Essen Kitchen — Restaurant in Cincinnati

We hired Essen to cater our wedding on 10/23, which we HIGHLY REGRET! The communication was terrible. It was very hard to get our point of contact to reply to emails, we sent a few in a row to try to get someone to respond. So, at that point we looked up the owner on facebook and sent her a message directly, just a few weeks out from our wedding, to let her know we were starting to have a horrible experience with her company, and still, no response from her either. Finally someone responded a day or two later. They ended up being an hour late to our wedding( arrival time was to be 5;15pm and they showed up closer to 6:30), our appetizers were not served first, but end the end of the buffet line, and the main dishes were served cold! We have a text message from 2:30 pm the day of the wedding, asking if she had table cloths for the tables they would be using, and she replied that she did have them and they were all packed and ready. In our contract it did say that we were to provide the table cloths, which we admittedly overlooked, but had she responded with that information, we would have made sure there were table cloths available for them, instead she said they were packed and ready. When they did arrive, they told one of the people who had been waiting for them that they stopped at Walmart on their way to get table cloths, even though they said they had them ??? Their tardiness created a domino effect for the rest of the evening. we were unable to eat at all, we were unable to get family pictures at all, we were also unable to get all the photos we wanted with each other because I had to step away to call and see where they were, and above all else it left a chaotic, and bad experience to remember from our Wedding Day! We thought, considering what had transpired, we would receive an email or phone call from Essen to address the situation. Instead, 4 days later, we sent them an email about our experience with them for our big day. We felt that it was not worth the $4,500 we invested for a head count of only 80 people. the other vendors also commented on how unprofessional they presented themselves and also very unprepared. Our bartender said our caterers were a complete mess from a business standpoint, and even asked her for supplies. Overall, we were very excited to have them cater our wedding, but they fell extremely short. We never asked for a refund, just that our experience was not worth the $4,500 we invested. We thought they would maybe offer SOMETHING, but instead got an email response blaming us for every reason stated above. It was our fault they were so late, it was our fault they were not prepared, and were told that it was not their job to be a wedding planner and they had never seen a bride and groom be their own wedding planners, which we never asked or expected them to do anything like that, just to do what they were hired to do. We were told that they showed up, served the food, and people liked it, so they considered it to be successful, therefore being worth $4,500.! So, if you want an event catered with vegan food, I would HIGHLY suggest NOT using Essen Kitchen!!!!!! I do not imagine them lasting very long as a small business with how they treat...

my partner has been on a kick to try all the vegan mac and cheese and find which one actually taste anything like mac and cheese. We had heard really good things and went down here to check the spot out. The coronavirus ordering system is pretty smooth, I appreciate that they don't let people in except for to physically pick up their orders and their menu is available digitally and on the window. Serving is pretty good size for the products, which all tasted pretty good. Now the mac and cheese was not fantastic, but it is the closest to actual mac and cheese we've tried so far. I wouldn't go out of my way to compare it to good mac and cheese, but if you're vegan you start to get used to things like that. The greens and the biscuit were both great! I'm personally knocking a star because I don't feel like they really put out a cohesive meal so much as a BBQ style plate of sides all added up together, I think we can do better than that.

In a response to the question from the owner: I think the Mac and cheese needs... changed. I dont know enough about vegan cooking to make a suggestion on what can be used instead, but it lacked the cohesiveness I like in mac and cheese. I like mac and cheese to almost be a casserole style, baked with layers of cheese and breadcrumb topping. Fixing that would help the weakest aspect of the box. But I would also like to see a "main attraction", or at least an option for one. Pulled jackfruit, portabella mushroom cap, cauliflower "wings". Something that takes it from 2 sides + biscuit...

Essen Kitchen is exactly the kind of small business with big ideas that I love to support. The food is fabulous, fresh, inventive, substantive and presented beautifully and or packaged to-go really well with sustainable/compostable products. The staff are extremely helpful. They even cater wonderful larger orders/meals/boxes to local venues/organizations/neighbors! This family run business puts their heart and soul into trying to serve the planet as well as their customers. You will note on reviews...a ding here and there, in fact one person unhappy that Uber wouldn't refund expended so much negativity that they put five one star reviews up just to hurt this small vegan restaurant! Sounds like someone needs a hug and needs to hug a tree!! In any small business, you get the occasional dissatisfied customer, but the staff at Essen truly go above and beyond to work with you, and unless you are completely unkind and unreasonable, you'll be satisfied. My favs are the quinoa bowls, the vegan brat, and the snickers bar and the cheesecakes !! Support small,...