" gives guests their own link, so a guest list you imported from somewhere else can be asked about meals even though they never RSVPed here.
7. Send it with "Ask guests to pick" on the menu, or let it ride along on the guest card, which already goes out the day before.
8. Guests are not chased automatically, and the window itself sends nothing: it decides when guests MAY answer, not when they are asked. The panel says so and links straight to Guest reminders.
9. The window governs the guest list at large, not people you name. If you ask particular guests from the Guest list before it opens, their choices open straight away and their whole party can answer -- everyone else still waits.
10. While the window is shut, "Asked early" under it lists whoever you let in that way, and removing someone there puts them back behind the window.
11. To nudge the ones who have not picked, add a meal reminder under Guests, RSVP, and choose how many days before it goes out.
12. Use "Open now" or "Close now" to beat the schedule. Your caterer can do this too, from the floor, which is the point.
13. Guests choose for their whole party on one link, and a dish your kitchen has run out of cannot be picked.
14. Choosing a meal never counts as an RSVP: a guest who has not said whether they are coming still has not, and the host still sees that.

You will need a menu exists first.

When meal choices close, anyone who never chose is given the meal you set here. They are told by name of dish and can change it that day, which moves people three reminders do not.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then open the menu settings.
2. Set a close date under "When to collect" first. Without one there is no moment for a default to fire.
3. Under "If a guest never chooses", pick the meal in the same picker your guests use, so whatever you choose is something a guest could have chosen.
4. Pick something that stretches. A family-style dish or the safest crowd-pleaser is a better default than the thing you have counted exactly.
5. When choices close, everyone who never chose is given it and told, by name of dish. They can change it that day and that day only.
6. Nothing is applied to an event whose choices close at or after the start time, because those orders are being taken at the table on purpose.

You will need a menu guests are choosing from, with a close date set first.

The plate numbers only work if the kitchen tags to them, and that is a person rather than a process. Whoever you name prints at the top of every run-sheet page.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then open the menu settings.
2. Under "Who tags the plates", write the name and a number, in whatever form you have it. "Chef Ade, 07700 900123" is enough.
3. Agree it with the caterer a week out, not on the day.
4. It prints at the top of every run-sheet page, so whoever is carrying the tray knows whose job the tags are.
5. It does NOT print on the tag sheet itself. Those pages are cut to the label stock and a header would shift every label off its perforation.

You will need a menu guests are choosing from first.

Decide who is asked to choose a meal when the window opens. Guests who declined are left out already, and you can skip anyone else by name.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, open "Meal settings" in the toolbar, and set "When to collect" to "The day before" or "At the event". With the RSVP there is no separate message, so there is nobody to choose.
2. "Who gets the message" appears underneath, with a count beside each option so you can see how many people it reaches before you pick.
3. "Everyone who hasn't declined" is the default and is usually right: guests who said no are never asked, and guests who have not replied still are, which matters if you imported your list from somewhere else.
4. "Only guests who said yes" narrows it to confirmed attendees. "Everyone on the list" asks all of them, declines included.
5. To leave out particular people, use "Skip specific guests", search for them and tick them. Skipped guests are never asked, whichever option is selected.
6. Guests you add later follow the option you picked automatically, so you do not have to come back after adding to the list.
7. Only the lead guest of each household is listed, because that is who is contacted. They choose for their whole party on one link.

You will need meal choices are collected the day before or at the event first.

Every guest, what they chose, and what they told us they cannot eat, grouped by table for the floor.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then "Guest Selections".
2. "Dietary needs" sits at the top, collapsed to one line: how many guests have needs, how many allergies, and any dish conflicts. Open it for allergies, diets, accessibility and the notes guests wrote in their own words, with a "By need" / "By table" switch. Clicking a need lists the guests who have it; it does not filter the list.
3. "Totals for the kitchen" answers the ordering question: how many have chosen, how many are still to pick, how many children and how many served, then each dish with its count, the choices picked under it, how many portions are left, and a "Shared choices" block for options several dishes share. Switch it to "By table" to open one table and see what goes to it. Those numbers cover the whole event, so filtering the list below does not change them.
4. Guests are grouped by table so you can work one table at a time. Anyone not seated yet is under "No table yet".
5. Use the "Meal" filter and pick "Still to choose" to see who you are waiting on. The number beside it is how many, so you can see it without applying the filter.
6. To set a meal for someone yourself, use "Set meal" on their card, or "change" if they already picked. "Same as their party" fills in what the rest of their household chose, when they all chose the same thing.
7. To take a meal back off someone, open the same dialog and press "Clear meal", then Save. Clearing only empties the picker, so nothing changes until you save and Cancel still leaves their choice as it was.
8. If the dish you pick asks further questions, they open inside that dish, under its name. A set the menu marks as required has to be answered before Save will work, and the line above the button names the one that is short.
9. If the guest is standing in front of you, "Scan Guest Card" finds them from their card instead of by name, and you can set their meal straight from the panel that opens. It lists anyone else in their party who still has to choose, because a household arrives on one card. This is the route for a guest who never got the message asking them to pick.
10. A dish that has run out reads "No longer available" and cannot be picked, for you exactly as for a guest. If you want staff to be able to go over, set the menu's portion limit to advisory in Meal settings, where a finished dish reads "Fully chosen" and stays pickable for everyone.
11. Allergies and diets a guest gave show as labels on their card, and are counted in the "Dietary needs" panel at the top. If a guest said they react to something and the dish they chose is tagged as containing it, a note appears under the card naming the dish, and the panel lists it under "Dish conflicts".
12. That note is a prompt to check with the kitchen, not a safety check. It can only compare what a guest picked against what the dish is tagged with, so a dish nobody tagged never raises one, and no note does not mean a plate is safe.
13. "Mark served" logs a plate going out, and takes one portion of everything that guest chose off the Service board. Tick several guests to do a whole table at once, and "Undo" on a card gives those portions back.

You will need a menu exists first.

A guest who never picked can be given a meal on the spot, from either scanner, without leaving the camera.

1. Open either scanner: the Guests tab then Check-in for the door, or the Menu tab, "Guest Selections", "Scan Guest Card" for the buffet.
2. Scan the guest's Bazaar Card QR.
3. If anyone in their party still has to choose, the panel lists them by name with "Set meal" beside each one. A household arrives on one card, so the person who needs a meal is as often the plus-one as the lead.
4. Someone who picked a dish but skipped a question it asks reads "Finish choice", and the line under their name says what is missing.
5. Choose for them and Save. It writes exactly as the guest's own screen would, and counts against the same portions.
6. A dish that has run out reads "No longer available" and cannot be picked. Set the menu's portion limit to advisory in Meal settings if you want staff to be able to go over.
7. On the Meal Scanner a household shows EVERY person's plate at once, each with the dish they chose and the options picked under it, so you make the whole table in one pass. "Serve" beside a name logs that plate, and "Mark all served" underneath does everyone who is still waiting.
8. The camera pauses while the panel is open and picks up again when you close it, so you never have to reopen the scanner between guests.
9. Nobody is marked served at the door, so that button only appears on the Meal Scanner.
10. This needs menu access. Without it the Check-in Scanner behaves as it always has: scan, check in, next guest.

You will need a menu exists first.

A dish can ask its own questions, so "Rice & Protein" can offer a choice of rice and up to two proteins without becoming three separate courses.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, and click a dish to open it.
2. Under the description, press "Choices within this dish".
3. Name what they are choosing, e.g. "Choose your rice" or "Choose up to 2 proteins".
4. Set how many they pick: at least 1 means they have to answer, at least 0 means they can skip it. New sets start at "at least 1".
5. That number decides more than the question. If they have to answer and every option in the set runs out, the whole dish comes off the menu, so a dish like "Soup & Swallow" needs no portion count of its own. If they can skip it, running out here changes nothing about the dish.
6. Add each option on its own line. Press "Another set" if the dish asks a second question, like a rice AND a protein.
7. If more than one dish offers the same options, set them up once under "Shared choices". To put that set on several dishes at once, press "Choose dishes" on it and tick them, rather than opening each dish in turn.
8. Every dish you tick starts by asking for one. Open the dish to let it take more, or to word the question differently, because the set holds the options and the count while each dish holds its own question.
9. Guests see these only after they pick that dish, so a course with three options still reads as three options.
10. Anyone setting a meal on a guest's behalf answers the same questions, and cannot save a required set unanswered either.
11. Give an option its own portion count the same way you would a dish, if the caterer is bringing a fixed number of one protein.
12. Each option can carry a photo too. Press the small square beside it and pick a picture, and guests see it when they choose.

You will need a menu exists first.

A printable sheet of who is eating what, grouped by table, with dietary needs beside each guest and the totals the kitchen needs on the last page.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then Guest Selections.
2. Press "Print" at the top right and choose "Meal sheet". It downloads as a PDF.
3. Guests are grouped by table, so the floor can work one table at a time, and anyone who has not chosen is listed under their table rather than left out.
4. Dietary needs print in full next to the guest, never as a footnote.
5. The last page is the kitchen’s: one number per dish, plus how many people are still to choose in each course.
6. If your menu has more than one version, the sheet prints the one you are looking at. Switch versions first to print another.
7. Your vendors are emailed this same sheet automatically the day before, so you only need this when you want it sooner or after a late change.

You will need a menu guests are choosing from first.

Adds a guest who was never on the list and goes straight into their meal, without leaving the screen you are serving from. They get a meal order number the moment they are created, so their plate can be tagged like everyone else’s.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then Guest Selections.
2. Press "Add walk-in". Only their name is required.
3. Add the table if you know it. Without one they show under "No table yet", in the list and on the run sheet.
4. Press "Add and choose meal" and their meal picker opens straight away.
5. They are marked attending, so they count in the kitchen totals immediately.
6. Their meal order number is assigned as soon as they are added. Write it on a blank tag from the tag sheet and the plate is handled like any other.

You will need a menu guests are choosing from first.

Every guest has a meal order number. The kitchen tags each plate with it, the guest has the same number on their place card and their phone, and the server matches a number to a number instead of identifying the food.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then Guest Selections.
2. Press "Print" at the top right. Everything for the day is in that menu.
3. "Plate tags" prints one tag per guest for the kitchen to attach. Choose "label sheet" for Avery 5160 sticker stock, or "plain paper" to cut them out, depending on what the venue can print.
4. Blank write-on tags print at the end of every batch, for walk-ins and last-minute changes. Somebody writes the number by hand and the server’s job is unchanged.
5. "Run sheet" prints one page per table, with each guest’s seat, number and order, for whoever is carrying the tray.
6. "Place cards" prints the guest’s name and their number, to put at the seat. This is what a guest reads out when their phone is in a bag.
7. Print these on the morning of the event. Nothing is posted, so a late guest only means reprinting a page.
8. Numbers never change once given, so a tag printed on Tuesday is still right on Saturday.

You will need a menu guests are choosing from first.

Set up a pot of options once and offer it from as many dishes as you like, with one count that holds across the whole event.

1. Open the event and go to the Menu tab.
2. Choose "Add" in the toolbar above the menu, then "Shared choice". It drops a new pot at the bottom of the menu and puts your cursor in its name. The "Shared choices" section under the courses has its own button too.
3. Name the pot for what it holds, e.g. "Proteins", and add each option on its own line.
4. Give an option a portion count here if the caterer is bringing a fixed number of it. The count is for the whole event, not per dish.
5. Open a dish, add a set of choices to it, and pick the pot from "Options from".
6. Do the same on every other dish that offers it. Each one shows the options read-only, and the pot lists which dishes offer it.
7. Change an option or its count once, in Shared choices, and every dish offering it changes with it.
8. A photo works the same way. Press the small square beside an option to add one, and every dish that offers the pot shows the same picture.

You will need a menu with at least one dish that asks a question first.

Number a course's choices so anyone serving can say "Option 2" instead of a dish name they have never met.

1. Open the event and go to the Menu tab.
2. Find the course whose choices you want numbered, and look beside its rule.
3. Press "Number the choices". It only appears on a course guests actually choose from, with more than one dish.
4. The numbers follow the order the dishes are in, so reorder them to match your printed card.
5. They then appear everywhere: the menu guests see, the PDF you print, and the kitchen sheet showing who chose what.
6. Numbers are worked out from position, not saved, so moving a dish renumbers everything at once and nothing goes out of step.

You will need a course where guests choose, with more than one dish first.

Say how many portions of a dish the caterer is bringing, so the kitchen and the floor can track what is left on the day.

1. Open the event and go to the Menu tab.
2. Find the dish and click "Portions" on its row.
3. Type how many portions are coming and press Enter.
4. Leave it empty on any dish nobody is counting. That dish still shows on the menu, it just is not tracked.
5. Guests never see portion counts. They only drive the Service board on the day.

You will need a menu with at least one dish first.

A live board for the floor: what is still available, what is running low, and what has run out.

1. Open the event, go to the Menu tab, then the "Service board" tab.
2. Marking a guest served over in "Guest Selections" already takes one portion of each dish they chose off this board. Use "Serve 1" for plates nobody picked by name, a buffet tray or a walk-in, so the same plate is not counted twice.
3. Tap "Serve 1" each time one of those goes out, or "-5" for a tray.
4. Anything low or out sorts to the top under "Needs attention", so you never have to hunt for it.
5. Tapped by mistake? "Undo" reverses your last one.
6. "N chose this" beside a dish is how many guests picked it. That is demand, not supply, so it does not move as you serve.
7. Dishes with no portion count show under "Not tracked" as "No count". That means nobody counted them, not that they have run out. They still show how many chose them.
8. Everyone serving sees the same numbers as they change.

You will need portion counts set on at least one dish first.