We were not the happy couple that booked Hudson Valley BBQ for their wedding, but we were lucky enough to get to eat everything and not pay for it, which is basically my favorite thing to do. I was at the wedding venue all day while they showed up and prepared, and I can happily report that Brandon and his crew were super friendly, worked hard, and fed our whole family quite handily. He even shared some of his cheeseballs with my daughters; while delicious, I personally preferred all of the actual food. It's worth noting that Hudson Valley BBQ makes a lot of delicious stuff that is not necessarily barbecue (by which I mean smoked meat). The grazing boards (cheeses, meats, dips, etc.) were gorgeous, the al pastor tacos were excellent, the giant caprese salad was mouthwatering, and truly all the food was beautiful. We had bacon wrapped scallops and other classic wedding hors d'oeuvres, and the mains of cedar plank salmon, smoked chicken, and picanha steak were all well cooked, and quite tasty. The catering staff were all quite accommodating too, with the exception of one lady who yelled at me for trying to take an aperol spritz one minute before we were allowed. I probably deserved it though. read more

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Brandon was really great to work with and our guests loved the food! He was very accommodating with our meal choices and many guest allergies. He brings true craftsmanship into his work and the food is really delicious! Ali, who took over communication as we got closer to the wedding, was also great! We had a few minor things that didn't hit the mark which is why we couldn't give a full 5 stars. We wish there had been more servers to help during dinner service as food coming out was a bit slower than we assumed it would've been and there was only one bartender at our main bar at one point; but the team worked quickly and were all very kind! We did have a guest mention that there seemed to be some stress from the catering area around dinner service but we honestly didn't notice as the couple. The owner also added some extra stress the week of the wedding by trying to charge us extra per person for liquor choices we had previously had approved by him. We ended up providing one of the liquors ourselves to ensure the cost stayed at the contracted price. It was quickly resolved with Brandon the same night and didn't have a significant impact on our wedding as we were able to pivot; but, it was added stress that wasn't necessary the week of the wedding so I felt it was worth mentioning. Overall we really enjoyed their services, getting to know them as a team, and would definitely still recommend working with them! read more

It's taken us a long time to write this because of the pain and stress we experienced due to Brandon on our wedding day and in the weeks leading up. It almost doesn't make sense to write a review because, as you see below, he responds with seemingly reasonable (but gaslighting) explanations. We will leave it at this, we urge you to protect yourself and find someone else to work with for your special day. If you would like more specifics, please feel free to reach out to us at paulanachella@gmail.com read more

Our coordinator spoke with Brandon on the phone about using his company as the caterer for our wedding. His work looked spectacular and our coordinator loved talking with him so my husband and I were excited to talk with him. He didn't respond to our coordinator for nearly two weeks before finally getting back to her saying he gave our date away to another client. I then reached out to him to say we really wanted to work with him and asked if he could recommend anyone similar and he didn't answer for almost a month before reaching out and asking me if we ever found a caterer. I said no we hadn't and I'd like to hear his recommendations. He never responded. I asked why he reached out if he wasn't planning on continuing the conversation, he apologized for a busy week and asked to chat the following day. I said sure, what time, and that was the last I had heard from him. Brandon and his company seem really promising, but I wouldn't work with him now even if he was available due to the multiple lack of responses we've experienced personally and read on here. How can you trust he'd show up at your event? Total bummer. read more

Brandon is very nice and seems like a talented chef. We contacted him about catering our wedding and had a call to discuss menu options, but haven't received a contract or menu a month later after many follow up calls and emails. On the one phone call he did answer, he mentioned he'd gotten new admin help and there was confusion over who was handling our menu, promising he'd get us a menu that night. This was almost a week ago and he hasn't returned multiple follow up calls or emails. It's a shame because we were really looking forward to working with him. I would have been happy with responses letting me know that there was a delay. I understand that admin work is often challenging for small business owners, but we can't risk working with someone this unresponsive for our wedding. read more

I am not a person who normally leaves bad reviews. So for me (the bride) to leave a negative review-- there was MULTIPLE chances given to a business to acknowledge the issue and offer better customer service or remedy whatever situation. Here is the good part about this caterer: his staff. The serving staff at our wedding was kind and excellent. That's the only good thing I have to say about working with HVBBQ. Brandon (the owner) is entirely unprofessional. I originally found him from Wedding Wire and his reviews seemed positive, the food looked creative, so I was excited to work with him. We also had a cross-cultural wedding, so I thought Brandon would be chef who could produce a mix of our ethnic cuisines! When first booking, I had to hunt down Brandon to get a response back with a menu. That SHOULD have been the first red flag, but nonetheless when I did finally talk to Brandon, he seemed nice and so we decided to proceed. My fiancé (who is Pakistani) spoke with Brandon on the phone and requested a tasting because again, we were mixing cultures and wanted to taste the food prior to paying almost $20000 for it! Brandon agreed to the tasting, and we book him. LESSON LEARNED- people do not honor their verbal agreements! After months go by and us reaching out MULTIPLE times to try to arrange the tasting... we finally ended up withholding our second payment in the hopes that this would encourage Brandon to actually speak to us and schedule the tasting as he was supposed to! FINALLY, one month prior to our wedding he finally calls my husband. Said he would stop by that next weekend with a food sample. We planned to write him a check for his full final payment then. We also needed someone to visit our home since our reception was there, and we wanted to make sure he felt comfortable with the layout and had everything he needed. HE NEVER SHOWED. This was TWO weeks until the wedding. He never even bothered to contact us to apologize for being a no show, and he sent his poor assistant Jes (who is nice) to try and smooth it over with the excuse of "We forgot our wedding was on Sunday this weekend, not Saturday"... which isn't comforting. She said she'd talk to Brandon to see if he could arrange the tasting for Sunday (ONE WEEK to the wedding). Then the next day, we basically get a rude email from Brandon not addressing ANY of the concerns we've been having with him but saying nope, he can't do a tasting because he's busy and ALSO how dare we not pay the payment on time (he would have already had his full payment by now had he showed up when he was supposed to), and unless we made our final payment immediately he was cancelling our wedding. Um... okay? So we made a payment and asked him to call my fiancé to talk. Well, he called us the Friday before the wedding and tried to cancel on us. Basically this man waited until the last minute and bullied us into having to work with him because hey, it was a week until our wedding, we had signed a contract, and we didn't have much choice at that point except to LITERALLY WIRE TRANSFER him the money immediately and cross our fingers that the food was good. Thankfully, I hired a day of coordinator who was an ANGEL. Katie told us she would handle communications with him from here on out. She informed me that the morning of the wedding, Brandon showed up with his crew and threw a literal childish hissy fit about how the layout wasn't what he could work with (we had his assistant come out to our home to check out the property herself, and we'd done video walkthroughs) AND apparently he tried to cancel on us AGAIN ON OUR WEDDING DAY! Absolutely inexcusable. Katie put her foot down and said, nope you're cooking. Well, of course, the ethnic food was terrible. It literally tasted NOTHING like it was supposed to... not surprised. Brandon was full of excuses and took ZERO ownership in causing any of the problems we had with him. Some of his excuses are "I almost never have cell service" and "I never do tastings"... okay. I had MULTIPLE wedding guests tell me that Brandon was making snide comments during the night, and they didn't like his attitude. Quite frankly, I doubt I need to leave this review because Brandon is obviously doing a great job on his own of ruining his own business. I feel bad for his staff, who are genuinely nice... but he is simply an awful person to work with. Brides, run far away and book someone else. You don't want the stress that we went through. We debated even writing this-- but ultimately decided it was our duty to help inform other newly engaged couples to TRULY vet your vendors and READ ALL THE REVIEWS before booking. We're certainly not the only negative review of this guy, just look around. And while you're looking around, find another caterer. read more

Brandon is a wonderful and talented vendor! Emphasis on talented! He made the whole process exciting given that wedding planning can be a little stressful at times. read more

I tried to resolve the following issues with Brandon, who admitted that it was the "most difficult wedding he had ever done", but he only attributed that to the rain. He said that he normally would have cooked in the covered area on this property, but they wouldn't let him. The venue confirmed that he lied about that. Then he ghosted me. 3 Tables told us they did not get to eat main courses. Some of the fried chicken from cocktail hour was brought back out to serve to later tables. As the mains were served, no one called tables to go up and I had to ask who should be. Nick was supposed to be doing it, when I went to him, he was unaware that it was his duty. Neither water nor wine were poured before or during dinner. No water was available to anyone until we asked, which was one of several such instances. Even then, it was Kate's crew that ended up pouring water and wine. Wine was meant to be poured during dinner as per our signed contract. Prosecco was meant to be included for the toasts. My wife and I had no water, no wine, and no bubbles for our toasts. We toasted with empty glasses. The paella was woefully undercooked. When I finally had a chance to serve myself, the only food remaining was pork loin and paella, but the only thing left in the paella was gray shrimp and unopened clams and mussels. A guest said our money was wasted. We paid for food that could not be eaten. We paid over $30k and there wasn't enough food. His and Her tacos and mini margarita shooters were not served at all. They were supposed to be passed at cocktail hour as per our signed contract. The signature drinks and prosecco for cocktail hour were not poured ahead of time and passed as per our signed contract. These steps were meant to be taken to specifically alleviate the line at the bar, which was "brutal" according to a guest. My wife confirmed in an email on March 29th and Brandon confirmed that signature drinks would be pre poured. The late night food was not ready, and I had to go ask where it was at 10pm. My wife's sister also had to ask about the late night food as well as dessert. Brandon said that he thought we were having food at 10:30 even though the hard stop for Hayfield has always been 10, including all the other weddings he's done there. Street tacos were not served and I saw maybe 5 plates of runny mac and cheese. We felt like we were constantly wondering where things were and why they were taking so long. It seemed obvious that there was not enough staff. For the price we paid, we should not have felt like we were part of the staff, worrying about what needed to be taken care of. We both specifically told our friends and family how good the food would be and how they should look forward to it, yet it was the only aspect of our wedding that anyone complained about. We were embarrassed. Multiple guests told us there was not enough food. By the end of the night, it was clear that things had gone so wrong that we asked Kate to return to us the check that was going to be for your gratuity. Brandon never followed up with us about that, even though he had originally tried to get us to pay 6k in gratuity weeks before the wedding took place. And yet, we believe the non-payment of gratuity for the products and services that were (or weren't) rendered does not begin to cover our grievances. We paid for services and food that were not supplied to us. We were massively overcharged based on the quality of goods and service that day. read more

SCAM ARTIST So after my horrible experience I did some research and have discovered that this guy is a con man. My short story: Paid my deposit for approximately 80-90 people in February 2022. Verified via email we would only be charged for the final count (see pictures). 10 days before my wedding he tried to charge me for 90 people despite his email stating the opposite. He was betting that we would be desperate 10 days before the wedding and agree to pay the extra. He was wrong. He called and proceeded to berate and scream at me and refuse to abide by the agreement. This forced us to find another caterer. Then he tried to claim WE backed out of the contract. Needless to say we are taking him to court and in my one day of research have found countless others he has scammed. Many have been silenced by court order not allowing them to post reviews. We are working with local police to attempt to file criminal charges as well since he is demonstrating a pattern as well as joining together to see what civil action we can pursue. If you've also be scammed please contact me. And if you haven't been scammed yet, stay FAR FAR AWAY. read more

Hudson Valley BBQ - Caterers Near Me

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Terrible communications. Spoke with Brandon and was excited to move forward with our wedding catering plan. Brandon committed to confirming availability for our date the following day but instead totally ghosted us. Multiple calls, emails and texts went unanswered for a week. Finally received an email with a "sorry we are booked, good luck with your event ". So unprofessional. I do believe we dodged a bullet based on other comments. Watch out! read more

Do not recommend - company was a nightmare to work with. Brandon cancelled on our wedding a month and a half before the event. It was difficult for us to get our refund back, and we found this company to be very unprofessional. read more

Do not recommend. Canceled on our wedding 6 weeks prior to the event. Very difficult to work with in getting our LARGE deposit returned. Very unprofessional in handling everything. Tried to make us sign a waiver to not post a bad review, which was obviously refused. We ended up losing money on the rented silverware he recommended we book, as his catering company does not handle plating. Had a friend book with him despite our warning and he has canceled that with short notice, as well. read more

Very professional company, so responsive and super helpful with any questions I had about my upcoming event. The food was amazing, my guests were amazed! Cannot recommend Brandon enough. read more

While we ultimately did not use Brandon for our wedding, he was very helpful and supportive throughout the process. He created a menu tailored to our tastes, and that looked incredible. I am a very nervous bride, and he quickly responded to all emails and questions. Even a year out from the wedding, he spent a great deal of time meeting our needs! I was appreciative of his support and attention to detail! read more

This caterer came recommended from someone in the area. I contacted them by phone and website to inquire about catering costs for our wedding. Brandon was super nice and down to earth and was receptive to my questions and requests. Unfortunately we never heard back from him despite multiple attempts to contact them. read more