Absolutely scary to pull together a luncheon of executives and clients on the other side of the…read morecountry where I have never been. So much to think about: can different cultural tastes be addressed, can a casual lunch of sandwiches and sides be taken up a notch, will plates and cutlery be of good quality to so that the meal won't plop over a valued client's lap, etc (!) and all being kept within a budget? Mike hit all my concerns with A+ responses. Not only were the meals great for the group of 40+, Mike was flexible with last minute changes, catering was delivered in a timely manner, and I could count on his professional customer service for the venue without me even attending. 5 Stars for Michael's Express Catering - my go-to caterer for service, creativity and quality in food items, and Mike's enthusiastic personality to work with. Thanks big time, Mike! We'll do it again!

Mike, Just wanted to Thank You again for catering our 15th…read moreBi-Annual Family Reunion Banquet. Relatives came from California, Washington State, Tennessee, Maryland, Connecticut and various places in New York. They only had good things to say about the food. "How tender the beef was, how moist the turkey, how delicious the vegetable lasagna was and etc." I will certainly be recommending you to family, friends and acquaintances. And you will be the first on my list the next time I need to have an event catered. It was a pleasure to meet and work with you. Pat S.

We have supported this bakery for over 40 years, and it is time to offer a review…read more This Jay Street icon in Schenectady has the best Italian bread. It comes in round or loaf shapes and in one or two pound sizes. It is available in many local stores including the Niskayuna Co-op. True story: Jack Nicholson was filming in the area and found out about the delicious bread from his driver. He got the bread several times and thought it was great. He had it mailed to him. Photos of Nicholson and a related newspaper article are on display. The bread, rolls, and Tomato pie are baked in a coal fired brick oven from Italy. Besides the bread, there are other outstanding offerings including: Rolls! Breadsticks made at the bakery Bread Crumbs for cutlets and meatballs Tomato Pie -- so popular it often sells out Panini Sandwiches made fresh daily for grab & go. Italian olives and cheeses in the case. Italian cookies Parking in front and in a side lot shared with Cornell's Restaurant.

Perrecca's Bakery + More Perrecca's = Schenectady royalty…read more First things first: full disclosure -- my son is a server here. Yes, I'm biased. But also... facts are facts and the facts are DELICIOUS. It was a full-on snowstorm, the weird dead zone after Christmas where everyone else is like "nah, we're closing early," and Perrecca's was like: "We ride." Just me and the wife, snow coming down sideways, and this place is warm, welcoming, and absolutely cranking out hot food. And I mean HOT hot -- not "restaurant hot," but "careful-that-plate-is-trying-to-burn-your fingerprints-off" hot. Love to see it. Food? Super tasty. No notes. Service? Solid across the board. Bathrooms? Clean enough to eat off of (I didn't, but I could've). Parking? Plenty of off-street, no parallel parking Olympics required. Now let's talk about the hostess -- because WOW. She works the room like she personally built the place brick by brick. Touches every table, warm, friendly, checking in -- you'd swear her name was on the sign out front. Absolute pro. Hospitality Hall of Fame behavior. Between the legendary bakery, the attached restaurant, and the fact that they stayed open when the weather said "stay home," this place is a must-see Schenectady institution. Come hungry. Leave happy. Possibly leave with extra bread you didn't plan on buying but somehow needed. Would go back in a blizzard. Would go back tomorrow. Would go back just for the vibes.

Not worth trying. Was excited to try them out for the first time after their hiatus with court…read moreissues and their name. Ordered my food and my friend ordered right after. After 15 minutes he finally got his food. I waited another 5 minutes before checkout my on my order. They said they were running behind on the grill. I waited another 5 minutes and they said it would be ready soon. Finally after 30 minutes of waiting I just asked for my money back. During the wait, I saw multiple other people check on their orders and that's when the staff realized they lost order tickets. My friend had ordered the rogue (braised short rib sandwich) and did not enjoy it at all, stating there was no flavor to the meat. Do not bother trying Wandering Dago. They are unorganized and even though they make it seem like a gourmet menu, the food is not good. Stay away and try any of the other good options around

Andrea and Brandon of Wandering Dago met and exceeded our expectations on our big day, and the…read moremonths leading up to it. From the get-go they were extremely helpful and most importantly patient. They welcomed us to their home for the tasting and meet & greet. Once we decided what we wanted to include on our menu(s), they assisted us with budgeting and logistics and even coordinated with the other vendors to ensure everything went off without a hitch. The wedding was executed perfectly. Everything was prepared behind the scenes, so well that I barely noticed their presence. The food was delicious and our menu was diverse, something for everyone. After everything was said and done, we received a custom 'welcome to the family' cutting board from Andrew and Brandon as a thank you gift. Our experience working together was as positive as it gets. I would certainly recommend their services to friends and loved ones. Thank you Wandering Dago!

Do you dream of not having food to eat on your wedding day? Do you aspire to get into an argument…read morewith your caterer on your special day? Do you envision family members having to step into said argument because you've been so rudely spoken to while celebrating the happiest day of your life? If so, this is the caterer for you! Extremely rude, unapologetic, unprofessional, and not the type of owner, or employees, you'd want to be dealing with on your event day. I do not recommend this company.

Our church hired Healthy Cafe to cater a dinner for about 140 people. The food was delicious it…read morearrived hot and was kept hot in the aluminum trays with burners beneath which were supplied. Everyone enjoyed the dinner. It was so great.

Frese's is delicious!…read more Great food, great people, and great prices! Cannot go wrong with the weekly dinners (on Thursdays), but pre order in advance to both save on price and also guarantee your order... They frequently sell out. When not doing the Thursday night dinner; the subs, the pizza, and especially the deserts are all delicious! Such a great hometown place. Oh and during lent and occasionally in the summer, the fish fry's are great, too! Saturdays have pop up sandwich specials. Bread is fantastic, as well. All-in-all, an A+ operation

If you missed out on Frese's special Saturday, 15 Sept 24, you missed out on Chef Frese outstanding…read moreproduction of the best BLT I have ever had! Sure, I thought about paying $12 for a sandwich but with Frese's fabulous dinners, the decision wasn't hard and I would gladly do it again. We always seem to end up being disappointed with other restaurants BLT solely because of the lack of the amount of bacon. Frese's had full bacon flavor with several pieces accompanied by the perfect amount of lettuce and tomato. We look forward to their continued treats!

I eat at Maria's whenever I can get a chance and have been going there since they opened. I love…read morethe quaintness of the place, and the food is always great (never burned as the one reviewer mentioned). I can't say enough good things about the cafe. If you haven't checked it out, definitely go, it's worth it!

Please don't waste your money. I highly recommend going to the point Cafe. This place is gross…read more Everything is burnt. It's disgusting. I don't care how many coupons you have on GrubHub or instacart. Please don't waste your money.

I recently booked my sons graduation party with On The Go Concierge...BEST decision EVER! Think of…read moreit as an extra set of hands. Once the party started at 2pm, I literally walked around socializing with all of our guests. Although I had much of the decorating done, Jennifer helped with last minute things...balloons, food set up and was just pleasant to work with. She made sure things were flowing smoothly inside with all of the food so that I could spend time making memories instead of being in the kitchen or cleaning up after people. I am so happy that a friend of mine told me about On The Go Concierge!

If I could give Donna ten stars I would. She was absolutely worth every cent!! Professional,…read morethorough, organized and so very kind. Don't kid yourself if you don't think you need this service; it will be the best investment you make in your event. She kept every vendor on task and on time. If we hit a bump, she smoothed it out. I just can't say enough. Want your event to go without a hitch? Here's your solution.

This rating was a bit tricky- I've been to quite a few events catered by Mazzone Hospitality and…read morethe food has usually been delicious- with a few exceptions. I'm basing this review on my last 2 experiences which were both within the past couple of weeks. I hinged between the 4 and the 5, and went with the 4 due to a couple of "misses" I've experienced. Went to a wedding at Glen Sanders a couple of weeks ago there were a couple of stations one during the cocktail hour and 2 after dinner. My personal favorite (only because I'm a Cookie Monster) was the dessert station after dinner. The options included tiny apple crisps, small strawberry shortcake shots, and snickerdoodle and chocolate chips cookies. OMG the cookies were served warm... nough said (this is a MUST, my next event had the same cookies but they weren't warm- not the same!). The snickerdoodles were to die for! (I had 2, guilty). The other station was an Asian inspired station which I hear was excellent (I was preoccupied with the cake and the dessert station- I had to prioritize). In terms of the main dish, I was underwhelmed I had the salmon- it was a bit dry and lacking in flavor. Luckily, I supplemented with some of my husband's mashed potatoes which were deliciously buttery and perfect. My husband had the beef dish (sorry I didn't pay attention to what it was) and he thought it was excellent. At all of the events I've attended the Hors d'oeuvres haven't disappointed. These have included chicken satay (delicious), beef Wellington, mozzarella-tomato sticks, mini shrimp cocktail (meh), feta/spinach spanakopita, crab cakes... Just to name a few. These options always perfectly supplement the cocktail hour. And, if you think about it, are quintessential to keeping your guests perfectly paced during the cocktail hour, so they better be good! Most events in the capital district (at least that I've been to) end up being catered by Mazzone, and it's a great option. The last 4 events I've been to have all been Mazzone and I look forward to more.

This was the worst experience ever. Im in the process of looking for wedding venues with a large…read morebudget. I can barely get a call back and all the Venus are way over priced for just booking a spot! Save your money and go elsewhere

We found Chef Deanna through Instagram and were intrigued. I sent her a quick note, and next thing…read moreyou know, we're on a phone call for over an hour that felt like 10 minutes. We asked Deanna to cater our 115 person, mountain top wedding with as much fire-prepared food as possible. Think Francis Mallmann (google him if you arent familiar). No running water. No electricity. She was game. She was more than game. She came ready to rumble and was cooking on the fire pit from morning until late night. Deanna is warm, talented, energetic, charming, and generous. She made amazing, locally sourced, fresh food our guests are still raving about. She has real relationships with farmers and producers in the area - her local connections are priceless. Her whole team never broke their professionalism and wowed us with their service and hospitality. She helped our moms serve apple pies instead of wedding cake. She sprinkled flowers all over the buffet tables. She shared with us all her beautiful old plates. She surprised us with a late night round of sloppy joes. She let us borrow all the props and baskets and water jugs for our whole wedding weekend, even for events that she wasn't specifically there for. I could go on and on. Book with Deanna, she is a true unicorn of the catering world.

We hired Chef Deanna in 2019 for our farm wedding in 2020. We had an amazing, romantic and intimate…read moretasting with her at her beautiful home in the winter of that year in which we fell in love with her food...and then the pandemic hit. We postponed two times, and Chef Deanna was incredibly accommodating throughout it all. In fact -- she supported our decision to postpone (even the second time!) when so many people questioned why we were doing it. Postponing twice was absolutely the right decision, and we had our dream wedding on 4/9/22 of this year. Chef Deanna worked with us to create a menu that was rustic and aligned with our tastes/personalities. We did a barbecue buffet for the main course -- with macaroni and cheese, multiple types of meat, cornbread, etc. -- and a more classic cocktail hour with charcuterie/cheese etc. Everything was delicious. My only regret is that I didn't go up for seconds! In ADDITION to that, Chef Deanna provided her gorgeous vintage plates that were a perfect fit with our venue. This really helped make our planning easier, and added to the beauty of the tables on the day. Everything went seamlessly -- We could not have been happier with Chef Deanna's catering!