We chose Classic Catering for our wedding and they did a great job overall! Classic Catering gives you large tasting portions, and they are also open and willing to try new recipes to make sure you have the kind of foods you want for your event.... They recommended that we do a “sampling of our cultures”, so they opted to do two Korean dishes for us (japchae and bulgogi). They wine and dine you to win your bid (and we did TWO tastings with them to ensure they got our cultural dishes right. No additional cost for the second tasting). Sandy was our direct contact until the week of, and she was a pleasure to work with. Classic Catering is not crazy expensive for the amount and differing types of food that you can have, so we were glad we chose them. They also can easily accommodate all types of dietary restrictions, which was great since we had gluten free, vegans, and vegetarians among our guests.
Sandy offered us discounts from her partnering vendors, and she was always quick to respond to any questions or concerns. Honestly, Sandy was a breath of fresh air compared to some other vendors. She was easy to work with and really tries to get to know her clients in order to provide a personal touch to the services provided.
While I was very pleased with Sandy, Classic Catering’s ability to deviate from their traditional menu, and the food we tasted, unfortunately, I had to deduct a star because the execution of the services during our rehearsal dinner was not great. The (plated) food came cold, and they ran out of stuff during the wedding.
During the creation of the menu, Sandy listed all alternate meals (vegetarian and vegan) that needed to be given to people and was very open to making special meals just for them. Sandy puts everything on the contract and that goes to the supervisor for the event. Our rehearsal dinner was plated so we expected that when the servers would bring the food out, the vegans and vegetarians would self-identify, and the servers would go grab their plate which was set aside. Those folks did self-identify to the servers. Unfortunately, the servers ignored our vegetarian friend and served them the meat dish TWICE and said they did not have any vegetarian options, which angered her husband (my best man) and me. The supervisor then came over. When we told them the issue, they went to get the vegetarian plate, which they DID have, but the server apparently didn’t know about it.
Also, I don’t recommend a plated dinner if your event isn’t in Northern VA (i.e. Fairfax, Arlington) or DC. It’s not that the food wasn’t good or well cooked, it’s just that it came out of the “steam bags” luke-warm/cold since it wasn’t cooked locally, and the travel to our venue was over an hour away. Despite the assurances that the food would be piping hot upon arrival, it was not.
The day of the wedding, we had a buffet for the reception and that went well; the waiters served my wife and me all the food we wanted separately (we ate apart from the guests which I HIGHLY recommend). No issues there and everything was delicious. The only thing that upset me the day of the wedding was that Sandy promised they’d bring enough apple cider for the entire event, but they ran out of it during cocktail hour while we were taking pictures.
Overall, from Sandy to the logistical staff, everyone was very nice to work with. Moreover, their ability to deviate from their traditional menu for cultural food, vegan, gluten free, and vegetarian meals is phenomenal.