I want to take the time to write my opinion in regards to my catering experience with Rustic Gourmet. My husband and I got married this past May (2010) and had one of the worst experiences ever. Our reception was being held at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens so we had to choose from one of the caterers on the list. The Botanical Gardens gave you a wide variety to choose from, totaling a number of 11-12 different companies. We chooses Rustic Gourmet because they could do what we needed and the price fit our budget, it is also a family run business and we liked that.
Through out the year of working with Todd I started to become a bit nervous because it seemed difficult for him to find time to meet with us when we wanted to discuss some items and it seemed that he did some work last minute. I still tried to keep my confidence up though because he was on the NBG list and I knew that it was a lengthy process and you had to be good in order to make it on their list.
Needless to say my gut feeling was right. Rustic Gourmet utterly embarrased my husband and I. Nearly 50 people did not get fed that night (they ran out of food), only one tray of Hors d'oeuvres were passed for a reception of 200 people, he arrived late to the gardnes only allowing himself 1.5 hours from the arrival time to the start of the event to step up and cook for a reception of 200 people, this also delayed our cake deliver and decorators who were told to come at 2:30pm because the tables would be set up, his wait staff was rude and told my dad he could not take a strawberry and further rolled their eyes at him when he proceeded to take one, no starwberries were ever actually placed on the cake table, he changed the set up of the room, when we had already assigned tables, leaving to brides parents table now in the rear of the room, he did not follow through with the number of cocktail tables in gazebos, and ran out of water at the bars. I could go into way more detail, but I will spare you.
The cater never apologized for his mistakes and when we wrote a letter to the him expressing our concerns, he only replied with a letter pretty much stating we were wrong in every point we made. That he had done nothing wrong and no monetary refund would be given. I would at least like to money back for the 50 people who did not eat!!!
I do want to states that though this was an awful experience and Rustic Gourmet functioned in a very non-professsional manner, the food that was eaten was delicious! Perhaps if he could run his business appropriately than he could be a huge success because Todd does know how to cook!!! read more