About this vendor
Liberation Foods is an experienced catering company providing high quality wedding meals from Oakland, CA. The cuisine is memorable and will make your guests talk about the wedding for years. The service makes sure you and your guests are comfortable with the entire process and event. You become part of our family when you decide to work with Liberation Foods. The process is seamless and the team is thorough to make sure all your needs are met. It starts with a warm welcome and is followed by diligent guidance for cuisine and service decisions.
The team provides several catering service options and packages. Our premier buffet is a contemporary American classic and comes with dedicated servers. The elegant fine dining plated package is full service, includes cutlery, linens, decorations and plates. Bartending services are also provided for couples.
The cuisine is contemporary, nouveau American divided between elegant fine dining and approachable tasty buffet meals. Inspiration comes from Southern Accents, East Coast Traditions and California Delicacies. Our chefs are classically trained and follow French culinary techniques. The team is very flexible to work with all dietary restrictions including vegan, paleo, vegetarian and gluten-free.
Liberation Foods works with a variety of venues throughout the region. Whether the venue has a full kitchen or no kitchen, we will work to produce a flawless experience. Outdoor venues are welcome. Banquet halls in San Francisco are great to work with. The company has been operating in the Bay Area for over 5 years. The Executive Chef, Dennis Freeman, is constantly creating tantalizing dishes and is extremely passionate about making amazing culinary experiences. He has been cooking professionally for ten years and has produced meals for hundreds of weddings.
Details
Business Attributes
- Asian-owned Business
Cuisine
- American
- BBQ
- French
- Fusion
- Greek
- Hawaiian
Dietary Options
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Halal
- Kosher
- Nut Free
- Organic
Food & Catering
- Buffet
- Catering Clean Up
- Catering Delivery & Setup
- Chef Stations
- Family Style
- Menu Tastings
Awards and Affiliations
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
4.7
out of 5.036 reviews
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I had the unfortunate event of having my wedding cancelled two weeks before the wedding. I had already paid Dennis $5000. He refused to issue any sort of refund, only a "credit" for a future event. This included rental supplies, not just food. I understand the opportunity costs for Dennis, but he had a couple weeks to find a gig, he no longer had to pay others for help, and could have saved on supplies and still offered a partial refund.
Because he refused to provide any sort of refund I made him make me the food anyway and donated it to charity. But I would have much preferred a refund. This is an incredibly painful experience, and Dennis made it worse.
Dennis and the Liberation Foods team were excellent. Communication with Dennis was easy and he is always open to your suggestions. The food Dennis and the team created was excellent. We had all good reviews from everyone at the wedding! We had a salmon with miso butter that was super tasty, a chicken adobo (which was our suggestion), and another beef dish. The apps was totally demolished by our guests and the salad and sides (hello the bread service was excellent!) were customized for what we wanted: fusion of Greek and Filipino. Dennis and the team make beautiful food! Which was great for us foodies.
Dennis was so friendly, responsive and helpful! Their staff was so nice and friendly during our wedding. Their mac and cheese was a huge hit!! They also helped us rent heat lamps and additional items that are outside fo their usual. They went above and beyond for us. We had a great experience with them!
Dennis was absolutely amazing with food that received many compliments from our guests, especially the vegan garlic mashed potatoes. We were able to modify the delicious meal to fit my dairy and soy allergies, as well as our guests' fish and gluten allergies. Dennis is a wonderful man who listened to what we were looking to have on our special day, and the dinner we were invited to where we went through our order and gave feedback was phenomenal. His catering staff are also very personable and kind. I would highly recommend Liberation Foods to anyone in need of a food caterer.
Dennis and the Liberation Foods team were so grounding, competent, and kind throughout our whole wedding process, and the food was amazing. We appreciated Dennis's extensive pre-designed menu - it made the tasting and selection process for our wedding dinner very easy. He's a great chef and has brought together wonderful people to support the operation. Would recommend!
The staff was so helpful, professional and kind the day of the event! We had the event at a regional park and they set up and cleared up really thoroughly so that we left the park as clean as we found it. The food (a variety of passed appetizers) was excellent and had the southeast Asian influences we were looking for.
Me and my wife had Liberation foods host our wedding reception’s appetizers and dinner. We tried a few vendors initially, and Liberation was our favorite. They went above and beyond, were clearly very experienced, the service was excellent, and everyone said the food was fantastic. One of the things that made the difference in choosing them was that the dishes had clearly been perfected over time and the quality of the sauces was excellent. I highly recommend them!
Liberation Foods is absolutely fantastic. If I have another need for catering, I'll be hiring them again, and recommending them to everyone!
Chef Dennis and his team were fantastic and incredibly professional while also being incredibly chill - a vibe I recommend for everyone in the wedding planning process.
Working with Chef Dennis was really delightful. He was very helpful and thoughtful through the process: communicative, happy to provide suggestions to supplement our menu, and support any dietary needs/requests and supplies.
It's been a month since our wedding and people are still talking to me about how amazing the food was (get the Cadillac mashed potatoes) You won't regret working with this team and their delicious food!
We had the best experience with Liberation Foods. We had found them on the knot and decided to try it and it was of the best decisions from our wedding. The food was outstanding!! I had guests calling us asking us for the “garlic mashed potato” recipe. Dennis was so easy to work with and quick to responding to emails. He was very flexible with any changes we needed as well. Thank you liberation foods for doing such a great job!!
We ended up deciding not to have our wedding in the area but still had to write a review about Dennis. He was an absolute pleasure to work with. Not only was he extremely professional but his kindness, diligence, and timeliness of responses was unmatched. Although we did not end up working with Liberation for our event, this customer service was incredible. They were our first choice for catering and if you’re looking for a responsive, collaborative, and kind person who can work within a budget then Dennis is the perfect fit.
Our Day of Coordinator recommended Liberation Foods because she knew we were on a budget and were looking for affordable, quality food, and both things were absolutely true, so I am glad that I stuck with them. I got quotes from so many vendors and Liberation Foods was by far the most affordable quote for the amount and quality of food offered (seemed to be French style cooking). The tasting we had with chef Dennis was great - all the appetizers, the steak and salmon, everything had was so tasty and presented well, and chef Dennis and the sous chefs and waitstaff who were present were such nice, good people, and they've been with him a long time, which says a lot. They have a rental company they work with and they brought all the linens, plates/flatware/glassware, so that was convenient and on the more affordable side too, so that was good. I was a little concerned that they were located so far away from my venue, but they were on time and it was not a problem after all. The main challenge was with communication. Dennis is the contact person and while he is a really nice guy, was inconsistent in how quickly he would return emails and/or answers to questions would be incomplete, needing multiple further clarifications. He was limited in his options for vegan mains, though he had an open attitude for the vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free item negotiations. If you are considering having Liberation Foods cater your event, I would recommend phone calls over emails (though emails are valuable to refer back to as a record for what was said...) and would just be prepared to be patient and persistent if you have specific questions you need answered. Overall, I wouldn't choose a different caterer because they really came through with good food that everyone enjoyed at a great price point, and with really great servers on the day of the wedding - I was so glad and grateful that it all worked out!
The team at Liberation Foods is hands down one of the absolute best catering teams I have ever had the pleasure of working with! They will go above and beyond to ensure that your event is perfect!!! Not only did they brave the worst snow storm in 30 years for our wedding, but they also ensured the event would be a success by bringing portable gear to work around the venue’s loss of propane, and making sure my husband and I got an opportunity to actually eat before and after the wedding ceremony. They brought small bites the whole time I was getting ready and even did lipstick checks to make sure it was smooth and none was on my teeth after eating! I would hire them to be my team of any event in the future without hesitation. Thank you, Liberation Foods!!!
Just here to say Dennis and his team catered out daughters Baptism. 150 guests and we used all the decor for our wedding so it was basically a re-do of our big day. I have to rave about the quality of their food and service! If you're looking for a caterer in the Bay Area Liberation Foods should be your first choice!
I love dennis! I loved the taste test we did with him. but when the wedding day came. he wasn't there. and the menu was completely different. I was very disappointed.
My husband and I needed to have a full service caterer that offered bartending and on the day coordinator. Dennis and his team made our day so great. He was quick to message back and set up a meeting with us. The food he made for our wedding was perfect! I only wanted a charcuterie board and he made sure to tell his staff to bring my own board to me as we were taking photos. Our wedding was very small and having liberation foods there, it felt like having more family there.
My husband and I needed to have a full service caterer that offered bartending and on the day coordinator. Dennis and his team made our day so great. He was quick to message back and set up a meeting with us. The food he made for our wedding was perfect! I only wanted a charcuterie board and he made sure to tell his staff to bring my own board to me as we were taking photos. Our wedding was very small and having liberation foods there, it felt like having more family there.
Absolutely delicious!
Dennis and his team were wonderful to work with for our wedding. From our initial meeting, he was very friendly and took careful note of our feedback from the tasting. Later on when we decided we wanted to add desserts, he was very accommodating with arranging a second tasting. Dennis communicated well when it came to logistics and coordinating with our planner and the venue owner. Our guests were huge fans of the salad, and one even asked us where they can buy the cheesecake! Highly recommend Dennis and his staff!
Liberation foods was great to work with! Not only did they make an excellent menu to match our pescatarian diet, but they were also efficient, thoughtful, and responded promptly to all of our questions during the planning process. Dennis and his team went above and beyond to make our wedding day feel seamless and stress free.
Very friendly and the food was delicious!
Dennis was so great to work with! We had several people with dietary needs and he handled it with no problem! Also he had the most AMAZING Staff!!!! They were wonderful. I can't say enough good stuff about him and his food.
Dennis and his team at Liberation Foods helped give us a truly wonderful wedding. From the moment we reached out to Dennis we received outstanding communication, transparency, and support. His food is truly stellar and he is a kind and respectful person as well. Our guests at our wedding still cannot stop talking about how much they loved all the food! We had such a great selection of choices, from lemon yogurt chicken skewers to an amazing steak dish with mushroom sauce. If we had to do it all over again we would choose Liberation Foods in a heartbeat.
Dennis, thank you for everything, you deserve all the best in the business. Please never stop doing what you do.
We didn’t have such a great experience as many people rave about. We hired liberation foods for our Big Day based on the stunning reviews. Over the email, our communication was smooth and easy. A week prior to the wedding I sent Dennis a dinner seating and a table set up and explained how many tables are needed on each side. This was a small wedding, 24 people including the couple so we didn’t have a coordinator. For this reason, I was very detailed as I wanted to make sure we don’t have to deal with technical issues during the wedding.
When his staff started setting the tables, they were unaware of how many tables are needed. I had to pull up the excel table on my phone and walked them through it. The groom started helping them set the tables HIMSELF as they were just struggling to grasp an easy concept. I said the exact number of tables needed for each side, but they put more tables, so the groom had to remove them as it was very ugly to have empty tables! The table linens weren’t ironed.
As the dinner started, they served a salad with dairy cheese to the groom who was vegan, and his diet was emphasized to Dennis during our communications. How hard was it to remember that the groom is vegan? The main dish: some guests had meat, some lobster tail. Everyone who I asked about the meat said it was cold. My brother-in-law said, “I wish there was a microwave.” The lobster tail was EXTREMELY salty and too spicy; my best friend who sat near me and I both ate it just because we had a long day and were very hungry. My ant wasn’t able to eat it. I didn’t ask every guest as I was very embarrassed. Also, they served a few plates at a time with a long interval in between, so some guests were already through the dinner while others had no food.
One of his female staff members behaved inappropriately and flirted with my single friend then she started showing us the pictures of her dog all of a sudden. We had several cakes, one for us to cut and the other two to be served. They started serving a cake BEFORE cleaning the table from dirty plates and BEFORE we cut our cake! I was like what the heck?!? We were supposed to have coffee and tea service with the cake, but it was not provided. At this point, I was just too sick and tired of dealing with those people. Overall, it was a frustrating and upsetting experience. I felt like the groom and I had to spend more time communicating with the catering staff and fixing their errors than enjoying the evening with our guests. It felt like these people did not give a damn about providing good service. I am deeply confused by the high reviews of this company.
Liberation Foods is an excellent caterer, Dennis and his team are extremely helpful, professional and responsive. The food and appetizers were amazing. Best caterer I have ever worked with!
Considering catering was one of the biggest priorities for our wedding, I’m so glad Liberation Foods was available to provide delicious and affordable catering for the day! Dennis was very patient with us in establishing a menu customized to our needs, discussing the food with us at our tasting, taking our feedback on the dishes, and working with our coordinator to prepare for the day. Liberation made sure everything went so seamlessly the day of the wedding and they had the nicest and most helpful staff serving hors d’oeuvres, bussing dinner, and bartending. And perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of all, people are still talking about how great the food at our wedding was! I would definitely recommend working with Liberation Foods.
I can not say enough good things about Liberation Foods. They went above and beyond what I could possibly ask of them and on top of that the food was delicious. I would recommend Liberation to anyone who is looking for an amazing caterer.
Liberation Foods was amazing! Food was delicious and Dennis is great! Would 100% hire and recommend them!
It was a truly memorable experience having Liberation Foods cater our wedding. I highly recommend doing the tasting. It was a ton of fun and he helped us decide exactly what we wanted. His team was easy to work with and helped create a fun and elegant package for us. The entire evening was taken care of in terms of food and service. The food came out absolutely delicious.
Dennis and his team did a great job for our wedding. He provided a diverse American style meal that had everybody talking about the food. Very delicious and would definitely hire again for our next big party.
I hired Dennis and Liberation Foods to cater my son's wedding. It was a fairly formal setting and we were looking for an elegant and upscale package. Dennis and his team were able to provide great fine dining meals with excellent plated service. Food was a huge factor for my son. We're all glad we met Dennis and worked with him to make it a truly memorable experience.
Dennis and Liberation Foods was referred to us from another couple he had worked with. Honestly, I was nervous about the whole process of hiring vendors and a caterer. My experience level with wedding planning and working with caterers is nonexistent. After our first call together, I felt more at ease and the rest of the process was easy. He explained his cuisine and set up a tasting for us. We knew he was the right person at our tasting because the food and presentation were fabulous. He kept in regular contact with us throughout the time. I remember adjusting food items and service a couple of weeks before the wedding. This was great because sometimes things change! He was accommodating and flexible. The meal was a grand slam with our guests. Everybody kept noting how tasty the food was. The Grilled Ribeye with Mushroom Sauce was heavenly. We decided to go with the elegant plating package turnkey and it was a great decision. Service was great and food even better.
"Dennis and his staff catered our wedding and it was a delicious dream come true! The food was amazing and the service was just as good. Dennis was available leading up to our big day for last-minute changes, the walkthrough, and even the rehearsal. We were so lucky we found him. The day would not have been the same without Liberation Foods."
My wife and I decided to have a backyard wedding at our friend’s house. We wanted a bbq country theme that was fairly casual and easy. The food was a focus for us and we made sure it was on point. It was made on point and then some by our Caterer, Dennis. He cooked on-site for us, provided an easy Buffett, and helped clean the site afterward. My favorite dish was the brisket followed by the garlic mashed potatoes. These hit home and the guests really enjoyed everything else. If you are looking for contemporary American, southern, bbq, he is the guy!
We were very pleased with Dennis and his team at Liberation Foods. Our wedding was about 75 people. The cuisine was fantastic and full of flavor. The bartender from his crew made delicious drinks. The buffet service was exactly what we were looking for. Highly recommend them for your wedding. It was a great experience.
Dennis was the easiest part of my wedding. Period. Don’t know what you want? He’ll help you. Want some random thing you don’t know if possible? He’ll help you. He even had a plate of food magically appear at our table during toast because he knows most brides don’t eat and it was the only time we were scheduled in our chairs. He was so accommodating, so nice. And the foods even better than his service! Get the corn salad- you’re welcome.
Liberation Foods was a great choice to cater our wedding. The team was very easy to work with and they made us feel like family. Every question was answered quickly and all details/adjustments were taken care of with care. We opted to choose the elegant plated meal and it was superb. The food was out of this world delicious. My favorite items included Risotto and stuffed sole with crab. The service was attentive and thorough.
Contact
372 24th street, Oakland, CA | Greater Bay Area
Liberation Foods
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