Catering Trolleys

Stainless steel where the trolley carries hot pans, parks beside a cooking line or goes through a washdown. Plastic where it works around guests, furniture and painted walls, because it is lighter to push and much quieter on a hard floor. Mesh metal where ingredients need airflow, and a roller-door model where the load has to be out of sight or secure.

Most venues end up with both: plastic trolleys for the dining room and corridors, stainless for the back of house.

Heat, grease and washdown. Stainless takes a hot pan straight off the oven, does not stain from oil, does not harbour bacteria and can be cleaned with the same products as the rest of the kitchen — between meals or at the end of the shift.

What it costs you is weight and noise, which is why plastic catering trolleys get used front of house. Load ratings vary by model on both materials, so take the figure from the product page rather than assuming steel carries more.

When you are catering or running a room with high-volume seating, the time goes on carrying things. A trolley lets one person clear a section in a single pass instead of walking plates out two at a time, and the same trolley takes clean plates and cutlery back out for the next sitting.

Conferences, weddings and anniversaries all run on getting food out and tables cleared fast. Pick the trolley around the job: open shelves for taking dishes out to a buffet, a deep-lipped model for clearing used dinnerware, or a mesh trolley you can wheel into the walk-in freezer to restock and pull ingredients for prep.

A lip on the edge of each tray keeps crockery on the trolley when it goes over a threshold. Castors are what make it easy to push, and a brake is what keeps it still while you are loading plates in the dining room or unloading them into the dishwasher.

Shelf spacing is the other one to check. Measure the tallest thing you carry, because fixed shelves at the wrong pitch annoy staff every time the trolley is loaded.

We have years in the commercial food preparation industry, so we stock what we would use ourselves. You will find the brands with the reputations, including Roband, VOGUE and Ice. Warranty information is on each product page, so you can see what the manufacturer covers before you buy.

You will see catering service trolley, catering serving cart, catering trolly, commercial catering trolley, catering kitchen trolley and catering serving trolley used for the same kind of equipment. The name changes with the supplier and the region, not the job it does. Compare models on capacity, construction and the specification on each product page, and check the full catering trolleys range to see every option side by side.

Check the trolley width against your narrowest doorway and lift, and allow for hands on the handles. Loaded trolleys need more clearance than the spec suggests.

Heavy stock moves better on platform trolleys.