When inquiring about our buffet-style wedding dinner for ~60 guests, Tanya was responsive and professional in email correspondence for several months leading up to the event. We were confident in her ability, being recommended to us by our venue as a highly-rated local caterer on the Mendocino coast. We had an initial phone consultation, where she was friendly and helpful, quoted $130 per person for the catered dinner of pizza appetizers, grilled tri tip entrée with a few vegetarian side dishes and FRESH focaccia, with a dozen fruit pies for dessert. We supplied our own alcohol and did not need a bartender.
* Caterers showed up later than expected. Dinner was pushed back one hour from agreed time.
* Contract agreement for dinner included a very basic spring mix salad with edible flowers. We got plain romaine lettuce with no flowers and one dressing option when we had confirmed with Tanya that two dressings would be available.
* Quinoa salad was fine, but lacked seasoning.
* Tri tip was not grilled as agreed upon, instead baked in an oven and was very tough, cut with the grain, with no sear or seasoning whatsoever. Chimichuri was in limited supply.
* Roasted veggies had no seasoning at all. It was in our agreement to have baby potatoes, carrots and beets with lots of garlic and onions. What we got was under-cooked quartered red potatoes with bell peppers and cauliflower (we're not a fan of cauliflower and it overpowered the flavor, especially without seasoning).
* Mushroom risotto was unseasoned mashed white rice with pieces of mushroom in it. The texture was sticky, gummy, unpalatable mush and did not resemble risotto whatsoever by flavor or texture, missing key ingredients.
* "Fresh" focaccia was bone dry and crumbled like stale biscuits, served in tiny cubes. Tanya later admitted to the focaccia being day-old. This menu item was her idea, suggesting it to us and brought it stale!
* We specifically requested a lot of garlic to be used on numerous items on the menu, but the request was disregarded even though the contract explicitly states this for meat and veggie dishes.
The dessert pies were fine, except two Strawberry Lemon pies were left out of the venue fridge overnight, discovered in a syrupy puddle the following day during clean-up, unsafe to consume. We had been told that all the leftovers would be wrapped up and left in the fridge for us by the catering team.
At one point in the evening during dinner, we had a full glass (8 oz.) of very expensive mead on the bride and groom table, taken away by the busser during a brief absence from our seats. The party was in full swing at that point and the glass should not have been removed as it was filled to the brim and being saved for dessert. The mead was not provided by Black Oak Catering, but was sourced from a special meadery in Oregon and brought by us to celebrate with.
Unfortunately, we had several of our guests tell us the caterer was rude or unfriendly to them during their interactions at the wedding, including my elderly disabled mother. It hurts tremendously to spend several thousand dollars on someone that we put our absolute trust in, only to have these negative occurrences. We couldn't even distribute the dinner leftovers among friends and family - no one wanted any of it because it lacked flavor and wasn't cooked properly.
Despite this, we paid what we agreed upon and included substantial gratuity considering the mishaps. We understand this is someone's livelihood and could not bear to short them, especially seeing an adolescent kid working among their small catering team.
UPDATE: We were in contact with Tanya about the above, but she offered no explanation on why the food was not seasoned at all or why different/cheaper ingredients were brought, far outside our contract with no communication follow-through on changes made to the dinner menu agreement without approval. It turns out she withheld some important information from us, instances where a little communication would have went a long way and likely would have improved our overall experience.
After some back & forth, she admitted that our actual cost was $85 per person even though we were charged and paid $130 per person, a significant difference. We asked for the sum of the difference to be refunded but she said she could only return a fraction of what was overcharged. Unprofessionally-toned responses were getting difficult to keep up with, so we just accepted the small refund and remain dissatisfied in our efforts to resolve. When billing errors occur, the customer is refunded the overcharged amount. The business shouldn't pocket any of it. We are in disbelief over this experience with Black Oak Catering. read more