This is hands down the WORST catering company in the Raleigh area. It is extremely poorly run, with very hands off management so the events tend to be haphazard and sort of thrown together at the last possible second. Food comes out cold, and any complaints to staff or management is met with either laughter or cold disregard. Please please do yourself a favor and avoid this company like the plague, lest you spend tens of thousands of dollars for service you would probably tip 5 percent for in the public sector. You've been warned read more

In late September, Rocky Top Catering, a locally owned and well-known catering company in the Triangle, announced that Table & Twine, a chef-prepared meal delivery service, is now part of the company. I recently went to a media preview of their Thanksgiving meal offering and everything was so delicious! You get everything already prepared and seasoned and brined and packaged that all you have to do is heat and serve for the sides and in just two hrs, the turkey that comes with the package will be done. We learned that Table & Twine by Rocky Top Catering offers a variety of delicious meal options, including ready-to-eat entrees, finish & serve meals, family-style meals, and entertainment packages. The chefs preparing these meals only use whole foods, and meals arrive fresh (not frozen). Many dishes are ready to eat and others require simple heating. These restaurant-quality meals are available for home delivery in the Triangle and curbside pick up at Rocky Top Catering in Raleigh. If you want the convenience of spending more time with family and less time in the kitchen this holiday season, keep Table & Twine by Rocky Top Catering in mind for holiday meals. Offerings of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner packages, brunch packages, appetizers, and desserts will be available to make your holidays more enjoyable and less stressful. I do wish their was the option to customize, mix or match , or just buy some of the sides and pies a la carte. To learn more about Table & Twine by Rocky Top Catering or to place a meal delivery, I recommend visiting their website: tableandtwine.com read more

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The food was great. However before the event was over the staff started eating the food. I'm sure that was not discounted or accounted for in the price. They didn't even hide. They were out in the open making plates including the supervisor. Not a good look at all. I would never use this company. Then they offered us some small to go containers. When I asked for some food I seen them take in the back they told me there were no more left. I'm sure not cause y'all ate them. read more

Rocky Top catered our wedding at the Merrimon-Wynne House in May of 2023 and everything was a complete hit! We did a couple of tastings to really nail down our menu because the food was a big priority of ours on our wedding day. We also really loved the flexibility we had with tweaking some things with our menu, and the team was happy to work with us on making any changes. Our plated salad and entrees were delicious, just as we remembered from our tasting! Guests loved the passed appetizers (such good crab cakes!!) during cocktail hour and the surprise late night snacks (who doesn't love pretzels and cheese after a few drinks?) on the lawn during the reception! And of course the mini desserts were a crowd-pleaser too, especially the Tia Maria Cookie Stacks! The serving staff was exceptionally polite and helpful to our guests, which was feedback I heard from multiple people! I would definitely recommend Rocky Top's catering for a wedding or any event! read more

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FANTASTIC FOOD for my daughters wedding this past weekend. Only four stars for the paltry customer service at the main office. The gentleman that worked with us was very condescending to me, a no show to our final walk through w all vendors, and did not fulfill a request I had that was so very simple, and much needed. His new gig at ECU certainly overshadows my event (believe me, had to hear about THAT several times....). read more

Update: Dean responds with the full email that arguably makes him look worse. "We take allegations like this very seriously..." followed by an excerpt indicating nothing of the sort. Stating you didn't poison everyone at one event and that you catered 30 other events holds little to no bearing on the fact that four patrons all became violently ill a few hours after eating your food. I attended a wedding catered by Rocky Top 10/21/23 at Chatham Station in Cary. My table was the last to be served dinner. Four out of five members of our table became violently ill and the other experience mild-medium symptoms. My breastfeeding wife had to get an IV just to be able to produce milk for our son. I'm not one to try and damage a business' livelihood, but the owner Dean Ogan responded to another person who got sick via email and said (direct quote) "I know it's easy to think the common denominator is the food, but since the vast majority of the people served enjoyed their meal and did not have any issues, it can be just as easy to rule out the food as the issue." I don't even know where to start with this ridiculous response. All he had to do was make any effort whatsoever to remedy the situation and I would've understood. I have contacted the Wake County health department regarding this incident. It's one thing to make a mistake, but another entirely to act like it never happened! read more

Our guests said it was the best wedding food they ever had, if they were a restaurant they would go back. We had a chicken, short rib and salmon dishes. They also do a great job with people with special food needs. The servers were great. A huge hats of to Vicki Tong, very kind, understanding and really knows her job. wedding 6/10/22 at Merrimon Wynne read more

Our Burger Bar lunch was a huge hit!!! The burger both turkey and beef were cooked to perfection! the brownies are to die for by the way. The entire staff is amazing to work with. Thank you Jeff, Felicia, and Holly for making our first time working with your team seamless. Can't wait for the next events coming up!! Thanks, Philly McCray Merz Therapeutics Merz North America read more

I was looking forward to working with Rocky Top. My fiancée, our moms, and I attended a food tasting to get an idea of what we wanted our menu to be like for our wedding. We were really excited and hadn't eaten before out of excitement, but about 30 min-1 hr later we all got sick. Couldn't hold down food for the rest of the day. I reached out to the woman who worked with us Kadie, and I haven't heard back yet. Super disappointed with all of this and the lack of customer service. read more

Rocky Top Catering has always delivered on top notch customer service for the variety of events we've hosted. I've worked with Jeff Besselman for all of my events and he is just that type of person who "gets it" and gets it done without a hassle and extremely timely. They've catered events for us from 20 people to 1,200 people; the service, food quality and presentation is always top notch, you definitely get what you pay for. read more

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This place is fire! We hired them for a rehearsal dinner and would use again / suggest others do as well! The food is outstanding and from day 1, they had our best interest in mind. All food was cooked and served to our request and they were constantly ensuring everything was displayed and presented to our liking. A big shout out to Quann, who made the whole dinner possible. Easy 5 stars! Thanks, Rawls and Bennett read more

Rocky Top Catering far exceeded all our expectations! Our daughter was married on April 5th at The Merrimon-Wynne House in Raleigh. The team from Rocky Top, specifically the amazing Vicki, worked hand in hand with the team from the Merrimon and our phenomenal wedding planner, Catherine Hamilton from C and D Events. Given there are multiple vendors needed for a large event the cooperation and partnership of the various folks is critical. Their was no doubt Vicki set a shining example for the needed cooperation and her desire to please was obvious. The food was amazing; our guests passed on numerous positive accolades and everyone cleaned their plates! This is a big statement since the majority of guest came from the northeast and were awed by the quality of food served. Thank you and Vicki, consider this one big hug. read more

I want to thank them for their generous Friday night dinners for Wendell students and their families. The food has been fantastic, tasty and plentiful. Helping out during these hard times, hurrah to you. Thanks so much. read more

We had used Rocky Top for years for countless large events/parties but will no longer! The service was not always on point due to the negligence of the unorganized event planner but we overlooked it because the food was so great. They were able to accommodate food allergy restrictions and seemed to take it seriously. Unfortunately we noticed the last couple of parties we had with them there were some mix ups with foods we had previously noted as not being allowed in the menu were, making cross contamination an issue. The event planner constantly pointed the finger at the chefs and other staff members incompetence and would apologize. The last party we had was the last straw. Many details(too many to list) of the party were not forfilled as promised due to the event planner forgetting. But in the big picture we once again would have overlooked it all with exception of one major issue....the safety of the food! The owner was apparently one of the chefs on our job so we figured it would go off without an issue. We were wrong. Not only did they screw up the diatary restrictions that had been in place for the duration of the relationship, they didn't notify us. If we hadn't inquired about the ingredients for the countless times on the day of the party people with severe allergies could have been made violently ill or worse!! Instead of the owner, Dean taking full responsibility he brushed it off and got extremely aggressive and dismissive of the magnitude of their mishap! He then stated they did us a favor taking our party on! Mind you we spent over $13,000.++ for this 'favor'. He offered $1500 credit AFTER much going back and forth. The owner, Dean should have put his pride aside and had empathy for the stress and confusion he caused on a day of great reflection and celebration for us. What he failed to realize his event planner was once again at the end of the party apologizing for HIS behavior and incompetence! Stating that HE screwed up and what happened should have never happened and that we shouldn't have had to endure what we did. We get things can happen but to take the stance of blaming or attacking the customer for the wrong doings of your staff is incomprehensible! The whole point of hiring and paying top dollar for a catering company with event planner is to be able to enjoy and celebrate with family and friends as a guest. ***added 10/8/2018 For the record, I have only one account with yelp. I am NOT the same person as the new poster that is claiming this company hires child predators. That accusation is completely new to me. However alarming it is, after my experience with Dean, I can't say I am surprised! This man seems to think he is above all. Dean is only trying to detract and seemingly making attempts at damage control via yelp because he has clearly screwed over someone else. Notice this is after many months of him ignoring my review and my many attempts to have Dean own the fact that his company did NOT deliver the service and product we hired them to. He has poor customer service skills and was condescending and dismissive to the grave errors his company made! Yes, we indeed utilized his company countless times before over the years, which only serves to show proof that he and his company obviously did something so very grave that we took our business elsewhere! We gave this man a huge opportunity to redeem himself to which is continuously claimed we should have been thankful to him for his services. read more

We cannot say enough wonderful things about how EXCELLENT Rocky Top and especially, Jeff Besselman, are. We chose Rocky Top before we even finalized our venue because we knew Rocky Top had top-notch food and an equally excellent reputation, but they KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK for our wedding. Our entire experience from moment one was outstanding. Jeff spent a significant amount of time getting to know us in our consult to make sure that our catering selections matched both our personalities as well as the type of experience we wanted to give our guests. He was always available by phone or email and was super patient with our multiple menu revisions. Our guests kept coming up to us during the reception to tell us how amazing the food was and how delicious the cocktails were. They are STILL talking about it two weeks later! The servers who personally attended to us during the reception were always there to make sure we had something to eat, and a drink in our hand. Rocky Top and Jeff went above and beyond to make sure our day was incredible and they far exceeded our expectations. We would give them TEN stars if we could!! read more

They've gotten too big for their britches. We've used them for a total of 7 different occasions at our house; from a special Mother's Day dinner for my family of four to multiple parties of 100+. Their have always been some glitches during the planning and actual party. But all in all things went off fine. And the food was so good that it made up for any issues. However, we recently had a party that was a total disaster. We had a start time of 5pm. The party was not set up till 5:05. Workers were still arriving by 5, after guests. My wife has food allergies. Being that we've had several parties catered by them, they are well aware of these allergies and have had no problem accommodating her in the past. And while we communicated every step of the way to make sure this party also accommodated her allergies, all of the food they prepared was not allergy safe for my wife. There was literally nothing for her to eat. They did go back to headquarters to make her food, but it took almost 1 1/2 hours and that food was mediocre at best. I They made changes to the menu we ordered without even asking us. They also didn't even make the desserts we had on our menu. In addition they neglected to bring knives which equated to our guests having to gnaw at their beef tenderloin. Not only was the main host and severs pretty flat personality-wise, nobody once asked anyone in my family if we needed anything. Past parties, throughout the event, my wife and I were constantly being asked if we needed a drink, etc. and if there was anything we needed them to do in general for the success of the party. Making us feel like we were hosting a party and being taken care of. But instead we felt like regular guests. Our party was a Saturday but the rental stuff was not picked up till Wednesday. This did come Sunday, even after I told the main hostess Sunday is our day of rest and to tell them not to come. And while we paid Rocky Top for all the rentals and they paid the renal company, we had to call the rental company to find out what was going. As a result of the delayed pickup, heavy rain caused the chairs to stain our deck. Please note the rental company did make good and promise to clean the deck. But it's still an unneeded headache. To make all these issues worse is that the owner was on site for the entire party as the main chef. He was aware of all these issues, yet didn't even bother to follow up after the party. I contacted him a few days later and expressed my displeasure. Instead of even hearing my concerns out, and learning from the experience, I got a long, snide response filled with poor excuses and denials. In fact it was quite hostel and confrontational. Why burn bridges, lose our business and potentially any business from our inner circle and now from people reading this review. There are other catering companies in the area that we will be using for future events. read more

I have been to multiple events where rocky top has been the primary caterer. The food has been incredible and the staff was impeccable! Because of my experiences with them, I can't wait to have them cater my wedding in August! read more

The company I work for used Rocky Top Catering for a team event and the food was amazing!!!! It exceeded our expectations. The on-site staff was extremely nice and stayed to serve food, even though we didn't originally request that. The customer service was great and Vicki was awesome to work with, very knowledgeable and made everything so simple for us. We will definitely use them for future events and we highly recommend them to others. read more

Provided Reception Dinner at Wedding Vicki, I just wanted to thank-you and the rest of your team for delivering a wonderful meal for Casey and Will's reception! From taking care of the fact that we didn't make it to the biscuit bar during the cocktail hour. I'm sorry that I missed that and the rest of the cocktail hour spread but as good hosts we were talking with everyone. I received nothing but positive feedback on the quality of the food. I was nervous that the fried chicken wouldn't be as good as it was at the tasting it was. Which means it was as good as my grandmother's on Sunday's after church. I also received many positive comments on the brisket and the barbeque. We had high expectations for a dream day for Will and Casey, our family, and guests. Rocky Top played a big part in exceeding our expectations! We all are big fans! Father of the Bride read more

Rocky Top Catering was great to work with! My daughter got married last month and we got to work directly with Vicki. From the first meeting, we knew we didn't want to use anyone else! She was so excited and happy to be there with us and took the time to listen to what we wanted, made suggestions and was able to fit everything within our budget. The day of couldn't have gone smoother. The servers were extremely nice, professional and polite and even offered to get my mother's food for her (she is in a wheelchair). The food was AMAZING! The buffet was set up beautifully and matched our vision perfectly. Our family is from Texas, and the brisket is one of the best things I have ever eaten! We are still getting compliments about the food! Thank you Vicki and Rocky Top team! read more

Excellent food and service for our company's party last night. Those chicken and waffle bites were to die for. That steak with the peppercorn topping would make you want to smack you mother!!! I wish I would've gotten a picture of everything. Strongly considering them for my house warming. Thank you for the great time. read more

Thank you to Jeff and the staff at Rocky Top for a wonderful rehearsal dinner at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences! Rocky Top was a pleasure to work with and planning was a breeze. The night of the event, the food, drinks and service were perfection! A fantastic kick-off to a wonderful weekend. Thanks again Rocky Top! read more

Fabulous service and food! Kevin and his entire catering staff made sure my daughter's wedding reception was perfect this past Sat June 28th, 2014 at Cobblestone Hall in Raleigh. From the serving of the salad to the buffet service to the food...everything was really amazing. The servers were attentive and helpful. The staff even helped us clear out the items in the hall we wished to save! So many guests approached me saying they had never attended a wedding reception where the food and service was so wonderful! Kevin is extremely knowledgeable and definitely listened to my daughters wishes and needs and worked within her budget. Her wedding was two years in the making, so expectations were high. We highly recommended Rocky Top and specifically Kenvin for any special event! read more

We had Rocky Top as our caterer for our buffet dinner at our reception. The food was absolutely amazing. Everyone came up to us afterwards saying how delicious everything was. I liked how they offer a tasting night where you can go for dinner and sample certain things that they would serve. The people working the reception were so nice and always made sure my husband and I had a drink in our hand :) Jenn was great to work with too! read more

When you ask the lady behind the bar( who just served wine) if this was cash bar? She replies, " I need to get water to the other room"....and runs off? Wow what type of sub par service is that? read more

Rocky Top has been my preferred caterer for 5 years now. They have prepared many events for me, from buffet lunches to private dinners. The food and presentation is impeccable and the staff is professional, more than accommodating and always a pleasure to work with. Not having to worry about food service/quality with a jam packed day is a stress reliever for sure. Thank you Rocky Top and especially Carol Sasseen who goes above and beyond to make each event more successful than the one before. read more

Poor customer service. Couldnt get a proposal or a sample menu after almost a month. They had told us it would be less than a week

Our daughter's wedding was suppose to be March 28, 2020 - ceremony at the JC Raulston Arboretum and the reception at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh but then the pandemic hit and everything came to a halt. The wedding was postponed to September 12, 2020 and after a few months of wondering where it would be, the decision was made to have it in our backyard. All along this crazy journey, Jeff helped us navigate through the pandemic planning and created a magical space in our backyard for the ceremony and reception. Words cannot begin to describe how perfect Jeff and his team made this day for our family and friends. Originally the reception was going to be passed hors d'oeuvres with a few stations set up, Jeff kept this idea serving everything to each table family style. The food was fabulous and we received many compliments about the style in which it was served. His staff was so kind and friendly and most importantly, discreet. From helping to move tables after the ceremony to serving the food continuously until everyone had had their fill, clearing tables, to setting up coffee AND leaving leftovers in our refrigerator!! before they departed - we never noticed them working around all of us. Jeff and his staff stayed just the right amount of time, they left shortly after we were done eating. Our daughter and her groom were the very last to leave, she said "she didn't want this night to end." Thank you Jeff, Mike, Liz, Bo and Nick for making her wedding a beautiful memory for us. read more

Rocky Top Hospitality hosted and catered our recent wedding in July at one of their beautiful locations 1705 East in Raleigh, NC. We chose Rocky Top Hospitality as the caterer because of their outstanding reputation to deliver 100% satisfaction and go above and beyond. This was based on our own and other trusted friends' previous experiences with them. Our wedding went perfectly and it was the most fun we have ever had. We chose 1705 East as the venue for both our ceremony and reception because of their amazing location, pristine grounds and facility, beautiful bar, flexibility to manage set up and break down, and gorgeous bridal suites upstairs. We chose various hors d'oeuvres for cocktail hour and a buffet menu (there are so many unique options for food and drink by the way) and the food we had was better than or equal to restaurant quality. Choosing them was a great choice and I would compare it to being able to take your hands off the wheel while the car still drives. There was no stress when working with them from day one through the wedding day and I attribute that to them being 1) professionals and experts at their job and 2) their ability to seamlessly work with various other vendors (flowers, baker, DJ, planners, etc). The most special part about going with Rocky Top Hospitality is how their team of experts welcome you like you're part of their family. For that we have to thank Vicki Tong for going above and beyond from beginning to end. She is so accommodating and hospitable. She not only made us very happy with the whole experience but made both of our families very happy. Thank you from The Wheeler's! read more

By far extremely disappointed with rocky top. Our wedding was a week ago and still have not received a follow up from all the food and deserts that were not served. Kevin DeHimer promised and reassured me that despite the issues with his staff and the unexpected charges that were added without our knowledge, that our wedding would go smoothly and his event manager would make sure we were taken care of... that was not the case. Our hot chocolate ran out of hot chocolate, our cheese board ran out and it did not serve the amount of guests that i had gave them. Summer McInville did not care about the huge mess that was created by the rocky top staff (as she is a "manager"). Kevin DeHimer (summers "manager") has still not reach out to me or my husband about these issues. These guys suck and will not give you the service that you pay for. Should have gone with the Melrose venue and their catering services read more

Had our wedding last night. Staff was horrible and rude, our timeline had to be pushed out 30 min because the staff disappeared and could not be found for 20-30 min. (including the event manager Summer McInville) one of the culinary chefs were caught smoking marijuana out in the parking lot. We paid for 5 deserts and rocky top only served four, we have shown them the invoices and are still waiting for a response about being refunded. Summer McInville is very unprofessional and forgot to add a staff until last minute then charged us another $1500 because of her mistake, (90% of companies and corporations would have to pay that out of their own pocket if that large of a mistake was made) her supervisors defended her mistake and refused to hold her accountable. I spoke with Kevin DeHimer (summers boss) about the whole situation and he as well was unprofessional as he defended summer. Beware of the catering company because they own multiple venues and force you to use their service, which in our experience was that they can do and charge whatever they want and you have to deal with it if you want to rent their venue read more

Rocky Top catered my daughter's wedding recently at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. They did a fantastic job! I worked with Jeff and he was very professional, personable, accommodating and responsive to emails. He went above and beyond to assist us in coming up with a menu that was pleasing to vegetarians and meat eaters alike (bride and groom vegetarian). During the cocktail hour we had a bruschetta bar and NC inspired passed hors d'oeuvres (crispy pimento cheese with smoked apple jelly, chicken and waffle bites, shrimp and grits). Our guests devoured them! For the buffet dinner we started with the green apple and bleu cheese salad, then enjoyed a buffet including crispy smashed potatoes (amazing!), haricot vert almondine, bruschetta mac and cheese, sirloin carving station and vegetarian paella. Everything was so delicious. Rocky Top was happy to make the vegetarian paella vegan friendly for us and all the guests enjoyed eating it. It had a beautiful presentation and was served in a paella pan. I believe the chef had to go make more because it was such a hit with the meat eaters as well. All the food was very flavorful and the service was quick and friendly. They even packed up some leftovers for us! Although the museum only allows Rocky Top to cater, I would choose them to do the job regardless of the venue because of the outstanding customer service, taste, quality, value and willingness to accommodate dietary needs. read more

Rocky Top catered out wedding and they were amazzzing. I had eaten Rocky Top's food at someone else's wedding and at the time thought it was the best wedding food I had ever eaten. I am so glad I snagged them for my day! Lara was wonderful to work with from the very beginning. She was very responsive and offered really helpful suggestions- which was great because I was kind of overwhelmed by the wedding planning! My husband and I attended an open house tasting and the food was phenomenal. Everything we selected to serve at our wedding was delicious and people are still talking about the bruschetta mac and cheese. I only wish we got to sit down and stuff our faces with it! Another reason we chose Rocky Top is because they set up the food in a pleasing way. We chose to do a buffet, and Rocky Top did a wonderful job with the signs, playing with height, ect. And made it seem so much nicer. Thanks Rocky Top! read more

My daughter booked this venue for her wedding after reading such great reviews on the food. After the tasting she was unbelievably disappointed and stressed because she and her fiancé did not like the food AT ALL! Their favorite things were from outside vendors and would have added to the cost. They said the fish tasted extremely fishy and not fresh at all. After much anxiety and consideration they changed the venue. Their contract states that no refunds will be given within a year of the date. As she cancelled well before a year out we assumed there would be no issue. Wrong! They don't refund anything even though we were outside the year. Very poor form as far as I am concerned. They did refund what I had paid over the deposit. However, for 4 weeks they kept telling us the check was in the mail. Only after threatening legal action did they actually refund what they owed me. I would not recommend them to anyone! read more