I debated writing this review because my opinions are so mixed and I don't like dissing people who are working for a living. The easiest way to explain is with bullet points: * Sam was very good at responding promptly 100% of the time whenever I reached out to him. *Sam was responsive when I wanted to add a food item last minute. * Sam's staff did a good job with setup and clean up (at the end of the party). * Sam's staff wore the themed outfits I requested (50's style soda shop clothing). * Sam's staff did a good job plating the desserts I SUPPLIED. * When I first interviewed Sam for the job, I asked him if he'd ever catered a party at my venue. He said yes, many times. I came to find out that his reply was patently UNTRUE. The venue manager (who has been with the venue since it opened six years ago) told me the only time he was there was years ago to do a taste testing for a bride and groom who did not choose to use him because they didn't care for his food. He never catered a party there and was not honest with me about that. Bad on me, that should have been a red flag. * We were seventy people and I said I wanted a soda shop theme for food. We decided upon burgers, hot dogs and fries. Last minute (two days before the party) I realized we didn't have enough food options, pointed out to me by my sister and a friend. I would have thought it the job of the caterer to suggest that I didn't have enough choices for my guests! (Never offered other entree ideas, desserts, etc.) I ended up running to COSTCO the day before the party to "fill in the gaps" with bags of chips, cookies and pastries. * We offered burgers and hot dogs (added grilled cheese last minute) and fries, as well as milk shakes and soft serve ice cream. Sam told me he wanted to do the grilling right next to the serving tables but was informed by the venue party leader that he could not do that and needed to grill away from the set-up. The venue manager and leader both VEHEMENTLY denied that Sam was told that, they said they ALWAYS allow the caterer to grill by the serving stations. Because of that, the burgers and grilled cheese were barely lukewarm and the hot dogs were cold, despite being in chafing dishes. Sam said it was the wind that cooled things off. (His comment that the venue denied him the ability to cook where it would be warmer was patently UNTRUE.) * The macaroni salad and cole slaw were not kept cold and it was a fairly warm afternoon; * Sam supplied a soft serve ice cream maker which was going to be the highlight. ALL my guests that I questioned said their ice cream was like soup and the reason I even asked them about it in the first place was because I saw it for myself! The ice cream was pure liquid. Additionally, when I questioned Sam about this issue after the party, he told me it was the fault of the electrical system because the venue did not have the proper ampage. PATENTLY UNTRUE. The venue has a fully up-to-date electrical system to accomodate a soft-serve machine AT THE VERY LEAST. The venue hosts large weddings and events with full bands (we just used our own Spotify play list), DJ's, lighting systems, etc. (NONE OF WHICH WE HAD) and is perfectly capable of running a soft serve machine. Sam told me at some point he decided to start serving hand-scooped ice cream to compensate but by then very few people wanted to have it because they were turned off. The milk shakes were just okay. When I went to find Sam to ask him about the problem, he was nowhere to be found. When I called him after the party to discuss this, he said he stayed on premises until 2:30 (the party ended at 3) but again, that was patently UNTRUE because I was looking for him at approximately 1:15 and his staff told me he'd left awhile ago; * We added veggie burgers to accommodate vegetarians but these were not labeled on the display for the guests and I only found out after the event that the vegetarians did not even know they had that option. * Because the food was essentially a self-serve, the staff spent a lot of time out of the view of guests, taking selfies and playing on their phones. I know this because I went looking for them to ask questions periodically. The venue leader also complained to me that the staff were busy on their phones rather than standing by the serving stations to make sure no one needed anything. There was ZERO staff-to-guest interaction by the food. Additionally, I the did not clean away dirty plates, glasses, napkins and forks. Guests were left to clean up after themselves. The staff said they were only responsible for cleaning their own prep and display sections (which they did well), not where the guests ate. * When I asked MANY guests (25+) for their opinions about the food, their answers were resoundingly the same: 1.) The food was cold; 2.) The burgers were just adequate but not particularly great quality meat and very thin patties; 3.) The grilled cheese (which Sam made with shredded cheese) was barely ch read more

TERRIBLE CATERING EXPERIENCE - STAY FAR AWAY!! Startups Catering and events was hired to provide the catering for our wedding after finding their company listed on theknot.com. Listed below are some of the shortcomings that were observed and brought to our attention by family and guests. - Catering staff arrived at the event well over an hour LATE. - The presentation of the food at the wedding was subpar and nowhere near wedding standards. The presentation was not remotely similar to the photos on the Startups Catering website. We later realized that most if not all of the companies online photos were a scam and most likely pulled from Google. (I will attach the photos to this review if possible). - By the time my wife and I went to get food at the cocktail hour (15 minutes before it ended) they were completely out of multiple appetizers. - There were no servers at the cocktail hour, so our guests were forced to serve their own food. (We payed for five SERVERS as listed on our contract). - There weren't enough napkins or utensils placed out at the cocktail hour. - Multiple guests stated they were unaware that food was even served at the cocktail hour due to the minimal quantity and lack of presentation. - Dinner was served an hour late which postponed the rest of the reception. The Djs actually played an extra 20 minutes at the end of the night because they felt bad for us. - Many guests complained about the food being cold, under or over cooked, and inconsistent. Some stating their portions were inedible. - The Tri Tip carving station was labeled as "TRIP TIP" which confused many guests. Guests complained that the beef was undercooked, chewy, and could not cut it up due to a lack of steak knives on the tables. - The garden salad was served inside of a crumpled up table cloth. - Vegetables were not fully cooked and many guests complained about them being raw. - Pasta was served plain in the trays without sauce which was aesthetically unappealing and caused the pasta to clump together. - The pasta sauces were not located next to the pasta. The sauces were coagulated and not stirred which looked extremely unappetizing. They were not labeled and the employees who were standing there could not answer any questions due to a strong language barrier. - The Mahi Mahi was labeled as Halibut which could have caused a SERIOUS issue if someone was allergic. Multiple guests complained the fish was not seasoned and was very dry. - Other than the Tri Tip station, no one was serving food. Our guests had to self serve all of their food during the evening. This was upsetting due to the fact that we paid for five SERVERS, which we were under the impression would be serving the food. - The presentation of the beverage station, coffee station, and ice cream sundae bar were DISGRACEFUL. - The ice cream bar looked horrendous with plastic cups filled with melted ice cream inside. They also ran out of whipped cream, toppings for the ice cream, and the coffee station ran out of milk. - A few of the servers/ staff were dressed informally. Employees were seen bussing the tables with black garbage bags during the reception. - After the wedding I received many complaints from guests stating that there was not enough food and some did not even get to eat. This Including all 6 of the outside vendors that we INCLUDED in the overall headcount for food. Our three photographers and three DJs did not even get a chance to eat any of the food at the cocktail hour OR the dinner due to a lack of quantity. The photographers were seen eating fast food in the corner which was humiliating to say the least. Furthermore, many of our guests and vendors commented on their disappointment some even stating it looked worse than a work luncheon. Which was truly disheartening and embarrassing on our one and only wedding day. After reaching out to the owner Sam Schultz about my dissatisfaction, I received no reply for 15 days. I then reached out a second time requesting a response to the matter and after a few more days, finally received a reply of "Ok". A few months went by with no resolution so I contacted my attorney who sent a formal letter requesting a resolution. After about a week we received a response from Sam stating he believes his team provided services with care and professionalism. Later in the email, Sam stated "I understand that there may have been areas where expectations were not fully met" and that he would be open to a reasonable discussion about a partial settlement. It has now been over 6 months since the wedding, no resolution was ever given, and he has since stopped responding to all forms of communication. In conclusion, Sam Schultz has horrible customer service, used fraudulent images on his website, and car salesman-like friendliness/ tactics to assure my wife and I that our wedding day would be amazing, which in fact was nothing but a SCAM. STAY FAR AWAY FROM STARTUPS CATERING!! read more

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Scam! I rarely leave reviews, but the experience with Startups Catering & Events at my son and daughter-in-law's wedding was so disappointing that I feel compelled to warn others. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and we trusted this scam artist with a very important part of the day -- the food and service for our guests. What we received was unacceptable. The food quality was far below what was promised -- bland, poorly presented, and frankly, not worth the price we paid. Multiple guests commented on how bad it was, and we were deeply embarrassed. Worse, when we raised concerns during the event, there was no real effort to make things right. We were met with indifference instead of accountability or solutions. It felt like they took our money and ran, knowing that we'd be too busy with the wedding to fight back in the moment. This wasn't just bad catering -- it was a failure to deliver on a professional commitment at a deeply meaningful occasion. I would strongly urge others to think twice before hiring Startups Catering & events! Ohh I forgot to mention the staff dragging large black garbage bags around as they cleaned off the tables! read more

Used for a large, co-Ed baby shower. Communication beforehand was great. Payment was super easy and Sam was accommodating with our changing amount of RSVPs. The two servers that came to the event were very attentive and cared about the experience. We had a lunch special with salad, roasted vegetables, baked ziti, lemon chicken, and tri tip carving station. Everything was good, except the tri tip carving station (which is typically the highlight of the food experience). The meat was essentially inedible. The plastic ware provided to cut the meat kept snapping, since the meat was so tough it could not be cut. You could not even bite through it if you picked it up and tried with your teeth. Did contact owner, who blamed plasticware supplied, but it was clearly a meat issue - as supported by all guests surveyed. NO ONE could even chew it. Owner made zero attempts to accommodate this after being informed . Hopefully was an isolated incident, but would think twice about ordering that if reading this. Would not use again. read more

Buyer beware. They are professional con-artists who are only out for their own gain. Their pitch and photos are slick and polished, but their execution is shady and underhanded. I would hate for your lovely event to be tainted by these snake-oil salesmen. read more

I was going to do my wedding catering with them, unfortunately I got very sick (we have the medical report) and I canceled, I gave them more than 2 months notice, they refunded me half (even though I could have had the whole refund) and promised me a credit with the rest of the amount $1,780 when we went to use the credit they raised all the prices absurdly, we entered into an agreement even though I lost money, on the day of the event they DID NOT DELIVER THE CAKE, they said the cake melted on the way, how so? Aren't they professional? They sent me a photo and said I could buy one, but it wouldn't arrive until after the event was over. The food was cold, and very little of it, the mini hot dogs (pigs in a blanket) were burnt. We're taking legal action against them because they haven't taken any action. I have photos and videos of all the conversations and of my last call with them, if you want I can send them to you by e-mail. If I could give you one piece of advice it would be, don't do anything with them, even if the price is good and they seem like good people, because at the end of the day they are a company that only thinks about themselves. read more