Cocktails Catering — Local services in Pine Castle

I don't know how they get so many rave reviews. Maybe if you order straight off their menu and want your catering to stick with their standard presentation and way of doing things, it's great. But if you want anything unique, forget it.

They totally didn't get the idea, didn't even minimally do what I asked them to do, and the food was so disgusting that we had to go out and eat afterward. They basically messed up the entire catering. It was so bad, it was embarrassing. It came out looking like we just threw down some sandwiches and prepackaged breakfast danishes for our guests.

When I went to their facility, they had ordinary coffee mugs out on display. I said, "You're not going to use those are you?" They said, "No, we have nice porcelain tea cups." They ended up using the ugly coffee mugs I specifically asked them NOT to use. There was no way the guests could have gotten the idea of Tea Service from their display.

We were lucky that at least they served the tea in tea pots. They were supposed to serve various kinds of "alien" tea, and those alien teas were supposed to be labeled according to the alien names we gave them. They didn't label the teapots. Instead they made a teensy, tiny sign they put on the back of the table that probably no one even noticed. So no one would have gotten that they were alien teas. So everyone was served normal tea in a regular, white coffee mug, sort of like you'd get at a business meeting rather than a Tea Service.

I specifically requested WHITE bread, like you'd see in a traditional British Tea service. Despite them constantly switching the bread in the menu to other kinds of bread and finally getting them to write white bread on the contract, they STILL made the sandwiches on wheat bread.

The sandwiches weren't even good. They were stale for one thing. They were mostly bread and very little filling for another, which was probably a good thing, because what little filling was there was gross. I did force them to make cucumber sandwiches since I think of that as the most recognizable thing that you'd think would be served at a Tea Service apart from crumpets. I trusted them to make some decent cucumber sandwiches, but they were gross. If you just take dill flavored Philadelphia cream cheese, smear it on some bread, and put a cucumber on it, it tastes better than what they made. Then I asked for raisin bread with cream cheese on it. They kept trying to remove that, and I kept having to tell them to put it back. So they did it -- kind of. The raisin bread had almost no cream cheese on it. It tasted basically like just dry raisin bread, which frankly was the best-tasting "sandwich" there.

They said they would make assorted pastries, which I admit I simply trusted would be British pastries to go with the British Tea service. I thought I'd let them be a little creative there. No. What we got was ordinary danishes you'd see at, well, a business meeting. And they were stale and bland. They tasted like they got them from a vending machine.

I asked them to make us Italian Wedding Cookies. They SHOULD have gotten those from a vending machine or a box or something, because they were so gross they were inedible. I took a bite of one and threw the rest away, and they were only about 3 bites big. I couldn't eat more than the first bite. And as evidence that I wasn't the only one that thought that, there were only about 4 of them missing at the end of the night.

We didn't discuss this, but I assumed a tea service would involve high quality loose-leaf tea, not bagged tea you'd see at a hotel breakfast bar.

I also expected the display to have a more traditional tea service appearance, but they just served our food in their regular, plain white boring serving dishes they use for hot food. It did not at all have the appearance of a...

THE SPIRIT AIRLINES OF CATERING….FEES GALORE. Served us waffles that they reheated from Costco.

To preface this review, we feel that cocktails tried their best to make it right, but if you aren’t someone who will stick up for yourself, they can easily pull one over on you.

We chose Cocktails because they were the cheapest caterer of the three options at our venue and also provided rentals for a decent price which we needed since our venue provided nothing. From the beginning of our experience almost a year out from our wedding it was positive. They were willing to work with our custom breakfast for dinner idea and we loved our event manager. However, things went downhill once it came time for our tasting and our event manager changed. We came to our tasting and only half our menu was actually prepared which was barely anything. At the tasting we noticed that the waffles were suspiciously the same taste and look at the prepackaged ones they sell as Costco… I asked and YUP COSTCO WAFFLES. They charged like $10 a waffle for a premade, microwaved Costco waffle! This was our main dish! I could tell the chef was embarrassed that I knew and I think that is one of the only reasons that when I asked to review our menu again to make sure it made sense and was enough food for all, they were flexible on price and allowed us to get the true breakfast menu. My next biggest issue was the amount of hidden fees they sneak in. They might as well be owned by Spirit airlines because you will pay much more than that per person price at the end of it all. A month before our wedding in our final contract they tried to add a $250 trash removal fee (blamed it on our venue adding it) but they knew our venue a year prior when we booked and it was never Included on any prior contracts. Luckily I was able to negotiate this off the contract since it was their mistake to forget it. I would say that our food was honestly the least impressive part of our day. It was food, not great food, heck, not even hot food, but food. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. I think if you don’t have other options, are willing to do your work, stick up for yourself and read the contract versions thoroughly, they are ok. But don’t expect the food to be anyone’s favorite part of your day.

ISSUES Sold us Waffles from Costco at 30x the price (yup, even asked the chef who confirmed they were the prepackaged Costco ones) Gave us the wrong menu at tasting Added “extra 20% tip for bartender” late in game with no prior notes in the contract which meant we had to tip that certain amount in ADDITION to the tip for the whole event they add in. Added $250 trash fee a month before the wedding they “forgot” after over a year of signing contracts together and knowing the venue all along. Food was cold (we were on time and the first people through the line) We really had to check their math and re-read every iteration of each contract to make sure they didn’t sneak in extra fees. You get what you pay for! Cheap meant tons of add on fees and cheaply made food.

COMPLIMENTS They did attempt to make the extra fees right by giving us “discounts” They did clean up super fast They boxed up leftovers nicely Bar tender was great The rentals were all great The table set up looked nice They were cheapest of our picks for our venue.

What I would recommend them...

The customer service was great and Brittany was so easy to work with (and so patient with us when we made changes)! We also heard from our guests that the bartenders did a great job! However, the food is very inconsistent. The food at our first tasting was very salty, so after expressing our concerns we went back to taste the menu again. The food was amazing the second time around and we were reassured that the seasonings they were using had been thrown out and their usual chef was back in town (presumably to do the supervising in the kitchen to grantee the right seasonings were being used and the food was being prepared properly). Unfortunately, on our wedding day, the risotto was crunchy/undercooked and the sauce on our chicken piccata was bright yellow (it was yellow the first tasting and a normal, light cream color, at the second tasting). The groom's father had to be the table's guinea pig and taste the chicken before anyone else at the table would try it! That was so embarrassing to hear from your guests. Although Cocktails has worked to make it right after the fact (with a nominal refund), I would have preferred to have better quality food at the wedding. Additionally, one of the servers chose to drop water off at our sweetheart table DURING SPEECHES. And the toast was being given right next to our table, so the crowd definitely noticed. It was very distracting for us because she kept whispering "excuse me...I'm so sorry...sorry." That task could have waited until after my matron-of-honor's speech and I'm hoping that our videographer can edit her out of the shot. Finally, we set up an appointment time (a Google calendar event was sent out by Cocktails) to pick up linens a couple days before the wedding, to make it easier for set-up the day before the wedding. No one acknowledged us when we walked in the door (even though a couple of ladies were standing around chatting), the linens were not ready for us when we arrived, and it took an extra 30 minutes out of our busy pre-wedding schedule. Plus, two of the linens we received were wrong, but I noticed before leaving the warehouse. Those couple days before the wedding are stressful enough without having to wait on linens when you have an appointment to pick them up. Overall, while we were satisfied (for the most part) with the services leading up to the wedding, we were disappointed with the execution. If we could go back, we would gone with another...