However, council chief executive Jim Harland said the figures were "normal", and the council was working hard to save money.
Figures released to the Otago Daily Times showed council spending on catering, meals, functions and hospitality reached $245,627 in the 2007-08 financial year, but dropped to $223,827 in the 2008-09 year.
The money included meals and snacks for councillors, council staff and guests at meetings, the hosting of dignitaries and sports teams, refreshments at civic receptions and functions such as the opening of the Wall Street mall.
Mr Harland said the expenditure was budgeted for, approved by senior staff and an important part of council business.
"Considering the size of the organisation, it's always going to be a reasonably large figure," he said.
For example, the council had invited more than 200 delegates from businesses and other organisations around the city to this week's Dunedin City Forum to discuss the future of the city, he said.
"We are asking people to give up a day of their time to help . . . to not put on morning and afternoon tea, and lunch, would be a bit churlish," he said.
The figures also showed Mayor Peter Chin and councillors together spent about $13,000 on international and domestic flights in the 2008-09 year.
The council's executive management team spent another $27,500, Mr Harland said.
The cost - for trips to conferences, sister city events and other council business - was slightly above the previous year's spend, as was the total accommodation bill for both groups, which was about $10,000 in 2008-09 year.
Mileage accrued by Mr Chin, councillors and the executive managers reached about $7500 in 2008-09, slightly more than the previous year.
Mr Harland said the expenses were part of normal council business, although extra effort was being made to keep costs down during the recession.
Council departments were in the middle of an exercise identifying ways to trim costs where possible, he said.
"We always scrutinise the budgets - every year, when we do the annual review, we look at those things line by line.
"It's always important to find savings, but it's even more important in times of recession."
Flights by councillors were approved by Mr Chin, and staff travel by managers further up the chain of command, Mr Harland said.
Mileage was paid for travel to council business according to the Inland Revenue's approved rate.
Each council department had its own, scrutinised, catering allowance, he said.
"We constantly remind people through the budgeting process about the need to minimise expenditure," he said.
All flights were economy class unless for durations of greater than eight or nine hours, and when a 24-hour rest period was not available at the flight's conclusion, Mr Harland said.
In that case, he could approve a business class ticket, although he could not recall one in the previous two years.
The figures were released to the ODT following a request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.
However, council staff declined to release a more detailed breakdown of spending by individuals without charging costs of up to $2964, due to the "granular" nature of the request and the time needed to search paper invoices prior to July 2008.
