I could not have been more DELIGHTED and thrilled with the delicious, beautifully-presented, fresh, and abundant dinner buffet for 250 people that Fadi's Mediterranean put together for our wedding!
Fadi's was truly a GREAT value, bringing high-quality, well-seasoned, more-interesting-than-usual wedding food for extremely reasonable prices. We are still getting compliments from all of our wedding guests about how wonderful the food was, and how happy the guests were that we did something a bit off of the beaten path, but still crowd-pleasing and accessible. Many guests thought we paid much more than we really did given the high elegance of the presentation - Fadi's really deserves higher than a 5 out of 5 on Value for Cost. We chose Fadi's because we had been eating at their Dallas restaurants for years and thought they would be the perfect choice for our diverse group of guests including vegetarians, meat-lovers, healthy eaters, junk-food eaters, little kids, people with diabetes, people who keep kosher, and people who observe the halal diet.
Indeed, Fadi's was popular with EVERYONE, and we felt good about offering healthy Mediterranean cuisine to balance out all the cake!
At first we were a bit concerned about Fadi's ability to handle wedding catering for 250, since they are a family-owned restaurant chain primarily, but they provided 2 catering references, both of whom I contacted, and they showed us pictures of the food displays from the many weddings they had done. I especially liked the way they carefully piled the colorful couscous salad in multiple small mounds and garnished it attractively on a large oval tray (they did this also with other dishes) to make it look much prettier and more appetizing than it would have been in a rectangular chafing dish. Our wedding photographer took some great pictures of the buffet so I'll have to add those pix to this review later.
Chadi Merched, who runs the Knox-Henderson location of Fadi's with his brothers & his many friendly, professional staff, was not super-responsive at first but as soon as I expressed concern about his responsiveness (about 6 months before the wedding) Chadi 100% addressed my concerns and would get back to us as soon as he could with every inquiry. Chadi's spelling may not be great (neither is mine, I run spell check on these reviews before I post them!) but his English is a LOT better than my Lebanese, and anytime we wanted to meet in person he was more than willing to find the time (it's generally easier to meet in person with a caterer anyway due to all the details that need to be planned). Chadi had told me he would need to be traveling internationally on dates near my wedding, but he even called me from Lebanon about two weeks before the wedding to confirm some of the last-minute details, and called again from the plane back to Dallas as soon as he landed to make sure we had everything we needed in place. So he didn't start out with a 5 out of 5 on responsiveness but he definitely ended up earning it!
The dinner buffet Fadi's ended up serving included many salads, veggies, pita bread + hummus, chicken & beef kabobs, and the flavorful, delicious fish entree sometimes served at the Fadi's restaurants (make sure to try this the next time you're there!). Fadi's also provided a lovely fruit display and the serving personnel to run the 2-line buffet. Due to our using Scottish Rite Library, Cathedral & Museum as the venue, Fadi's wasn't allowed to use the ovens, so they creatively came up with a way to keep the food warm off-site. Fadi's also helped figure out how to do coffee service at the last minute, which I had forgotten to plan for the guests since I don't drink coffee. Fadi's did a great job on cleanup, earning the compliments of several other wedding vendors including the venue, which has high standards for cleanliness.
In summary, when it comes down to choosing a catering vendor who will give you excellent service and value for cost, who will be creative, and who will absolutely deliver on promises and details, even your highest expectations will be met (or even exceeded) by Chadi and his team at Fadi's. I could not recommend them more highly.
