Top Five Hot Foods for Wedding Catering

Finally, it is time to talk about hot food items. Not like other menus, customers can choose one more item, total five hot food items. To keep hot food in hot temperature, Todai uses thermo box to deliver and chafer dishes when serving. Some hot food items easily dried out, so there are some restricted items or non-recommendable items in hot food menus. However, still customers can have fully satisfied hot food line during the event.
The first choice is Galbi, grilled cooked marinated sliced short rib. Well, since Todai started the catering service, Galbi has never been missed in catering menu. Galbi is also one of the popular Korean food, and well-known to American society as cook-on-table menu. Recipe of marinating sauce of Todai Galbi is a secret to public, and that’s why this Galbi makes unique and special menu for the catering.

The second item is Spicy Cashew Nut Chicken. This item is very spicy in Asian style, so it might not work for other ethnic group. However, if customers want to spice up the buffet line to add new kind of item, this will work perfectly. Also, Spicy Cashew Nut Chicken is loved by many children groups, so it is good to have a few kids’ menus in buffet line. Don’t worry. It is not that spicy.

The next item can be Salmon Teriyaki. Oven baked fresh salmon fillet is covered by Todai famous teriyaki sauce. Salmon is also one of the popular fish to everyone, and this time it is cooked salmon. Teriyaki sauce is famous Japanese sauce and easy to try for the Asian food beginners.

Another recommended item is Todai Blue Crab. Blue crab is also known as soft shell crab, so this lightly battered and deep fried soft shell crab is entirely edible including the shell. The sticky and sweet sauce also has a bit spicy taste, but easy to try as well.

The last item of hot food can be newly introduced Shrimp Skewer. This whole shrimp in skewer is also lightly battered and deep fried. Then, the entire skewer is lightly marinated with Cajun sauce. This item is also good for kids menu, but it is loved by all generations.

Top Four Salad Choices for Wedding Catering

When it comes to choose salad items for catering menu, customers always have hard time to choose only four items from various choices. To help customers out to select most popular items for the guests of the events, it is time to recommend top four salad choices for catering menu. One thing to keep in mind is that salad menus are delivered separated with dressing or other ingredients, so most of the salads are mixed on site to keep freshness.
The first choice will be Green Noodle Salad. Green Noodle Salad is the most popular item in Todai Fairfax, and as the name tells, it has green noodle which is made with green tea flavor. Green tea is now well known for its healthy nutrition. Green Noodle Salad also has spring mix vegetables which bring up the fresh taste of the salad. The sesame dressing of this salad makes the noodle more sweet and sour.

The second choice can be Green Mussel Salad. Half shell green mussel is mixed with tomato sauce that Todai Fairfax developed, and it has sweet and sour tastes as well. If event managers want to emphasize the seafood concept of the buffet line, it is good idea to have at least one salad which contains mussel or other seafood item.

The next recommended item for salad choice will be Todai Chicken Salad. Oven roasted chicken is mixed with cabbage, cucumber, almond, and mandarin orange. Todai Chicken Salad is loved by most of customer groups, from children to seniors.

The last recommended item is Tomato Salad. Tomato Salad is basically mixed of tomato and cucumber, which also contains colorful green, red, yellow peppers and red onions. This item is the most Japanese style in salad items, but it is the easiest item to introduce to customers who have never had Asian cuisine before. The freshness of Tomato Salad will bring the appetite of customers before hitting the big buffet line.

New Catering Menu for Wedding and Events.

Recently, Todai introduced the new menu, called "Shrimp Tart" as a part of hot food items. From the name of the menu, it is to guess that this menu includes definitely shrimp. However, Shrimp is not the only thing that customers enjoy from this menu. Mix of grounded calamari, baby octopus and mixed vegetables are filled in crispy cup, and on the top of the filling there is a Shrimp. Over the shrimp, cheese is melting and hot sauce spices up the tastes. Chewy and mouth watering stuffed with fresh seafood will bring the joy in mouths, and fresh shrimp and rich cheese will bring upscale presentation to events.

Shrimp Tart introduced about two weeks ago on Saturday night on the hot food line at Todai Fairfax. As the new item came out, it became the most popular item of the night. The head chef of Todai expected that customer will consume around 400 pieces of Shrimp Tarts for the first Saturday night, but the total 600 Shrimp Tarts were served on that night. The new item surely became one of the most popular buffet items in Todai Fairfax. The only thing about the Shrimp Tart is that Todai serves this menu only on Saturday and Sunday dinner.

As the new item had big hit on the buffet line, this new menu has potential to be another popular menu for catering item. This item has crispy cup on the bottom, which means easy to grab as hor d'oeuvre. It portioned as a bite size, so this will be the perfect item to pass around during cocktail hour or as an appetizer. If event or wedding planners want to skip cocktail hour and open dinner buffet right away, the tasteful stuffed in the crispy cup will satisfy the customers' needs.

Center piece idea for wedding catering

Among many good things and menus about catering with Todai, one other benefit of Todai catering is that anything is possible. Sushi is an edible art, and just by putting the sushi and rolls on the buffet line, it already has amazing presentation. If the food has better presentation, it looks more tasteful. Then, how about the table decoration? Can Todai help with table decoration other than buffet line on wedding or other events? Todai wants to suggest one center piece idea of your catering event.
After long and cold winter, everyone is waiting for spring. Finally, warm breeze is all over the nature, and flowers are ready to welcome the warm and cozy weather. Can anyone make this spring atmosphere into your wedding? How about fresh flowers for your center piece? Wait! Flowers for center piece? Isn't it too generic? That sounds every wedding or events offer for the center piece. However, what if you can actually eat those center pieces? If those center pieces are flowers and you can eat them? Does it sound crazy? Well, actually, Todai introduces new salad menu, called "Spring Garden".


First of all, yes, you can eat these flowers. This new menu includes spring mix vegetable with house dressing containing apple, kiwi, and other fresh ingredients. On the top of this salad, there are flowers blossoming with various colors. These a bit bitter but still sweet flowers will bring the appetite before hitting the heavy buffet items. Hopefully, guests can enjoy watching this decorated salad as a center piece, but it's better for appetizer.

Most Popular Four Maki Choices for Wedding Catering

With 4 choices of Sushi, catering customers can choose four different Maki rolls for their events. In case of Sushi choices, most customers choose very similar items, so it is kind of easy to rank top three choices for Sushi. However, when it comes to Maki rolls, customers choices are really up to their personal preferences. In this case, customers always ask for suggestions and there are some Maki items that Todai suggests to catering customers.

First, when customers choose Maki roll menu, Todai strongly recommends mix of light items and heavy items, and mix of cooked rolls and uncooked rolls to satisfy various customers. For light Maki rolls, Todai suggests California Sunshine roll and Shrimp roll. Most people know about California rolls, which include crab meat, cucumber and avocado. As the name tells, California roll is not traditional Maki roll, but it is the most popular roll in America. Even for some people who have never had Japanese food before, they might know the California roll. California roll is the simple, cooked, and popular roll to have for catering menu. However, some people think California roll feels so generic and has nothing special about Sushi catering. Therefore, Todai creates a new kind of Maki roll, called California Sunshine roll. It is basically California roll, but with extra crab meat with fish eggs on the top. The presentation of California Sunshine can spice up the buffet line and still sounds and looks familiar with California roll.


The next light Maki roll can be Shrimp roll. Recipe of Shrimp roll is very similar with California roll, but it includes shrimp in the roll along with crab meat, cucumber, and avocado. Even though the recipe is very similar, the taste can be very different with California roll because of shrimp in the roll and red and black Tobiko (Fish eggs) on the top.

Meanwhile, for heavy Maki rolls, Todai suggests Todai roll and Volcano roll. As the name tells, Todai roll is the signature roll of Todai Fairfax location. Todai roll includes Salmon, Tuna, Crab meat and Avocado, and Masago (fish eggs) and green onion on the top. Todai roll has the mix of popular raw fish, Tuna and Salmon, so it might not work for Sushi beginners. However, Todai roll is the most rich and fresh roll that Todai can suggest.


The last item Todai suggests is Volcano roll. It might be the heaviest roll Todai has, but the easiest to try among other rolls. Volcano roll has imitation crab meat and cucumber inside, and cooked salmon and cheese on the top. As Volcano roll should be served warm to hot temperature, this roll has to be cooked on the venue. Therefore, if customers want to order this menu, they have to check that caterers can use the oven on the site.

Top Three Sushi Choices for Wedding Catering

For Todai catering, among many other choices, clients choose four different Nigiri Sushi. There are some popular menus in Nigiri Sushi. Sometimes brides or grooms want to choose what they like, but this can be very dangerous. During the wedding, they have to feed hundreds of guests, and often times brides or grooms can't even notice what food they ate during the wedding. That is why they have to choose that MOST people like. During several years catering service, there are some similar items that most people like to have with high demand.
Top three choices for Sushi items are Unagi, Maguro, and Sake. What are those? Again, they are Eel, Tuna, and Salmon.
First, Unagi (eel) is the most popular item among Asians, so if the guests are mostly Asians, Unagi has to be in the menu. Unagi is known for high protein food, and many people love to have Unagi on their dishes. Usually, Unagi has dark brown color. As a caterer, we always have to have extra Unagi on site and ready.

Second is Maguro (tuna). Tuna is most common and popular raw fish throughout all ethnic groups and it has pink to red color. If the guests have never tried raw fish or Sushi before, Maguro might be the best choice for Sushi eating 101.

Third is Sake (salmon). Salmon has mild to strong flavored fish with orange color, so it might be uncomfortable for some guests, but if some guests are big Sushi fans, they will definitely look for Salmon Sushi from the buffet line. It is always good to have this kind item for some mania group.

Unagi, Maguro, and Salmon are not only good for their tastes, but also good for their presentation. With these three items, the buffet line is already colorful - brown, red, and orange. My last suggestion is to choose anything with white color as a fourth item. It can be squid, white tuna, snapper, or escolar.

New Catering Menu

Todai introduced the new hot food item recently. It is called "Beef-Stuffed Zucchini". As the name explains, it contains beef and zucchini. On the top of sliced zucchini, there is grounded beef with melted cheese, very similar with hamburger steak. It is oven baked. A food looks like hamburger steak seems to have very high calories and enemy of the nutrition diet. That is why Todai combined the steak part with zucchini. Zucchini is low calorie vegetable, and some people said that it is actually good for diet. It feels like to have hamburger without bread, but with vegetable. Also, it is one bite portion, so it is perfect for those who want to have a little bit of high protein food.

The presentation of food is also important, especially for catering menu. Green color of Zucchini can brighten up the dark part of cooked beef, and attract the customers' attention. Also, the topping cheese makes people to reach one of these heavens in the mouth. This new item is perfect for catering menu. It can be served as main dishes for the weddings or events. Considering the quantity of the food for catering, Todai tries to make small portion for each item, so people can try every food items on buffet line. If planners want to serve hor d'oeuvre during cocktail reception and want to have some slightly heavy item, this Beef-Stuffed Zucchini will be perfect to pass around during receptions or for appetizer.
As this new item was recently introduced in Todai, and so far it has not been introduced in catering site. If planners can add this item on their next events, it will be unique menu choice additional to sushi items.

Catering to GWU

On Saturday, Feb 20, 2010, we catered the social event for Korean Business Association (KOBA) of the George Washington University. Starting from the last fall semester, KOBA became a big fan of the Todai catering service. The event was on the 4th floor of Duques Hall, and the buffet line was set up on the hall way of the same floor. The event started at 6pm, and catering team needed about 30 minutes to set up the buffet line for 40 people.

Whenever we cater to the event, one of the questions that we ask to planners is if we can use the kitchen in the venue. Most menus are cooked in the restaurant and stored in thermo box and delivered, but some items should be cooked on site for better food quality. If we cannot use the kitchen on site, there might be some limitations for menu selection. For example, Unagi (Eel Sushi) should be cooked in the oven on site for better taste as well as removing unpleasant smell.
In KOBA event case, they want to have Unagi for its event since last semester. However, unfortunately no kitchens were allowed for outside caterers in Duques Hall. Unagi is one of the popular items among Asians, especially for Koreans, but KOBA could not have Unagi for its event last semester.

However, we created the new way to warm up and cook for Unagi without using the oven in the kitchen. We lightly cooked the Unagi in the restaurant first, and we did the final touch on site by using the "torch". When on-site-chef cooked the Unagi with torch on site, it was like a cooking show. KOBA students were gathering and watching the cooking and waited with their watering mouths. Based on the student, who occasionally dines in Todai restaurant and a big fan of the Unagi, she could not tell the difference between the Unagi in the restaurant and Unagi cooked by torch on Duques Hall. Every attendee of the event seemed satisfied with the food, and most of them had extra foods in their carry out boxes.
This means a lot to us and potential customers. As Unagi is one of the popular items, now catering customers can choose Unagi without worrying about whether caterers can use kitchens or not on venues.

Todai Fairfax Catering Service Information

Todai Restaurant in Fairfax, VA offers catering services for any social or corporate events.
There are two options for catering service. For the less than 50 people gathering, we offer pick-up services. You can choose any catering items from actual buffet lines. We charge each piece for the Sushi items and desserts. For the salad or hot food items, you can select the items and choose the size of the tray. The price for salad and hot foods are depending on the items and sizes that you choose.

For the more than 50 people, we offer full service catering. We deliver, set-up, serve, and clean up. We can deliver from Fairfax, VA area to Baltimore, MD. There are no pre-selected items for the menus. However, there is a guide line for selecting the items.
You can choose;
5 Hot food items and choice of fried or steamed rice
4 Salad items
4 Nigiri sushi items
4 Maki roll items
4 Dessert items
This full catering service is perfect for the wedding, birthday party, anniversary, or any kinds of social gathering with more than 50 people. The price for the full service is $26.95 plus 15% service charges.

For the questions about catering menus and available date, please call 703-273-0120 and ask for catering manager.

Todai History

The first Todai Restaurant opened in Santa Monica in 1985. By 1997, ten Todai Restaurants were in business in major Southern California cities such as Glendale, Orange, Woodland Hills, and Studio City. Recognizing the potential for growth and the viability of an International seafood & sushi buffet business concept, several investors formed Todai Franchising, LLC in 1997 and began franchising the concept. Company opened the first company-owned store in San Jose, CA in 1998 and the first overseas store in Hong Kong in 2002. In 2006, TFL assigned its intellectual property as well as franchisor rights to Todai SSB, Inc. Todai SSB, Inc. continues to grow the Todai concept, bringing new Todai Restaurants worldwide, from Beijing, China to Seoul Korea.
As of April 2009, there are twenty-three Todai restaurants operating worldwide, including Hawaii, Las Vegas, Hong Kong.