Lake Elmo Inn Catering & Event Center — Attraction in Lake Elmo

I had grown up absolutely loving Lake Elmo in all their food festivities and was so excited when I saw that they were a preferred vendor at the venue we had chosen. I had worked with their catering department for years through work and had strongly trusted their corporate catering! It seemed like the perfect fit for our wedding. Positive: our guests raved about their food! The duck and wild rice soup is still talked about. The food was fresh and hot when we got it. The service team was on time and set up the place settings nicely. Negatives: the on going communication as we planned our event was very poor. The catering coordinator asked us to fold our own napkins even though we lived out of state and wouldn’t get to town until 2 days before the wedding (I refused to do). Their up charges for service are through the roof (18% service fee, 20% venue fee posted to the client vs most caterers who take care of that themselves). What we originally discussed at our first meeting for a budget was out the window. There were a number of added costs per person for the meal (7$/person for plates and napkins) that were printed small in the very back of their 30 page catering guide (that as a overwhelmed bride planning a wedding from afar and starting a new job, was the last thing I could comb through). As the wedding approached, we were not given contact information for the service lead and had no way to make last minute contact. The night of the wedding, the service team had forgotten the mother of the bride’s gluten free meal, had forgotten to hand out the kids meals (which made the 20+ kids at the wedding very restless and a pain for their parents). While us as the bride and groom had a nice meal, we came to find out the service for our guests’ meal was not executed effectively. As dinner was completed the service lead told me that they had twice forgotten the hot water dispenser for our hot cocoa bar (winter wedding necessity and a big personal need!) and instead of going to get it again, they decided to disassemble the hot cocoa bar my mother had made for us without asking, but telling myself as the bride right before speeches. Letting go of these mishaps during the wedding, we were contacted over a month after the wedding to pay our invoice balance. After relating our concerns to the catering coordinator, they only acknowledged 1/2 of our questions and still wanted us to tip 18+% gratuity. They claimed that they had workers who stayed until after midnight to clean up even though our parents were the last ones there and we had not asked or wanted to pay labor for any outside help when our dinner ended by 8pm. They did give us a 350$ credit for the kids meals (a 3% value of our costs). I hope that the catering coordination and service improve so that couples can confidently provide the wonderful food Lake Elmo is capable of to...

Lake Elmo Inn did an absolutely phenomenal job catering our wedding from start to finish. From the very first tasting, we were blown away by the quality, presentation, and attention to detail—and they delivered that same level of excellence on our wedding day.

The food and service were truly impeccable, from cocktail hour through dinner and even late-night snacks. Every dish was delicious and beautifully presented, and the staff was professional, attentive, and incredibly gracious with our guests.

We are so happy with how everything turned out and received so many compliments on the food throughout the night. The team exceeded our expectations in every way, and we’re so grateful to them for helping make our day so memorable. Highly,...

We had Lake Elmo Inn cater our employee picnic this week. They were on point. We served Brats, Burgers, and chicken. All were freshly grilled on site! The sides were amazing. Everyone raved about the Mac and cheese, and baked beans! The brownies…to die for. Amazing. The wait staff was extremely professional. They did a phenomenal job, even packed up all of our leftovers at the end of the event. I am excited for our next event because I am sure we will look at having LEI return! We used to rent a grill, cook ourselves and purchase the sides/ desserts with Lake Elmo Inn, we didn’t have to think about a thing! They were so on top of their game from time of inquiry, to proposal to day of event and clean up afterwards....