So I had the chance to experience the catered food that Palm & Pine makes today. Apparently they…read moreare the new catering company that has a contract with the University of Florida, and in this case it was a catered event in the Reitz Union for around two hundred or so people.
The items presented were rolls, an apple chutney grilled chicken breast, a baked salmon, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (it is the holiday season), green beans, and a tofu dish. I sampled everything, and... well...
The chicken breast was excellent, and the salmon was good as well... that is about where things end in terms of goodness.
The mashed potatoes were the blandest mashed potatoes I have ever had. Seriously, reconstituted mashed potatoes from a box have more flavor than what they managed to produce here. They had absolutely zero seasoning.
The tofu dish also suffered greatly from lack of flavor and seasoning. Now, I am not a specialist when it comes to tofu, and don't normally eat it, but in this case it was just... sad. If this is normal for vegetarians who eat a lot of tofu, I really feel for them when it comes to flavor.
The green beans were slightly overdone, but at least they weren't totally gray. However, I had to pick out two different stalks off the beans that they had missed, which means that there were a lot of stalks in there.
The desserts? Kind of sad as well. There was an apple wedge thing that was both stodgy and had no real apple flavor. The pumpkin pie wedges and lemon wedges did at least have some flavor, but that was about it. Realistically, the sweet potato casserole, served as a dish with the main course, was the best dessert they had on the line.
Drinks? Well, the cranberry spritzer wasn't too bad, but it ran out quickly. The iced tea was served in both unsweetened and unsweet but labeled sweet. Seriously, you would think being here in the South they would know something about making sweet tea, but apparently not.
Final thoughts? I am going to avoid functions that are catered by these guys. I know the previous group that was contracted by the university were also bad, but sadly there hasn't been any real improvement.