Gance's Complete Catering — Local services in Town of Dickinson

TL;DR - Communication issues aside, Gance's absolutely ruined the meals for 60%-80% of my wedding guests, while the other ~30% received their food mostly as expected albeit cold.

Full Review - I do not enjoy writing bad reviews and so I put this off as long as I could, but I believe the right thing to do is publish this. I love supporting local businesses and I am rooting for Gance's in the long run, but without accountability and recognition of mistakes (which did not happen) I think the only way to get through is with an online review.

We had a wonderful tasting experience. After we booked there were some red flags, notably there was a lack of communication on the part of Gance's - we called at different times regarding normal caterer related things including changes to our cocktail hour, questions on their timeline, questions regarding other rentals, and a few other necessary planning related items. If we did get a call back we were promised an email with quotes from other vendors and 50% of the time they never came. We were assured that we would not have to worry about renting tablecloths, utensils, glassware, dishware, etc.; but due to of a lack of communication we had to do this ourselves - when we made calls to rental agencies a couple of months before the wedding we were told we might not be able to secure enough of what we would need - things worked out - but we should never have been in that position.

A few months ahead of our wedding we were told that there would be "many'' kitchen staff for our wedding as well as 8 servers. Several days before the wedding we were told that Gance's had booked several other events on the same day and it was expected to be a very busy day for them. We only had 4-5 servers at max. I do not know about kitchen staffing. Our guests were served mostly bad meals and extremely slowly, and other things were not paid attention to such as: 1. the coffee half brewed and blew a circuit breaker, it was moved to avoid blowing again but not plugged back in, so the coffee that guests got 5 hours later was cold and underbrewed 2. ceramic coffee cups (that we paid for) were never put out and so guests were using regular wax/paper cups for coffee - lucky the coffee was cold 3. metal plate covers (that we paid for) weren't used to keep food warm 4. bussers broke a plate on the dance floor but didn't fully clean the broken pieces where people would later be dancing barefoot 5. rented plates weren't rinsed before they were repackaged (as previously agreed on) so we lost our $150 fee to the rental agency.

Gance's were supposed to have brought salmon, prime rib with au jus, a portobello mushroom dish for entrees; and roasted potatoes w/ asparagus for sides. Guests were served salmon, dry cold overcooked (ruined) ribeye (not prime rib cooked) steaks without au jus, and the wrong portobello mushroom dish. Gance's ran out of potatoes about 3/4 of the way through serving and 16 guests were served a single slice of a baby potato and 36 guests were served soft overcooked mac and cheese (1 of those guests is celiac and 1 gluten free, they were told ahead of the wedding that all of the food would be gluten free). 80% of our guests ordered prime rib with au jus and were served dry overcooked cold ribeyes. Many of my family have spoken with me about their food and have described the meal as "terrible", "the worst food I ever had at a wedding", "embarrassing". We contacted Mike Gance about these issues (mostly that ~70% of guests received subpar meals), during which time Mike made excuses for every critique we brought and failed to be accountable, stating that it wasn't his staff's fault and that the food wasn't that bad. He was not there to see the food so I'm not sure what makes him believe that. He begrudgingly sent us a refund check for about 10% of the total amount we paid.

Some of my family and friends will remember this humiliating experience forever, hopefully most of them will forgive me or forget about it. Good luck to all who book...

I couldn’t have asked for a better company to go with. Loree, the sales manager, is INCREDIBLE at what she does and the food tasted phenomenal. The company is based in NY, and we had our wedding in PA. Thankfully they were able to travel to my location because we really won with them. During our tasting she really had us because the setup was beautiful and like a real dinner, the whole experience was just great. During the wedding staff couldn’t have been more on-point with the service to our guests. We got a buffet-style setting and Loree was serving us as we were sitting at our table, impeccable service - seriously. And she and her staff just acted like they really cared. Everyone at my wedding claimed how amazing the food was - (even complimented by a couple of my family members who are the greatest cooks I’ve ever met). Their choices on the menu are truly great. During wedding planning, every time I had a question for Loree she would answer immediately. Again, I wouldn’t have asked for a better catering company than them and I would recommend them over and over again. Thank you so...

I worked directly with Santino, the owner, for a majority of my needs. He was extremely professional and accommodating. After having a terrible experience with a different vendor at our tasting, Santino went above and beyond to ensure we felt comfortable with the food and the servers as we have many food allergies amongst our guests. We also got our linens through Gance's and after a small hiccup in the linen order, he sent an employee directly to our hotel with the correct linens so we would have them in time to decorate the venue. If that's not SERVICE, idk what is. Also the food was impeccable and I'm still getting stellar compliments on our decision to go with the prime rib, chicken marsala and stuffed shells. We also had the parmesan potatoes and mixed veggies, both were out of this world delicious! And can't forget about the horsdeouvres...we had teriyaki beef skewers and sliders....I'm salivating just thinking about all the yummy food. And their prices were extremely reasonable as well. I would HIGHLY recommend Gances for your...