NOT RECOMMENDED FOR WEDDINGS!
I've held off writing this review but after waiting for over 5 weeks for a response to some pretty basic service issues from Spitting Image Catering at my wedding I have realised that they don't care about improving their business or about their clients. I'm hoping to warn others about this company's service in the hope that they don't take advantage of anyone else's special day.
I hired Spitting Image to cater my wedding. I had read many good reviews about them online, went out to their kitchen and met the chef and tasted their food which was very good. Everything seemed to be very easy and running very smoothly until the day of the wedding.
I had ordered their gourmet finger food menu. We had chosen the food months in advance and booked it all in, but on the day I realised that the food circulating the room was not the food I had chosen. I can't get an answer out of Spitting Image as to why, but they changed my menu without notifying myself or my husband. We had picked some nice stuff for our wedding - seafood, tartlets, sushi, that kind of thing, we wanted to keep it classy cocktail. Yes, many of these dishes did circulate the room, but I was disappointed to see that the main tray of food being offered to people was a plate of party pies and sauce. This was something we definitely did not and would not order for our wedding and I feel that it cheapened the feel of our event. Of the 10 menu items I picked out I was only offered 4, yet those pies kept on doing the rounds they went past me more often then any other food, making me think that this was a cheap 'filler' option. There seemed to be many more pies than any other food. What's more Spitting Image charged me for the gourmet menu but served food that was off their cheaper menu, really shoddy.
There are three items that I ordered for the wedding that none of my guests I spoke to saw all night. I don't know if these were scrapped or if they were in smaller quantities than the other items but it seems very strange that so many people didn't see this food.
I had ordered 3 veggie options for my vegetarian guests, unfortunately two of the menu items that no one can account for were the vegetarian food. One of my vegetarian guests was so hungry that she ate the bread off my pork bun, I was so embarrassed!
Also don't rely on Spitting Image if you have guests with dietary requirements. I had one vegan guest at my wedding, and confirmed with Spitting Image FOUR times before the event that they would provide vegan food. They told me it was fine and they would provide my guest with her own plate of food. I spoke to her the following day, Spitting Image didn't provide her with her meal so she didn't have anything to eat all night! This was probably the thing I was most upset about, my guest had even offered to bring her own food since she knew vegan is tricky, but I assured her that it was all sorted. I felt so bad! When I questioned Spitting Image on this they told me that they asked my mother in law where to deliver the vegan food, (this she doesn't recall so sounds like a dodgy excuse to me) but even if they did my mother in law was a visiting guest and doesn't know our friends, it doesn't make any sense to ask her about guest diets. Spitting Image refuse to answer me when I ask them why they didn't ask myself or my husband (the people that hired them!) where to take the food. We were pretty easy to spot in the crowd. I'm not sure if Spitting Image actually did provide a vegan meal but if they did they made a lousy out noattempt to deliver it, yet they were still happy to charge me for a meal that didn't come!
Finally, we were hungry! I was told that we would get 8-10 pieces per person, which I think would have been fine. I actually paid for 5 extra serves of 10 items just to make sure we would have enough. However on the day I was only offered 4 items all night ( plus 4 offering of the dreaded party pie which I wasn't willing to tackle wearing a big white dress) and my husband was only offered 5 items. Most people I spoke to were the same. Spitting Image tell me that they provided 90 of each of my 10 options (we had 80 guests) but this just doesn't make sense to me. I was in the room with everyone else, how can the food not make it to the bride and groom??
As soon as I mentioned my concerns to Spitting Image the following day they were very responsive and told me that they took feedback very seriously and would investigate everything. I thought they would give me some answers and maybe at least an apology, plus I was leaving the next day for a 6 week international holiday, so I (stupidly) paid their bill, trusting that they would sort it out. All I got was lame excuses trying to shift the blame onto other people such as my guests, myself, my mother in law and the venue owner, now I get nothing from them at all.
anyway, this was my experience, stress I didn't need! Just be wary of them. read more
