Short answer
Check the licence first — caterers must be licensed in every state. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 631 Australian caterers in this directory, only 11.3% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 7.1% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Caterers handle weddings, corporate events, parties, spit roasts, grazing tables and drop-off catering. This is what to check before you feed a hundred people on your name, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Caterers must be licensed
A caterer is a food business, and every food business must be registered with or notified to its local council and inspected under the state food act. Most states also require a trained food safety supervisor. A caterer working from an unregistered home kitchen is uninspected, whatever the food looks like.
Ask for the council registration and the food safety supervisor certificate. Councils will confirm whether a food business is registered with them.
What 631 Australian caterers actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For caterers:
| What we checked | Caterers | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 11.3% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 61% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 7.1% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 80.9% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 81.9% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 34 | 39 |
What goes wrong with caterers
- Food prepared in a kitchen that is not registered with any council
- Allergens handled without a plan, at an event where you are the host
- Minimums, travel and staff charges that only appear on the final invoice
What to ask before the work starts
- Which council is your kitchen registered with, and who is your food safety supervisor?
- How do you handle allergens and dietary requirements?
- What is the all-in price per head, including staff, travel and equipment?
A caterer who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median caterer in this directory has 34 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the caterers are
Melbourne (54), Sydney (41), Brisbane (23), Perth (20). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best caterer in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do caterers need a licence in Australia?
- Yes. A caterer is a food business, and every food business must be registered with or notified to its local council and inspected under the state food act. Most states also require a trained food safety supervisor. A caterer working from an unregistered home kitchen is uninspected, whatever the food looks like.
- How do I check a caterer's licence?
- Ask for the council registration and the food safety supervisor certificate. Councils will confirm whether a food business is registered with them.
- What percentage of Australian caterers have a verifiable ABN?
- 11.3% of the 631 caterers in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a caterer have?
- The median caterer here has 34. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare caterers near you
631 caterers, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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- When a tradie's phone number doesn't match their own website10,300 Australian trade businesses list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website. Sometimes it is a …