Memoirs Reviews
Reviews
4.9 out of 5 rating
4.9 out of 5 rating
30 Reviews
99% recommend it
Awards
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![Yvonne]()
Yvonne L. Sent on 06/14/2021Best decision made
I AM A BELIEVER.
For some background: We hired Memoirs to cater our outdoor wedding at Kualoa Ranch. We started off with a very tight budget with a guest count of 250 (local wedding, this is like a norm right?) While good food was a priority for us at our wedding, we were honestly just thinking about ordering from our favorite bento place to keep things easy, affordable, and appeal to the masses. We are a no frills kind of couple anyway, we just want good food for a good price.
Then, our wedding planner recommended Memoirs. I had never heard of Memoirs prior to her recommendation. When I started looking them up, I saw they had a fancy website with fancy dishes and said to myself, "nah, this must be way out of our budget, and our local families probably wouldn't appreciate it even if we could afford it."
But out wedding planner highly recommended them, and we totally trusted her, so we went for it.
BEST DECISION EVER MADE.
TASTING: Totally customizable tasting menu. You e-mail them a list of preferences or menus you like from their website, and they will finalize a tasting menu with you that will fit your budget (key here, they will work with whatever budget you have.) We are self-proclaimed "foodies" (or I'm just picky as heck), so we worked through at least 3 different menus and had 3 or maybe 4 different tastings? before we finalized everything for the big day. Chef John was there at each tasting to get feedback and adjust the menu to exactly what we wanted. I think each tasting is like $25 per person, depending on your choices, but as we found out, this is an extremely good value because we left completely stuffed, and even took home boxes of leftovers from our tastings.
FOOD: Our final menu was a hybrid of few of there standard items, and a few custom items based on our preferences. The quality of food is honestly like high-end $$$$ restaurant, but for a way more affordable price. All our guests couldn't stop raving about the food at our wedding, and kept asking us where it was from. Our final menu:
- Spicy beet poke on crispy rice cake
- Torched beef nigiri, ponzu and green onion
- Chicken pate on crostini, poha berry, yuzu caviar
- Local farm greens with shaved vegetables and honey macadamia vinaigrette
- Seared ahi belly and yuzu scallop with black garlic, soy caviar, and bamboo rice
- Grilled Andrade Ribeye and Herb roasted chicken, charred scallion potato and ponzu cream
- Strawberry and lilikoi shortcake
- Dark chocolate crunch bar with sea salt and caramel
- Matcha panna cotta with honey and toasted sesame (Custom dessert)
Also, just to note, our venue was completely unplugged, meaning no electricity, bathroom, and just a water hose on site. These guys had to carry in their own oven, power, etc, to PREP THE FOOD ON-SITE. SO IT IS DAMN FRESH.
SERVICE: Impeccable. Throughout the planning process, Taylor (managed most communications) and Chef John were always professional yet down-to-earth, and receptive to our feedback along the way for any changes we requested. On the day of the wedding, the entire team looked real slick and clean, and super professional, very prompt with plating dishes and removing excess trash.
COMMUNICATION: Excellent. They do get busy around peak wedding season, which is understandable. I had many many questions along the way (we were also a COVID wedding, so lots of rescheduling along the way), so the fact that they kept up with me is an accomplishment.
VALUE: Absolutely a steal, diamond in the rough, gem beyond gems, I don't even know how else to emphasize this!!! I am SO grateful our planner recommended these guys. They deliver HIGH QUALITY food and professional service that will work with your budget! Note. we were a COVID wedding, so what started as 250 guest count (and initial deposit was paid for a dinner serving 250 guests), had to be scaled down to about 80 guests. They were totally understandable and basically adjusted our menu to fit the deposit we already paid, and we paid very little if anything more after that.
**BONUS: So of course on wedding night, we were too busy/excited to eat, so unfortunately we didn't get to even touch our dessert that night. Chef John heard about this, and personally delivered a box of our wedding desserts to our home a week later. This guy and this team is an absolute GEM. I cannot emphasize this enough. These are wonderful people running an excellent business, and I will definitely be hiring them again for all of my future catering needs! -
![Fatima]()
Fatima J. Sent on 09/25/2019Memoirs, we love you! 100% would recommend!
Love Note from the Bride:
Nick and I planned a destination wedding for 115 of our closest friends and family. While I was hoping for sunshine, planning for a possible light sprinkle… what I, our guests, and our vendors did not plan or expect.. was for— was a MONSOON on our wedding day! I don’t mean to say it just rained… I mean, it literally POURED. There were even flash flood warnings! Every single guest and vendor was drenched from head to toe. They say rain on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck, and ours started this day with our vendors.
To the ENTIRE MEMOIRS TEAM, we don’t even know where to start, except by saying THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!
Your entire team kept a smile on their face and a positive attitude throughout the entire day! Every single person, staff, chef, bartender, not one single person’s hard work went unnoticed. Everyone was selfless in walking back and forth from our tent to the kitchen and making sure Nick, I, and our wedding guests were their top priority. Not only did they ensure the food stayed warm and dry, but it was DELICIOUS!!! We decided on family style and the memoirs team even let Nick and I help put out some of the first platters to the tables, as a nice surprise to our guests! They also let us surprise our guests and get behind the bar to bartend during happy hour!! Our guests LOVED that!!
From initial reach out and partnership with our wedding planner Carly, to food tasting, planning, prep, execution and even follow up after our wedding, our entire experience with Memoirs was INCREDIBLE. We are so blessed to have had them on our team for our special day. Not only are they passionate about their food and service, but you can tell just how much of a family they are, and how much they care about their clients! We are SO lucky to have had them help us celebrate our big, wet day!!!
Love Note from the Groom:
Memoirs brought their A game to our wedding and it RAINED at an out door venue. They literally could not have been more dedicated to us. They set up all day in the rain, they cooked in the rain, they served in the rain, they cleared in the rain and they did it with smiles on their faces the whole time. The food is all Hawaii local, and it was AMAZING. We did a family style service and the food came out beautiful and delicious! We could not have possibly imagined a better team to put together a hillside table service in the POURING RAIN! A special shout out to Taylor the bartender for saving the groom the last shot of his favorite tequila! -
![Tali]()
Tali H. Sent on 07/02/2019Hands-down best caterers!
Our guests are still talking to us about their fish, corn bread, and the purple potatoes! We did buffet-style for our wedding, so that the guests could pick and choose what they wanted and it was a huge hit! I should mention we had a lot of foodies from Los Angeles at our wedding, so we definitely wanted to make sure the food was incredible. Not only was their food amazing, but their staff was also so nice! My now-husband apparently looked like he was about to faint at one point during our wedding -- none of us noticed (oops), and their bartender came up to him with a glass of water and said I think you need this. She literally saved my husband from fainting in front of everyone. He told me afterwards that he was so thankful. If we ever do another event in Honolulu, we will definitely be calling Memoirs! -
![Konalee]()
Konalee Sent on 10/02/2018Thank you! I honestly don’t know what to say other than thank you a million times over. From the start the Memoirs team were so helpful and were across all the food/drink and staff requests I had in the lead up to our destination wedding. Rosanna even picked up the fact I had accidentally made a typo on the number of vegetarian meals required and she saved the day by following-up for clarification rather than processing the request.
Our wedding food was lovely - the starters, entrees (mains) and those amazing malasadas as a dance floor snack were a treat! We wished we were able to do the traditional taste test but being destination we had to trust the pictures and the menu as well as the incredible reviews.
Our guests were over the moon with all the food - the salad course was then followed by either a fish, chicken or vegetarian entree (main) option and all were very enjoyed thoroughly. The bar was perfectly stocked with the drink requirements for the signature his and her cocktails as well as an abundance of beer and wine. We were very well looked after on the night with such attentive and friendly wait staff!
Rosanna, Thomas, Peter - Adam and I just want to thank you for all your hard work and effort you put into our special day, from the lead up to the day itself; your customer service was outstanding and it was a pleasure to work with you. Please pass on our thanks to all your staff too, they did an excellent job! Highly recommend for wedding catering - 5 stars! -
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![Jo]()
Jo Sent on 09/26/2016There are no words to explain how amazing Memoirs were. They were the superstars of our wedding! We had to organise everything from Australia so we had to fly to Hawaii to do all our taste testing (best ever) and we were in love. The professionalism of this company is top notch. We knew we wanted to get the best of the best when it came to catering as this was high on our list of priorities (we LOVE our food). They did not disappoint. From the appetisers, the custom made cocktails, the professionalism of the servers, the specialised menu for our allergy and gluten sensitive guests, the bride and groom getting both options for mains (and got a little grazing plate at our table after our photography session), the perfect timing of serving within our timeline, managing to impress 50 guests with the menu...AND they had to achieve all of this in a rented kitchen on a lawn as we got married at Lanikuhonua estate! Amazing. If you want the best of the best, chose Memoirs and Chef Foster! -
User1896884 Sent on 10/30/2014One of the most amazing aspects of our wedding! Memoirs did an incredible job! The food was fantastic (our guests are still talking about it) and the staff on the day of and during our correspondence leading up to the event were incredibly sweet and helpful! I cannot recommend Memoirs enough! YUM! -
User1725150 Sent on 07/21/2014This review won't even begin to capture how amazing Memoirs is, but I'll try... We were impressed by them from the start. We received a very prompt reply to our initial inquiry. It wasn't some generic form response, they took the time to look over our event and provide input and recommendations from the very start. We were working on a very tight budget, and they helped us find a number of ways to cut costs without having a sub-par menu. Gabi was incredibly helpful getting our event planned. She lent a great deal of expertise and provided some great ideas to make our wedding even better. She really went above and beyond our expectations.
Okay, the wedding day. Everything was set up perfectly. Our centerpieces and place-settings were just how my wife requested them. The servers were very friendly and helpful, and made sure to keep my wife and I well fed throughout the night. The passed appetizers were amazing and we immediately started receiving compliments on the food. Our guests also had a lot of good things to say about our bartender, he was a really cool guy, worked fast, and poured strong drinks!
Okay, onto dinner. We had the seared fish with lilikoi sauce, and it might have been some of the best fish I've ever eaten, it was seriously amazing. He also made a curry chicken with goat cheese and some other stuff that was absolutely incredible. Everything was so good, we were kicking ourselves the next day for not getting a few plates of leftovers to take with us to our cabin to eat during our honeymoon!
In summary, Memoirs was phenomenal from the first email to the end of our event. Staff, food, service, everything was perfect. They were a big part of why our wedding was so memorable. You'd be making a serious mistake not choosing them. Heck, my wife and I have been joking about how we want to do another event of some sort just to eat the food again! -
![Jackie]()
Jackie Sent on 08/19/2013If you are having a wedding on Oahu, Hawaii then I would ABSOLUTELY recommend Memoirs for your dinner service. From the moment I tried the bacon rubbed chicken skewers during our cocktail hour, I wanted to eat all of them! The chicken was unlike anything I've ever tried...and I haven't even gotten to the main course.
We decided to go with the buffet option due to budget constraints and it turned out beautifully. Our guests raved about the food and how delicious is was. As the Bride and Groom, our meals were plated and the presentation was absolutely beautiful. The only thing that bummed me out was we were never served our side dishes, only the salad and main courses. Everyone talked about how good the ginger fried rice was but my husband and I never got to try it! :(
Overall, I would definitely recommend Memoirs. The food was amazing and the staff was terrific! If we ever renew our vows and need catering, I know who I will be calling!
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User1305035 Sent on 08/28/2013Memoirs was recommended to us by our coordinator and it was one of the best decision we made for our wedding. Food was a huge priority for us, and what we had at our tasting and what we ate at our reception did not leave us down. Several people asked who catered for us because they were interested in using them for their next event. -
![Mari]()
Mari Sent on 02/24/2014This review for Peter and his team is long overdue! Although we were married in May of last year, 2013, we have to say that Memoir's exceptional service, attention to detail, and amazing food are still talked about on a consistent basis every time our friends and family talk about our wedding last May.
Memoirs was a bright shining light for us when we were looking for caterers. We had tasted from a few others but they failed in comparison to just our taste test with Peter and his team. From the moment we started tasting his food we felt extremely excited that what Memoirs offers was exactly what we were looking for.
Memoirs went above and beyond as the date was closer, helping to accommodate our dessert, which we had ordered from somewhere else, making recommendations for beverage vendors (and even making the recommendation to pick up more beer when he thought we might need more at the last minute!). And, on top of all of this they swooped in at the last minute when we were having problems with getting all the rentals we needed and took care of everything.
On the night of our wedding when we were busy with wedding activities, Memoirs' staff made sure to take care of us and even made us a care package to take back to the hotel because we didn't end up getting to eat as much as we had hoped we could that night.
My husband and I would recommend with no reservations Memoirs for your wedding. Food is always one of those elements that people remember from weddings and we guarantee that your guests will continue to talk about the food for months and months after your wedding the way our guests still are! Thank you Memoirs!! -
![Elena]()
Elena Sent on 09/02/2010Wow!!! Peter and his company "Memoirs" - just the best! I did few food tastings, but Peter had exactly what I was looking for: class, taste, and so much more. I wanted 5-star "French style" dining experience: jumbo shrimp, scallops, fois gras, filet mignon, sea bass, rack of lamb... I wanted top-quality organic products prepared in small portions, beautifully arranged and tasting delicious. I got exactly what I wanted.
Coming from Russia, our weddings are packed generally with so much food, which is impossible to eat. My idea was not quantity, but rather quality. Everyone at my wedding were just silent tasting each dish and complementing chef each time.
My wedding was in a private beach-front house, so Peter accommodated that cooking right on premises. His cooking staff and waiting personnel was top-notch as well. I also had "live Sushi station" from his company - loved it as well!
If you are looking for an ultimate 5-star dining experience - look no further! Food is such an important part of a wedding! Many thanks Peter!!! -
Marie Sent on 10/09/2017Since we did a destination wedding, we had to just trust our planner and hope for the best. She recommended Memoirs because they were a company that could do it all for us, including the bar. We picked blindly from their suggested menu, and couldn’t have been happier! Everyone absolutely loved it! We were so busy that we didn’t really eat as much as we wanted to, and they were great and made us to-go plates! The next night, we took it to the beach and ate every last bite. Even cold, a day later, it was delicious!
Thank you Memoirs for feeding us so well, and for doing such a great job not letting our guests get too thirsty! Bar service was excellent!!! -
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