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About
With over 38 years of experience, Design Cuisine Caterers of Arlington, Virginia has earned a reputation as one of the best-renowned caterers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Providing a top-quality custom experience for each client, their innovative menus, first-class service, and attention to detail will take your wedding to the next level. No matter the size and scale of your event, they will lead you through the process step by step and ensure that your experience is as stress-free as possible. If desired, they can partner with their sister company DC Rental to provide your event décor.
Cuisine
Constantly coming up with creative new ideas, Design Cuisine Caterers use the finest seasonal ingredients from local suppliers to create dishes that look as good as they taste. They offer a wide array of canapés, plated dinners, drinks, and desserts, and their menus can be customized to suit your taste. You can opt for custom-designed small-plate buffets and interactive food stalls instead of the traditional seated dinner, which allows guests the freedom to experiment. Options for these include sushi, retro sliders and fries, southern skillets, risotto wheels, and many more. Design Cuisine also offers themed bars, specialty cocktails, and mixologist stations for guests to make their own drinks. For dessert, they offer ice-cream bars, sweet buffets, sweet dipping stations, and more creative options, as well as an array of incredible wedding cakes. For uniquely stylish food and drink, Design Cuisine Caterers is an excellent choice.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the average catering price per person for plated service?
$10
What is the average catering price per person for buffet service?
$16
What is the average catering price per person for stations?
$10
Which of the following are included in the cost of your full service wedding catering?
Delivery
Set Up
Clean Up
Cake
Cake Cutting
Dessert
Cocktail Reception
Server(s)
Tastings
Chairs
Tables
China
Linens
Flatware
Glassware
Which of the following are included in the starting price for bar service?
Open Bar
House Beer
Specialty Beer
House Wine
Specialty Wine
Champagne Toast
House Liquor
Premium Liquor
Signature Drink
What event services do you provide?
Delivery
Set Up
Clean Up
What catering services do you provide?
Breakfast / Brunch
Buffet
Cake Cutting
Cocktail Reception
Custom Menu
Hors d'oeuvres
Plated
Server(s)
Stations
Tastings
What types of cuisine do you cater?
American
Asian
BBQ
French
Greek
Indian
Italian
Latin American
Local
Mediterranean
Mexican
Middle Eastern
Seafood
Southern
Spanish
What dietary needs can you accommodate?
Gluten Free
Lactose Free
Halal
Kosher
Nut Free
Organic
Vegan
Vegetarian
What bar services do you provide?
Bartender(s)
Open Bar
Champagne Toast
Signature Drink
Which of the following items can you provide?
Chairs
Tables
Which of the following items can you provide?
Barware
China
Flatware
Glassware
Linens
Reviews of Design Cuisine Caterers
Sarah Sent on 10/08/2023
5 out of 5 rating
Incredible Service; Delicious Food!
As a wedding planner, I was thrilled when my client shared they were planning to work with Design Cuisine for their rehearsal dinner event. Not only was the communication with the DC team incredibly thoughtful and thorough, but their attention to detail was second to none. They participated as great collaborative partners in the walkthrough, and were generous to continuously make updates to the proposal every step of the way. On event date, their team provided the absolute BEST service and as a planner who ties all the pieces together, it's so crucial to have an incredible catering team keeping the entire event grounded! I can't wait to work with DC again, and highly recommend them to any and all considering hosting an extraordinary event!
Katie Sent on 12/22/2019
5 out of 5 rating
INCREDIBLE food and service!
Design Cuisine is the exclusive caterer to our venue, Woodlawn. Usually this is sort of terrifying because you feel “stuck” with a caterer you didn’t choose. If Woodlawn’s gorgeous venue didn’t sell you yet, LET DESIGN CUISINE DO IT WITH EASE. They are true professionals and their service is some of the BEST I’ve ever seen. We worked with Claire, who was helpful, understanding, and extremely responsive – even on the morning of my wedding. The Design Cuisine showroom in Shirlington is massive – so many choices for every type of wedding/style you can imagine. Claire helped us narrow down the look we were going for and helped us create a vision for our entire reception. The tasting had our jaws dropped the entire time. They had our exact linens, chairs, silverware etc. so you could get a good idea of how the reception would feel. For our tasting, they had cooked our ENTIRE wedding menu and even had folks dressed in tuxes serving us in the tasting room. Fast-forward to the day of, I couldn’t stop eating. Usually you find brides don’t have time or their nerves were too high. Nuh-uh – not with Design Cuisine’s food. Everything from the pear salad to the short rib was flawless and tasted exactly like it had (if not better!) than our tasting. We still have guests (over a month later) raving about our food.
Olivia Sent on 05/20/2019
5 out of 5 rating
Amazing food and customer service!
After a turn of events a couple months before our wedding, our venue set us up with Design Cuisine - and it could not have worked out better! Not only was the food AMAZING, but their customer service was outstanding. They were essentially left to clean up a mess from another vendor and handled it so well, relieving any stress and making it a seamless transition. We specifically worked with Claire and if you’re able to request her, do it - you’ll have a flawless event with food that people will rave about!
Grace Sent on 05/15/2019
5 out of 5 rating
Best Ever!!!!!
Our wedding experience with Design Cuisine could not have been more lovely. The entire planning process with them leading up to the day-of was professional yet also friendly and warm. They did an excellent job helping me put together my vision. The food ended up being gorgeous and so delicious - we had a few guests say it was the best catered wedding food that they had ever eaten. Design made our wedding so special and we highly recommend them.
Alexandra Sent on 01/30/2019
5 out of 5 rating
More than we could have hoped for
If we could give Kevin and the team at Design Cuisine more than 5 stars, we would. We don't quite know how to express how thrilled we were with Design Cuisine. From the start, Kevin and his team were professional and flexible, willing to work with us to make sure that we had the event we wanted. From the menu design to the tastings to the execution of the event, it was nothing short of perfect.
Kevin and his team developed a menu that suited what we were looking for (and even gave us some options we didn't know we wanted). When we threw out ideas about other things we wanted to consider, Kevin was willing to make changes and/or be honest about what would or would not work. We were lucky enough to have both sets of our parents join us for our tasting -- an experience that was amazing and is one that we all will cherish for many years to come.
At the wedding itself, service was seamless. From the cocktail hour and passed hors d'oeuvres until the last late night snack was served, there were no issues. Many of our guests commented that this was the best food they had ever had at a wedding. We also had our cake done through Design and I can't count how many compliments we got -- people said things like, "I don't eat cake at weddings, but this one is amazing."
We can't say enough good things about Design. Most importantly, it was a beautiful meal that we will remember for a long time to come and was worth every penny we spent.
Kevin and his team developed a menu that suited what we were looking for (and even gave us some options we didn't know we wanted). When we threw out ideas about other things we wanted to consider, Kevin was willing to make changes and/or be honest about what would or would not work. We were lucky enough to have both sets of our parents join us for our tasting -- an experience that was amazing and is one that we all will cherish for many years to come.
At the wedding itself, service was seamless. From the cocktail hour and passed hors d'oeuvres until the last late night snack was served, there were no issues. Many of our guests commented that this was the best food they had ever had at a wedding. We also had our cake done through Design and I can't count how many compliments we got -- people said things like, "I don't eat cake at weddings, but this one is amazing."
We can't say enough good things about Design. Most importantly, it was a beautiful meal that we will remember for a long time to come and was worth every penny we spent.
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Design Cuisine Caterers frequently asked questions
At Design Cuisine Caterers, the cost of the full wedding catering service includes:
- Delivery
- Set Up
- Clean Up
- Cake
- Cake Cutting
- Dessert
- Cocktail Reception
- Server(s)
- Tastings
- Chairs
- Tables
- China
- Linens
- Flatware
- Glassware
The bar service starting price at Design Cuisine Caterers includes:
- Open Bar
- House Beer
- Specialty Beer
- House Wine
- Specialty Wine
- Champagne Toast
- House Liquor
- Premium Liquor
- Signature Drink
Design Cuisine Caterers offers the following event services for weddings:
- Delivery
- Set Up
- Clean Up
Design Cuisine Caterers offers the following catering services for weddings:
- Breakfast / Brunch
- Buffet
- Cake Cutting
- Cocktail Reception
- Custom Menu
- Hors d'oeuvres
- Plated
- Server(s)
- Stations
- Tastings
At Design Cuisine Caterers, you can find the following types of cuisine:
- American
- Asian
- BBQ
- French
- Greek
- Indian
- Italian
- Latin American
- Local
- Mediterranean
- Mexican
- Middle Eastern
- Seafood
- Southern
- Spanish
At Design Cuisine Caterers, the following dietary needs can be accomodated:
- Gluten Free
- Lactose Free
- Halal
- Kosher
- Nut Free
- Organic
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Design Cuisine Caterers provides the following bar and beverage services for wedding events:
- Bartender(s)
- Open Bar
- Champagne Toast
- Signature Drink
To cater to all tastes, Design Cuisine Caterers offers the following food and beverage items:
- Barware
- China
- Flatware
- Glassware
- Linens
Design Cuisine Caterers is recommended by 94% of couples who have used their services. Their overall rating is 4.7 out of 5 with the following breakdown: 4.8 in quality of service, 4.8 in flexibility, 4.8 in professionalism, 4.7 in average response time and 4.6 in value.