Caribbean Caterers

My husband and I got married October 8th 2023. We are childhood sweethearts. The most important aspect of our wedding that we emphasized heavily was food. We were willing and able to pay the extra bucks as long as the food was right for our special day. We even went to other caterers and other tastings by which we weren't pleased with, until we came across Caribbean Caterers. The tasting with Caribbean Caterers was magnificent by which is what drew us in to immediately selecting them for our big day. They had a personal photographer/videographer, so they were able to share video footage of us tasting the food as a keepsake. Our venue actually only wanted their select few of caterers in their venue due to problems in the past. We went over and beyond and were able to talk the venue into allowing Caribbean Caterers. However, everything took a turn for the worse when the food at our wedding tasted nothing like the food from the tasting. The food lacked seasoning, taste, and flavor. It was bland. Our dinner menu was braised beef short rib, stuffed chicken, and salmon. The sides were sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese pie, and greens. The greens tasted like Glory greens from the can plopped on a plate. The sweet potatoes tasted like they were boiled and just smashed on a plate with no taste or flavor. The mac and cheese was dried out. There was a mixture of overcooked meats and undercooked meats for the reception and cocktail hour foods. The cocktail hour foods were crab cakes, fried chicken skewers, vegetable spring rolls, and shrimp and grits. My father actually tried three different fried chicken skewer sticks and all were undercooked. Not edible at all. The fried chicken skewers were soggy. The worst thing about it is that my husband and I hadn't ate all day and were finally able to sit down and eat at our reception and the food tasted so horrible we didn't touch the plate at all the rest of the night. Gillian, who is the CEO who was present at the wedding, the only excuse was that the bride and groom typically never get time to eat. We for sure had enough time to eat at our sweetheart table, but our food was so tasteless we couldn't bare eating any of it. We had multiple zoom calls that Caribbean Caterers recorded. Where they contradicted themselves and made up excuses to why they are not to be held liable for anything that went wrong. First, Gillian blamed the venue because of the multiple delays that evening which caused them to not be able to produce the food to the best of quality. She stated that the food had to be reheated multiple times and therefore that's the reason it did not taste how it should. My response back to that was it doesn't matter how many times you reheat or even leave food cold, if you seasoned the food properly the food will still remain with a taste and be manageable to enjoy regardless. You would still taste the seasoning, but to not taste no seasoning on our wedding food at all is outrageous. Gillian kept telling me that I should ask other chefs and that she wants me to put a meal in the oven for 2 hours and that's what she had to deal with that night, but it is due to things out of her control. I am not asking other chefs they did not do my wedding that day. You all did. That has nothing to do with the food being tasteless. How I season my food and how they choose to season the food are two different things. My food would still taste good and have flavor because I seasoned it properly rather than if it was kept in the oven for 2 hours or not. In addition, I heard Gillian say on the first zoom call that she had to take chicken back that wasn't thoroughly cooked. Then all of a sudden the second meeting she says I never said that and it may have been overcooked but not undercooked. I said to them well if I am not hearing correctly, I would like to listen to both recordings of the zoom meetings, so I can make sure I heard what I heard and nothing is being made up. Gillian kept talking around my question and not trying to give the zoom recordings for me to listen to. Then she says we can schedule a time for you to listen to the recordings and tries to say they can't send the recordings. I told them that it is possible to send me the zoom call recordings and I would like the recordings from the meetings we had, which was only two meetings. Caribbean Caterers responded via email and saying "We are unable to provide you with the recordings." I asked them what is the reason for not being able to provide the recordings and they have not responded since then. To further continue on with the issues from that day, they had run out of salmon for guests that ordered salomon. Yes! My wedding was plated and not a buffet. Their excuse was that it was not clear on the table settings on who was supposed to get what, therefore their team did the best they could as well as my wedding planner and her team did the best they could. My thing is that they had a wrap up call with my wedding planner and I where they stated they understood the placement of which meal is supposed to go where and the seating. So, even if it was forgotten to put a picture of salmon on the menu or wherever to indicate what meal was supposed to go there, you all should have known salmon was supposed to go there from confirmation early on and being provided that information early on. You all knew how many salmon, beef, and chicken was supposed to be provided. When a guest said they didn't want or ask for beef and salmon instead Caribbean Caterers gave the guests what they asked for and that's not what you should have been doing for a plated dinner. The salmon guests could bare with eating it, but not the chicken and beef guests, therefore no wonder they ran out of salmon. Everyone was asking for that instead and they were just giving it out. The beef was tough and unseasoned and it was not like what we had at the tasting. Gillian admitted that there were a lot of things that went wrong behind the scenes of our wedding that day, and the meal we chose from Caribbean Caterers is their typical normal meals they cook, so she can't see that anything went wrong. She did not want to take accountability for nothing Caribbean Caterers did wrong. Just point the finger at everyone else and every other vendor. She just kept talking about applauding her team for them going above and beyond. I even asked Gillian if she tasted the food by which she stated that she did and when my wedding planner called her out and said well you didn't taste the food at the wedding in the state it was in that evening. She had nothing to say toward that. There are things that happen at every wedding out of the ordinary. However, you being a full service catering company with years of experience own up to your mishaps as you all were not perfect and take accountability. The options we chose were their usual meals they cook, which is why we are very disappointed in a huge amount of money wasted and how our big day turned out to be a wreck food wise. Our wedding expense was very costly ($159 per person). We had 152 guests and it's even worse with the fact that we got a terrible experience out of this. Another annoying aspect was that during the zoom calls Gillian was even rolling her eyes up in her head on the call while I was discussing each of my issues with her because she didn't care about anything I was saying. No solution has been provided and the only other option would be to take legal action.

The whole experience was amazing. From the first contact, elegant tasting and actual wedding it was just great. All of our guest raves about the food. Gillian, Anthony, Andrea, Ricardo and the rest of the staff provided excellent service!!

Severely disappointing experience. Gillian was totally unorganized and unprofessional. Gillian fell short of our expectations, and the photos and reviews online are misleading. She was supposed to help draft a floorplan but only came up with a doodle. I actually drafted a floorplan and sent it to her, a job she was supposed to do, and she didn't pay any attention to it. On the day of our event, Gillian set out seven tables instead of the six we needed. We provided our own chargers, due to her marked up prices between proposals, and she tried to say we didn't have the amount we did - because of the extra table. She actually was abrasive and confrontational about it to my wife, accusing us of holding things up - saying she just had people standing around... All because of her lack of attention to detail and disregard for the plans we attempted to put in place. It was clear Gillian was unorganized, but her demeanor was truly unpleasant and unprofessional. She caused my wife unnecessary stress, due to her lack of organization and people skills. My wife had tried to help re-explain things to Gillian, but Gillian was rude and dismissive. She was confrontational to my wife before our event, and even interrupted my wife while she was talking to our guests during our event - to ask when the food should go out. Ironically, we provided her a timeline and she didn't follow through with that either. As a 'professional,' you'd expect better. The bar also ran out of alcohol. Fortunately her staff contacted her, after I realized the situation and confronted them, and she went out to get more alcohol. But they ran out of several other things at the bar and the drinks weren't uniform. The appetizer plates were also underwhelming and did not meet our expectations. We weren't offered a tasting or an example of how the food would look, and we were left underwhelmed on the day of our event. The photos online are misleading. Speaking of photos, Gillian also had a mask less photographer with her - who she didn't introduce to us - nor did she ask permission for him to be on site. This is classless and disrespectful. Her crew only had to set out table cloths, napkins and silverware - and they didn't even have that done before our guests arrived, due to her lack of organization and blatant disregard for the floorplan and schematics we provided her. She had a sour attitude and made it clear we were not a priority. When we arrived early to the venue, the venue owner and Gillian had been talking inside as we walked in. The venue owner greeted us, but Gillian just walked off. She was very rude throughout our event and had a poor demeanor. She seemed to be seeking out how to do the bare minimum, as we rescheduled due to COVID-19. She also couldn't provide an itemized bill, and I noticed five discrepancies between recent proposals from her - which illustrates how the prices seem to be 'made up.' She also put a tip cup on the bar, when the bartender was making $80/hr, without asking our permission, which exemplifies her classlessness. The main course was decent, but nothing spectacular. It truly wasn't worth the money, and we were left severely dissatisfied and disappointed. I am glad this was for an anniversary party and not our actual wedding, because it was a nightmare dealing with Gillian. Her staff were much more professional and friendly, but I caution against doing any business with Gillian or Caribbean Caterers.