The Sephardic Temple of Cedarhurst — Attraction in Town of Hempstead

Had our wedding here in June. The temple was gorgeous and we heard great things about the catering. We attended a cocktail hour and it was delicious. Decided to go for it and signed with Avi. We met with him and discussed the menu in pretty good detail. We come from a culture where there is a good amount of food consistently flowing onto the table - if you know of Russian banquet halls, you are familiar with it. Avi stated that he understood and would have no problem delivering. We added lamb chops and made sure there would be more than enough for all of our guests. I showed pictures of the wedding cake he was to get from the bakery. After dropping off all of the tchotchkes the Friday before and going over final details, we felt good. Everything day of was going pretty well, the cocktail hour was very well received and while of course the bride and groom didn't eat, it looked delicious. All guests said it was good.

The big shock was the reception. What a miss. We discussed spreads on the table, one of which was "kani salad" which the photographer luckily captured. Each table had 12 people, there was 8 lamb chops at each table... my father literally counted because he knew the menu we discussed. The cake was not at all what I showed Avi, just a generic wedding cake. After we did the cake cutting, they just rolled it to the side. My husband went up to Avi and asked why aren't you cutting the cake and serving it? To which Avi replied, well no one eats it anyway. They never ended up cutting it and my grandmother even asked a few days later why she didn't have any cake! We did a late night snack/to go box which we're so happy we did because the guests were hungry by the end of the night! It was an embarrassing reception dinner. We couldn't believe it. We called Avi during the following week and he essentially said everything was done right, the only thing missing were the pickles which they simply couldn't source. He did not provide any solution.

The hall and temple looked nice and we're glad the cocktail was good but very disappointed to...

Made a wedding last week and I have to say that everything was exceptional. Avi and his staff were a pleasure to deal with and the food was both plentiful and delicious. Our guests raved about it. The sanctuary is also a beautiful venue for a chuppah. Mike the maitre d was also extremely helpful and attentive. We are so glad that we made our simcha at the...

The most magical place to make a wedding! Avi is the BEST! The food was beyond! The service! The temple! My guests could not stop talking about how one the top it all was! Avi kept telling me not to worry it will be beautiful and it was above...