Menu Tasting Question - is this normal?

I understand how you feel, but I know I didn't get to try everything either. My venue is a restaurant so our tasting was like having dinner on them. We ordered two entrees and they provided us with the cheese and cracker platter, and the breads that is included. We didn't get to try any of the hors d'oeuvres we would be serving during the wedding. We were limited by their dinner menu since this was not a full catered event.

Were the 6 entrees you initially chose entrees that they generally make/serve? Because if so, I don't see why they couldn't make them for you at a tasting (with a very select few exceptions, such as prime rib or something, that it is nearly impossible to make a small portion of).
We have our first catering tasting today, and I agree that I definitely don't want to serve something at our wedding that I have never even tasted. Good luck

We were allowed to try everything we chose for our wedding, with the exception of a couple of sides we went with. I would 1000% want to try the food your are paying for!

I don’t think that’s it’s weird that they would only have certain items. We created a whole custom menu with the chef at our venue, but they only made sample sizes of some of the main course options and hand passed appetizers. We didn’t get to try everything that’s on our menu though.

We were able to choose the first course and entreés that we wanted at our menu tasting. Are any of the four entreés they selected for your tasting from the list of six you asked to try. I would push back to at least get some of the entreés you originally selected, even if you're limited to four choices. We actually were limited to two entreés at our tasting.

We were not allowed to select the appetizers served at our tasting. We were given six appetizers that the chef selected for us. Our wedding planner at the venue explained this was because some of their appetizers are not done in-house. They prepared some of the ones for the tasting that were done in-house. I think only one of the appetizers from the tasting was on our list of appetizers we we're interested in. There was one other app at the tasting that had not caught our eye when we first looked at all the app options, and we were so impresssed with it at the tasting that we ended up picking it. My impression from other threads on this topic on WW is that this is typical to not choose the apps at your tasting. I can say that we were not disappointed in the apps we picked for our cocktail hour that we did not get to taste ahead of time.

I know some places let you taste everything, some have you come up with a proposal of what you want then you can try those. I would personally not feel comfortable serving food that I have not tasted. This is something I would take up with the caterer, then your contact through your venue. I would express that I have reached out to the caterer and they are refusing to let me taste my menu. After, I would personally ask for them to allow me to bring another caterer in. Usually this will get the ball rolling because they want you to use their caterer.

View Quoted Comment Thank you, that is good advice

I don't think you're unreasonable but this happens. I didn't get to taste my appetizers and only got to taste the same number of entree/sides as we would choose for the wedding. But I trusted the reviews online.

This is not unusual at all, especially since this caterer does not have a restaurant. In other words, in order to make all of the foods that you want to try, they would have to go out and purchase a small amount of the ingredients just for you. This would be more expensive (per person) than making food for a large group.

Checking out a few of their items will give you a great idea of the quality of their foods.

I understand your frustration. However, caterers have limitations. For my first wedding, which was wildly expensive, we did not get to try every item that would be served at the wedding beforehand - it just wasn't practical for the facility, even though they have a restaurant. How could they give me a "sample" of the mashed potato bar?

I think this is somewhat standard? for ours we got to taste 3 entree choices (we did food stations, so we tasted our top 3 options) but not any of the apps. i'd had their apps before since i had been at the venue for previous weddings, so i wasn't as concerned. we ended up going with a menu option we didn't get to taste, and it worked out ok, but i know other people might have different trust levels when it comes to what they're getting!

For our tasting we were allowed to select 2 appetizers, 2 mains, and 2 desserts. We weren't allowed to try anything from their cocktail or late night menus. To be honest I think it's a bit unreasonable to want to try 6 main dishes, I think the fact that they let you try 4 is generous. As long as what you do try are items that you are considering for your menu then I think you will be fine. It should be pretty easy to tell quality of the food from 4 dishes.

Well, while I do find it odd/annoying that they asked you what you wanted to taste, you told them, and then they said no just kidding you'll taste this instead, I also don't think tastings are absolutely necessary. Our venue does not do tastings for their couples, so we only had their reputation to go off of, and the food was fantastic. They are well-known for their farm to table food, and I never heard or read anything bad about it. We trusted our planner's judgment as to which were the best items to choose, and everything worked out beautifully.

I don't think it's unusual. Our venue does tastings about 4 times a year, and invites many couples at the same time. They said they would have a selection of some of their most popular dishes. They weren't offering some things that we're considering, but I felt that we got a good indicator of the overall quality.

While we were there, I expressed regret at not being able to taste a specific dish (crab cakes), and the coordinator said that some dishes were harder to replicate in taste-sized portions.

I don't think this is unusual at all. My venue did not let us taste any of the appetizers either and they were expensive. We could only taste 2 starters out of several selections of soups, salads and small plates, and only 3 entrees out of a huge selection of choices. But this didn't bother me because I already knew the stellar reputation of my venue and its food. Plus, I think what your catering contact is trying to say is that their tasting is just a representation of the style and quality of their food so you can rest assured that they will come through for you whatever you choose for your event.

We had a buffet. We were able to pick four entrees and each entree came with different sides that we chose. We were not able to try any of the appetizers or desserts. Honestly if you try four entrees you will get an idea of the quality of their food. Similar to a restaurant that you might recommend to friends- you don’t eat everything on the menu before you say it’s a good restaurant. It wouldn’t be cost effective for the caterer to have you sample everything.

Our venue doesn’t let us choose what we try. However, it also isn’t a one on one tasting. We are given a choice of 4 days in the year to go to the venue for a tasting. It is more of a party type deal because there are other couples who will be getting married there and we can pay to bring additional people. The venue selects the menu and they present the cocktail hour and dinner as they would on the wedding day.

You should feel this way, they should let you taste the appetizers. With all the tastings I did, the caterer told me to choose a certain number of entrees and sides. It seems like that is what they are trying to tell you, but they should've started out with that. So when they were contacting you for a tasting they should've asked for the 4 entrees you would like to try instead of letting you assume the number they were letting you try.
In the end, I had tastings with 3 caterers. And decided to have a burger bar and went with a caterer I didnt do a tasting with and everything was fine. But I designed my custom menu and they put it all together.