I really hate leaving negative reviews, but I think this was so egregious, and I have such respect…read morefor this community, that I wanted to share our experience. It may not align with what others have had, but so many people recommended Odeen's when I asked this community for suggestions, so I felt it was worth sharing. Unfortunately, not only did they miss the mark, but they seemed to miss the opportunity to make it right.
We booked them for a party of 30-35 people, and it was one disappointment after another. Over the course of the event, our two servers had to make separate runs back to the restaurant -- one for the correct shrimp after the wrong order was delivered, one for the ribs, one for the cornbread, and one for the chafing dishes. Every one of those trips left our party effectively unstaffed, to the point where I had to step in and bring food out myself. Naturally, all of this pushed dinner service later and later.
We had ordered barbecue shrimp and received two trays of cocktail shrimp instead. When we flagged the mix-up, the chef had the servers ask if we wanted to keep the cocktail shrimp in addition to what we'd ordered. We said we'd take it only if there was no charge, since we didn't need it but didn't want to see it go to waste. Instead, the chef had it taken back and thrown in the garbage -- roughly 5 pounds of perfectly good shrimp, when it could have easily been donated or put to some other use. It felt like a spiteful choice, especially at a time when food waste is a real issue and plenty of people could have used that food.
Only 24 ribs were sent for a party of 30-35 people -- nowhere near enough. The cornbread was forgotten and had to be retrieved separately, and when it finally arrived, the honey butter was missing. The coleslaw was so drowned in mayonnaise -- despite our specific request for light mayo due to a lactose intolerance in our group -- that we had to throw out the entire tray.
Worst of all, there was no backup manager on site. Our two servers made close to 12 calls trying to reach Mary, the manager we'd coordinated the entire order with, who was at another event and never picked up, leaving them completely unsupported while they scrambled to fix problem after problem alone. Because dinner ended up served so late, the servers' shift ended before everything could even be put out and cleaned up -- leaving us to finish serving and clean up our own party. The entire point of hiring catering staff was so we could actually enjoy our guests -- instead we spent the event managing repeated mistakes with zero support from the company.
When we raised all of this afterward, we were offered a $300 credit on a $2,800 bill -- for one rack of ribs, the cornbread, and the coleslaw -- with no acknowledgment whatsoever of the impact on our actual event. Given that only 24 ribs were sent in the first place, crediting a single rack back doesn't even come close to fixing the shortfall for our guest count.
The two servers on site, Francesca and Penelope, were doing their best in a genuinely unsupported situation. We tipped them generously anyway, because none of this was their fault -- it all comes down to the company's lack of management, preparation, and accountability.
Nobody should have to go through an event like this, but more than that, nobody should be treated so dismissively afterward. I can't recommend this company for an event you actually care about going smoothly.
