Black Pelican Catering

We used Black Pelican Catering for our wedding buffet at a private residence in Nags Head. Leading up to the wedding it was an incredible pleasure working with Jen & Summer who were professional and patient with all of my questions and menu adjustments. We visited the restaurant beforehand to try some of the items on their catering menu and immediately knew we wanted to go with them! The crab rangoon and sweet potato ham biscuits are AMAZING! My Maryland husband is very picky about crab cakes and even HE gave their crab cakes the stamp of approval. High praise! There were some issues with the delivery on the day of the wedding, but Black Pelican was quick to apologize and go way beyond what we were expecting to correct our experience. I was worried about the quantity of food since you never know how guests will act around a buffet, but we were assured that there would be plenty for everyone to try everything on the menu. And sure enough, there was PLENTY to go around and we even had some leftover! We are so grateful for their kindness and quality! We would highly recommend them for catering.

I got married at a state owned and operated facility, so there were many rules that needed to be followed. When it came to catering, I needed a caterer that used locally sustained products and had their ABC license to serve alcohol. They also didn't need to serve their alcohol, I could bring my own. Black Pelican had it all! They also communicated when I had a million questions and they welcomed that. After every email and/or phone interaction, they followed up with documentation of changes. Even when their menu changed during my wedding planning process, they honored the one we started with (food and prices). They would rather me ask and not assume and I appreciated that. Their menu offered a wide variety of styles and foods at reasonable prices. Since I chose the buffet option, I got to fully customize what food was served at my wedding. The one and only downfall is they are only in the office Tuesday and Thursday nights 6-9 pm, so I had to be patient with communicating with them.

BLACK PELICAN IS THE BEST CATERER IN OBX EVER! The food was AMAZING. The service was OVER THE TOP. The bartenders were EXCELLENT. Jennifer and Summer were very easy to work! They always responded promptly and never hesitated to make any changes I requested. Overall, their service was flawless! I will always recommend them to any bride in the OBX area.

AMAZING FOOD!!! My guests couldn’t say enough about how good the food was! Best wedding food they’ve ever had! Their prices were reasonable and their menu selection was huge! Whenever an issue came up, they worked with me to sort it out. While we were sweating during pictures, they made sure to bring my husband and I ice water. So thoughtful. They also had us a plate of appetizers ready for after the pictures so we could cool down just the two of us :) 10/10 !!!

When we hired Black Pelican we were so intrigued by their giant menu of offerings. We did make it a point to take a trip down to OBX to check some of our wedding vendors out, and stopped into the Black Pelican Restaurant. Food & service did not disappoint, so we knew we were on the right track for our wedding. After the help of their staff on narrowing some of our top choices down we came up with a wedding menu that catered (literally) to all of our guests. Their staff during the course of our wedding was on it! Appetizers & Entrees came out on time & were delicious. The bartender (I am blanking on her name) was fabulous. We had such a good time with her. The wait staff was never intrusive but made sure tables were bussed and the tent was tidy. The only complaint is there wasn't enough crab rangoons. They were delicious and we should have served them all night..not just during "cocktail" hour. At the end of the night all our left over food was packaged up and we were able to bring it home. That came in handy about an hour later at the after party. We were so thankful to have good food for ourselves and our guests the night of the wedding and would recommend Black Pelican to anyone getting married in the future.

Leading up to the wedding everyone at Black Pelican was great! With covid, tastings were being delayed but I was able to get a to-go tasting to help plan our menu. All of the food was delicious for both our rehearsal and wedding. We could not have been happier with the service leading up to and at the wedding. The staff was all so friendly! We would definitely use Black Pelican again for catering another event!

We had appetizers and dinner for our wedding catered by the Black Pelican. The crab cakes had a great flavor and everyone loved the smoked gouda mashed potatoes. My husband was craving leftover risotto balls the next day but they had all been eaten! The only negative feedback I heard was about the sweet potato ham biscuits. I did not have a chance to try them but two guests commented that they were mushy. Overall I could not be happier with the service I received. They were easy to work with and flexible as our needs changed.

WOW! Not only will we & our guests be dreaming about the Black & Bleu NY Strip steak (with demi-glace & fried onions) for years to come, but the Black Pelican team executed our event seamlessly. Seriously though, we had guests begging for leftovers to eat for breakfast the next day. The food was phenomenal and all of our guests loved the Black Pelican staff. I can't even put into words how seamless the Catering team made our planning. I must have had new questions nearly every other week in the months leading up to the event, and they helped guide such a significant portion of my wedding planning. We already can't wait to visit Black Pelican as we celebrate our anniversaries on the OBX in years to come!

BEST TEAM EVER! The food was amazing and the team was the BEST to work with. Our guests are still raving about the food! B.P. has so many amazing food options, and they will customize everything to how you want it done!! The servers literally wore blush pink bowties to go with my theme – it was amazing!!!! Our wedding was featured on TLCs ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ and they were so cool calm and collected with the entire camera crew there filming. We worked with Jennifer and Summer throughout our planning process and they were so attentive, professional, and fun to work with!! Black pelican went out of their way to accommodate us & the quality of the food is top notch, they had us with the first bite of food we tried. From the planning to the execution everything was top-notch. Jennifer came to our venue prior to the event and walked through with us making suggestions on how to make things efficient and pleasing to the eye. They shared their expertise in recommending certain things and advising against others. Everything was pleasing to the eye and the staff was professional, courteous, and highly-skilled. The team was on site for the entire event and were right on top of everything. They left the venue looking just as good as when they arrived. If you are looking for the most amazing food, the most professional staff, and a company that will truly make your event memorable, hire Black Pelican!!

Catering from the Black Pelican was awesome!! The food and quality of service were great!! That shrimp and crab dip and bacon wrapped shrimp were delicious and of course all of our entrees were amazing!! We had plenty of food and even left overs! Everyone is still talking about our food!! Thank you for making our day perfect!!

I have never heard so many people compliment wedding food the way our guests complimented Black Pelican! We’ve been eating at Black Pelican restaurant for years so they were a no-brainer when it came time to pick a wedding caterer. Leading up to wedding day, the staff was extremely helpful in answering all of our questions and working out all of the details. Day of, the catering and waitstaff was on their game! I never once saw an empty bottle or dirty plate on a table. Everyone I encountered was very friendly and genuinely seemed happy to be there. The food was fresh and phenomenal! I guess it IS possible to have memorable wedding food! We are so happy with Black Pelican Catering and cannot recommend them enough!

The best. We did buffet style, and the food was still hot! It was delicious and everyone left "fat and happy."

So much amazing food! We had heavy apps for our cocktail hours after our ceremony and we got so many compliments! We also had a bartender from the restaurant and they did such a great job. We really appreciated all the hard work and planning by Black Pelican. We definitely recommend!

Food was amazing, service was exceptional and seamless. Highly recommend the Black Pelican. You can't go wrong with them.

Delicious food, amazing staff, and great catering coordinators that make choosing from their HUGE menu a breeze. They were able to customize our menu to make it exactly what we wanted. We can't wait to stop by the restaurant at our next visit back to the area!

The Black Pelican has always been a family favorite of ours! The food has always been great! We hired them for our rehearsal dinner, our wedding day brunch, and our reception. The rehearsal dinner food could have been better, but it was because we scheduled it for a drop off during Saturday traffic, so I’m sure it would have been better if it was prepped on site. The reception food was spectacular! Everything was fresh and delicious and everyone kept raving about it! Thanks so much!

Black Pelican did an AMAZING job at my wedding. Everything was perfect , all of the food was delicious. I could not have picked a better Caterer. Thank you so much!!

The food was perfect and plenty to go around. My new wife and I liked it so much we plan on eating at the Black Pelican every time we visit!

The Black Pelican was available for our very last minute wedding! We originally had another caterer book and they went under new management. The Black Pelican staff were so professional and accommodating. Their food was amazing and well reviewed by everyone who made it to our wedding! Thank you Nancy, Summer and everyone who was there to make the day so special!

Black Pelican was a great choice for our wedding! All of our guests loved the food! The staff was a breeze to work with and made the catering aspect of our wedding planning fun (and yummy!). The day of our wedding the staff made sure that we got a plate of appetizers when we arrived at our reception and were very professional. I would highly recommend Black Pelican!

Having a destination wedding can be difficult. You are choosing vendors based on recommendations. You never get to meet the vendor or in this case try the food. I was recommended this caterer from several locals. The entire email process and choosing the food was very simple. Even having last minute changes and add on's were not a problem with this company of professionals. We got married during a storm which created around 3 feet of water in front of our event home. This made it difficult for any vendor to get to our home. I was convinced that we would not be able to get the food to the home as the road was blocked. Black pelican not only got there they set up quickly and we're very professional. I could go on and on about how incredible the food was. Every single one of guests enjoyed it and are still raving about how delicious everything was. The staff was friendly and very flexible as the weather caused a few delays. We can not thank this staff enough and would highly recommend them for your wedding or caterering event. Thank you so much Black Pelican for making our wedding so perfect - Breanne & Timothy Martindell

The food was delicious and there was so much! Really reasonable pricing also!

Amazing food! Renee was great to work with.

The food was amazing, the service was on point. The staff arrived on time, and on the served our meal flawlessly! We also ate at their restaurant several times and strongly recommend them!

As an out of town bride to be, picking such an important vendor as caterer over the Internet was concerning. The catering group at Black Pelican walked me through the steps, worked with me and my budget, and the day ran great! Since my 1st tasting was my wedding day, I am so happy I got to wait because it was amazing and a nice ending to my special day. Thank you Black Pelican Catering!

Can’t say enough great things! We had a small wedding and were definitely on a budget. We chose one of their preset menus and made a few changes which were easily accommodated and still very affordable. We did do tasting with them at their restaurant, which I would recommend as they had a made a mistake initially but it was easily resolved and the BBQ was initially too spicy so that was tweaked a little for the reception and turned out great! They were very easy to work with and responded very quickly to questions by email and phone. Our menu consisted of garden salad, biscuits, NC pulled pork BBQ, and Herb rubbed grilled chicken breasts with coleslaw, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, baked beans, and macaroni and cheese. So much food! During the reception, everyone kept saying how good the food was and we had tons of leftovers so the day after the wedding we had everyone over at our rental house and had the leftovers which were great warmed up also! During our tasting I had joked about wanting chicken tenders for myself and they not only had a plate for me at the wedding but they also had some wrapped up for me with the other leftovers! They bring a catering truck and cook on site. We had a buffet style with two waitresses on helped with clean up and cake cutting and champagne pouring were included in the price. Don’t know about other caterering companies but word to the wise when you first book you have to have a guaranteed number of guests that you pay for whether or not your guest count drops below that so aim low. Our count was a few too high so we paid for guests that were not there but since they allow you to keep leftovers we ended up having a minimal amount of food wasted. During our process we ended up speaking to a few different people since someone was out on maternity leave during our initial booking so at the end an extra charge showed up but after talking it over with them it was quickly resolved. They can get expensive quickly but we saved by providing our own drinks and purchased our own plates and utensils (the kind that look like real china and silverware). We made our own appetizer trays (fruit, veggie, shrimp cocktail) as theirs were a bit pricy, but they did have an extensive menu available. Overall, would definitely recommend!

We had our rehearsal dinner here and the food was AMAZING! We had originally thought we were going to have it somewhere else until we ate dinner here the one night while we were down from PA getting finishing touches ready. They have a huge room so you aren't down with everyone else and it has it's own bar. The food came out fast and hot and they refilled it just as quickly. Everyone was super friendly!

I used Black Pelican to cater our rehearsal dinner. We ordered and bacon wrapped shrimp and tomato mozzarella skewers as appetizers and blackened chicken with mango salsa and grouper in parchment for entrees. Everything was delicious! Our guests raved about the food.

Rarely do you have rave reviews from guests on wedding food. Ours emailed weeks later saying they CRAVED ours. We hosted our wedding buffet style with a prime rib carvings station, blackened chicken & amazing garlic pasta. For the appetizers we had crab dip & hummus - each was delicious. Everything was perfectly cooked and amazing. The best part was we got to keep all of our leftovers & ate them the next week while we were on the beach. Most certainly one of the best values for an OBX wedding, but by far the best tasting. The staff was polite & FUN. Would absolutely recommend.

From the first email I knew that I was going to love working with everyone at the Black Pelican. Emily and Crystal were extremely helpful and were always there to answer any questions that we had. We knew that all of guests would love the food after our tasting. The food was everything that we thought it would be and more. We had the pulled pork, BBQ chicken, potato salad, garden salad,green beans.Chicken tenders and mac n cheese for the kiddos. Everyone raved about how delicious everything tasted. We did deviled eggs, spinach and artichoke dip, crab dip as well and all of those were wonderful and tasty as well. There were so many compliments from our guest about how good all of the food was and how great everything looked during the cocktail and reception. As the bride and groom, of course we didn't get to see much of setup...since we were in the "wedding fog". We also got great reviews from our guest about how efficient all the servers were at making everything come together. We had to flip the house we were renting and have all our 105 guest eat inside instead of outside because of mother nature. Needless to say there was a lot of rearranging furniture that night..so not only were they great servers but decorators too. I would highly recommend the Black Pelican Oceanfront Restaurant for you next event.

For my June 1, 2013 wedding we used Black Pelican as our caterer! The food was unbelievably good! I had so many compliments and I really wanted to relay the message. This food was exactly what I was looking for! We also used their Bar Tender and she was amazing! I was able to cut the line anytime I wanted lol ;)

Emily, the Catering Manager at the Black Pelican, was so nice and easy to work with. She was able to work with all of our requests and reponded quickly. The food was delicious and elegantly presented. I highly recommend!

I LOVE their food. I'm from Philadelphia and went down to OBX in April for a few days to do my tastings. I was so impressed with their food that i stayed AFTER my tasting for dinner AND went back the next day for dinner! When i returned in September for the wedding, i brought my family there for dinner a few days before the wedding. My guests raved about my food and said it was the best wedding food they'd EVER had! Being as we're from a big city, most of my guests are foodies so that was a big deal! The staff is amazing and very helpful. I spoke with them so many times that i felt like they were my girlfriends! Even invited a few of them to the wedding! I will be back in OBX every summer now with the family and i will be visiting The Black Pelican every time i"m there on vacation!

The staff at the Black Pelican is outstanding! From the planning to the day of the event, we couldn't be happier! Emily, the event coordinator, is a true "gem" and asset to this organization! The service was wonderful and food was delicious (presentation was lovely too!) I would highly recommend the Black Pelican to anyone!

My family has been vacationing in the Outer Banks for 30 years and I even lived there for almost two years...I can say this is one of my family's favorite places to eat while we are at the beach! I attended the Outer Banks Wedding Expo in January of 2010...and they were my favorite food vendor. The staff is wonderful to work with and understanding of budget...making recommendations of how you can save money by simply substituting the cut of meat! I have had sooo many compliments on the food...it was VERY YUMMY...bacon wrapped shrimp was a major hit along with the beef entree we chose...and their potatoes are famous or maybe I should say infamous!!!

This caterer should be used by anyone who's having a wedding at the Outer Banks. From the first email all the way to their quiet exit the night of the wedding, this caterer was responsive, courteous and helpful throughout. Plus, the food was amazing. We had guests repeatedly tell us throughout the night that it was some of the best food and service at a wedding they had ever experienced!