Custom Takeout Boxes for Restaurants: Branded Packaging Guide

Most delivery customers experience a takeout order, the only variety of restaurant order. No host, no ambiance, no server checking in, just a box that’s showing up at a door. When it comes to that first impression, custom takeout boxes are instrumental, and a plain cardboard box means that the restaurant didn’t think outside the box. Empress Packaging makes custom take out boxes for restaurants throughout the USA that are designed to safeguard food and promote the restaurant’s brand.

Why Choose Custom Take Out Boxes Over Generic Cardboard Boxes?

Plain cardboard boxes are designed for cost, not for what goes on the food between the kitchen and a customer’s plate. Steam rises, grease drips through thin walls, and a twenty-minute car ride is more detrimental to food quality than most restaurants realize. At the material level, and not the design level, custom printed boxes solve that! If the spec isn’t correct, the board weight, vent placement, and coating must be, otherwise, it’s a totally different story if the burger box and soup container are both in there.

Factor

Generic Cardboard Boxes

Custom Take Out Boxes

Grease resistance

Minimal, soaks through fast

Coated stock, built for the menu

Heat retention

Inconsistent, no venting logic

Vented or sealed based on food type

Branding

None or a generic stamp

Full logo, color, and menu-matched print

Structural fit

One size for everything

Sized to actual portions and dishes

Customer impression

Reads as an afterthought

Reads as a considered part of the meal

Custom Printed Take Out Boxes offer several benefits. Some of the advantages of Custom Printed Take Out Boxes are:

Benefits of Custom Printed Take Out Boxes

Bringing branding to the forefront of marketing: printing a box makes all delivery and pickup orders visible marketing, particularly for restaurants that rely on repeat local customers over one-time foot traffic. Protection: the right box with the right coating is the most important thing about a delivery app that prevents sogginess and leaks causing refund requests and 1-star ratings.

Material savings: for large orders, where cost savings of a few cents per box accumulates to savings of hundreds of dollars, right-sized custom printed boxes are a big time saver. The materials that are considered eco-friendly are now a customer expectation, not a luxury restaurant can afford to skip: compostable and recyclable takeout boxes.

Customer experience: when a delivery order arrives, it is a good indicator that it is in the form that customers have expected, and it has a shape that feels like a good restaurant order, rather than a smaller version.

Where Custom Take Out Boxes Are Used?

A good-looking box in a picture doesn’t look good when it gets wet when it arrives at the customer. Your food will turn out just as it was in the kitchen if there’s enough grease resistance and proper venting.

Business Type

Common Use

Packaging Priority

Fast-casual restaurants

Fried food, burgers, hot entrees

Venting to prevent sogginess

Bakeries and cafes

Pastries, sandwiches, drinks

Crush resistance, compact sizing

Ghost kitchens

Delivery-only brands

Branding, since there`s no storefront

Asian and noodle restaurants

Soups, noodles, sauced dishes

Leak-proof seals and coatings

Catering businesses

Bulk or multi-portion orders

Larger format, stacking strength

Fried food doesn’t get soggy in fast casual restaurants when it’s in a vented custom takeout box and protected from the elements while it’s on the way across town. Boxes must be the right size for pastries and sandwiches, and be designed so they do not shift or crush in the delivery bag in a bakery or cafe.

Due to the lack of a physical space to reinforce the brand, ghost kitchens rely heavily on custom printed boxes to convey the entire brand image. These are not just packaging issues, but packaging issues first, and it’s here that most restaurants lose money when they try to treat order damages and returns as branding issues.

Customization Options for Custom Take Out Boxes

Empress Packaging supplies bespoke take-out boxes in kraft and coated cardboard boxes, depending on what the menu requires to live in order to survive, whether it be grease, steam, or moisture. Print can be single-color kraft branding, or full-color designs to use as a restaurant packaging delivery-app marketing channel itself.

Option

Range Available

Material

Kraft, white, grease-resistant coated stock

Structure

Fold-top, lock-corner, clamshell, tray

Print

Single-color kraft to full CMYK

Finish

Grease-resistant coating, tamper-evident seals

Certification

Food-contact-grade, confirmed per order

Sizes are based on real menu items and quantities, not a dry-goods size chart. Grease-resistant finishes and tamper-evident seals for restaurants with a large number of third-party delivery orders. The coating is the one detail restaurants spend the least on and the one that will be observed by the customer when it breaks.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: What is the least number of boxes you could order for a custom take out box? 

A: Depends on the size and the coating requirements.

Q: How long is the production time? 

A: Timelines will vary by coating type and by the complexity of the printing.

Q: Do these boxes reasonably allow for direct food contact? 

A: Materials used are food-contact grade and confirmed per order, as there are different requirements for each menu item.

Q: Is compostable or recyclable packaging available? 

A: Yes, for some styles in the select box.

Q: Are there multiple sizes of boxes available for various foods on the menu? 

A: Yes, a complete menu is acceptable to be quoted together in various box sizes.

Get Your Free Quote

Nothing drains a restaurant’s repeat business quicker than a wet or leaking takeout box. Empress Packaging produces custom take-out boxes for restaurants throughout the USA. Please call (888) 900-7629, email query@empresspackaging.com, or inquire for a free quote at empress packaging.