Buying Caviar in Volume: A Guide for Restaurants, Caterers, and Events

Buying one 30g tin for a dinner at home is a different exercise from buying two kilos for a 200-person reception. This guide is for the second kind of buyer: chefs, caterers, event planners, and corporate teams who need to size an order, price it, and get it delivered on the right day.

Start with cost per serving, not price per tin

The sticker price of a large tin looks alarming until you divide it. That division is the only number that matters when you are building a menu or a quote.

A standard tasting portion is about 10g per person for a first course, and 5g per person when caviar is a garnish or a passed canapé. A 250g tin therefore covers roughly 25 tasting portions or 50 garnish portions.

Larger tins carry a meaningfully lower price per gram than the 30g size. If you are serving more than about eight people, buying one large tin instead of several small ones is the single easiest way to cut your food cost on the dish.

Pick the species for the application, not the prestige

The most expensive tin is rarely the right call for volume service.

• Garnish and canapé work: Reserve Siberian or White Sturgeon, both from $99 for 30g. Clean and buttery, they read clearly on a bite-sized vehicle without competing with the dish, and they protect your margin.
• A plated first course: Reserve Kaluga (from $105). The large pearls and creamy finish are what guests notice and remember when the caviar is the point of the plate.
• A tasting menu or chef's counter: Imperial Ossetra (from $155). Nutty and complex enough to justify a course of its own and a line on the menu description.
• High-volume, cost-sensitive: Smoked Trout Roe (from $19). Not sturgeon caviar, and it should never be sold as such, but it delivers color, pop, and a smoky note at a fraction of the cost. Excellent for passed bites and brunch service.

If you are unfamiliar with how the species differ, our comparison guide covers the specs.

Lead times: order earlier than feels necessary

Caviar is packed to order rather than pulled from stock, and it ships overnight on ice. For volume orders, work backward from the event.

• Under 500g: at least 5 business days.
• 500g to 2kg: 7 to 10 business days.
• Above 2kg, or a specific species and grade: 2 to 3 weeks. Large single-species lots depend on harvest timing and cannot be rushed.
• December, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day: double the above. These are the three windows where the entire industry is constrained at once.

Schedule delivery for one or two days before the event, never the morning of. A weather delay on event day has no recovery path, and a properly refrigerated tin is perfectly happy for a couple of days.

Receiving and holding a large order

Assign one person to receive the shipment and refrigerate it immediately. Hold it between 28 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit, at the back of the coldest reach-in, never in the freezer and never in a door. Keep tins sealed until service. Once opened, a tin should be used within 48 to 72 hours, which means opening progressively through service rather than opening everything during setup.

What to confirm before you place the order

• Final guest count and portion size. These two numbers determine everything else.
• Delivery address with someone present. A perishable shipment to an empty venue is the most common and most expensive failure.
• Service tools. Metal spoons give caviar a metallic taste. Budget for mother-of-pearl spoons ($10 each), and account for guests keeping them.
• Sourcing documentation. If you are putting caviar on a printed menu, you may need to state the species and that it is farm-raised. We can supply that detail.

A worked example

A 150-guest reception with caviar on a passed blini. At 5g per guest that is 750g. Order two 250g tins and one 250g backup, or a 500g plus a 250g, in a clean, cost-efficient species. Place the order 10 business days out, take delivery two days before, hold refrigerated, and open tins in sequence as service runs rather than all at once.

Planning something large?

For orders above 500g, recurring restaurant supply, or corporate volume, go through our wholesale program rather than ordering through the site. We can confirm availability by species, quote volume pricing, and lock a delivery date to your event.

In the Dallas area? We also offer on-site caviar bar catering and roaming service. Or browse the full range.

Want the tins under your own name instead of ours? Our private label caviar program puts your brand on the lid.