I'm somewhat on the fence about this business. Ideally I'd have ranked them 3 and a half stars, but…read moreI'm rounding up.
I've been to many events catered by Lazy Gourmet and, for the most part, the meals have been quite good. Not outstandingly great, not bad, but better than average. Very good, I'd say. If I can generalize, on average their main dishes have usually been tasty, their side dishes are hit-or-miss (some are good while others, bland), and their desserts tend to be disappointing. In general, their serving size tends to be small. If you're a guy with a big appetite, you'd need at least two servings of everything.
This past Thanskgiving, I ordered three classic dinner holiday meals for me and my close two friends. The price was on a par with all the restaurants that were offering holiday meals to-go - perhaps a bit lower, even. Picking up the meals was a breeze; they have a nearby warehouse where you can park for free in the alley behind where there is a door to enter to get your meal. (I picked up my meals the day before Thanksgiving and I paid to park at a meter on the street, as did other patrons. When we got to the front door, there was a posted sign to go to the rear door to pick up one's order. There I saw that there was free parking. This is all awesome, but it sure would've been good to have known this in advance! Their pick-up order info should advise customers of the free parking in the back, and that we'd have to go to the rear door. SO many of us had to carry our large orders from the back alley to our cars parked in the front by meters).
Anyhow, let's talk food, right? It's all about the food! Our turkey meals were, for the most part, very good. The turkey itself was delicious: perfectly cooked and moist and we all loved it. The potatoes were great. The gravy, great. The salad, quite good but not outstanding. Their cranberry-pear sauce was a bit tart but still, quite good. I was too full for the other sides (vegetable, bread rolls) but my friends said they were okay. (Both friends definitely could have eaten more. The portions were small. For me, it was a perfect amount but for regular or big eaters, definitely skimpy portion size). What was VERY disappointing was the desserts. The menu said dessert would consist of: "Dessert Platter: lemon tarts, gingersnaps, ruby chocolate discs, chocolate cupcakes with pumpkin spice latte frosting". Sounds delectable, no? Well, when I opened the dessert box upon returning home from getting the order, I was SO shocked by what I saw: an assortment of nice but tiny, TINY desserts. How tiny, you ask? The "ruby chocolate discs" were each a red chocolate disc the size of a Toonie (perhaps a tad larger - but not by much). The "cupcakes" and lemon tarts were smaller than half an average-sized petite four. No exaggeration, they were the diameter of quarters. The gingersnaps were hardened round cookies (we all said they reminded us of Dad's cookies from the box. You know, the hard cookies you have to dip in tea to soften, lest you risk breaking your teeth). And worse, as tiny as these deserts are, we didn't even get one each of them! They just throw in an assortment so each person gets three. So there were only two "cupcakes" and two "tarts" (the tastiest of the desserts offered), and we also got three red chocolate discs (bland) and two cookies (hard like rocks). I really thought they erred in not giving us three of each item and I immediately emailed and called the place to say they forgot to package the correct desserts for my order. A lady called back right away to advise me that the order was correct, they provide an assortment of desserts and each diner gets three. (I WISH their online ordering menu was clearer about what was offered re: size of desserts and amounts offered, to eliminate confusion). All I can say is, these dessert items were SO small, and only half were tasty, I was so relieved I had a cheesecake in my freezer to serve (I had it saved for another dinner, but used it for Thanksgiving. The LG desserts I got was definitely NOT sufficient or appropriate!).
So it's rather a mixed review for this caterer. Would I use them again? Yes, for sure, but now I know to ask specifics about the order, and to have extra foods on hand to augment the ordered meal.