Michael C. Catering was an adventure to say the least. There was one thing that pretty much everyone agreed on: The food was good. I am not going to say it was best wedding food that people ever ate, but it was definitely a good amount above average.
So let's take it throughout the day:
1) We ran out of ice. A decently hot sunny day in Los Angeles requires a lot of ice. We knew this going into searching for a caterer that we would need a lot of ice. How much ice? Not really sure, but definitely more than 100lbs of it. That much ice is expensive because you can just got to the market and pick it up. You have to go back and forth and back and forth. Just not worth it, so we had Michael handle that. He did it. He did it for free. I don't think he really knew how much it was going to cost. So during the day we ran out of ice. Yeah. He didn't order any. He assumed that the ice maker in the kitchen would pump out enough ice. That was a mistake as we ran out during cocktail hour. Our mistake was not giving our planner a copy of the contract so she had to come bug us to figure out what we wanted to do about it. Oh well. Bad planning by us, but even more so by him since he claimed that ice was not included in the contract. We did not get charged in the end, but still kind of a pain.
2) They ran out of plates. One of the waiters had to wash them throughout the night. I know right? How do you run out of plates. Make sure that when you look at the contract, that you do the calculations in your head to figure out if the numbers look correct.
3) He added 2 cooks on a week and a half before the event. We had no choice but to eat the costs. Total 5 cooks + Michael= 6, for 145 party.
4) He told us that he had to keep some people overtime. This means that we would have to pay. But that is his fault for not managing time properly. Look over the contract carefully. After this incident, I am sure that he now puts in a clause that the clients are responsible for any overages that the catering company incurs due to overtime for personnel. If there isn't, then praise God. In ours there wasn't so it was done.
5) He started telling my new wife everything that went wrong during the wedding. WTF? Say we need to discuss some things after you get back, but overall everything was good and congratulations and move on. Very unprofessional. My wife just brushed him aside.
6) We were suppose to have coffee and tea. There was no tea. The coffee you had to ask and it didn't go around poured. The waiters wouldn't even give up hot water. Make sure there is proper wording in the contract and make sure that your planner knows what is suppose to happen with service.
7) He also had to add oIn the contract and estimates, they forgot the ramekins for his butter. That was another $100. If you are getting the basil butter or any type of butter that isn't supermarket, you will probably need ramekins.
8) The waiters had no education on the food. They didn't know what they were serving. Michael should have told them this.
9) Some of the food didn't come out particularly hot. It was warm, which is a shame because the food was good.
10) Michael has no tack on how to set things up, you have to get someone to watch over him to make sure there isn't misplaced items, etc..
11)They tried to run my card after the wedding to pay for the overages. Yeah you heard me right. After the wedding, I cancelled the card just in case they would make any attempts to charge my card. Good thing I did, otherwise we would have have charges for overages that we were not responsible for.
12) He doesn't follow instructions very well. This could be partly because we didn't explain them well either, but I don't know anymore.
13) There was some serious food swapping. We ended up getting an extra appetizer that had shrimp! (Wife is allergic to shrimp). Also we were suppose to have gnocchi and we got mash potatoes. Stuff got swapped, but what can you do since it says that they can swap due to costs. Tough luck.
There are good things that happened:
1) The food was good.
2) The ice cream was really good and a big hit with people.
3) The staff was good. Yeah there was a couple little things, but overall the staff was really friendly with the guests.
Now I am not saying that Michael C. is a terrible caterer, but their operation is young and you have to endure these bumps with new enterprises. Hopefully he does get better and improve his professionalism over time and is more aware of certain things on the contract. I would recommend him with reservations. Definitely do your due diligence with the contract and calculations.
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