Moe’s Southwest Grill Catering Guide: Bars, Free Chips & Salsa & How to Order for the Office

Moe’s Southwest Grill has built a national Tex-Mex fast-casual footprint (hundreds of locations across most US states) on three brand pillars that almost no other chain stacks together: the shouted “Welcome to Moe’s!” greeting culture that’s been part of every restaurant since the brand started in Atlanta, free chips and house-made salsa included with catering orders by default, and the Build-Your-Own Fajita, Taco and Nacho Bars anchored by Moe’s Famous Queso. That positioning carries directly into the catering menu, which centers on customizable buffet bars, burrito and cold-wrap catering, the queso-and-guac dips line, fresh-made sauces, gallon sweet tea, unsweet tea and lemonade, and cookies and brownies. Moe’s catering covers Fajita, Taco and Nacho Bars with twenty-plus toppings; burrito and cold-wrap catering for grab-and-go events; Moe’s Famous Queso, hand-crafted guacamole and house-made salsa as add-ons; gallon tea and lemonade, cookies and brownies; and free chips, salsa, plates, napkins and forks on most orders. This guide walks every format, how the catering portal works, what to know about delivery and lead times, where Moe’s genuinely shines for office events, and what to order instead when the meeting calls for something the bar format can’t quite do.

Moe’s was born in Atlanta as a stick-it-to-the-man burrito joint with a playful voice (the “Welcome to Moe’s!” greeting and a menu of offbeat-named items at launch). The brand has streamlined its menu since those early days, but the hospitality cue and the Tex-Mex bar format remain its signature, alongside Moe’s Famous Queso. The bar-and-queso pairing is the catering thesis, and the free chips, salsa and serving gear that come with most orders make Moe’s one of the most logistics-light formats in the segment.

Moe’s Southwest Grill’s menu, pricing, format availability and catering inclusions vary by location and change over time. Confirm current offerings and live quotes directly with the catering portal at orderonline.catering.moes.com or your nearest Moe’s before ordering.

Moe’s Southwest Grill Catering Prices (2026)

Catering prices move by market, and Moe’s franchisees set their own. Every figure below comes from the Moe’s Southwest Grill catering menu on ezCater for the store at 70 Peachtree St NW in Atlanta, checked in September 2026, with a second store at 710 Franklin Ave in Franklin Square, New York for the market-spread table at the end. Moe’s has no Chicago-metro listing on ezCater, so Atlanta, the brand’s home city, stands in as the reference market. Treat the numbers as a working baseline rather than a national price list. Ordering direct for pickup usually lands under delivery pricing, and a delivery fee sits on top of every total here.

The short version: a Taco Bar is $10.49 a head, a Nacho Bar $11.99 and a Fajita Bar $13.49, each with a ten-person minimum. Boxed lunches and Burrito Boxes are $10.99 each. The Atlanta store sets a $100.00 delivery minimum and a flat $30.00 delivery fee.

The one number worth knowing before you order. Both the Fajita Bar and the Taco Bar carry a $3.00 a head option called Make It A Bundle, which adds Moe’s Famous Queso, a cookie for every guest and a gallon of sweet or unsweet tea. Bought separately at this store those three come to $4.12 a head: queso is $1.99, a cookie is $1.19, and a $7.49 gallon of tea serving eight works out at $0.94. The bundle is the only item on the Moe’s catering menu priced below the sum of its parts. The bars themselves carry no volume discount at all. A Fajita Bar is $13.49 a head at ten guests, at fifty and at a hundred, and the totals of $134.90, $674.50 and $1,349.00 are the unit price multiplied out to the cent.

Build-Your-Own Bars

All three bars are priced per person with a ten-guest floor, and all three arrive with chips, house-made red salsa, serving utensils, plates, napkins and forks at no extra charge. The Nacho Bar is the only one with Moe’s Famous Queso already in the price.

What the Bar Options Cost

The protein line is where a Moe’s quote quietly moves. Adobo chicken, ground beef and tofu cost nothing. White-meat chicken and steak do. On a thirty-person Fajita Bar that is the difference between $404.70 and $434.70 for the same headcount.

Boxed Lunches, Burritos and Cold Wraps

The cold wraps come two ways, and the cheaper one is not the obvious one. A 24-count Group Box of any single filling is $230.00, or $9.58 a head, against $10.99 for the same wrap sold as an individual boxed lunch. The boxed lunch throws in a cookie, so add $1.19 back and the Group Box still lands at $10.77. All five Group Boxes cost the same $230.00 whatever the filling, including the assorted one.

The Burrito Box holds a burrito with your choice of protein, beans, rice, cheese and pico, plus a classic chocolate chip cookie and chips and salsa. Moe’s flags it as not customizable, so special requests go through the local catering specialist by phone. The four cold wraps each take $1.99 sides of guacamole or queso.

Chips, Dips, Sauces and Salads

The large Chips & Queso tray is the one genuine volume break on this menu: $1.43 a head against $2.00 for the small. Everything else in this section scales straight.

Desserts and Drinks

What a Real Order Costs

Every total below is food only, at the Atlanta store, before tax and before the $30.00 delivery fee. The $100.00 delivery minimum binds before the ten-guest rule on the cheaper items: Mini Burritos at $5.99 a head do not clear the floor until seventeen guests, while a ten-person Taco Bar at $104.90 clears it by $4.90.

Fifty Burrito Boxes come to $549.50, or $10.99 a head, which makes the grab-and-go format the cheapest way to feed a large room a full meal with a cookie in the box.

Two Markets, Two Price Lists

Moe’s is a franchise system, and two stores can read like two different chains. The Franklin Square store charges 18 to 25 percent more than Atlanta on every bar, 46 percent more for a gallon of tea and 64 percent more for a cookie, yet undercuts Atlanta on the chips and salsa tubs and on the cold-wrap Group Box. Price your own store before you plan a budget from any figure in this guide.

Moe’s Catering Menu

Moe’s structures its catering menu around four buckets: build-your-own buffet bars (the headliner), burrito and cold-wrap catering for grab-and-go events, the dips-and-more line for queso and guacamole add-ons, and a beverage-and-dessert program centered on gallon sweet tea and fresh cookies. Most office orders end up combining a Fajita or Taco Bar with a queso add-on, a couple of gallons of tea and a cookie for everyone. Catering starts at ten guests on all three bars, and both stores we priced for this guide also set a $100.00 delivery minimum, which binds first on the cheaper items. Smaller groups are better served by the kits and Value Packs on the regular moes.com menu, ordered through moes.com or the Moe’s app rather than the catering portal. Group Ordering, which Moe’s also runs, is not a separate menu at all: it is a way for one host to collect and pay for everyone’s individual orders in a single transaction.

Catering Menu at a Glance

What’s bundled by default: chips, house-made red salsa, plates, napkins and forks. Moe’s promises those at no additional charge in its own FAQ. Wire warming stands and sterno are a separate line you tick at checkout, free at the Atlanta store we priced and $0.50 a head at the New York one, so check yours before you assume. The bundled chips and salsa are still a real per-head advantage versus Chipotle and Qdoba catering, which bill both as paid add-ons. Plan the budget around the bar-or-burrito line item and the queso/guac upgrades, and assume the basics are already in the box.

Build-Your-Own Bars: Fajita, Taco & Nacho

The bars are the catering thesis. Moe’s pitches them as “fully customizable, flavor-packed” buffets with twenty-plus fresh ingredients per setup, which lets every eater build a plate that fits their preferences without anyone needing to flag a dietary preference up front. The Fajita Bar is the most popular catering item across the system; the Taco Bar is the budget-leaner option; the Nacho Bar is the queso-and-corn-chips option, and the only one with queso in the base price.

Fajita Bar

The Fajita Bar is the brand’s flagship catering format and the most-ordered item across most locations. The bar arrives with foil pans of grilled fajita-style mixed peppers and onions, choice of protein (adobo chicken, ground beef or tofu at no extra cost, white-meat chicken or steak for an upcharge), Southwest or cilantro-lime rice, pinto or black beans, soft flour tortillas, and a build line of toppings: shredded cheese, lettuce, sour cream, hand-crafted guacamole, pico de gallo, and house-made salsa. The bar comes with free chips and red salsa scaled to the headcount on the order. For an office that wants the most photogenic, most-ordered Tex-Mex catering moment Moe’s offers, this is the default.

Taco Bar

The Taco Bar is the lighter, lower-protein cousin of the Fajita Bar. Same build line, but without the fajita-style grilled peppers, the rice tray and the guacamole as a default; instead you pick soft shells, crispy shells or half of each at no extra cost, then choice of protein, pinto or black beans, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, pico, sour cream and free chips and salsa. Per Moe’s own description, “the fajita bar is a souped-up version of the taco bar.” For offices on a tighter per-head budget or for events where lighter, smaller bites are the goal (afternoon working lunches, snack-style all-hands), the Taco Bar lands at a lower price point while keeping the same build-your-own format.

Nacho Bar

The Nacho Bar is the queso-forward bar in the lineup, and at $11.99 a head at our Atlanta store it is the only one with queso in the base price. The bar arrives with a deep tray of warm tortilla chips, a generous pour of Moe’s Famous Queso (included by default, the only bar that includes queso without a paid add-on), and toppings: choice of protein, black or pinto beans, pico, sour cream, sliced jalapeños, black olives. The Nacho Bar pairs unusually well with the Fajita Bar for a larger event; if the room is split between people who want a built plate and people who want grab-a-chip nachos, ordering both covers both at modest incremental cost.

Tip: do not read the corn chips and corn shells as a celiac-safe route. Moe’s own FAQ says there is no gluten in its corn chips or corn tortillas, but that both are fried in the same oil as a flour tortilla salad bowl, so the brand lists them as containing gluten. A wheat-avoiding eater can still build a good plate from the rice, beans, proteins, salsas and queso, but no bar here is celiac-safe and the Nacho Bar is not the exception it looks like. For a deeper look at how to plan around dietary needs at scale, see our guide to gluten-free office catering and the broader playbook on catering for mixed dietary needs.

Burritos, Bowls & Cold-Wrap Catering

For offices that want a grab-and-go format instead of a buffet, Moe’s runs a separate burrito and cold-wrap catering line. The orders arrive individually wrapped, labeled by variety, and ready to hand out. Chips and red salsa are included with burrito catering at the same headcount-scaled rate as the bars. For a hybrid-team office or a distributed team that needs labeled grab-and-go meals, this is the cleanest format Moe’s offers; it competes directly with Subway sub-tray catering and Chipotle’s individual-bowl catering.

Bowls, salads and quesadillas: the catering menu is narrower than the in-store one here. Neither of the two stores we priced for this guide lists a burrito bowl, a quesadilla or a tacos plate for catering. The only catering salad is the Southwest Salad, $24.99 for six at our Atlanta store, a bowl of romaine with black beans, roasted corn salsa, pico and Oaxaca cheese, with Southwest Vinaigrette or Chipotle Ranch on the side. There is also a $20.00 Salad Base Add-On built to sit beside a Fajita, Taco or Nacho Bar so low-carb eaters can build over greens instead of tortillas. If your team needs bowls, check your own store’s catering portal before you plan around them.

Proteins available across every build-your-own format: adobo chicken (a marinated, spiced variant), ground beef and tofu (the vegetarian default) at no extra cost, plus white-meat chicken and steak for an upcharge that varies by store. Burritos and Burrito Boxes also take a No Protein option. Neither store we priced offered barbacoa or any other limited-time protein.

Famous Queso, Guac & House-Made Salsas

Moe’s Famous Queso is the brand’s signature and a meaningful catering pillar. Moe’s treats it as the upgrade that turns a competent Tex-Mex catering order into a memorable one, and prices it at $1.99 a head on top of a Fajita or Taco Bar at the Atlanta store we priced. Queso is included by default in the Nacho Bar and is a paid add-on on every other format (burritos, Fajita Bar, Taco Bar). For a small additional cost, dropping a queso ramekin alongside a Fajita Bar transforms the whole spread; most offices that order a bar twice end up adding queso the second time.

The Dips Line

Specialty Sauces

Beyond the salsa lineup, Moe’s offers four named specialty sauces, each sold as a $6.99 tub serving about five people rather than as a bar option. They’re the reason a generic-feeling Tex-Mex order can read as deliberate when the sauces are part of the spread.

• Moe’s Sauce — the house signature, a slightly tangy, mildly spicy ranch-leaning sauce.
• Poblano Crema — smoky, mild, creamy; the default for fajita-bar layering.
• Chili Lime — bright and citrus-forward, ideal on grilled chicken or steak.
• Chipotle Ranch — smoky-sweet ranch for taco-bar drizzling.

Drinks & Desserts

Moe’s catering drink program runs to three gallon options, sweet tea, unsweet tea and lemonade, each serving about eight, plus bottled water by the unit. Dessert is not cookies alone: both stores we priced list a Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie, a Sweet Street Chocolate Chunk Cookie and Moe’s Killer Brownie, and the Atlanta store adds Cinnamon Chips at $1.00. For a Southern-leaning office event, swapping a gallon of soda for a gallon of Moe’s sweet tea is a low-cost detail that makes the order feel intentional rather than generic; for a tech office where the team trends toward less sugar, the unsweet tea pairs cleanly with the bars.

How to Order Moe’s Catering

Moe’s catering runs through a dedicated catering portal at orderonline.catering.moes.com, separate from the standard online ordering flow at moes.com and the Moe’s mobile app. The catering portal is the only place where the bar formats and the headcount-scaled chip-and-salsa bundling work correctly; the standard sandwich-ordering page tops out at the Group Order tier (under ten guests) and won’t surface the bars. Here’s the sequence:

1. Go to orderonline.catering.moes.com or click “Order Catering” from the main moes.com navigation. The catering link routes you to the dedicated portal with a different cart and lead-time logic from the retail page.
2. Enter your delivery address or pickup ZIP. The portal checks which catering-enabled Moe’s locations serve your area. Format availability (especially the bars and the cold-wrap catering line) varies by location, so the menu adjusts based on which restaurant the portal routes you to.
3. Pick your date and time window. Moe’s does not publish a hard minimum lead time; the portal shows the earliest available slot for your address. As a practical rule, plan on at least twenty-four hours for small bars and forty-eight to seventy-two hours for events of fifty or more.
4. Build your order. Choose between the Fajita Bar, Taco Bar or Nacho Bar; or burrito and cold-wrap catering by the variety; or the dips and sauces line; or the gallon-tea-and-cookie program. Add queso, guacamole, specialty sauces and warming-stand sterno from the add-on menu.
5. Add logistics notes. For delivery orders, add building access notes, floor or suite number, and a contact phone number. Moe’s catering is drop-and-go; the driver delivers to the lobby or front desk, and full attended setup is not part of the standard offering.
6. Check out. Most catering portal orders go through credit card, with the card pre-authorized the day before the event. Moe’s gift cards cannot be used to pay for catering; Moe Rewards points cannot be earned or redeemed on catering orders. For tax-exempt orders, alternative payment methods or events of two hundred guests or more, call the local Moe’s directly rather than using the portal.

What’s included with most catering orders: chips, red salsa, plates, napkins and forks. Wire warming stands and sterno are a separate tick-box, free at some stores and $0.50 a head at others. Bars arrive in disposable foil pans with serving tongs and topping ramekins; burritos and cold-wrap catering arrive individually wrapped and labeled. Active onsite setup with attendants is not part of the standard Moe’s catering offering. For events that need staff on premises (refreshing the bar mid-meal, plating, cleanup), plan to staff them yourself or use a different caterer.
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Delivery, Pickup & Lead Times

Note on franchise variability: Moe’s is largely a franchise system, which means delivery radius, fee structure, and the exact set of formats can differ between two locations across the same city. The Fajita Bar is the most consistently available format across the chain. For recurring orders, identify a catering-enabled Moe’s near your office that you’ve had a good experience with and stick with them. Burrito and cold-wrap catering availability also varies; if your nearest Moe’s is small, the bar formats are usually the safer pick.

Pros and Cons of Moe’s Catering

What Works Well

• Free chips, salsa, plates, napkins and forks on every order. Chips and house-made red salsa scale with the headcount on the order, and Moe’s promises the serving basics at no additional charge. Wire warming stands and sterno are the one item to check: free at the Atlanta store we priced, $0.50 a head at the New York one. The chips and salsa are still a real per-head advantage versus Chipotle and Qdoba catering, which bill both as paid add-ons.
• Build-your-own bars with twenty-plus toppings. The Fajita Bar in particular is one of the most flexible Tex-Mex catering formats on the market; every eater builds their plate at the line, which means dietary preferences self-resolve without upfront polling.
• Moe’s Famous Queso pour. The queso is brand-defining and turns a competent Tex-Mex order into a memorable one. The Nacho Bar includes it by default; on every other format, it’s a low-cost upgrade that punches above its price.
• Atlanta-rooted hospitality and a playful brand voice. The “Welcome to Moe’s!” cue and the brand’s stick-it-to-the-man tone make the catering order feel more event-ready than a typical fast-casual chain. Worth a moment for client-facing or culture events.
• Vegetarian and vegan options across the menu. Tofu is a free protein choice on every build-your-own item, burritos and Burrito Boxes take a No Protein option, and Moe’s states that its tofu, beans, tortillas and rice are vegan with no gelatin in the guacamole. Gluten is the weaker story: Moe’s lists its corn chips and taco shells as containing gluten, because they share a fryer with a flour tortilla salad bowl.
• Burrito and cold-wrap catering for grab-and-go events. Individually labeled meals work for hybrid teams, distributed offices and any event where buffet logistics aren’t a fit.
• Mid-tier price for premium feel. Moe’s lands below Chipotle on per-head price while delivering a similar or larger spread, particularly when the free chips, salsa and serving supplies are factored in.

What Falls Short

• Geographic gaps on the West Coast. Moe’s location density is strongest in the Southeast, Texas and the Mid-Atlantic; offices in California, Oregon or Washington may be a long drive from the nearest catering-enabled location.
• No onsite staff or setup. Catering is drop-and-go. For client-facing events, executive lunches, or anything that needs someone to refresh the bar mid-meal, plan to staff it yourself.
• Queso is a paid add-on on most formats. Despite being the brand signature, queso is only included by default on the Nacho Bar. The Fajita Bar, Taco Bar and burrito catering all bill it as an upgrade, $1.99 a head at the Atlanta store we priced.
• Cross-contact allergen risk on the bars. Tortillas, proteins and toppings are assembled at shared prep surfaces, and Moe’s lists its corn chips and taco shells as containing gluten because they share a fryer with a flour tortilla salad bowl. For strict allergen-restricted eaters, order individually packed cold-wrap catering and confirm prep practices with the specific location.
• Moe Rewards and gift cards don’t work on catering. Loyalty points cannot be earned or redeemed; gift cards are not accepted. Plan to pay by credit card for every catering order.
• Quality varies by franchise. Two Moe’s locations in the same city can deliver materially different experiences. Bar setup, chip freshness, queso pour size and order accuracy depend on the operator.
• Recurring-order fatigue. Moe’s is broader than most peers by Tex-Mex standards, but it’s still a single-cuisine menu. Offices that order it weekly tend to plateau within a month or two and start asking for variety.

What Customers Say

Who Is Moe’s Catering Best For?

Moe’s vs. Chipotle, Qdoba & Subway

Tex-Mex and fast-casual catering have overlapping options, and the question is rarely “Moe’s or nothing.” Here’s how Moe’s stacks up against the three most-compared alternatives for office orders.

Chipotle is the brand-recognition choice with stronger ingredient-sourcing claims. Higher per-head price, no bundled chips and salsa. Read our Chipotle catering guide and Chipotle catering alternatives for the full comparison.

Qdoba is the closest peer to Moe’s on format (Hot Bar + Boxed Meals) and price tier. Better loyalty program on catering, similar ingredient depth, narrower brand voice. Better fit if your team is a Qdoba Rewards heavy user already.

Subway is the budget-tier sub-shop choice. Lower per-person price, broader location density, but no Tex-Mex format and no queso. Read our Subway catering guide for the budget comparison and the Firehouse Subs catering guide if hot subs are the alternative on the table.

Other brand guides worth comparing: if your team trends toward sandwiches or deli at scale, see our deep dives on McAlister’s Deli catering, Panera catering, Jersey Mike’s, and Chick-fil-A catering. For Italian, the Olive Garden catering guide and the Olive Garden alternatives roundup cover that lane. Looking at ways to combine sandwiches and Tex-Mex on the same week? The boxed lunch vs. buffet guide walks the format trade-off.

Looking beyond chains? Mexican catering on Zerocater connects you with hundreds of local Tex-Mex and Mexican caterers, many of which can match or beat Moe’s on quality while sourcing from local kitchens. A few worth browsing: Renegade Burrito (Denver), Raging Burrito (Atlanta), Tio Luis Tacos (Chicago), Folklore Artisanal Mexican Eatery (NYC), and Carlitos Barbecue Taqueria (NY/NJ) for a barbecue-tex-mex twist. The Tex-Mex cuisine directory and the broader American cuisine directory both pull a wider local-caterer pool than any single chain.

A Better Option for Office Catering

Moe’s is a strong choice when the office wants a Tex-Mex build-your-own bar, the bundled chips and salsa, and the Famous Queso pour. For most other occasions (recurring office meal programs, multi-cuisine variety, executive client lunches, allergen-controlled service, anything that calls for a hot entree beyond the bars and burritos, or any office in a market where Moe’s location density is thin) most teams will land a better result with a catering platform that pulls from a wider pool of restaurants.

Zerocater connects offices with hundreds of vetted caterers across every cuisine, including local Tex-Mex shops and taquerias that can match or beat Moe’s on hospitality and food while expanding the menu to cover hot entrees, salads, multiple cuisines, and allergen-controlled service. Every order is managed by Zerocater’s operations team, which means reliable delivery, proper setup when the event needs it, and someone to call when something doesn’t land.

With CaterAi, you can plan your entire event in minutes: share your headcount, budget, dietary needs, and date, and CaterAi builds custom menus from multiple caterers. Chat to adjust items, add onsite staff or decor, and check out. Zerocater handles the rest.

Why offices switch from single-chain catering to Zerocater:

• Access to hundreds of caterers, not one menu
• Same-day ordering available for many caterers
• Dietary filtering (vegan, gluten-free, halal, kosher, allergen-aware) built into the platform
• Professional delivery with setup assistance where you need it
• One platform for events, daily meals, and everything in between

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For more office catering ideas, see our guides to boxed lunch vs. buffet catering, boxed lunch catering cost, boxed lunches for hybrid & distributed teams, ordering catering as an office manager, catering for mixed dietary needs, board meeting catering, vegan office catering, and gluten-free office catering. Comparing brand options? See our deep dives on Chipotle catering, Chipotle catering alternatives, Subway catering, Panera catering, Panera alternatives, Firehouse Subs, McAlister’s Deli, Chick-fil-A, Olive Garden, Olive Garden alternatives, and Jersey Mike’s. For city-specific caterer recommendations, browse the best corporate event catering in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and Denver.

Which Moe’s Order for How Many People?

The right Moe’s catering format depends mostly on headcount and whether the meal should be a build-your-own bar, an individually wrapped grab-and-go, or a snack-style chips-and-dips spread. The chart below maps headcount ranges to the recommended format and add-ons.

Every total is Atlanta food-only pricing from September 2026, before tax and before the $30.00 delivery fee. There is no volume discount on any bar, so the per-head figure holds from the ten-guest minimum all the way to a hundred.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Moe’s Southwest Grill catering priced?

Moe’s Southwest Grill catering is priced per person on the build-your-own bars and per item on boxed lunches, dips and beverages. At the Atlanta store we priced in September 2026 the Taco Bar is $10.49 a head, the Nacho Bar $11.99 and the Fajita Bar $13.49, each with a ten-guest minimum, and boxed lunches are $10.99 each. Specialty sauces, queso and guacamole are sold as add-ons by category portion. Each Moe’s location is independently owned and prices vary by store, so the most accurate quote comes from the catering portal at orderonline.catering.moes.com with your delivery address entered. Free chips, house-made salsa, plates, napkins and forks are included on most catering orders, which lowers the all-in per-head cost compared with chains that bill those items as add-ons. Wire warming stands and sterno are free at some stores and about $0.50 a head at others, so confirm that line in the portal.

What is the minimum order for Moe’s catering?

The Fajita Bar, Taco Bar and Nacho Bar each require a minimum of ten guests. Burrito and cold-wrap catering minimums vary by location and are set in the catering portal. For events of two hundred guests or more, Moe’s asks that you call your local Moe’s directly rather than ordering through the portal so the location can plan capacity. Watch the delivery minimum as well. Both stores we priced for this guide set a $100.00 delivery floor, which binds before the ten-guest rule on the cheaper items. Smaller groups are better served by the kits and Value Packs on the regular moes.com menu, ordered through moes.com or the Moe’s app rather than the catering portal. Moe’s Group Ordering is a different thing again: it lets one host collect and pay for everyone’s individual orders at once, and it is not a catering menu.

How far in advance should I order Moe’s catering?

Moe’s does not publish a hard minimum lead time, and recommends ordering as soon as the event is decided. The catering portal pre-authorizes the credit card the day before the event and warns that orders cancelled within twenty-four hours of the event may incur a cancellation fee set by the local store. As a practical rule, plan on at least twenty-four hours of notice for small bars (ten to twenty guests) and forty-eight to seventy-two hours for larger events (fifty or more) so the location can stock proteins, queso, fresh produce and tortillas in volume. Tax-exempt orders, alternative payment methods and events of two hundred guests or more must be placed by phone with the local Moe’s, not through the portal.

Are chips, salsa and queso included free with Moe’s catering?

Chips and house-made red salsa are included with Moe’s buffet-style bars, burritos and cold-wrap catering, scaled to the number of guests on the order. This is a meaningful difference from Chipotle and Qdoba catering, which both bill chips and salsa as paid add-ons. Queso is the brand’s signature, and is included by default in the Nacho Bar but is a paid add-on on burritos, the Fajita Bar and the Taco Bar. Free Moe Rewards signup grants a one-time cup of queso, but Moe Rewards points cannot be earned or redeemed on catering orders. Plates, napkins and forks are also free on request, and Moe’s says so in its own FAQ. Wire warming stands and sterno are the one line that can carry a charge: $0.50 a head at one of the two stores we priced.

Can Moe’s catering accommodate vegetarian, vegan or gluten-friendly orders?

Moe’s offers vegetarian options across the catering menu, including the free tofu protein on every build-your-own item, the bean-only and No Protein fillings on burritos and Burrito Boxes, and the Veggie Wrap Boxed Lunch. Gluten needs more care than the corn-shell option suggests. Moe’s own FAQ says there is no gluten in its corn chips or corn tortillas, but that both are fried in the same oil as a flour tortilla salad bowl, so the brand lists them as containing gluten. Most salsas, the queso, the guacamole and the rice and beans are vegetarian. Cross-contact with wheat is a practical concern at the assembly line for celiac-strict eaters, since flour tortillas and crispy items share prep space. For strict allergen control, order individually packed cold-wrap catering and confirm prep practices with the specific location. Our broader guides to gluten-free office catering and mixed dietary needs walk through how to plan around allergens at scale.

How does Moe’s catering compare to Chipotle, Qdoba or Subway?

Moe’s sits in the mid-tier of fast-casual Tex-Mex catering, in the same price neighborhood as Qdoba and below Chipotle. The clearest differentiator is what’s bundled: chips, house-made salsa, plates, napkins and forks are included with Moe’s catering by default, while Chipotle and Qdoba bill the chips and salsa as add-ons. Warming stands are the exception: free at some Moe’s stores and about $0.50 a head at others. Chipotle wins on ingredient sourcing claims and brand recognition; Qdoba wins on a similar Hot Bar format with a stronger loyalty program; Subway wins on price and footprint. Moe’s wins when the team wants the bar format with the bundled extras, the Famous Queso pour and the playful Welcome to Moe’s hospitality cue. For office events that fall outside the Tex-Mex lane, a multi-cuisine platform such as Zerocater is usually a better fit.

What makes Moe’s a good fit for office catering?

Moe’s is a strong office catering pick when the team wants a Tex-Mex build-your-own moment with low logistics overhead. The Fajita Bar is the most popular catering item at $13.49 a head at the Atlanta store we priced, lets every eater tune their plate at the line, and includes free chips, house-made salsa, plates, napkins and forks. The Nacho Bar adds the Famous Queso pour as a default, the only bar that does, at $11.99 a head. Burrito and cold-wrap catering covers the grab-and-go office case. The brand operates hundreds of locations across most US states with Atlanta-rooted hospitality and a playful voice that reads more event-ready than the typical fast-casual chain. Use the catering portal at orderonline.catering.moes.com to confirm format availability with the location nearest your office.

Does every Moe’s offer catering, and which formats are available everywhere?

Catering is available at most Moe’s Southwest Grill locations through the catering portal at orderonline.catering.moes.com. Format availability (Fajita Bar, Taco Bar, Nacho Bar, burrito catering, cold-wrap catering, the dips and sauces line, beverages and desserts) varies by location and franchisee. The Fajita Bar is the most consistently available format across the system. Moe’s gift cards cannot be used to pay for catering, and Moe Rewards points cannot be earned or redeemed on catering orders. For tax-exempt orders, alternative payment methods or events with more than two hundred guests, call the local Moe’s directly rather than using the portal.

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