Happy, you didn't mention you had 30 people! If you want them to stay together, you need to make prearrangements with restaurants in advance. Unfortunately, groups this large tend to get fairly lackluster to downright bad meals, as the dishes are all preordered (or selected by the restaurant) to save time, and aren't necessarily what the group would select if left on their own. Often, they are made to maximize profit for the tour company, who gives the restaurant a fixed price/head for the group and the restaurant has to come up with a way to feed the group and still make money. A recipe for cutting corners. I think there are three ways to handle meals for a large touring group, and still have a shot at getting great meals. Each method has its pros and cons:
1) Have the tour company select restaurants that can handle this size group and reserve tables only, but no preset menus (except maybe for specialities like the Duck Dinner, the Dumpling Dinner, etc). Add an extra 30 minutes allotted for each meal time to allow for ordering on the spot. Local guide will advise and facilitate the dishes ordered. These meals could either be included in overall tour price, or collect a per person assessment at meal time or just prior/after. Choice of method may depend on nature of the group. In Xi'an I once had to rescramble a transport-disrupted tour schedule and feed 24 people at a local restaurant (with me and local agent selecting the dishes), a MEMORABLE meal of 10 different dishes for RMB 20 per person. (US$ 3.00), everyone chipped in when the bill came.
2) Make the tour company get menus from their preselected restaurants in advance, and YOU go over the menus and help them preorder what you think best suits your group. Tour company will adjust their overall per person tour price based on this. This takes more upfront preplanning time, and many tour companies don't want you to see menus with prices, as it tips you off to their profit margin. Preordering will save time, but doesn't guarantee the cooking itself won't be done in advance.
3) Particularly for dinners, split the group up into 6-10 people and go to different places, preferably with at least one local guide (or Chinese speaker) to go with each group to help out with logistics and ordering the dishes. This sometimes ends up happening ad hoc on big tours anyway. Chinese restaurants can always handle a group of 6 walk-ins, and usually even 10 people at one or two tables. I would definitely not include these types of situations in the prepaid base price.

Maybe "mix up" the methods on the tour. Just be clear with the participants what the plan is when they sign up. For most Chinese restaurants (except for the fanciest places in the bigger cities), a good rule of thumb cost per person (for food only, excluding drinks) is RMB 30-40 at a local homestyle type place, RMB 50-70 at a mid-range place, and RMB 100+ at the more famous restaurants. Beijing and Shanghai will be more at the upper 2 levels. Fancy seafood and exotica will be more. Lunches or lighter meals will be towards the lower end of this scale. It is of course, possible to pay lots more, but you really have to work at it. Western food will cost more. Fast food (KFC, etc, in case anybody gets the urge) is every bit as much as USA if not somewhat more. Figure RMB 7 = 1 USD, the way the dollar is sinking.