A Taste of Excellence Catering at Grand City Hall Rotunda Reviews

A Taste of Excellence catered our wedding at Mapleside Farms, and the whole experience was outstanding! Kaitlyn was our coordinator, and she made the planning process smooth and easy. Pat was the head server; we and all of our guests were impressed with her attentiveness and friendly attitude. The pasta buffet was delicious as well. Highly recommend this vendor!

The event and venue was a dream come true. Food was very good. Staff accommodating.

Working with A Taste of Excellence and Medeana was truly a pleasure and a gift for our wedding. She was able to take our ideas, which seemed to have other caterers confused and made the day ours. They made everything easy for us. The food was excellent, and everyone loved everything. Not having a sit-down dinner and having stations of food that everyone loved was inspired. Everyone complimented the food and food choices, and everyone had their fill. They were even able to help us find a cake designed and baker when ours fell through and the cake was fantastic. It was truly a pleasure having them cater our wedding and we would recommend them to anyone looking for a truly great experience for any event. They made everything easy for us and helped take the worry from us.

EXCELLENT FOOD AND SERVICE

We worked with Kaitlyn for our daughter's wedding at the Old Courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio. I cannot say enough good things about her. She was excellent in communicating with me from another state to put together an amazing wedding.
She worked with all our vendors and coordinated everything from food to setup to the events. She made sure we understood everything and told us about the cost up front.
She is organized, professional and a delight to work with. She kept us calm, when we had concerns, and made us very happy.
You cannot go wrong with this group. The food was excellent. Many guests raved about the dinner and the amount of dinner that was served. THANK YOU for helping make this an amazing day for our daughter.

Contacted them about having my wedding at City Hall. They were very responsive and set up a tasting right away. The food was amazing, we can't wait to see it all come together next year!

The food was fantastic...many of our guests commented on how good it was! Medeana was a joy to work with from the very beginning until the night of the reception. She was very attentive to the details and flexible as we changed our minds throughout the process. We had minor complaints, but even those were handled very professionally!!

Really wowed by the team from A Taste of Excellence. From the initial meeting to the day of, our sales manager was always responsive and knowledgable of our venue and menu options. Our guests are still raving about the meal! Thank you Taste of Excellence!

I absolutely love this dream Venue. The night was an elegant affair. The exclusive catering company was amazing - I worked with Madeline from taste of excellence and she was absolutely perfect. I was worried about it being too bright in June but he lighting was perfectly romantic. Use DJ Troy and pay for the extra sounds system - acoustics in the all marble building are difficult and you need an experienced DJ. Make sure you go with someone experienced I have been to other receptions in this and in the courthouse and a less experienced DJ is a HUGE drag on the evening. Make sure you book EARLY! This venue is good for a old courthouse feel but for a smaller group.

Our food was AMAZING!! We rented our dishware and linens as well which were perfect! We used the staff as our bartenders and they were nothing but professional. Kaitlyn was heaven sent! I could get a hold of her at anytime and she was nothing but accommodating. We received amazing reviews from our guests on how great the food was and how huge the portions were!! I couldn't have had such an amazing wedding day without them!

The entire team that helped to cater our wedding was amazing! Joe was definitely on top of everything from start to finish, guiding us seamlessly through the entire process. And let me just tell you, the food was DELICIOUS and our guests loved their dinners!

I've been to a lot of weddings, and typically the food is mediocre at best. We got married on a farm where Taste of Excellence is one of the preferred caterers. While TOE had excellent reviews, we were just hoping to have food good enough to avoid having our guests talking after the fact about terrible wedding food. After all, the farm where we got married didn't have an official kitchen and it seemed that it could be difficult to get great food from this. But TOE delivered with chicken marsala and beef tenderloin that was cooked perfectly (seriously, it looked like it came from a fine restaurant) along with all the side dishes, salads, etc. Our guests literally were raving about the food, so we were thrilled to have given our guests such a great meal. In addition to the outstanding food, their customer service leading up to the wedding during the planning process, and then the service the day of the wedding, was second to none. They were so accommodating and flexible, and very focused on giving us what we wanted while making recommendations along the way. I would highly recommend TOE.

Great experience! They have excellence attention to detail, and great about keeping in touch and changing things at the last minute. Super professional but also very friendly and helpful.

Taste of excellence really knows how to make you feel good about planning the catering side of the wedding. They cover every single detail from head to toe. They have made the whole process worry free, and are very prompt on getting back to you with different menus and proposals.

We had our wedding catered and the food and service were superior. Chris was great to work with! I highly recommend them!

Taste of Excellence catered our wedding at Conrad Botzum Farmstead in Akron and considering it is literally a barn with four walls, I was overwhelmed by the quality of service that was provided to us! The food was fantastic and the servers were always there, making sure everything was going smoothly. Chris was wonderful from start to finish, making sure that everything was just as we wanted! I would definitely recommend Taste of Excellence to anyone looking for a caterer for any occasion!

I planned my wedding 11.5 hours away. Kaitlyn was truly amazing in helping me plan from a far. She would message me back promptly with any questions I had. She met with me whenever I came home and ensure that I was happy with all decisions being made. The food was VERY tasty. Everyone complimented the appetizers and entrees. The day of the event, I felt at ease knowing Taste of Excellence was catering my event. Sue coordinated the day of my event and was fantastic. She asked constantly if I needed anything, if the guests were happy and how I felt.

Great people to work with!

I loved working with Taste of Excellence. They were very helpful right from the start. I shopped around for lower rental rates (tables, chairs, linens) and they matched every one so we would use them. I really appreciated their customer service. They were so organized and made planning all the details super easy. All of our guests loved the food - all the options were delicious!

A Taste of Excellence was one of 3 preferred caterers that our venue used and we are glad that we picked them. From the initial phone call through the final take down at our reception, we felt extremely lucky to have had them as our caterers. The food was outstanding and the staff was quick and friendly. Marci has been catering weddings for years and knew our venue very well so there were no problems with the set up and serving. The only downside was we only got one plate with dinner and no leftover food to take home. Other than that, I can't speak enough praises of Marci and her staff.

Delicious food! Great service! Ask for Taylor Amsden!

We had Tapas style food for our reception at Stan Hywet. The food was AMAZING! All of our guests have been raving about it! Marci was great to work with and all of the staff was very attentive throughout the entire night.

WOW what a great company. I worked with Taylor at Taste of Excellence for my Nov 16th Wedding. Taylor and Taste of Excellence Staff went above and beyond my expectations. Amazing company to have at any event and amazing service. The food was out of this world. Thanks for being such a big part of our big day. We couldnt of done it without you!!! The Steffys!

Could not have been more pleased with the service of Taste of Excellence. They were professional, helpful, and friendly. And to top that off, the food was incredible. Most of the people who have complimented us on our wedding talk about the food!

I loved A Taste of Excellence. They made the whole day run smoothly. The entire staff jumped right in whenever something needed to be done, no matter what that happened to be. They were very pleasant and considerate to all those involved. It was fantastic working with Chris. He is extremely knowledgeable, and had several very helpful suggestions. He always responded with in one business day to all emails, most of the time it was sooner. The food was good, and the prices were extremely fair and upfront. I have already had a few friends in attendance ask for their contact info. Truly a wonderful experience!

I cannot recommend A Taste of Excellence highly enough, as they did an absolutely outstanding job with the set up and catering of my wedding reception. I worked almost exclusively with Taylor, who was truly wonderful. Of all the vendors that I used to create my wedding day "team", Taylor was easily my favorite. She was super organized, friendly, helpful, and to say she was accommodating would be an understatement. She also was albe to recall, from memory, minor details about my wedding that we had discussed only briefly in months past. In short, she was truly amazing and my husband and I feel incredibly blessed to have worked with someone who made us feel so at ease with the millions of details we needed to tend to for our wedding.

Both Taylor and the rest of the staff at A Taste of Excellence went way above and beyond their slated role as caterer and did most of the set up for my reception (at no extra cost, I might add) and said "yes" to just about everything I asked of them. Our venue looked amazing and they got all of the details right! The service was quick and efficient, and perhaps most importantly, the food was outstanding!! They were extremely accommodating of many of our guests' food allergies and special requests, and people RAVED about the food! Many of our guests even told us it was the best food they had ever had at a wedding.

In a nutshell: A Taste of Excellence is clearly a cut above the rest. Their staff is extremely professional and efficient and their food was better than I've had in many high-end restaurants. I would give them 10 stars if I could. I highly, highly recommend this business.

Taste of excellence was the ideal caterer to work with. Kaitlyn was our go to person and she was responsive and helpful through every step of the process. She listened to our needs and went out of her way to ensure everything went smoothly. They know what they are doing and they make sure to go out of their way to be flexible in almost anything you need. The good was excellent and we received rave reviews from even the toughest foodies in attendance. I could not be more happy with the way everything turned out. I would definitely recommend Taste to anyone looking for a caterer.

What can I say about A Taste of Excellence.. They were AMAZING! The food was fantastic, and Marci was great to work with. She was very responsive and would normally get back with me rather quickly. We had our ceremony and reception at the Old Cleveland Courthouse, and A Taste of Excellence provided everything, from the tables and chairs to the linens and tableware. They set everything up and made it look gorgeous, and then tore it all down and rearranged it for the reception in a matter of minutes! Marci was there overseeing everything and made sure it all ran smoothly. Because of them, I was completely stress free on my wedding day. They are the best catering company in town. If you're getting married, call them today!

Stephanie was awesome! She was on the ball with everything! We had so many of our guests compliment the food! Highly recommend!!

Delicious food, great service, friendly people. They really listened to what we wanted and designed a menu that was unique and exactly what we wanted.

We received so many compliments on the food and quality of service at our reception. I plan to use them again in the future for catering for parties and other events. It was very easy to set up a payment plan and choose food that we liked for our reception. The cocktail hour set up was absolutely gorgeous and I can't compliment the serving staff enough. They managed to pull it all together even with the 10 minute downpour that happened for our tent reception.

A Taste of Excellence did an amazing job with our wedding reception. From the initial tasting with our families, we knew we had made the right choice. Plus, their amazing food is coupled with great service and reps who go out of their way to make sure their clients have the event they dream of. Mary Jane was helpful during the planning process, and made appropriate suggestions in terms of what we needed and what we didn't. The day of the event, she was there to see that things ran smoothly. Our Day of Coordinator, Heidzillas, affirmed that Mary Jane was great to work with. A few things we weren't going to include initially were changed when we took Mary Jane's advice. And I'm glad we did -- the antipasto display was a hit! I would definitely recommend A Taste of Excellence to anyone planning a wedding, large event, or even at-home party since they offer so much beyond the traditional wedding catering.

Mary Jane was awesome, any question or item we needed she was there to accomadate us. The event went off without a hitch. My only small complaint is that the food was a GREAT as our tasting. It was still good but I guess there is a difference in making two plates and 135 plates. I also heard cocktail hour was awesome. Thank you to the staff of Taste of Excellence!

We at first leaned towards this caterer because they were the cheapest caterer who worked with our venue, but they turned out to also have the best food and the best service. The food was superb, even though we were running a little off of schedule (the asparagus was a little overdone, but all of the meals were excellent). They cook all of their food on site -- no sternos. Everyone said that they couldn't believe it was "wedding food." They served us a full tasting meal even before we had booked them and we met the chef who was in charge of our wedding and discussed his signature dishes. They ended up making a vegetarian option for our wedding that wasn't even on their original menu. They allowed people to change meal options even the week of! Truly a pleasure to work with.

Taste of excellence was a wonderful addition to our wedding day. Our first tasting was amazing and we knew we wanted to work with them. Along with the food, they provided our linens including tablecloths and napkins. Our food was amazing on the day of and we got so many compliments on our passed appetizers. Stephanie was great to work with and was prompt with emails and questions. The only thing I wish they had provided was chair linens! We were extremely satisfied nonetheless!

Hired A Tase Of Excellence for our wedding this upcoming July 2016 and we can't wait! Everything they have done for us has been extremely professional and organized. The tasting was fantastic, I couldn't believe how accommodating they were.

Very excited for our wedding because of this vendor in particular. They are doing everything they can to make sure our food is awesome. We are doing stations and family style.

Food is amazing -- compeltely flexible with our tasting and let us try double the normal options! Madeana is great!

Working with Chris Winter was a dream. He knew what I needed before I even did, and I loved that everything could be done through them (rentals, cake, etc.).

Very happy!

TOE is pricy but worth it! Kaitlyn is amazing to work with, and our wedding was perfect. We got so many compliments on the food!

The food was great! Chris went over and above to make sure our daughters wedding was awesome. Not just a caterer, Chris and his staff made sure that all aspects of the reception went smoothly.

This caterer was excellent, we had a very large guest list and a very small budget, they were very accommodating and attentive. I would highly recommend this caterer.

A Taste of Excellence was very accomodating and easy to work with. We asked for someappetizers that weren't on the menu, and they kindly made them for us. Stephanie met with us several times leading up to our wedding day to go over details. We did two tastings and the food was always fabulous. The only disappointment was that the food served on our wedding day did not taste as fresh or good as when we did our tastings. The fish and chicken were a little dry and the rissoto didn't even resemble what we had at our tastings. My husband reminded me I should not expect that same quality when cooked in bulk using portable ovens. I just wish it tasted the same because that is what I was looking forward to. The serving staff and catering manager were fabulous and I believe went beyond expectations to make our day go smoothly. The tent sides were open when it started to rain and the venue coordinator was nowhere to be found. The serving staff tried their best to close the sides before our guests got wet. We really appreciate the Tast of Excellence staff stepping up even though this wasn't their job. Also, cake was served to our guests at their tables, but our table had to be moved to open the dance floor. I guess I should have specified that myself and the groom would have liked the cake served to us whether we were seated or not. We weren't served any cake, but luckily my wedding coordinator thought to put a piece in our suite that we got at the end of the night.

We worked with both Chris and Jeannie from Taste and they were very nice during every interaction. Taste is extremely flexible. We provided our own signature cocktail and macaroni and cheese recipes, both of which they made. We also ordered our own ice cream and they served it for us for no additional charge.

Despite all these special requests, Taste was courteous, and very customer-service oriented.

Taste of Excellence did an AMAZING job with catering at our wedding. They provided fun, and tasty action stations which were a huge hit for our 200+ guests. Not only did they go above and beyond what was expected, but they detailed every inch on the reception so that it was perfect for our guests.

The director is slightly hard to get ahold of and e-mails were not returned promptly, but that can not overshadow the amazing work that they did. I highly suggest this caterer. They will provide you with everything you want to make your day perfect!

At first I did not think I would like this caterer, but I ended up loving them on the wedding night. I thought they were a little expensive and did not allow much wiggle room. The food we taste-tested was not the food we ended up choosing. Luckily the food we had for the wedding was AMAZING. They took care of everything so that we could enjoy our night. Everything was perfect during the wedding. I'd say they were worth the money in the end!

Extremely professional company who provided delicious food and excellent service at my wedding!!

Great food, good service. Linda was really helpful in the planning. The food was delicious and they presented it beautifully!!

We came across the venue before coming across A Taste of Excellence. We fell in love with our venue (Mapleside Farms). We were very happy with A Taste of Excellence (the sole caterer for that venue). We were very lucky to work with Riki Schmigel who answered all of our questions and was enthusiastic about our choices. The whole day was a great success!

Organization and tasting before the wedding was great! Staff was easy to get ahold of and returned calls and emails quickly. The food was wonderful! It was slightly more expensive than other caterers in the area. Some service issues the day of the wedding, but they were taken care of eventually. Ice cream bar that we had ordered and paid a pretty good price for was set out after many of the guests had already left and was only available for less than an hour. If I had known this I wouldn't have paid the extra money for it. Overall, everyone enjoyed the food and we were happy with our choice.

Great food and gave whatever we wanted. A little last minute for the final bill and took a few days to return emails. But could not imagine another caterer.

very professional, positive, amazing attitude, can and will do anything you ask for!

Wedding Wire brilliantly deleted my review so unfortunately this won't be as long as before. (Thanks for nothing)
Taste of Excellence did very well with our wedding. I found out last minute (at the wedding) that the main person who had been helping us plan all along would not attend because of a personal matter and this was frustrating but understandable. I'm happy to say that the remainder of the staff worked tremendously well with the exception of one shattered champagne flute right under the bride's chair (and bare feet). Regardless, many things I thought i'd have to do myself were taken care of without my asking. I was also notified of several point persons who would be handling things for me and they responded to any request without delay or question. I was even brought drinks throughout the night which was nice since we had no chance to go to the bar. I would recommend ToE to others; their food was delicious and few, if any, guests complained about anything. (we have picky families)

We have mixed feelings about our caterer. The food was great, and so was the service the day of the wedding. The bar tenders and servers were excellent! However, our expectations were not met in the pre-planning phase. We had a hard time getting in touch with our planner, she was very slow answering emails, if she answered at all, and she didn't do any coordinating with our other vendors. One of the reasons we chose Taste of excellence is we thought they would do some of the coordinating, so we factored that into their more expensive cost, but that was not the case, I coordinated everything myself. One great thing was they did set up for us a day in advance, I rented tables and chairs through them and they didn't charge extra for having them there the extra time. They also were pretty flexible with the menu, allowing me to have vegetarian entrees for certain people even though it was family style. they also chilled our home-made beer for us and served it in nice glassware at a separate beer station- that was awesome. So I would recommend them, but my advice is to just be very specific about what you want, and make sure you get all the details in your contract. Our planner also changed during our engagement and I think that was part of the issue we had with responsiveness, since our contact was new. She was very nice, just forgot some details (like putting aside some vegetarian hor'dervs for me which was a huge bummer but a small thing). They are also not the best value, they're pretty expensive. Overall I'm happy I went with them bc the service at the wedding and the quality of the food made the extra price worth it. One other thing- they only have Budweiser products, we did ask for Miller in our first meeting and the woman said it would be no problem. She didn't tell us it would be a $2 upcharge per person to have Miller instead! They waived that charge for us since we weren't told upfront, but just something to keep in mind!

I have such mixed feelings about how to review A Taste of Excellence (TOE)

Positives: On the day of my wedding, they were incredible. The food was amazing (many people told me it was the best wedding food they have ever had) and the staff were wonderful (Stacy/Pam!). Every time a staff member walked by me, they made sure to ask if I needed anything. They were so attentive, which was very appreciated.

Negatives: in the months leading up to our wedding, we were half-tempted to fire TOE and find another caterer. Stephanie was our coordinator, and though she was extremely nice and knowledgeable, she was often very difficult to get a hold of. We totally understand that our wedding was in the middle of wedding season and she was VERY busy, but it became very frustrating when we would call and the receptionist would tell us she was at her desk and transfer us to her, and Stephanie would ignore the call. Furthermore, there were many emails where we would ask 3-5 questions, and she would reply (maybe five days later) only answering 1 or 2 of those questions, and ignoring the rest. We never felt like a priority to her, even the week of our wedding. Planning a wedding is stressful enough, so the added stress of a coordinator who was difficult to reach was a lot to deal with.

As far as value, this was another big frustration for us. When we first met with Stephanie, she gave us the initial quote, and also told us that they would price match any rentals. So my husband spent hours and hours finding better pricing to save us money, which they did price match. For a day or two, we were happy with that. Then, a co-worker of my husband tells us he booked with TOE and they offered him 30% off all rentals, of the bat, no price matching required?!? My husband was LIVID. He had wasted so much time to reduce our prices, when TOE offered another couple the discount without price matching.

Overall, the end product was great, but it took a lot to get there.

The food tasted great, but they were completely unresponsive and added unnecessary stress to the wedding.

Leading up to our wedding everything was great with A Taste of Excellence. We worked with Kaitlyn who was always very prompt and professional in all communications. On our wedding day Kaitlyn was not able to come, and to this day I’m not really sure who was in charge of the catering staff. The uniformed staff arrived as planned but the truck showed up later than expected which created a rush in getting the reception area put together due to not having the tablecloths.
Our guests thought the Hors D’oeuvres served during the cocktail hour were delicious. However, we had requested (in just about every meeting, it was in red on our contract) that our bar have margarita mix which our guests were told was not available. I had requested this as it is a favorite drink of my aunt who did A LOT of work to help out leading up to and the day of this wedding. Later on in the evening near the end of the reception it was found, but by then it didn’t matter. The buffet opened a bit late and the prime rib was very rare. It was supposed to be served medium rare and be able to be brought up in temperature on request. When I was asking people about the food in the days after the wedding, one of my guests told me that when the individual slicing the prime rib was asked for something more well done he stated that he had asked the cook, but this was all they had. Some guests informed me in the days after the reception that some of the thicker cuts of chicken were still pink in the center. The mashed potato bar was a bit hit though, so there’s that. Our guests indicated that the food that they were able to eat had a good flavor, however much of it was wasted.
There was also a privacy issue in that they left their file which had my address and full credit card information at the venue.
Overall the uniformed staff was very friendly to our guests. A Taste of Excellence did issue us a partial refund based on the outcome of the evening. In my opinion I would not recommend this caterer.

In the beginning we were given great confidence that they were going to be exceptional and said they would handle everything. It was the biggest mistake of the wedding. I will simply state the facts.

1. The tasting was amazing. At the reception the quality was greatly diminished. It didn't look at all like the food at the tasting. They didn't serve the appetizer soups that they were supposed to serve. The salad was 1/2 the size it should have been. When we said something about it, their response was, "oh, no one really eats the food". Stunned.

2. When we arrived at the cocktail hour the dinner tables were not set. The tablecloths were the wrong size. The entire bottom of the tables legs were showing.

3. They broke the champagne toasting glasses that we bought..... before the toast.

4. The bartenders did not know how to make the martini bar drinks......that Taste of Excellence recommend we have.

5. They told my family member that they were out of water at the bar and served them water out of the ice bucket. I believe this is a health code violation.

6. Dinner was 1 1/2 hours late. And they told people they were out of meat. They did not make as much as they said they would.

I have no words. The presentation was sloppy.

disappointed -food allergies ignored
It was very difficult getting pricing on a venue compared to all of the other vendors I contacted. We were open to a Saturday or Sunday wedding so we wanted pricing on both days. I had to contact Karen Levin several times to get pricing. We had 3 guests with food allergies so I made sure they were noted in our contract & in our seating chart that I gave to our planner Medeana Hobar. We were promised time & time again by Medeana that they would handle everything & not to worry. The day of the wedding none of A Taste Of Excellence staff was told what was going on. I had to personally make sure they had the correct food. Table 5 had two guests with allergies & both were served regular meals. Luckily since they were seated so close to our table I was able to tell the servers that they both had received the wrong meals. Then when the server returned she brought my grandmothers plain meal to our gluten free guest and by the time I saw it he had already started eating!! I waved down a server & she took his plate & asked me if she should give it to the other guest it was for & I demanded that she take it back because another guest had eaten off the plate. This could have been a life threatening situation if I wound not have intervened!!!! I felt like I could not enjoy my wedding because I was double checking your staff. The food was good but how do you miss ALL 3 guests with allergies? Also none of the salads had toasted almonds as promised. We have emailed 4 employees regarding this situation but we never received a response.