Kate G. Sent on 06/17/2021

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Love this Company!

Wow! Melon's Catering was the best thing about our wedding. With all the changes we went through due to the pandemic, I was SO happy to have Melon's as our caterer. Ann helped us through the entire process start to finish, and she really knows her stuff. They even were able to source a cigar roller 2 weeks before the event which was a HUGE hit! Our guests are STILL talking about how amazing all the food was and that it was the best food they have had at a wedding! The food, their professionalism, and their attention to detail makes them the best in the business. I can't thank them enough!

Chris Sent on 03/16/2018

5 out of 5 rating

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We cannot say enough about this place. We are a couple from Miami, FL and had a destination wedding San Francisco. 1) Never plan a cross country or international wedding, it's a major headache. 2) If you do, HIRE MELON'S!! Darryl and his team were thee most accommodating and kindest people to work with. We were able to do an amazing tasting (which btw is worth every single penny), customize our menu, and pick out all our rentals.

Melon's worked with us for nearly a year, to get the exact look we wanted, that also matched and fit in our budget. Darryl was so patient with our 500 calls and understood the complications with planning a cross-country wedding.

The day of could not have been better! I can't thank Darryl and his team for their amazing work. Everyone from our wedding actually ate and finished ALL of the courses. The food and presentation was incredible. The veggie options were very delicious (at least the people who ordered it, said so). If I had to plan an event again in the Bay area, I would not even hesitate to call Melon's to do it!

Tracy Sent on 11/30/2014

5 out of 5 rating

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We absolutely loved working with Melons and our coordinator, Sheldon. We got so many compliments on the food, from the appetizers to the dessert. I would highly recommend them (and have to several friends) and hope to use them in the future for other events.

Kara Sent on 11/28/2012

5 out of 5 rating

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When my husband and I decided to throw a wedding together in 3 months we asked ourselves what were the most important things about our day. We decided it was the photography and the food. After going through several vendors we chose Melons because of their reputation not only with the food but the service as well. They also are very transparent with what you are getting in terms of food, service, linens and serveware, which I didn't get with other vendors (lots of superflous costs and 'cheaper' prices that turned out to be due to cheap flatware/serveware (think nice plastic).

We also chose Melons because they use local and organic ingredients, when possible. This makes a big difference in the quality of the food and I like supporting local vendors. We wanted our atmosphere to be relaxed & friendly, so we chose a family style service, which turned out to be perfect. Everyone loved the food (there was nothing left). Our guests are still commenting, months later, about how great the food was. It really was amazing. It was even better than our sit-down trial.

I also must mention Sheldon, the manager/coordinator. He is incredibly professional, calm and lovely to work with. He was very transparent at all times, on top of everything, and made our day run so smoothly. We really enjoyed working with him. While Melons isn't the cheapest vendor, they are 100% worth the money, I promise. I asked my husband if he was glad we spent the money for better food and he said, hands down, YES. So if the quality of food (and service) is important to you, I would recommend Melons above everyone in the Bay Area.

Catherine Sent on 11/16/2011

5 out of 5 rating

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It's incredibly hard to find people you can trust when planning a wedding - but Melon's always had my best interest in mind. I worked with Sheldon, who not only made solid recommendations that fit my budget, but also was a true gentleman start to finish.

Communication with the Melon's team was strong and they were honest in managing expectations and time. In many ways they went out of their way to accommodate me.

I am a New Yorker who recently got married at the Flood Mansion on 11-11-11. Planning a wedding on the opposite coast was somewhat difficult. For example, tasting the food. We did an original tasting with a group of couples and fell in love with their food 3 bites into hors d'oeuvres. But when it came down to finalizing our menu a month out I couldn't make it out to SF. They were kind enough let one of my bridesmaids taste our menu to ensure we were comfortable and happy with the selections. The Melon's Team was great about working through finalizing the contract and incredibly patient as many ideas get tossed in and out.

The day of everything came together beautifully. The staff was a pleasure to work with and my guests are still raving about the food and wine. Everything was beyond my dreams.

You can trust Melon's to capture every catering element you are looking for when planning your wedding - but most of all, you can trust they have your best interest always.

Thank you Sheldon!

Holly Sent on 07/29/2009

5 out of 5 rating

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Melons provided impeccable service and the food was spectacular.

Sheldon took charge of all rentals and organizational needs. Sheldon was kind, caring and attentive. He ensured that the entire wedding went off without a hitch.

Steven the chef and his team created everything on site by turning the garage into their kitchen. The quality of the food and the presentation was 5 star caliber. All of our guests commented. We had 6 passed appetizers and cocktails prior to the wedding, the tomato tart and arugula salad were refreshing the fabulous leg of lamb and halibut as entree options are still being talked about.

The staff was wonderful, Sheldon and Steven were wonderful. All of our guests commented on how professional and gracious the staff was.

I would use Melons Catering for any future event.

Anthony Sent on 10/21/2008

5 out of 5 rating

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This company was on top of everything. Food was excellent, flowers were beautiful, and service was friendly to all our guests.

Kelsey Sent on 03/25/2009

5 out of 5 rating

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Melons was outstanding!! I didn't have to worry about anything. Not only do they provide great food and decor, they essentially are a day of wedding planning service too. I worked with Ann and she was so organized and in charge. She was my point person for everything and I absolutely loved working with her!! I have to give the chef credit too, as I got many comments from guests that it was the best food they have ever had at a wedding. Melons handled my favors too (3 cookies in custom designs that represented my husband and I). They were so cute and fun that I had one friend use them for her wedding too!

Carolyn Sent on 04/21/2009

5 out of 5 rating

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Superb food and personalized service. My wedding guests still rave about the food at my wedding to this day and it is almost a year ago.

Kiira Sent on 08/05/2008

5 out of 5 rating

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Wow! We were extremely impressed with Melon's Catering for our recent wedding. Sheldon was an absolute delight to work with- professional, helpful, and just such a nice person. He made all of our wedding planning easier and he really went above and beyond to make our vision come to life. I cannot say enough nice things about him. The staff that helped with our day was also extremely professional and polite. Everybody from Melon's worked hard to make sure our day was unique and seamless. The food was delicious and we received so many compliments on it. I would highly recommend Melon's catering for any event!

Leanna Sent on 10/27/2008

5 out of 5 rating

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The food was great! All of the guests said it was the best catered food at a wedding that they had ever had. Melons staff was a pleasure to work with and very accommodating to all my food requests (I have a lot of food allergies and a pretty strict diet because I am diabetic). Melons made delicious food that everyone enjoyed, even though it was tailored to me! Since I can't eat dessert, I had no input on the cupcakes we served--absolutely none except the color of the icing so that it matched our color scheme! Apparently, they were delicious--I can't tell you how many people came to me after and commented on the cupcakes! They created something memorable and yummy with no direction from me at all! I highly recommend Melons!

Claire Sent on 01/21/2012

4.9 out of 5 rating

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We worked with Melons to cater our wedding at The Mountain Terrace in Woodside. They did an outstanding job and we would highly recommend them for any event! Throughout the process our primary point of contact was Sheldon, who provided consistently professional communication, support, planning, and execution from the first email to clean-up at the end of the wedding.
Here are some things that stand out about Sheldon and the Melons team:
- Dedication: They clearly care about the quality of the food they serve and how they serve it. Just to give one example: at the end of the group tasting (which was a very accurate portrayal of the quality of food served at our wedding), Stephen Silva, the executive chef, joined the group to answer our questions. We had some specific questions about how he selects his suppliers and he provided very detailed answers concerning the product attributes and business practices that he considered when he chose particular suppliers.
- Planning & Experience: We are both very detail-oriented and Sheldon was right there with us. After selecting Melons as our caterer, we had a 2-hour planning session during which Sheldon walked through the logistics of the entire day with us. He provided some very helpful suggestions that prompted us to change certain elements of our timeline and the dinner service and the wedding benefited greatly from those changes. By the end of our planning session, we were beyond confident in our choice of caterer and reassured that we did not need to worry anymore about those details.
- Customization within the budget: Sheldon did a great job accommodating our particular requests for the menu while providing guidance so that we stayed on budget. He never pushed items that would increase the budget and whenever we asked for things that would have increased the budget he let us know and worked with us to adjust other elements of the menu. As for customization, we knew early on that we did not want to do a big wedding cake. Instead, we wanted to do a dessert bar with mini bites of some of our favorite desserts. In his very first sample menu and quote, Sheldon took our list of favorites and crafted it into a delightful sounding spread that had us salivating. We did still want a small cake for a cutting ceremony but did not want to go to the hassle (or expense) of working with a separate baker, so we asked Melons if they could do one for us. Not only did they do it, but they did it for much less than a baker would have cost and it was a big hit with our guests!
- Execution: None of the above is relevant unless the actual event is well executed and Melons delivers what they promise. The setup went flawlessly (which is to say no issues came up that required attention from us), the food was exquisite, and the service was excellent. Our guests were delighted by the food and we were thrilled with the event. Throughout it all we knew Sheldon and his team were behind the scenes making things run smoothly but you wouldn’t have known it during the wedding because it was as if our cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, and dessert just magically appeared.

Kairen W. Sent on 02/27/2023

4.8 out of 5 rating

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Flexible, creative caterer who makes delicious food

I cannot recommend Melons enough, especially to people who need to serve a variety of food from different cuisines. My husband is half-Greek and half Indian; and I am Chinese. We wanted food at our wedding that reflected our cultures (and our favorite foods). We received catering contracts from several caterers, but Melon's was the only one where we really felt like they had worked with our ideas. Chef Stephen told me at the first call outright that he couldn't do authentic, but he could make delicious food. He was right -- and all my guests (most of whom dislike fusion) were super pleased. People literally raved to me first about the food of all the things about my wedding, especially the duck and the baklava.

2022 was a crazy year for weddings, and Melons was super busy and a bit slow in responding through the first half of that until the summer. So just be aware of that when you work with this vendor. We booked them without a tasting and pleased at our tasting to discover that we had chosen well. (And were again very pleased at our wedding when the food was exactly as it was at the tasting, except they had taken into account our feedback as well so it was even better!)

Finally, the servers were all kind and so courteous and happy for us on the day of. The only sad thing is that I can't eat my wedding food again, to be honest.

Neesha Sent on 09/11/2022

4 out of 5 rating

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Excellent food and service day-of

Food was excellent. Our guests loved it! Service was great on the day of our wedding. The Maitre D, Servers, and Bartenders were on their A-game and pleasant to interact with. They even ensured that we had h’ors doeuvres at the sweetheart table before we sat down and kept the food coming so we could actually eat at our wedding. Negative: communication leading up to the wedding was lacking and we had to go on faith and their reputation that everything would be correct on the day of.

User1792344 Sent on 09/03/2014

3.9 out of 5 rating

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We'd like to write something about the gap between what we expected from Melon's and what we ended up getting. It's not that the food wasn't excellent or that Melon's wasn't accommodating (they worked w/ us to create a vegetarian menu), it's just that when you make such a big investment in something, on one of the most important days of our lives, it matters more than ever that you actually get what you paid for (and agreed on contractually).

We knew there were challenges w/ the venue we picked and that dinner service would be slower due to this. What we never anticipated was that we at the head table would completely finish dinner by the time our last table of guests were just getting served their entrees (~45 min after we were served).

Melons was very accommodating prior to, allowing us to have 2 tastings and to bring my parents, which we really appreciated. We were impressed w/ the quality, taste and creativity of each dish, and by the end of the 2nd tasting, we were happy w/ what we had and agreed that that would be the menu. They sent us a final proposal w/ exactly what we tasted, so we expected exactly that on the day of. During dinner service, we noticed that 2 dishes were seriously modified from the original, which was odd. What upset us was Melon's response to that; the chef deflected our complaints.

We had issues w/ some of the waitstaff. Family dishes were pulled away before guests were done eating. A server spilled water on a table w/o apology and w/o returning to wipe it up, leaving the tablecloth wet for the rest of service.

Our guests did enjoy the food, as did we. Melons admitted that due to kitchen issues, they weren't able fulfill our late night munchies and issued us a small credit. They also said they'd talk to the entire waitstaff team.

Our main gripe is that when there's such an obvious discrepancy between what was agreed on in the proposal and what was plated, and the vendor doesn't fess up to it, it comes across as disingenuous

Kimia Sent on 07/23/2010

2.8 out of 5 rating

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The team at Melons is made up of some of the sweetest people I've ever met. Working with Ann and Charlotte was a dream. They were responsive, kind, and great people all around.

So you might be wondering why I'd give them 2 stars if they're such wonderful people. Well... good people do not always good products make.

I give them two stars because after assuring us that their chef was capable of cooking Persian food for our wedding, we went in for a tasting and could barely eat our food. Not only was the food n.o.t. Persian, it was barely edible. The chicken wasn't cooked through, the kabob was slimey, and the salad was bitter. How is it possible to make salad bitter? Not to mention they'd put Indian bread on the table--a huge point of contention for Persians. With the exception of basic ingredients like salt, there is nothing similar between Indian and Persian food, and the fact that the chef would confuse these two traditions was insulting.

After our disastrous tasting, Melons allowed us to use a different restaurant for our food because we were so unhappy with theirs. This switch however, somehow added a $3000 charge to our bill. How is it possible that after canceling our food contract with them, they would find a way to charge us an additional 3k? I am still confused about this.

It gets worse. Melons was also responsible for our wedding cake. In the history of weddings...there has n.e.v.e.r. existed an uglier cake. The picture I showed to the pastry chef was of a gorgeous cake that was super simple. The cake that he produced was:

a) lopsided
b) lumpy
c) alllll the wrong proportions
d) appeared to be coated with rotting frosting, which is apparently what their version of white chocolate looks like

It was the one piece of our wedding that I am regretful about. I was legitimately embarrassed when I saw the cake. Even my mother was horrified. She came up and whispered in my ear, "is there any way we can hide it?" I didn't want our guests thinking I was capable of ordering something so hideous.

If I could do it over again, I would use them for the rentals (tables, chairs, etc.) but completely cut them out of all the food preparation.

Mary Sent on 09/15/2009

1.8 out of 5 rating

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We had a fantastic experience with Melon's right up until 2 weeks before the wedding. Our consultant had left so they put Heather with us. She was not responsive or professional at all. I spoke with Ann, the owner, a number of times and she assured me that it would be taken care of. Despite this, many of our requests and ideas for the wedding were not carried out as I was told they would be. To start off with the food tent was supposed to be in the parking lot and instead it was put on the same patio that our guests were on. To add to that the staff, including Heather, were in the tent talking about strip clubs while I was in the bride's changing room right off the tent and my guests were on the patio right next to them!!! The tables were set wrong, although honestly, they did look fine. The lighting that we paid extra for was horrible and at times I (the bride) was the one correcting the problems. We had specifically requested (because of the overall atmosphere of our wedding) that beer and coke be served in their bottles and they decided to pour them instead. The one glowing feature was that the food was fantastic!

User1099728 Sent on 02/28/2013

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Do not hire this company. The chef looked sick and was rubbing his nose with his hands. At the event a member of the staff by the name of Chris asked two of my female guest for phone numbers as to he was new to the city. Not so professional. A few days ago my female guest had a Facebook memo from him. I will never work with these people again.

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