South Indian Catering Melbourne - Babaji's Kerala Kitchen
On the hunt for Melbourne's best South Indian catering?
The same philosophy that earned us a Good Food Guide Hat, two years running, is the same we bring to your wedding, family celebration or corporate event...Whether its for 12 guests or 500, the rule is the same:
The taste of Kerala.
No shortcuts.
Noone leaves hungry.
and 100% transparent easy to understand pricing.
Why choose Babaji's Kerala Kitchen for catering in Melbourne?
1. Award winning. We're recognised as being the number one Kerala restaurant in Melbourne. Our catering is cooked by the chefs at Babaji's Kerala Kitchen Belgrave and Babaji's Kerala Kitchen Warburton.
2. We understand multicultural events and relationships. Babajis was founded by Billy and Max, an Aussie girl from the Dandenong Ranges and a Kerala boy who's love language was in the food he cooked. Family expectations, dietary needs, bringing two (or more) very different cultures together and feeding a crowd - with love - this is our space.
3. 100% transparency in our pricing and options available for every budget. No matter the event, fancy or humble - the price of our dishes remains the same.
If you'd like to pick up self serve curries direct from Babajis - there are no extra charges.
BUT if you are looking for the full Babajis live experience, from roaming canapes to lavish buffets - we'll listen to your vision and provide you with a customised all inclusive quote which includes chefs, service staff and styling. Every cost clearly seperated.
4. Live stations. From dosa, to appam (live hopper station) and a fresh fish tava... guests will delight in watching traditional South Indian dishes cooked live in front of them.
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Canape Catering
Perfect for product launches, work meetings & weddings
Bite sized fusion flavours ideal for roaming, mingling and celebrating.
Starting from just $1.50 - $8 a piece
Wait staff available to serve.
See our menu here.
South Indian Buffet Catering
PERFECT FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS, BIRTHDAYS, WEDDINGS & HOUSE WARMINGS.
Dishes from $2-$10 per person
Our buffets are:
- 100% tailored to you
- Fully transparent in their pricing
- Able to cater for most dietaries
- Available as pick up (see self-serve style catering)
- Event set up, styling and chefs and service staff available if needed.
Banana leaf sadya catering
Traditional catering for auspicious occasions
Event set up, styling and chefs and service staff available if needed.
Vintage Indian Cart Experiences
Frequently asked catering questions
Of course! Many of our dishes are served at our restaurants in Belgrave & Warburton. For those that are not, please make an appointment with our catering manager to organise.
Absolutely. Most of our best events are a mix of things: a buffet, a cart, a LIVE station, or something custom. Tell us what you’re imagining and we’ll build it around your event.
Yes. A large proportion of our menus are naturally gluten free and vegan. We cater for most dietary and religious requirements with advance notice — please flag these at the time of booking. While we have strict allergen management processes in place, we are unable to guarantee our dishes are completely allergen-free due to the possibility of cross-contamination in our kitchen and across our suppliers.
While we take dietary requirements seriously, our food is prepared in kitchens that handle gluten, nuts, dairy, seafood and other allergens. We cannot guarantee against cross-contamination.
Happy kids = happy guests always. Children under three eat free. Children's meals are available at $20 each.
If a Government directive or natural disaster prevents your event from going ahead, we will do everything we can to reschedule. We hold permits that allow us to cook on total fire ban days. We are unable to cater on days declared catastrophic by the CFA in bush fire prone areas (city venues not affected).
Yes - with notice before your event. Because our dishes are slow-cooked, we cannot adjust spice levels on the day. We recommend discussing this with us in advance so we can prepare dishes to suit your crowd. For guests who cannot tolerate any spice at all, we can advise on suitable additional options.
We require a 30% deposit upon booking. This deposit is fully refundable up to 6 weeks prior to your event. After this time the deposit is non refundable. The balance of payment, confirmation of total guest numbers and dietary requirements is required 10 days before your event. Minimum charges will be applied if guest numbers drop below this amount.
We are happy to use the kitchen at your venue and have all the necessary insurances and permits to allow us to do this. And just like an Indian mum, we’ll
leave the place spotless when we’re done! Alternatively, we can set up our mobile kitchen - which can, if needed be fully self sufficient. For this we need a large flat space and potentially access to power.
You know that aunty who insists you eat, eat, eat! That’s us! We’re used to cooking for ’the village’, expect the food to flow and everyone to leave with satisfied bellies.
We can set up on all private properties (front lawns, driveways and sometimes back yards).
We require good accessibility and a flat space of at least 4 x 4m with no stairs to navigate.
To set up on council or Parks Victoria land, permits may be required. All event permits and associated costs are your responsibility. We can provide you with all our permits allowing us to cook outside, including our public liability insurance, CFA permits & Food Safety certificates.
This really depends on your event & how you would like things to be set up. Usually, we serve directly from our street kitchen, serving just as if you are at a festival.
However, we can also set up self-serve banquets or offer cocktail style service with wait staff serving, for an additional fee (or you can provide your own waitstaff).
We are experienced in cooking for small events of 50 people, to cooking for thousands at large scale music festivals and at big fat Indian weddings! We may require a larger space to cook for groups over 200 to allow us to set up a bigger street kitchen.
Please find more information about our private catering here
In most cases, we cook from our fully self-sufficient festival style kitchen, which we set up, or our rustic street food cart. Watching us cook is the magic of an Indian street kitchen – expect street food theatre, colour, cheesy banter & your guests salivating as the smells waft through your venue. For this we require a flat space of 4m x 4m. We need access to our van and require clear access of no more than 10 metres away from where you would like us to set up.
We offer unlimited dosa is unlimited and will be cooked during an agreed time (usually 2 hrs). Dosas do take some time to cook. Typically, in most situations, we can cook aroud 60 dosa an hour (weather dependent). Our dosas are big (around 40cm), we recommend cutting and serving our dosa in half and / or offering an alternative for those who do not want to wait, such as idli. If you have a larger group (100+), just let us know & we'll make sure your guests are fed quickly.