Similar to other reviewers, we chose Rivera Events to provide catering services for my son's 1st birthday after Vanessa sold the company to us as being a "family business" with many years of experience. We requested 40 hot dogs, 40 hamburgers, 40 pan con lechons, and baked beans for 40 guests from 12-3 PM.
To start, the cook was unprofessional and rude, pulling a random party guest to the side at around 1:30 PM and telling him that he was "leaving at 2 PM (an hour before the agreed upon time) because "no one was really eating". This confused guest informed me at which point I called Vanessa for clarification. She confirmed it was until 3 PM and the cook didn't so much as glare at my direction or apologize for the misunderstanding. He maintained his gaze downward and just started grilling some hot dogs -- it was obvious he did not want to be there. Then, I had MULTIPLE guests come up to me to tell me that he was only offering them hot dogs and hamburgers, despite me having paid for 40 pan con lechons and baked beans as well. My husband's cousin even told me that at one point he went up to the cook to ask what he had and that the cook replied "I only have hot dogs". We are a hispanic family, in no way are my relatives going to choose a hot dog over a pan con lechon. When my husband and I informed our families of the selections, some guests went to get, however, at this point, it was nearly 3 o'clock and conveniently time for him to start cleaning up.
I subsequently expressed all of my frustrations with Vanessa and received no sense of empathy for my experience despite having paid +$1200 for this service. She retreated to make irrelevant comments such as, "He [the cook] also mentioned that you had by paella so many options for your guests to choose from" (this was provided by another catering company, which I'd gladly refer to friends and family) & "there was a sign with all the food that we provided as well as him offering what we had". When we shared a picture of the bare table with NO menu on display (thank goodness for my guests and their cameras; see picture below), it was conveniently disregarded by Vanessa who clinged to the notion that the cook provided my guests with "utmost attention and professionalism", despite not having been there herself.
Lastly, being that pan con lechon and baked beans were not presented to guests, you would assume there would be a lot of leftovers as I paid for 40 people per item. Especially if guests had allegedly declined beans as the cook claimed, right? Well, I never received any baked beans to take home and only ONE tray of pan con lechon (which could hold no more than 12). I raised this concern to Vanessa four times, and to this day it continues to be left unaddressed, which is a red flag in my opinion. Her only response days later, after MULTIPLE follow-up attempts by me, was a copy of the invoice (???) saying "These are the services we were hired for and these are the services that we provided." No, Vanessa, services were not provided as agreed upon considering the above statements. At this point, her emails are starting to emulate an AI-generated auto-response with no genuine apology or some form of compensation in site.
All in all, please read and consider the ONE STAR reviews. In my opinion, this company does not genuinely care for its clients and should not be rewarded with their time, consideration, or money. read more