Spiced Indian Catering — Local services in Buffalo Grove

Every word we stated in our prior review on 7/9/23 was true & accurate; the response from Spiced was utterly false & inaccurate. The first person that arrived from Spiced on Sunday 7/9/23 was over 20 minutes late, with no courtesy phone call to let us know they would be late; we had no idea if Spiced woul show up for the brunch that was set for 10 a- 12 p (most guests arrived between 10 and 10:05 am, as the reason for the early brunch was because most people had flights to catch early afternoon). We had no choice but to take out left over food from our reception Friday evening & lunch on Saturday, and serve this our for the Sunday lunch. At 10:20 am only a single delivery person from Spiced came; some of the items such as Dahi Papdit Chat were in separate containers and needed the Spiced person to mix it together to serve and this did not happen until after 11 am. The chutney for the samosa was not put on the table until I went and got it myself. The only money I withheld from Spiced in my payment to them was for the Sunday delivery given that it was so late, & I did not pay for 2 of the food trays that were not served at all during the event given that they were so late in putting the food on the buffet table and most people had already eaten by the time Spiced put any of the food I ordered for Sunday on the buffet table. Rather than dealing with the matter privately at the end after the guests were gone, the owner of Spiced (who showed up several minutes after the delivery guy) repeatedly cursed at me publicly in front of our guests because he was unhappy regarding my withholding the small amount of payment from him. He offered not a single apology for being late, for not calling or texting us, for not putting food on the table until after 11 am when we expected food ready to serve by 10 am at latest. Even after food was put on the table after 11 am, they forgot to put cilantro, onions, or other garnishes & had to retrieve the food off the buffet table to add the garnishes at 11:15 am. Majority of the guests had arrived & began eating before even the first delivery person from Spiced arrived. Please check our credit score and any other history regarding us; there is no other history of us not paying our bills; we spent lavishly for the wedding and all events for the wedding and the only person not getting paid 100% + a generous gratuitity was Spiced, because Spiced performance on Sunday was an utter embarrassment for us. We selected Spiced to cater our wedding lunch on Saturday and brunch on Sunday based on their reviews and based on a very small sample of 5 menu items that my son went to taste (2 of which were not what we sent them as part of our menu). We were seeking, wanting, & expecting the best. Instead Sunday's lunch from Spiced was the most embarrassing and horrific experience with food at any party in our 50+ years of experience. We did not choose the quantity of food provided - we told Spiced the # of people and asked them to give us the quantity for that # of people; we had less people than 80 for lunch Saturday though we told them it would be 80 and we had less than 50 for lunch Sunday, though we told them 50-60. We increased the quantities of food we ordered from Spiced from what they recommended for 80-90 people, never decreased it; this is the only reason we had some left-over food to serve on Sunday is because we were wise enough to increase the quantity from recommended amount, otherwise we would have had only left over food from Friday evening reception which thankfully was not catered by Spiced and who we had no issues with. If those of you reading our review choose to not believe us and instead choose to believe the response from the owner who showed up very late without a courtesy call, publicly cursed at me repeatedly in front of my guests, and then proceeded to take food back with him, I am sorry I cannot help you; you are welcome to believe what you wish. My reason for posting this is to prevent someone else from having the horrific...

I am Craig’s wife & I chose Spiced for our son’s pre- & post-wedding lunches on 7/9 & 7/10/23 due to their reviews. I am perplexed how they received good reviews & can only share my experience. Spiced does not provide dishes to serve in or with, chaffers, warmers, any staff or any service, only the food unless you pay addn’l for each of these. Still I chose them due to good reviews & paid 10% extra of total bill to have them manage buffet lunches & $140/staff to help serve food & I also hired 2 addn’l staff from my hotel to provide table service; our hotel provided chaffers & warmers & all dishes. On 7/9, Spiced buffet manager stayed only 30 min to put food from their warmer into hotel kitchen & then instruct Spiced hired staff how to place food on buffet table. She instructed her staff to fill the hotel’s 10 oz glasses only 15% full with Mango Lassi that I had ordered for 80 people & could only fill 60 glasses 15% full. She left & my sisters, husband, & I had to instruct the Spiced staff to even replace food container when empty & provide serving spoons & to label each item - not even basic training was there. Seeing their incompetence, my wonderful hotel banquet manager provided me with a 3rd hotel staff member to do the job Spiced staff should have done. Feedback from guests was food was mediocre, too mild & not flavorful. 1/2 the food was left over. I shared feedback to chef by text & she replied she was insulted and suggested she cancels 7/10 lunch. I replied I was only sharing so that Sunday’s food would be more flavorful and better spiced w/o going overboard & stated I did not wish to cancel the day before Sunday’s lunch. The Manager did not reply. On 7/10 we had brunch 10 am - 12 noon catered by Spice. My hotel staff had chaffers & warmers, dishes, utensils all ready at 9:30. At 9:40, there was a no show from Spiced, so I instructed hotel staff to bring out left overs from Dinner we served from another restaurant (much better food than Spiced, though repetitive) from Friday night & some of the leftovers we kept from Spiced’ lunch on 7/9. My Hotel staff had leftovers warmed & ready & on the table at 10:05 & 2/3 of guests arrived by 10:15 & started buffet as they had flights to catch. Spiced arrived at 10:12 am & only some of food was placed on table at 10:45 am. Dahi Papdi Chat was in raw ingredients and not prepared till 11:05 am & they forgot to put Sweet Lassi on the table before I asked at 11:07 & they only placed 1 small pitcher on the table. They demanded payment balance & my husband zelled full balance except 10% buffet managing fee, Spiced staff fee & 2 items not placed on table until after 11 am, as most guest finished eating leftovers by time Spiced had the food on the table. My husband & I were putting the new Spiced food on the table as their staff did not know how to label food, what went on chaffers & what was cold, we had to instruct Spiced staff even to put serving utensils with food as it was different serving staff on Sunday. Spiced manager who himself delivered the food late threatened to take the food back unless we paid for the service not provided & we said OK for him to take the food back, as guests had already eaten left over food by this time. He then called me fowl names in front of guests and staff & threatened to sue me. My husband refused to pay for services not provided though he paid for all the food provided by 11 am even though it was far below expectation. Dhoklas were simply awful & rated 0/10. We paid the hotel staff this amount in tips for doing their best to help salvage our luncheons. Spice Manager left with the rest of the Lassi & food not yet on the table & has sent us invoice for the balance despite this terrible service of over 1 hr of delay in food for a 2 hr brunch & us having to provide all the service. This has been the most embarrassing hosting experience we have had or...

I am glad I chose Spiced catering for my wedding brunch and dinner.. I was all in for the Spiced catering when I tasted some samples..  It was toooooo good that there were hardly any leftovers at my wedding.. I had guests from diverse backgrounds and they loved it.. many had multiple servings of food without knowing the name of the food item and I am not kidding..

Tina is really professional and friendly.. She advised me on the ideal quantity and thoughts around the best combination of food items.. If I start naming the tasty ones, I would end up listing out the brunch and dinner menu..

I would highly recommend Spiced catering for anyone interested in Indian food (authentic high-quality South Indian food).. If you don't find your favorite food item on their menu, do check with them - they might make...