Mediterranean Mezze & Party Trays in San Diego

A mezze table is the easiest way to feed a group without plating a single dish: dips, fresh salads, warm rice, stuffed grape leaves, bread, olives, and something sweet, all set out at once so people graze at their own pace. If you’re putting one together in San Diego, you can build the entire spread from our regular catering trays — no special package, no invented product. Every item on this page is a real tray or menu item you can order today.

Quick map so you land on the right page: our catering trays menu is the catalog — every tray, every current price. Our party catering page covers full parties with proteins and bigger headcounts, for when the event needs more than a grazing table. This page sits between the two: it’s the build guide, showing which trays to combine, in what mix, for how many people, so you’re not guessing at quantities on your own. Ready to go? Request a quote or call (619) 642-0298, Mon–Fri 7am–4pm.

What is a mezze platter?

A mezze platter is a spread of small, shareable dishes set out together instead of one plated entrée — dips, salads, bread, and finger foods that a group serves themselves from, at whatever pace the room moves. It comes from the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern tradition of a shared table: everyone reaches for a little of everything, and the table fills back in as it empties rather than arriving all at once on individual plates. In practice, for a San Diego office lunch or a home gathering, that means a hummus tray, a couple of salads, warm bread, and small add-ons like dolmas laid out on a table or a few long platters, with sauces set out in small dishes along the line so people can add what they like. If you want the ingredient-level detail on what actually goes into the dips and sauces that anchor a mezze table, we’ve written those up separately — what is hummus and our guide to Mediterranean sauces both go deeper than this page needs to.

What goes on a Mediterranean mezze table

Everything below comes straight off our menu. Trays are priced per tray — the catering trays page always has current pricing and full descriptions, so we won’t repeat numbers here that can go stale.

• Dips: Hummus Tray and Tzatziki Tray. Curious what actually goes into a proper hummus? We wrote it up — and tahini gets its own explainer too.
• Salads: Tabouli Tray, Iraqi Salad Tray, Fattoush Salad Tray, and Greek Salad Tray. Two salads is the sweet spot for most tables; four makes a serious spread with real variety in texture and dressing.
• The warm anchor: Yellow Rice Tray. A warm rice tray gives the table a center and stretches everything else further, since it’s the one component people tend to come back for seconds of.
• The shortcut: Family Tray, feeds 4–7. One tray that feeds a small group on its own, and the fastest way to anchor a small gathering without assembling anything else.
• Small add-ons: Dolmas (what’s a dolma?), pita bread, gyro bread, kalamata olives, feta, and baklava to close the table out.
• Sauces: toum, tahini, chili, lemon garlic, greek dressing, and fattoush dressing. Set two or three out in small dishes along the table — here’s the rundown on each one if you want to match sauces to the trays you’re ordering.

One thing to say plainly before the builds: tahini contains sesame, and our hummus contains tahini — so it does too. Every build below includes both. Full allergen notes are further down; if anyone in your group has a severe allergy, call us first so we can walk through it together.

How much mezze do I need for 20 people?

For 20 people, the fastest reliable base is our Small Spread — feeds 15 — plus one or two extra mezze trays to cover the last five and give the table more range. A practical build: the Small Spread as the core (it already includes beef and chicken shawarma, saffron rice, salad, hummus, falafel, pita, and house sauces), then add a second dip tray and a salad tray on top — that extra capacity plus the wider variety comfortably covers 20 grazers without anyone running out early. If you’d rather build a mezze-only table without the shawarma, use the tray-count logic from the sections below: at 20 people you’re roughly one tier past our 10–15 grazing build, so plan on adding a third salad or a second dip tray to what’s listed there. Individual trays don’t carry official per-person counts, so this is a starting formula, not a guarantee — call the catering line and we’ll size your exact headcount in a couple of minutes.

Mezze builds by headcount

Two honest anchors drive the math: the Family Tray feeds 4–7, and the Small Spread feeds 15. Individual trays don’t carry official per-person counts, so we size builds by tray count and scale from there rather than promising a fixed number per tray. When in doubt, call the catering line and we’ll size it to your exact headcount — that’s a two-minute conversation and it saves you from over- or under-ordering.

Small gathering (4–7 people)

Start with the Family Tray as the anchor, add one dip tray — hummus or tzatziki — plus an order of dolmas and extra pita. That’s a full table for a family dinner, a small office lunch, or a beach-house evening, and nobody leaves hungry. It’s also the simplest build on this page: one tray, one dip, a couple of small add-ons, done.

Mezze-only grazing table (around 10–15)

This is the classic build: the dip pair (hummus + tzatziki), two salads (tabouli + fattoush, or Greek + Iraqi), a yellow rice tray, dolmas, pita and gyro bread, olives, and feta — with baklava to finish. Set it out in that order, dips at both ends so the line moves and people aren’t bunching up around one tray. Start here and scale trays up for bigger crowds; if you’re not sure how far it stretches for your group, call and we’ll size it before you commit to numbers.

Party of 15 or more

At 15+ people, the smarter base is our Small Spread — feeds 15 — which adds beef and chicken shawarma, saffron rice, salad, hummus, falafel, pita, house sauces, and disposable ware in one order. All our beef and chicken is halal-sourced. Then layer mezze trays on top: an extra dip, another salad, dolmas, baklava. That combination — hero bundle plus add-on trays — is how most of our larger orders actually run. For the full occasion treatment, head to our party catering page.

A vegan mezze table

Our hummus, tabouli, and fattoush trays are vegan, and toum, tahini, and hot sauce are vegan house sauces — that’s a legitimate table right there. Dolmas and pita round a table out nicely; ask us about ingredients when you order if the table needs to stay fully vegan, since we’d rather confirm than guess on your behalf. The whole plant-based lineup lives on our vegan catering page.

Mezze trays for visitors and beach rentals

We’re based in Ocean Beach, and the same trays on this page travel well beyond a home dining room. A vacation-rental group can build a mezze table the same way a family dinner does — Family Tray or Small Spread as the anchor, a dip and a salad on top — and pick it up on Newport Ave on the way in from the airport or the beach. It works just as well for a rental in Mission Bay or Pacific Beach as it does for one two blocks from our door; the trays are packed to travel, and the build logic above doesn’t change based on where the table ends up.

Allergen notes — read before you order

Sesame: tahini contains sesame, and hummus contains tahini — every mezze build on this page includes both. Dairy: tzatziki, feta, and baklava (butter). Wheat/gluten: pita, gyro bread, and baklava. Tree nuts: baklava (pistachio). We’re a shared kitchen, so we can’t guarantee zero cross-contact on any item. If anyone in your group has a severe allergy, talk to us before you order and we’ll walk through the ingredients together rather than leaving you to guess.

Pickup, delivery, and lead times

Pickup is free at 4884 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach, and the restaurant is open 11am–8pm daily — trays travel well, so grabbing them on the way to your gathering is the simplest move. Delivery is free within 5 miles, $30 for 5–15 miles, $50 for 16–40 miles, and $60 beyond that, county-wide. Family trays and mezze spreads also travel well to OB vacation rentals and beach picnics, so a rental group doesn’t have to be near the restaurant to make this work.

On timing: about 48 hours’ notice is standard. Orders under $500 are sometimes possible on 24 hours’ notice — call (619) 642-0298 to check availability before you plan around anything tighter than that.

Ready to build yours? Request a quote with your date and headcount, or call (619) 642-0298 — the catering line is staffed Mon–Fri, 7am–4pm, and we’ll spec the trays with you on the call.

Frequently asked questions

Related: browse every tray and current price on our catering trays menu, see full-service options on our party catering page and vegan catering page, or start at our San Diego catering hub. Want the background on what you’re serving? Read what is hummus, what is tahini, what is a dolma, and our guide to Mediterranean sauces.