The Easiest Way To Figure Out How Much Pizza To Order
Deciding how much food to order for any dinner party-adjacent event can be difficult. Not only do you have to consider how many guests you have coming, but also how hungry they are, whether they're children or adults, if you're planning on serving a full meal or just light bites — you get the picture. Pizza is usually a reliable option for hosting gatherings, especially if you don't quite know how many people are attending, but have a rough estimate.
The general rule of thumb for how much pizza to order is to multiply your guests by 3/8 — meaning, assume that every person will eat three slices of pizza. This means you'll need to order about eight pizzas for 20 people or 12 pizzas for 30 people. If you, too, are bad at math, the good news is that you can also plug the number of guests you expect to attend into an online pizza calculator. Pizza Hut, for example, offers one that allows you to plug in the number of adults and children you have attending and how hungry you can expect your guests to be.
Other considerations when deciding how much pizza to order
It would be easier to decide how many pizzas to order for a party if all types of pizza were the same. However, when you consider that Sicilian-style pizza or Detroit-style pies are much heavier and more satiating than a thin-crust pizza, and not all pizzas come in a standard size, you'll quickly realize that the 3/8 "rule" may be more difficult to calculate than you initially thought. The best general advice? Pizza is good for leftovers, and even if you don't have the fridge space to store it, we're sure that your dinner party guests would be happy to take some off your hands, so having a little too much doesn't hurt.
Another question that people may ask when ordering pizza for a crowd is how many of each topping to get. Some folks have recommended that for every five pizzas, you order at least one cheese, two meat, a veggie, and a more unique pie (potentially one that's gluten-free or vegan, if you know your diner's dietary preferences ahead of time). If you're ordering for kids (which you can assume will eat a slice or two each), you may want to order more cheese pies, as this is usually a favorite among those with less developed palates.