UC San Diego Catering Reviews

Reviews

• Rebecca J. Sent on 11/21/2022
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Delicious Food

  Amazing. Just amazing. Our guests all-night we're raving about the food, I cannot thank Stefan and Zak enough for their help. Amazing chefs and amazing team.

  Amazing. Just amazing. Our guests all-night we're raving about the food, I cannot thank Stefan and Zak enough for their help. Amazing chefs and amazing team.
• Miriam Sent on 10/24/2016
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  All star team! Julie Meola, and Madison Wells made this experience off the charts incredible. Doug Martin who's head of catering made sure I got what I wanted and checked in multiple times. Many menu options are plentiful, quality, and healthy.
  Being a Dietitian I know quality food, and this company uses impeccable ingredients that taste amazing and with environmental consciousness. Everybody at my wedding was RAVING about the food and it was a pescatarian only menu.
  LOVE these people!
  
  

  All star team! Julie Meola, and Madison Wells made this experience off the charts incredible. Doug Martin who's head of catering made sure I got what I wanted and checked in multiple times. Many menu options are plentiful, quality, and healthy.
  Being a Dietitian I know quality food, and this company uses impeccable ingredients that taste amazing and with environmental consciousness. Everybody at my wedding was RAVING about the food and it was a pescatarian only menu.
  LOVE these people!
  
  
• Laura Sent on 08/19/2008
  4.7 out of 5 rating

  4.7
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    4.5 out of 5 rating
    4.5

  UCSD Catering was great - they worked with our specifications, created new dishes for us, were inexpensive and everyone LOVED the food. Great choice!

  UCSD Catering was great - they worked with our specifications, created new dishes for us, were inexpensive and everyone LOVED the food. Great choice!
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• Matt Sent on 06/04/2015
  4.5 out of 5 rating

  4.5
  • Quality of service
    4.5 out of 5 rating
    4.5
  • Average response time
    3.5 out of 5 rating
    3.5
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    4.5 out of 5 rating
    4.5

  The Great: the food! Innovative dishes using local ingredients beautifully presented. An unsolicited comment from one of our guests: the food was DELICIOUS!!! Wow, UCSD! What a splendid location and I honestly can't remember better wedding food in my life!! I went to get seconds, it was so good!! And the appetizer bread was delicious too!! I loved how we could put our own toppings! And my fiance, being vegan, was able to get full too. (He actually took too much and couldn't finish!)...Last wedding we went to he could only eat rice and he was so hungry after it was over!
  
  The Good: the price was very reasonable and a great value for the quality. It was difficult to optimize our menu because we weren't given itemized pricing until very near the end, but there were plenty of options to fit our budget.
  
  The Less-Good: Julie Meola is very enthusiastic but her email communication sometimes lacked organization and clarity - we would often email with questions and receive a response several days later that only partially answered a few of the questions. That said, she's GREAT in person so if you're a local we recommend doing as much of the planning in person as you can (we were planning from the east coast).
  
  We'd absolutely recommend them for any event in the future!

  The Great: the food! Innovative dishes using local ingredients beautifully presented. An unsolicited comment from one of our guests: the food was DELICIOUS!!! Wow, UCSD! What a splendid location and I honestly can't remember better wedding food in my life!! I went to get seconds, it was so good!! And the appetizer bread was delicious too!! I loved how we could put our own toppings! And my fiance, being vegan, was able to get full too. (He actually took too much and couldn't finish!)...Last wedding we went to he could only eat rice and he was so hungry after it was over!
  
  The Good: the price was very reasonable and a great value for the quality. It was difficult to optimize our menu because we weren't given itemized pricing until very near the end, but there were plenty of options to fit our budget.
  
  The Less-Good: Julie Meola is very enthusiastic but her email communication sometimes lacked organization and clarity - we would often email with questions and receive a response several days later that only partially answered a few of the questions. That said, she's GREAT in person so if you're a local we recommend doing as much of the planning in person as you can (we were planning from the east coast).
  
  We'd absolutely recommend them for any event in the future!
• Kristen Sent on 04/28/2009
  4 out of 5 rating

  4.0
  • Quality of service
    3.0 out of 5 rating
    3.0
  • Average response time
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Professionalism
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0

  We were forced to use this vendor due to the reception site we booked. Fortunately, the food is amazing! I feel we got a good value - good food - reasonable price. You automatically get a wedding coordinator by using their catering service. Our coordinator, Julie, was very nice, professional, and gave us a lot of great ideas. The main difficulty we had with her was things changing at the last minute. About 4 months before our wedding - we had a FINAL meeting to do a tasting and finalize the quote, etc. We thought we had it all figured out, but about 5 days before the wedding, there were suddenly lots of changes. She did hook us up with discounted chiavari chairs, which was awesome, but there were some costs ($300 in extra linens) that she "forgot" to put on the quote. It ended up working out okay, but I hated having to be firm with a woman that I had come to love and trust so much. I would email her very specific changes, and then all of the sudden something else, which we had not even discussed would be changed. I couldn't tell if she was making lots of typos, or if she was trying to pull the wool over my eyes. In the end, I still reviewed this vendor very positively, but I would caution you to be very careful and on top of your quotes so you don't get hit up with "changes" like we did at the last minute - which was VERY stressful.

  We were forced to use this vendor due to the reception site we booked. Fortunately, the food is amazing! I feel we got a good value - good food - reasonable price. You automatically get a wedding coordinator by using their catering service. Our coordinator, Julie, was very nice, professional, and gave us a lot of great ideas. The main difficulty we had with her was things changing at the last minute. About 4 months before our wedding - we had a FINAL meeting to do a tasting and finalize the quote, etc. We thought we had it all figured out, but about 5 days before the wedding, there were suddenly lots of changes. She did hook us up with discounted chiavari chairs, which was awesome, but there were some costs ($300 in extra linens) that she "forgot" to put on the quote. It ended up working out okay, but I hated having to be firm with a woman that I had come to love and trust so much. I would email her very specific changes, and then all of the sudden something else, which we had not even discussed would be changed. I couldn't tell if she was making lots of typos, or if she was trying to pull the wool over my eyes. In the end, I still reviewed this vendor very positively, but I would caution you to be very careful and on top of your quotes so you don't get hit up with "changes" like we did at the last minute - which was VERY stressful.
• 
  User2266500 Sent on 08/11/2015
  3.8 out of 5 rating

  3.8
  • Quality of service
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Average response time
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Professionalism
    2.0 out of 5 rating
    2.0
  • Value
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  We had to go with UCSD catering because of our venue.
  Overall, the food was good and the service was great. I was also extremely happy with how smoothly everything went the day of.
  
  My main issue was with the billing and lack of communication within UCSD catering as well as between UCSD catering and our venue, the great hall.
  
  There were also a lot of issue with billing.
  Before the event, when we were putting down a deposit, we told UCSD catering that we wanted to put down $5,000. Because our coordinator couldn't take the payments, someone else from UCSD catering called us to take payment but only charged us a few hundred. A week later, we were charged another $5,000 without any notification.
  
  When we wrote to the manager, we did not receive an e-mail response back. Our coordinator was apologetic and threw in a free upgrade to china plates, but this was still frustrating.
  
  After the event, we were told that we would be charged for 8 extra people. When I told them this was incorrect, they then said we would be charged for 5 extra people. I told them that this was still incorrect because we did not have any extra people, they decided to charge us for 2 extra people. Because we didn't want to keep going back and forth, we decided just to pay the bill. The prices that they were charging also kept fluctuating which was frustrating.
  

  We had to go with UCSD catering because of our venue.
  Overall, the food was good and the service was great. I was also extremely happy with how smoothly everything went the day of.
  
  My main issue was with the billing and lack of communication within UCSD catering as well as between UCSD catering and our venue, the great hall.
  
  There were also a lot of issue with billing.
  Before the event, when we were putting down a deposit, we told UCSD catering that we wanted to put down $5,000. Because our coordinator couldn't take the payments, someone else from UCSD catering called us to take payment but only charged us a few hundred. A week later, we were charged another $5,000 without any notification.
  
  When we wrote to the manager, we did not receive an e-mail response back. Our coordinator was apologetic and threw in a free upgrade to china plates, but this was still frustrating.
  
  After the event, we were told that we would be charged for 8 extra people. When I told them this was incorrect, they then said we would be charged for 5 extra people. I told them that this was still incorrect because we did not have any extra people, they decided to charge us for 2 extra people. Because we didn't want to keep going back and forth, we decided just to pay the bill. The prices that they were charging also kept fluctuating which was frustrating.