Barbara & Company Catering handled our wedding last week. My partner and I feel like we "hacked"…read moreour wedding by getting to work with Marina. From the very beginning, we sensed we could trust Marina, and she absolutely took care of us from start to finish. I never had to "supervise" the catering at our wedding, which was a huge gift because we simply didn't have time to. She had everything covered. We were able to leave it all in her hands, and our guests couldn't have had a better time. 75 guests, everything perfectly on time, delicious. Food-wise, we had a relatively simple menu, but every single thing sparkled. My family is from Chicago, and they were raving about the hot dogs, which is saying a lot. People said the mac and cheese was the best they'd ever had, and I agree. She sent us home with plenty of leftovers, and as we've been working our way through them, we're really seeing the quality of the ingredients. She could have cut corners and no one would have known, but she clearly didn't, and it showed. Other examples of that include barbecuing everything on site and constantly topping off extras like more cheese, etc. I even saw a few extra toppings we didn't have to pay for. The overall pricing was extraordinarily reasonable, especially considering the multiple meetings we had beforehand, the fact that she handled all of our rentals (one less huge thing we had to think about), and provided an event crew. Thanks to her experience, we were covered on planning details as well, and she even gave us great ideas for things like our favors and centerpieces. Looking back, it almost feels like we got a party planner bundled in with the catering. Thank you so much to Marina and everyone at Barbara & Company Catering for taking such good care of us. Your work is very meaningful, and really can't thank you enough.

The food was delicious, Marina was a joy to work with everyone on site was kind, professional and…read morehelpful and did I mention the food?!?!?! If you need a caterer, definitely go with Barbara & Co!

I've worked with Christina and her team multiple years in a row on an annual event with 400 +…read morepeople. Our event has a tight schedule that requires efficiency and pre-planning. This team always goes above and beyond to make sure the food is amazing, hot, and served fast with a smile!

Christina and her team are incredible. They catered our wedding and provided a great buffet service…read moreand brought a lot of energy to the event. We've been to a number of other events with her catering and hope to go to many more... her services are reasonably-priced, she's responsive and flexible with menu options, and she's a local legend. What else could you ask for?!

We used Feast For A King for catering for our wedding, and were overall really impressed! They…read moreprovided: 1. 4 passed appetizers 2. The reception food (one of 4 main options) 3. The cocktails (2 cocktails, 1 mocktail - unlimited per head) All of which were customized to our specs. We were incredibly impressed with them during our tasting. Everything tasted the same quality as it would be served in a restaurant; it certainly didn't taste like "wedding food" - and given how snobby we are about food, we were super impressed. They were really good about communication, too. And while the pricepoint wasn't cheap (~$38,000 for a 148 person wedding), we opted to go with Feast For A King. The Good: - Overall the food was very high quality, significantly above average quality for wedding food - Extremely communicative and easy to work with - Wait staff were amazing day-of! The Not-So-Good: - I would say the food was ~15% worse than when we tasted day of. While this may be expected for bulk food, for the pricepoint I was expecting closer to perfection - They ran out of one of the cocktails at one point, and needed to ship in more, causing a bit of a disruption with bartending service - The quality of the drinks definitely varied; several guests said that they ordered the same drink, but each of their drinks tasted different Overall really happy with them, and would definitely recommend!

I can't say enough great things about this catering company. They had great selections for the food…read moreas well as had the colors of linens I wanted. On the day of the wedding, the three person team that worked that day were very professional and nice. Everyone had nothing but nice things to say about them and the food and drink. I had two delicious mocktails, one called "Snowtime spritz" and the other "Apple of my Eye". The second one was by far the favorite, but both were good. I forgot to mention that we also had a large cheese and cured meats board. Here are our menu selections: Petite Beef Wellingtons petite puff pastry filled with a bite of tender filet mignon & creamy horseradish sauce Wild Mushroom & Smoked Gouda Empanadas | V flaky & savory homemade empanadas with a dollop creme fraiche Mini Chicken Meatball Marinara Crostini pesto chicken meatballs with marinara, mozzarella, on a garlic grilled crostini Grilled Tenderloin Crostini with blue cheese, balsamic blueberries on grilled crostini I will end by saying that if we ever have another event at our house we will be using them again.

We have used Crown Cafe Catering on several occasions, and they are the best! The tri-tip is a hit…read moreevery time! Mikey and Ron and catering staff are great to work with. We are so lucky to have them in our area. I used another caterer from Santa Cruz, and they were extremely expensive and the service was NOT FRIENDLY! We had to use them due to the fact that they were on the venues "list of approved caterers" :((((

Angela catered our wedding in Ben Lomond a few weeks ago. I am not exaggerating when I say her food…read morewas the #1 thing guests complimented! Angela is not only a talented chef, but she was truly a joy to work with. Planning a wedding can be stressful, but Angela was always the perfect combination of confident and flexible. She is happy taking charge on menu creation or building around a couples tastes. She was also able to get creative to accommodate veg/pesc/vegan guests and those with food allergies. Her staff also did a great job bartending and were generally putting out great vibes all night. I can't say enough good thing and I will absolutely look her way again when I need a caterer!

I wish I could give 6 stars. Angela's food was amazing - it's been five days since our wedding and…read morepretty much everyone I've talked to who attended the reception said they were WOWED by the food. We had a guest list of 150, and Angela and her team executed this very high quantity of food without sacrificing any quality or taste. We had the roast chicken, tri-tip, potatoes, asparagus, mixed greens salad, and rustic bread loaves. For our appetizers, we went simple and just did the cheese & charcuterie plus shrimp cocktail. I am so glad we went simple and "bare bones", because everything was well prepared, well presented, and delicious. And we still had a lot of leftovers!! Angela was also great to work with - very responsive and well communicative throughout the process. And her staff on site was fantastic - they did bussing and made sure everyone was satisfied with their meals. They also made sure that me and my groom had a chance to eat - which I have heard a lot of couples say they never get to eat the food at their wedding (I was determined to - it's the most expensive meal you'll ever have!!). The price was less than what other caterers charge, but with all the service and additional fees it still comes out to a pretty penny. But I'd do it again, because honestly there were no complaints from guests. And it's worth spending money for good food, good service, and happy guests. I'd recommend Angela blessing for any wedding or special event - glad I found her on Yelp!

The food was delicious, and Mark and his staff were absolutely amazing. Many of our guests…read morecommented on how friendly and accommodating they were. Mark was also a great communicator; he reached out a few times before the wedding to check for menu changes and confirm the guest count. Most of our guests went back for seconds, and there was plenty of food for everyone. I can't say enough good things about Affordable Chef Services--I highly recommend them! I rarely write reviews, but Mark truly helped make our wedding a success.

Chef Mark Gallagher (Affordable Chef Services) donated this event to support a local elementary…read moreschool and I had heard such great remarks about Mark and his fantastic food + hosting that I kept bidding on this auction item until I won - Yay! This was a wonderful evening where Mark donated all the food and service towards the school along with my donation, all supporting the school. Then, he showed up with everything to put on a great event for me and my friends. This was a wonderful evening with delicous appetizers, entrees, sides and dessert. I was thrilled with everything and recommend him without hesitation. Thank you Mark for being a great member of the community, wonderful chef and an all-around fun cool guy!

Antoinette and August and team did an OUTSTANDING job with our wedding. Beyond incredible food…read more(highly recommend their chimichurri sauce) they took care of setup/tear down. We have no words for the magic they brought to our special day! 10/10 and I would rate higher if I could. Look

August helped us figure out what to serve, delivered everything in perfect order, cleaned up....it…read morewas wonderful to just attend our family reunion for 40 without having to worry about the food.

WOW! Where do I begin? I first spoke with Kim about 4mo before our wedding. We live in the SF Bay…read moreArea, she's in Santa Cruz and the venue was in Monterey. Right off the bat I connected with her on our first phone call, and she not only listened to what we wanted, she heard it. We had a very specific menu that we wanted, and I told her I'd be open to suggestions in a couple of areas. Essentially our menu request was a Family Style Italian dinner with: Caprese salad, Caesar salad, Chicken Saltimbocca,and a pasta. I told her we wanted to use local ingredients like crab, artichokes, etc., and was open to suggestions for appetizers as long as they fit the overall Italian theme, and type of pasta. Kim promptly provided us with a quote for the menu requested, and the appetizers she suggested were: Crab Cakes, Blissful Benedict Bites, Squash Sippers, and a Gorgonzola and Port Wine Poached Pears cheesecake along with an array of cheese, fruit etc. and the pasta recommendation she made was a penne in Thyme infused Asiago, and she also recommended grilled artichokes as a vegetable side at dinner. I think she may have made a couple of other recommendations but the above is what we went with. Let's just say Kimberley's Catering is the only caterer we didn't do a tasting with. We had been underwhelmed by the caterers we had done tastings with, and while we would have loved to have had a tasting with Kim she doesn't do formal tastings and my husband and I just didn't have time to try and negotiate making other arrangements with her to do something for us. At the end of the day we selected Kim for the following reasons: 1. First and foremost she respected our wishes and prepared a quote for what we asked for, while every other caterer we contacted ignored our menu request either in its entirety and tried to push us towards what they wanted us to take, or, had one or two of the menu items we requested and then directed us to what they wanted us to take. Seriously, when a potential client calls and says "this is the menu we want, can you do it?" and they say yes but don't quote it, do they seriously think they're going to get your business? I even had on caterer who it took two weeks to get a quote from and when it came through she had the audacity to say "I wanted to make sure to do your quote personally and give it the attention it deserved" and she didn't quote a single menu item I had requested! But I digress... 2. Kim sounded excited about the opportunity to cater our wedding while the others made us feel as though we'd be lucky if they catered for us. 3. Kim came in at a lower price! Certainly this makes one stand up and take notice, but considering she was the only one we didn't do a tasting with, it could have been disastrous. 4. She asked to come see the venue. One of the caterers had implied on the half dozen calls I had with them, that they were familiar with our venue and had catered there before. When we went down for a tasting with them, we learned they had never catered there before but "it won't be a problem..." Considering their food was "eh" "nice" "okay", they quickly got booted from consideration for having lied to us. When Kim met me in Monterey and drove to the venue with me, she was excited! Considering this was a private residence and the kitchen was not licensed for catering use, Kim didn't bat an eye and assured me that this was no problem for her and her crew. When I got home from having met Kim face to face and going to the venue, I announced to my husband "We have a caterer!" He said "did you talk to her about arranging for her to cater a dinner for us so we can do a tasting?" I told him I hadn't because I couldn't see when we'd have time to do it, and that I had a good feeling about her. OMG! The venue was perfect (casaborondamonterey.com), the day was perfect, and Kim's food was PERFECT!!! More than a month later our guests are still talking about how fabulous the food was! In addition to the menu as noted above, Kim threw in another appetizer, a seared ahi tuna that was amazing, and an array of roasted vegetables at no extra charge (because she thought they would go well with our menu...that's artistry!). I might also add that our wedding ceremony, cocktail hour, sit down family style dinner, cake cutting and dance area were all happening within one space, albeit at common as well as different ends of a courtyard area. Kim's crew seamlessly transitioned one area to the next, unobtrusively and very politely. I can't recommend Kim and her crew highly enough, and would hire them again in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact finances permitting, we'd like to go back to Casa Boronda for our first wedding anniversary and hire Kim to come down and cater our wedding menu for just the two of us.

Kim catered our wedding at Pajaro Dunes in October, 2011. She and her staff were outstanding in…read moreevery way, and I cannot recommend her enough. Kim's advantage over other catering companies boils down to three things: 1) scalability (she can do a small dinner party or a 300+ person wedding); 2) professionalism (responsive, great staff); and 3) creativity. Kim's background is in event planning. This is important. I really recommend asking your caterer how they got involved in the business. There are lots of people out there who are great cooks and decide they'll do catering - but getting it right is probably 10% cooking and 90% event planning. If the food tastes great, but your guests have to wait in a long line for it, or they run out, then what's the point? Kim had everything worked out really well and made it appear seamless on the day of the event despite some significant unforseen events. She made sure to visit the site well in advance of the event, made helpful suggestions and gave us a variety of creative options. Kim works primarily with Alexis Party Rentals for linens and china. Although she will work with other vendors, she recommended Alexis and that worked out well. We met at the Alexis showroom with Kim and picked out the placesettings, linens and some other decorations. Kim coordinates the delivery and set up and then charges a handling fee based on what you order through Alexis. So you pay Kim directly and she takes care of the details - it's well worth it for one less detail to worry about. Keep in mind that you do need to rent china and linens so don't forget to budget for that! Even with that cost, Kim's quote was very reasonable with a great menu from her plus the rentals. I've had restaurants do drop-off catering for almost as much and the food was no where near comparable, never mind the extras you get with Kim. We had no idea what we wanted to serve and she made some great suggestions. We ended up with salad, mushroom risotto, vegetables, napa chicken and tri-tip. She also did some outstanding appetizers including a butternut squash soup that was divine. Our guests raved about the risotto but really all the food was good. Kim doesn't do tastings, but if she's catering a large event she might be able to bring you a plate if you really, really have to try her food. We didn't end up tasting anything prior to the event which goes against all the "wedding planning" conventional wisdom, but we had multiple recommendations for Kim from people we knew and trusted. Kim works with a great event staff. Everyone we dealt with was incredibly pleasant and professional, particularly the bartender. You know how sometimes you go to a wedding and the staff are kind of propped against a wall, looking angry and tired? None of that here. Kim's staff smiled at everyone and really contributed to the upbeat, welcoming feeling we wanted. I very much hope I'll have the opportunity to work with her again soon. As far as I'm concerned, we've found the only caterer we ever need.