Terrible tasting

We didnt try the entire menu. We picked the 4 things we would like to try, loved 3 of them and decided on the steak to be medium instead of how they cooked it. They gave us different options though. I would discuss that with the lady further

Oh boy. I can tell you from my experience, that if anything, a tasting should be better than the wedding food, not worse; I"m assuming that it was made for a smaller group than your wedding.

I never did whole menu tastings, but then, we were never known as affordable. If you had liked the food you tasted, I"m sure you'd move forward with more confidence, but since that isn't the case, you need to have a frank conversation with them and tell them that you were disappointed with the tasting.

As a chef too, I'd say I"d rather have a less than perfect location with fabulous food. At many weddings, people aren't really critical of the food, but the fact that he's a chef is going to make people more enthusiastically anticipate the food and pay more attention when they are there. I bet he feels that way too.

Is there any way they'd let his staff or colleagues cater it, even with a kitchen fee?

I think that typically you just get to taste a few things. If the food was so bad, maybe talk to your contact there and diplomatically let them know and have them suggest other things that are made better?

We don't get to try our entire menu, but we were lucky that our venue held an open house and we tasted some things before we signed on with them.

We tried the main and side dishes. We didn't try the desserts but, we felt happy with the food that was available. Did you tell them how you felt about the food?

We picked 4 main dishes to try and 4 side dishes. Then we narrowed it down to 2 main dishes and 1 side. I wouldn't want to have anything served that I didn't taste first! Especially at my wedding and especially for how much I'm paying you!

We didn't try the entire menu. We tried two salads, and two mains. But the food was so outstanding that we weren't worried at all about not trying anything else. I say that if your tasting was bad, the food is probably not going to be any better at the wedding.

One venue let us try just the items we would pick for our menu, horrid food.

one venue doesnt even offer food tasting. oddly enough we went with it anyway.

wedding food is hardly ever awesome, its just food to soak up booze and keep people from leaving while they dance.

I imagined they'd want to put their best foot forward in regards to the tasting.. and not just being "food snobs" it really was lackluster.

They allowed us try mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, root veggies, beef tips and roasted chicken. Honestly, the only item I even gave more than a second bite was the mashed potatoes.

If we hadn't loved the venue SO much, we definitely would have chosen somewhere that we could have had an awesome caterer.

Thanks for the tips- I think we will definitely need to sit down with them and come up with a better game plan.

For my wedding, we tried 2 "openers" (we chose fruit cup and pasta with sauce), 2 salads (garden and Caesar), 4 entrees (with sides) and 4 desserts. It seemed like a lot of food to me as we already had decided on the entree (prime rib) before the tasting but the venue wanted us to make sure we really liked the food that was served. For us the dinner served at the wedding was actually really tasty. If I were in your shoes I would discuss the issues you have with the food with the caterer and tell them that you don't feel comfortable serving food you didn't taste until the wedding. I would think/hope they would be willing to accommodate your requests.

We met with our venue face to face and apparently he scheduled a tasting that none of us were aware of. We were speaking tentatively in 2 weeks to come back and somehow he nailed down the exact date and time and never verified with us. We were sitting at home, just finished preparing a dinner and had company over when we got the call demanding where we were?! Apparently his chefs had been cooking for the last 4 hours and they had everything out waiting for us. I was pretty upset because I'm very organized and would never let something that important just slip my mind. Planning this wedding was my full time job. I told him we could be there in 2 hours if we left right now and he said he wouldn't be there and felt bad asking his chefs to stay later because they have families too. He put me through a real guilt trip saying they bought everything I wanted (a special Japanese cuisine which they never do) and they would just have to throw everything away if we couldn't be there. And if I wanted to do another tasting they would have to charge me $200 because apparently that's what everything cost. Anyway I asked my FI to go right away but he had just finished eating dinner and lived 30 minutes away. So he was there with the chef's explaining what happened and waiting on us to get there. When we did they weren't mad at all and understood that their boss can be a little bit unorganized.

Anyway the staff was so wonderful we got to taste our full menu which included 3 hor's devours, we added 2 more for the wedding, 7 signature drinks but we only had 3 for the wedding, an Asian salad, 2 entrees and 3 sides (hibachi style buffet). Everything was delicious so in the end it worked out but damn, it sure was stressful. It's all water under the bridge now. He suggested I even come work for him so he can be better organized. It would be my dream if we weren't moving so soon.

We tasted 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 2 desserts. We chose the meal we intended to have and then a 2nd one we were considering. They didn't make the Hors d'oeuvres or the night stations cuz they only make those for groups but I went to our venues open house and tried those.

With your FH being a chef maybe he can offer some inexpensive suggestions to improve the food. My venue was open to all my suggestions, adding sundried tomato focaccia to the bread baskets, olive oil and balsamic to dip, swapped out the sweet-n-low for splenda when they serve coffee and tea and asparagus instead of green beans, more berries on the creme brule and serving me jumbo shrimp instead of lamb with the trio because I don't eat lamb. They were willing to make anything I asked possible. I dunno if all venues are this accommodating but you are giving them your money make them earn it.

ETA: The venue is gorgeous by the way

I have no advice since we haven't had our tasting yet and when we booked we did ask about having one and we do get one (I forgot to ask what exactly we can ask to taste or how many items), but I just want to add your venue is gorgeous!

That stinks! Our venue also came with a non-negotiable caterer. We actually did not have the option to taste anything in advance so we picked what sounded good to us and added the Pittsburgh Station (pierogies, kielbasa & sauerkraut and halushki-all regional favorites). We had attended events at the zoo before so we knew the food was good so it wasn't a big deal. We actually got a ton of rave reviews on the food by our guests. Maybe you can as someone mentioned, diplomatically express your disappointment and ask for a re-taste?

Haven't done our tasting yet but we will be keeping this in mind. Food is really important to us and our family. I thought you got to taste the dishes you would like, but I see this isn't the case everywhere.

We are having a tasting but the hall we are getting married has hosted 2 family weddings and a few showers. I'm not worried about the food. I'm more concerned about the wedding cake which is included with the package. We plan on serving it a la mode for the main dessert and It better be good. The place has spotty reviews on yelp which makes me super nervous.

Jenn, is changing venues an options? Can you talk to the venue and tell them the food was not up to par and ask them what your options are?

Our caterer had a tasting for us back in march when we choose him and it was his most popular items. we thought the food was good it just wasn't our taste. he didn't even blink when we asked about tasting the items that we would want.

i guess you have to decide what is more important to you, you guys know food very well. if it was really that bad then the dishes you would want probably wont be any better than what they gave you at the tasting.

maybe change your venue if you really cant get another caterer in that spot.

How the hell do you hijack a food tasting post with pictures from your wedding?

That sucks I was super worried about our tasting because we also chose a venue that came with a caterer. We really lucked out, but I was so afraid we wouldn't. They actually let us select all of the entrees to try, if we had requested it. Salad, sides, and dessert weren't available for tasting.

I went to our reception venue and checked it out and we loved it, I would not sign until I tried the food. They offered to let us come in and try food when we could for free on the night of another party. We had our tasting in the office and they brought no less than 2 entire PLATES full of food for each of us!. It was good so we signed. I have since been to a "mass tasting" where they have lots of couples there and prepare almost everything on the menu. Took my MOH that night and she liked all of it also. We will have a hard time picking the sides as they are very good. Main entrees were also. I would talk to them and ask about options also.