Memoirs

Memoirs catered my wedding at Kualoa Ranch and they were great. We hired the for catering and bar and it was excellent, the food was amazing, so delicious and so were the drinks. The staff working were so friendly and kind. All the guests had nothing but good things to say, they helped make my wedding perfect.

We enjoyed working with Memoirs and the food was so delicious! Planning a destination wedding meant that we would not be able to be as hands on, but working with the Memoirs team was great. We had very thorough communication throughout the entire planning process which left us feeling at ease. The food was better than we imagined. They even made a special plate for the groom. Thank you memoirs for an amazing meal and adding to our dream wedding!

I AM A BELIEVER. For some background: We hired Memoirs to cater our outdoor wedding at Kualoa Ranch. We started off with a very tight budget with a guest count of 250 (local wedding, this is like a norm right?) While good food was a priority for us at our wedding, we were honestly just thinking about ordering from our favorite bento place to keep things easy, affordable, and appeal to the masses. We are a no frills kind of couple anyway, we just want good food for a good price. Then, our wedding planner recommended Memoirs. I had never heard of Memoirs prior to her recommendation. When I started looking them up, I saw they had a fancy website with fancy dishes and said to myself, "nah, this must be way out of our budget, and our local families probably wouldn't appreciate it even if we could afford it." But out wedding planner highly recommended them, and we totally trusted her, so we went for it. BEST DECISION EVER MADE. TASTING: Totally customizable tasting menu. You e-mail them a list of preferences or menus you like from their website, and they will finalize a tasting menu with you that will fit your budget (key here, they will work with whatever budget you have.) We are self-proclaimed "foodies" (or I'm just picky as heck), so we worked through at least 3 different menus and had 3 or maybe 4 different tastings? before we finalized everything for the big day. Chef John was there at each tasting to get feedback and adjust the menu to exactly what we wanted. We left completely stuffed each time, and even took home boxes of leftovers from our tastings. FOOD: Our final menu was a hybrid of few of there standard items, and a few custom items based on our preferences. The quality of food is honestly like high-end $$$$ restaurant, but for a way more affordable price. All our guests couldn't stop raving about the food at our wedding, and kept asking us where it was from. Also, just to note, our venue was completely unplugged, meaning no electricity, bathroom, and just a water hose on site. These guys had to carry in their own oven, power, etc, to PREP THE FOOD ON-SITE. SO IT IS DAMN FRESH. SERVICE: Impeccable. Throughout the planning process, Taylor (managed most communications) and Chef John were always professional yet down-to-earth, and receptive to our feedback along the way for any changes we requested. On the day of the wedding, the entire team looked real slick and clean, and super professional, very prompt with plating dishes and removing excess trash. COMMUNICATION: Excellent. They do get busy around peak wedding season, which is understandable. I had many many questions along the way (we were also a COVID wedding, so lots of rescheduling along the way), so the fact that they kept up with me is an accomplishment. VALUE: Absolutely a steal, diamond in the rough, gem beyond gems, I don't even know how else to emphasize this!!! I am SO grateful our planner recommended these guys. They deliver HIGH QUALITY food and professional service that will work with your budget! **BONUS: So of course on wedding night, we were too busy/excited to eat, so unfortunately we didn't get to even touch our dessert that night. Chef John heard about this, and personally delivered a box of our wedding desserts to our home a week later. This guy and this team is an absolute GEM. I cannot emphasize this enough. These are wonderful people running an excellent business, and I will definitely be hiring them again for all future catering needs!

We tasted 3 caterers: Tanioka's, Kenenke's and Memoirs. We picked Memoirs by a landslide vote. Not only because of the pure craftsmanship of their plates, but also presentation and overall experience. On our wedding day, they did not disappoint. The entire staff went ABOVE and BEYOND our expectations. Rosanna is SO GOOD at her job- she is very organized and detailed orientated. In short, she is a freaking angel sent from catering heaven.. Taylor the bar manager heard my concerns for the night and really brought energy to the bar. His staff was able to keep up with my thirsty crew's demands. If you are on the fence about booking Memoirs, my advise is to do it! You will not be disappointed. I sure wasn't.

Love Note from the Bride: Nick and I planned a destination wedding for 115 of our closest friends and family. While I was hoping for sunshine, planning for a possible light sprinkle… what I, our guests, and our vendors did not plan or expect.. was for— was a MONSOON on our wedding day! I don’t mean to say it just rained… I mean, it literally POURED. There were even flash flood warnings! Every single guest and vendor was drenched from head to toe. They say rain on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck, and ours started this day with our vendors. To the ENTIRE MEMOIRS TEAM, we don’t even know where to start, except by saying THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! Your entire team kept a smile on their face and a positive attitude throughout the entire day! Every single person, staff, chef, bartender, not one single person’s hard work went unnoticed. Everyone was selfless in walking back and forth from our tent to the kitchen and making sure Nick, I, and our wedding guests were their top priority. Not only did they ensure the food stayed warm and dry, but it was DELICIOUS!!! We decided on family style and the memoirs team even let Nick and I help put out some of the first platters to the tables, as a nice surprise to our guests! They also let us surprise our guests and get behind the bar to bartend during happy hour!! Our guests LOVED that!! From initial reach out and partnership with our wedding planner Carly, to food tasting, planning, prep, execution and even follow up after our wedding, our entire experience with Memoirs was INCREDIBLE. We are so blessed to have had them on our team for our special day. Not only are they passionate about their food and service, but you can tell just how much of a family they are, and how much they care about their clients! We are SO lucky to have had them help us celebrate our big, wet day!!! Love Note from the Groom: Memoirs brought their A game to our wedding and it RAINED at an out door venue. They literally could not have been more dedicated to us. They set up all day in the rain, they cooked in the rain, they served in the rain, they cleared in the rain and they did it with smiles on their faces the whole time. The food is all Hawaii local, and it was AMAZING. We did a family style service and the food came out beautiful and delicious! We could not have possibly imagined a better team to put together a hillside table service in the POURING RAIN! A special shout out to Taylor the bartender for saving the groom the last shot of his favorite tequila!

Memoirs played a huge part in making our wedding day a day we'll always remember. There's no denying that the quality, creativity, and presentation of Memoirs catering is top-notch - everything was delicious and our guests couldn't stop raving about the poke cones. From the tasting to wedding day, Thomas and his team were incredibly accommodating and professional. We were able to stock our own bar and coordinate with them to transport all of the drinks to the North Shore which was incredibly convenient. The staff's service and friendly demeanor made all the difference on our wedding day and we're so thankful to have worked with them!

Our guests are still talking to us about their fish, corn bread, and the purple potatoes! We did buffet-style for our wedding, so that our guests could pick-and-choose what they wanted and it was a huge hit! I should mention we had a lot of foodies from Los Angeles at our wedding, so we definitely wanted to make sure the food was incredible. Not only was their food amazing, but their staff was also so nice! My now-husband apparently looked like he was about to faint at one point during our wedding -- none of us noticed (oops), and their bartender came up to him with a glass of water and said I think you need this. She literally saved my husband from fainting in front of everyone. He told me afterwards that he was so thankful. If we ever do another event in Honolulu, we will definitely be calling Memoirs!

I have worked as a pro cook and Chef for almost 20 years and the staff at Memoirs is absolutely top-notch. Their menu range, execution, professionalism and customer service are unparalleled in an industry that is highly competitive. If you want your wedding caterer to be flawless, let Memoirs take the wheel and get back to stressing about the seat arrangements!!

Memoirs is absolutely superb in every aspect! They hold to the highest standard when it comes to catering exquisite meals and cocktails to our wedding guests. We are very blessed to have them as our vendor for our wedding, and now we can call them friends because they are a special group people who helped us with every little detail to provide a memorable experience to all our family and friends. For the brides and grooms out there, we know the process of selecting a catering company to deliver the most memorable meal is not an easy task, but memoirs made it to so easy for us that we knew from the first day of meeting them that we wanted to work with them. Thomas and Chef Peter put a beautiful family style menu together for our wedding guests to enjoy, Rosanna provided the most spectacular dining experience with the team that was incredibly enjoyable for our guests and Noah crafted such delicious cocktails throughout the ceremony and reception that I continuously heard chatter from our guests of the amazing concoction he has provided. We can both personally go on and on about how remarkable memoirs team was in every aspect because they made it so easy for us to adore every single team member. They are by far the sweetest group of people who are incredibly passionate about their work. You can tell from day one that they love what they do and they care about delivering exceptional results. They do it with so much love and passion that you can taste it through their meals. Thank you so much, memoir! We are both incredibly blessed to have met and worked with you all. We hope you all know how much we appreciate you all for all the hard work that was put into making this evening happen! You all have helped deliver a memorable meal and cocktails that evening because I still hear about how great it was from our friends and family so thank you, thank you, thank you a million times!

We got married in August 2018, and Memoirs just did such an excellent job. They were professional, thoughtful, and accommodating - but most of all, they made incredible food. Nearly every one of our (mostly mainland) ~80 guests commented on how well made, well presented, and delicious the food was. And especially impressive as it was buffet style. My brother and his wife are vegan, and they said the meals that were prepared special for them were better than the 5-star restaurant meals they'd had a few days before. They were responsive to our menu changes without fuss, uncomplainingly made a drink we made up a couple days before the wedding for our signature cocktail, and served a champagne toast during the ceremony, which is a bit of an atypical ask. Phenomenal! We could not have been happier.

My husband wrote a review a while back but Im still in awe of how amazing Memoirs were so I had to write a review! Choosing Memoirs as our caterer was truly one of the best choices we made for our wedding. Not just because their food is AMAZING but because they are so professional and we were amazed with their quality of service. We mostly communicated by emails but Thomas was super fast with responding and he would listen and work with us to meet our needs. We didn’t have a professional wedding planner so we were still worried if everything will go smoothly..however, Memoirs were SO on top of things and Rosanna was one of the most dependable person we got to work with so everything went perfect. Because they were there, I didn’t have to worry about anything on the day of and just got to enjoy the tasty food! Unfortunately it was pouring during our reception and they had to run in the rain but nobody complained and they kept professional throughout the event! ( I really hope nobody got sick!) Everybody LOVED the food and we got so many compliments. I am so thankful we chose them and I honestly want to have another wedding or event just so I could work with them and enjoy their food!

Coming from a pretty picky "foodie" Dad and family, I was quite nervous about finding the right caterer. After the initial tasting, I knew we would be more than fine with Memoirs as they got my Dad's highly satisfied stamp of approval. I still dream about the cornbread and fried rice. They were also very accommodating with us having multiple drop offs of alcohol and keeping track of inventory (we were very nervous about running out). My only regret is that I didn't have more time to eat on the day of my wedding, but they made sure to save us some appetizers and plates :). Everyone at the wedding agreed that the food was delicious! Highly recommend.

Chef Foster is amazing! We had the pleasure of meeting with him once before our October destination wedding for a tasting where he was very thorough and thoughtful. He sat with us during the tasting with a notebook listening to our feedback and offering delicious solutions to suit our palettes and preferences. The pupus options were delicious especially the roasted pork belly in a bao bun with a hoisin, bourbon, scallion glaze which was perfect for our drinking crowd. Our guests raved about of thai vegan noodles, macnut-coconut crusted Opah, and sous vide seared hoisin short ribs with not a single crumb went back to the kitchen. Not only was his food incredible, but his wait staff and bartender were wonderful making sure our guests were happy and the drinks were flowing throughout the reception. We highly recommend Memoirs and Chef Foster for your big event.

Memoirs catered our wedding on 10/15/2015 at Paliku Garden at Kualoa Ranch. Everything was amazing. I'm from an Italian American family, so growing up there was a lot of focus on food. I worked in the hospitality industry for years, and now I've been living in San Francisco for 11 years, one of the biggest 'foodies' cities in the US. The minute I started talking to Memoirs, I knew they were a class act. Completely professional, polite and efficient since day one. Once we had the tasting, we knew they were the obvious choice. Rosanna and Thomas were my main contacts for all the planning. Both were great to work with and I could feel that they both really wanted our wedding to be amazing and the best day of my life - and they delivered! The food was all amazing. I had multiple people tell me it was the best wedding food they've ever had! That includes locals from Hawaii, San Francisco friends and some family members from Boston. Everyone loved everything! Success! All the waitstaff and bartenders were polite and attentive and had smiles on their faces all night. Chef Peter was an awesome presence not only to confirm the perfection of the food, but he was so happy that our entire day was being executed perfectly. Overall, after working with Rosanna for months, I knew she was the type of person that was going to make sure everything would be spot on (GSD!). My expectations were greatly exceeded. Of course I wanted the food to be great, but when people said to me 'Best wedding food ever' ...well, I guess that is just a foodie's dream come true. Thank you Memoirs! We will forever remember the seared catch with macnut-coconut crust, fried chicken, kimchee fried rice, tagliatelle, polenta, panna-cotta, etc etc that was the perfect meal we could ever hope for on our wedding day. Mahalo, Lauren & Keola Morse

Memoirs was absolutely terrific for catering our outdoor wedding. Living in Manhattan and eating out for 75% of my meals, I have been exposed to a lot of different cuisine and can be very particular. When selecting a caterer, my wedding coordinator and friend who has known me for years, knew that the food would be of the utmost importance. I knew I was not going to be able to do the tasting as I would be in NY until a few days before my event. Instead I had my very tough-to-please parents and my sister, who is a chef, attend with my wedding coordinator. They loved everything they tried as well as Chef Foster who was such a gracious host. Let’s just say the wedding conversation with my parents went much easier after that visit! My guests loved the food and I am still getting rave reviews. The set-up was also attractive and Chef Foster and his right hand, Gabriella, worked with us to ensure that my family and friends would have a smooth flow at the buffet. The on-site staff was terrific and friendly to my guests and very accommodating. From what I could see they really went out of their way to please my guests. Kudos to Gabriella who also answered all my questions and was really great to work with. Highly recommend if you want excellence for your wedding!