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Daniel Lyons Catering Reviews

Daniel Lyons Catering

Daniel Lyons Catering

Newport Beach, CA
4.0 out of 5 rating, 4 Reviews
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Reviews

4.0 out of 5 rating
4.0 out of 5 rating
4 Reviews
80% recommend it
  • Quality of service
    4 out of 5 rating
  • Average response time
    4 out of 5 rating
  • Professionalism
    4 out of 5 rating
  • Value
    4 out of 5 rating
  • Flexibility
    4 out of 5 rating

Awards

4
  • Vivian
    Vivian H. Sent on 01/20/2024
    5 out of 5 rating
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      5.0 out of 5 rating
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      5.0 out of 5 rating
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      5.0 out of 5 rating
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      5.0 out of 5 rating

    Delicious Food Reasonable Priced!

    This review is extremely long over due. But my husband and I remember every detail working with Chef Daniel. He played a huge part at our wedding!

    First of all, it was very easy to set up a tasting with him. As soon as I found him and sent an inquiry on WeddingWire, he contacted me right away and was very easy to communicate with. At the tasting, he provided an amazing spread of food and allowed us to bring up to 10 guests! We even got food to go.
    He prepared salads, entrees, and even desserts/pastries. We were very impressed.

    Planning everything with him was very easy. He was very eager to meet all the needs of my husband and I, and wanted to help our vision come true. For everything he included in his catering package, he was very affordable.

    His food is delicious and many talked about how they went back for seconds until the buffet area was all out.

    We really loved Chef Daniel’s lemon cake. His empanadas also were the best appetizers during our cocktail hour. His food was all cooked to perfection.

    Thank you Chef Daniel for catering our wedding!
  • E
    Elizabeth Sent on 05/14/2022
    5 out of 5 rating
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    Amazing Service and Delicious Food!

    Daniel Lyons Catering did an amazing job with our wedding.

    Daniel went above and beyond to accommodate us during the pandemic season. Food was delicious. The amount of service provided by his staff during our event was more than we could've imagined. Food was on time. Our guests were delighted with the meal proportions, quality of food, and wait staff.

    For our one year anniversary we had Daniel come over and recreate our wedding dinner. It was even better than what we remembered. We will continue to use his catering services for our future events.

    Thank you, Daniel!

    Elizabeth & Edgar
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  • Emily
    Emily L. Sent on 05/12/2022
    1 out of 5 rating
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    Do not hire daniel for your wedding.

    He ruined my wedding because of following reasons, but never apologized on the day of. He finally admitted his mistake when I send him a letter three days after my wedding day. Until then, no response, no efforts to try to fix the problem.

    1. He was short staffed. I had 190 guests, and he only got 6 servers to cover all. He never brought up the concern on this, but ALWAYS assured us that it would be taken care of. Then, complained to me when I send the letter that his servers worked so hard. He was the ONE who made his servers to have tough time to serving 190 guests. They even had to take off the plates, prep the food on the plates. He tried to say that he had hard time covering those amount of guests BECAUSE ME adding more? THEN, why wouldn't you stop me adding more if you were so sure you cannot handle that? You confirmed it is no problem adding people, even signed on the contract, and got paid. I don't think I'm the problem here.
    2. He said “2 hour serving time is excellent” for “Plated” meal. I never heard of this logic. Is any catering company taking this long to serve guests? He took an hour and 12 minutes to serve the entree meal from the salad. I do have all the evidences recorded from the venue since they have CCTV. Thank GOD!
    3. He finally told me “plated” meal takes longer than “buffet” 3 days after my wedding day. NOT even on the contract day, not even on the wedding day. But ONLY when I send the letter of asking why it took so long to serve. If he ever mention that, I would not hire him since I emphasized so many times that it is important to serve my guests on time.
    4. He kept insisting HE IS RIGHT although contract shows NOT. On the wedding day, he told my husband if ceremony starts at 5pm although it should be 4pm. Then, he kept insisting that dinner starts at 6:45. However, we agreed that it should be at 6pm. On the wedding day, he was mad and splashing out his anger to my pastor telling me that WE WERE WRONG about the dinner start time. Then what? He finally admitted that he got the time wrong 3 days after my wedding when I show him the evidence. No Apologies until that.
    5. Only 15 minutes late? He insisted that he’s only 15 minutes late on serving the food. HOWEVER, the point #1 got the thing wrong entry. He only got 6 servers to cover 190 guests. Can someone please tell me if it seems okay? And his logic of #2 (2 hour serving time is excellent) ruined my guests’ wedding experience and had to leave being hungry and mad. We had to apologize all of my guests regarding the situation
    6. HOWEVER, his attitude is not acceptable. My guests tried to help him out on gathering his stuff. He yelled on them because it is not the way of him doing it. And when I wrote the letter about it? He said it is because of the safety, insurance reason. OKAY. Then, why don’t you explain that to my guests instead of yelling in front of 15 guest of mine?
    7. He kept lying about the facts. He said half of my guests were not sitting down on the table, so he had to wait to serve. However, guess what? I do have camera showing that we were all ready, and HE even saw the guests few minutes ago, and right after that, we walked down the aisle for the reception. WHAT?? Who’s right here? He also lied about the condition of kitchen. He said when he entered the kitchen, the floor was dirty and sink was full with dirty dishes? Guess what? We have CAMERA. It was clean, there was no dishes in the sink. Please do not lie.
    8. I have so many other things to go over, but I will stop here since I think it is enough supporting my points. IF YOU NEVER WANT YOUR WEDDING TO BE 2 HOUR LONG SERVING AND BEING LIED ON THE CONTRACT, please do not hire him. Thank you for reading

    Daniel Lyons Catering's reply:

    To whom this may concern,

    First and foremost I would like to say that I understand some of your points that you bring up in your review/complaints of the event. Throughout my many years and tenure of being a chef. I have worked on quite a handful of Korean weddings. Traditionally as I’ve come to witness is that after ceremony in a traditional wedding the dinner services or dinner commences right after. It would seem that in keeping to the traditional ways, your wedding did not follow suit. I believe that your guest and family members were maybe a little confused by not keeping to the traditional way of a Korean wedding, Which would cause some impatience and hunger on their part. Going forward dinner was set to take place at exactly 6:00 PM. Unfortunately due to reasons out of my control dinner did not begin at that time it was 10 minutes late to start. That 10 minute delay is not and would not be responsible for any of the following issues that came up.

    We started service at 6:10 and the last plate of dinner left the kitchen at 8:15 PM we played it up to 169 dinners in two hours that was a calculated out at 71 seconds per plate per person. In that 71 seconds they consist of plain salad on a salad plate play some salad plate in front of customers removing a salad plate. dishing up a dinner plate to order tri-ti- sirloin with demi-glaze sauce. Chicken Alfredo with fettuccine pasta baby carrots with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. 71 seconds per person for all of this! That in my 41 years as a chef is very excellent. To the bride and groom we were not going fast enough guess we’re leaving because she said our dinner service was too slow we had 20 to 25 people come to the kitchen asking for to go dinners we took care of this for them some of them told me they were told by family members they would take 45 minutes to an hour to feed them they waited long enough and they were going home there’s no way I could’ve fed 190 people in a sit down place setting in that time period.

    When I first met with the bride and groom after they had their several food tastings and we were signing the contracts they asked me what was the fastest way to feed 100 people buffet or pleated. I told him buffet 100 people often simply salad on the saline my service behind of a feline I told me to take 45 minutes to an hour. She told me she did not want her elderly and family members of the same thing and yes she wanted plated I told her plated meal based on 100 people was one to one hour to an hour and a half she chose 10 days before her wedding to go with plated she told me her account was also updated from 100 to 185 guest I gave her another chance to switch from pleaded to Buffet but she said no she wanted to plated meal. I told her 2 hours 2 1/2 hours for 190 people to be seated for a plate of mill, she said she wanted to remain with the plated meal. In all honesty I truly never thought she thought would be able to feed 195 guest and be off of the event premises by 9 o’clock. For the amount of guest we would need to be out by 10:00 PM is what we would need unfortunately she never told the church council that she needed to change the time that was for cleanup.

    As a result of the time not being moved from 9 o’clock to 10:00 PM we’re literally being pushed out of the kitchen at 9:00 PM. We were unable to finish rinsing off the plates and silverware. The staff was never given a chance to have a dinner break or a 15 minute break. They worked from 2:30 pm to 9:00pm with no dinner break or no 15 minute break.

    Emily I feel with more communication from yourself to me and the church staffers a lot of the mishaps that you feel were brought upon by myself would never have occurred if You had taken the time to communicate to me; what time slots you were expecting to fulfill the plating of dinner. It would’ve then been brought to my attention that you did not revise the 100 plate count that you originally wanted me to prepare for your wedding and was than two weeks prior raised to 190 people. I let you know that I could most likely feed everybody within an hour and a half to two hours so you were given the revised time slots of dinner set up. The wedding day your guest did not realize they were not going to be fed after the ceremony and your church staffers and volunteers were also not given the information that I had already given to you two weeks ago.