Food was Disappointing! Gah!

Are you able to choose a different caterer all together? Sounds like this one may not be the one for you.

I agree with Meghan. Ask if you are able to do outside catering. Honestly, it is best to be honest this situation and tell your venue that you were not blown away or enjoyed a majority of the options they provided. If that is all of their options, I'd say see if you can do outside catering with a caterer they approve of.

If you weren't happy, I agree about possibly considering other catering options (but with your wedding in May, there may not be a lot of availability). And, as a parent, I'd discount your 10-yr old's opinion. Yes, they can have an opinion, but as the parent of a really picky-eater, I wouldn't weigh their dislikes too heavily. (At 10, our child would have found 95% of all food options in the world "gross.") If you cannot potentially change caterers, were you honest with your caterer about your opinions last night? Do you think it is possible for them to change the options/offerings to correct for your concerns? (Was the food too bland, too heavily seasoned, poorly cooked, not good quality ingredients? There might be solutions, depending on what the issues were.) If they are locked in as your vendor, even if you have to pay for an additional tasting, I'd do that after talking with them very honestly about what you'd like to see change. I'd also ONLY take people to a future tasting whose opinions are likely to be more generally representative. (Yes, you want to feed your guests who have a variety of dietary requirements well, but because there were dishes your Muslim friend didn't try they can't really help you judge the overall menu.) Good luck!

You should definitely include the dish you liked the most, and then consider how to balance that with your other choices. No one food will please everyone, but as long as there is an option for everyone that is what matters.

We are having a vegetarian/vegan dish, chicken dish, and a pork dish. Pork may be a less traditional choice than beef, but our venue is a farm that raises pork and lamb, and we wanted to feature their own food. We're having a few items we don't usually gravitate towards as part of our menu because we know guests will like them even if we don't - like lamb meatballs (we don't eat lamb) as a hors d'oeuvre because we wanted to feature food raised on the farm, olives in the veggie dish (we hate olives but all our vegetarian friends love them), and a smoked trout app because many of our veggie friends are pescatarian and will eat fish. As long as all of the food gets enjoyed and we find enough on the menu to satisfy our appetite that is what matters, and between the 6-7 passed apps, pork and chicken dinners, and 3 dessert options, I'm sure we will be more than satisfied.

In your situation, I'd choose the one dish you liked (pork) and then make sure you have food preference options available, so if you need a gluten free option make sure you have one, as well as a veggie option.

Also as others have suggested, consider outside catering if it's an option. If not, I think specific feedback like MOB So Cal suggested might be helpful - if you can pinpoint what exactly you didn't like about the dish then maybe improvements can be made, or the venue can give you alternative options that better align with your food preferences.