Catering help

Pick a restaurant, add trays or boxes from its menu and check out. You see the food, delivery, tax and total before you pay. The restaurant then confirms your order, and your order page shows each step.

Yes. Sign in with your email and we send you a 6-digit code, or use a password once you set one. Your orders and receipts are on your account page.

Use the Request a quote form at pooluchicago.org/catering/request. Tell us how many people, your budget, the date and the building. We follow up to confirm the menu, the price and whether the date works. Nothing is ordered until you say yes, and no card is needed to ask.

Nothing is charged, and the hold on your card is released. Pool can help you find another restaurant.

Pool Technologies, Inc. collects the payment for the restaurant and pays the restaurant after your event. Card payments go through Stripe. Your receipt names the restaurant.

At checkout we only hold the total on your card. We charge it 24 hours before your event. If you order less than 24 hours ahead, we charge it when the restaurant confirms.

Yes. Pick Invoice or PO at checkout and add the PO number if you have one. Nothing is charged at checkout. The invoice comes once the restaurant confirms and is due in 45 days. Pay by PO, University check or house account.

Yes. Pick Send to someone else to pay at checkout. Add their email and Pool sends them the pay link, which is also on your order page to copy. They pay by card or ask for an invoice or PO. The restaurant is asked to confirm once they pay.

A first-order deal is for your group's first Pool order from that restaurant. It applies once per group (we check the account, email, phone and club). Later orders get the restaurant's standing deal, if it has one.

An order paid with University of Chicago funds for University business can be tax exempt. Sign in with your University email and checkout offers it. Name your department or RSO and how it pays (a P-card in the University's name, a University PO, or an RSO account through CLI), then confirm the statement. Paying by card? Tick Paid with University or organization funds. The tax comes off and the receipt shows why. Another organization can add its exemption letter on your account page for Pool to review.

Yes, until 24 hours before your event. Change the items, headcount, time or room on your order page. You see the new total before you save, and the amount on your card moves with it. Inside 24 hours, the room, the note and the on-site contact still save at once and go straight to the restaurant. For food, people or the time, send a change request from your order page and Pool confirms it with the restaurant.

Cancel from your order page. Cancel for free until 24 hours before your event. Nothing is charged until then. Inside 24 hours the restaurant keeps 25% of the food plus its tax, and you pay the card fee on that amount only. The rest comes back to you.

In the 15 minutes before the time you set. Your order page shows the arrival window and each step of the order.

The restaurant delivers it. The driver gets the address, the room and the contact name and phone on the order, and calls that number if they can't find you.

Yes, where the restaurant offers pickup. Pick Pickup at checkout and the order is ready at your time.

Never arrived: a full refund. Something missing: those items refunded. Late or something not right? Report it on your order page up to 48 hours after your event. We check with the restaurant and email you how we will make it right. The guarantee page has the details.

Use Report a problem on your order page up to 48 hours after your event. We check it with the restaurant, and any refund goes back to how you paid.

Add allergies and diets to your order at checkout. The restaurant sees them on the order. Pool passes on what you write but cannot promise how the food is prepared.