Bistro To Go Catering — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

I have a lot of experience using Bistro to Go's catering services through various events. Most recently, I used them for my school's biennial benefit, which is prompting this review.

After several proposals, I asked to know when the final guest count was due. I was advised a week before our event. 10 days prior to the event, I email with my final count. (it was lower than we initially expected). A day and a half later, now a week before the event, at 1pm, I receive an email and invoice stating, "Good afternoon. Attached is a copy of the final invoice. Please contact us with your payment information which is due by 4PM today. You can go to our website to pay securely online."

Since I work for a school, we need more than 3 hours...or even three days to secure the final payment. Our daily limits on our credit cards are not able to accommodate such large purchases at once, and our business office would need more time to send a check.

I give Bistro a call. I speak with Jim, and then Nikki. Nikki was less than understanding. When I explained that there was no way I could give them the amount of $ within the next two hours, I was told "you should get someone higher than you to fix this." I was talked over constantly during our nearly 10 minute discussion, and she explained to me that she could not possibly accommodate us because UPMC did not pay her several years ago so she alters her policy for no one. I told her we were good for it, we just need time as we are a school and things work differently. She told me that it was not worth it to change her policy because she was, "only making $1,500 off of this event anyway." As a vendor in the industry for several years, I cannot recall a time when it is was ever appropriate to advise a client of how much or little you were making off of their business. Not to mention, I have worked with Bistro on several occasions for weddings and they have been flexible in the past, so I feel that they truly dropped the ball on this one. After making a call to the Director of Finance, she came back to the school and cut the check. No one appreciated being strong armed the way we were when we have been in communications with Bistro for over four months and paid them over $13k. The conversation ended with Nikki saying, "I hope this does not negatively effect our relationship." I think if you have to say that, you know the answer.

The staff at Bistro is always fantastic, and the food was decent. My sincere comment is that the ahi tuna we were served appeared to be off in color....I have no bad comments about our other stadium-style stations. The passed apps were thoughtful, and aligned with our theme!

Overall, If you are an institution that needs more than 2 hours to send a deposit or final invoice, consider picking another caterer who is a bit more flexible. The three stars mainly goes to the staff who worked so hard...

Bistro To Go is fantastic. They did a great job for my daughter's wedding this past weekend (July 2023). I wish I could give more than 5 stars for my review. I was the father of the bride, and was involved for much of the wedding planning. I am a very detail-oriented person, and they exceeded my expectations on every level! Nikki (the owner) was fantastic. I know she must be juggling lots of events, but she always personally took my phone calls, quickly responded to emails, and gave great advice and suggestions. I truly felt like my daughter’s wedding was her top priority. Shauna was excellent as our Catering Coordinator. She was very detailed and always timely with her responses. Together, they were so easy to work with and they helped us select the most amazing menu. The onsite event staff were courteous and professional. They checked-in with me multiple times throughout the evening, asking me if everything was okay and if I needed anything. We had more than 200 guests, and everyone was served quickly.

And then there was the food itself – it looked beautiful and tasted absolutely delicious! For cocktail hour, we had the Artisan Fruit & Cheese and Farmer’s Market Crudite grand table displays, along with Bacon Wrapped Shrimp and Crispy Mac & Cheese Squares for butler-passed Hors d'Oeuvres. We had the Sweet Pear Salad for our salad course. Our main course was Duet Plated Chicken Piccata and Glazed Beef Tenderloin Tips with Grilled Summer Vegetables and Rosemary Roasted Baby Yukon Potatoes. Our vegetarian guests enjoyed Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms. All of the food tasted amazing! We received tons of compliments on the food from our guests.

I highly recommend Bistro To Go. My younger daughter is getting married next summer, and we were so excited when we found out that Bistro To Go is one of the available caterers for her venue too. THANK YOU Bistro To Go for making my daughter's wedding an absolutely amazing event !!!

EDIT - July 2024: We just held the wedding for our younger daughter, one year after the wedding for my older daughter. Again, Bistro To Go did an amazing job! Nikki, Shauna, Laurie and the entire staff are amazing job!

The food was delicious. For cocktail hour, we had the Artisan Fruit & Cheese and Farmer’s Market Crudite grand table displays. We had the Summer Peach Salad for our salad course. Our main course was Duet Plated Lemon Parmesan Chicken Piccata and Beef Tenderloin with Fresh Broccolini and Whipped Cream Potatoes. All of the food tasted amazing! We received tons of compliments on the food from our guests. And the service was excellent too!

I highly recommend Bistro To Go for your event catering needs. A big THANK YOU to Bistro To Go for making BOTH of my daughters' wedding receptions absolutely amazing...

I've literally never had such bad food catered in my entire life. They served us what must have been the saddest piece of meat I have ever seen. It must have been thrown into a pot and just boiled. Fat was unrendered and the meat looked oddly wet and sad. Along with this boiled meat, they thought it intelligent to serve salmon hidden underneath a fat breading of panko. It was such a disgusting surprise to all who ate it. Underneath the salmon were the mased potatoes - mashed potatoes made with the skin still on. Is that normal in Pittsburgh? I don't know but any chef I've ever met would smack me for failing to skin the potatoes before making mashed potatoes.

The vegetarian option offered "fried tofu over rice with vegetables". The rice was simply uncooked. It was hard and yet had a soft texture to the outside, similar to rubber. I don't know how you managed to fuq up rice this bad but it was insulting that it was served to people at a wedding.

Lastly, the children's meal was somehow also equally terrible. It was chicken fingers and mac and cheese. Both were dry and also, yet again, rubbery somehow. Now, I'm 30 years old but I look tiny, so I was served the children's meal at the expense of a 5 year old who was sitting a couple tables away from me. Apparently they didn't notice her so I got her meal instead and she had to wait because I watched as they confusedly coudln't figure out why she didn't have a meal. I wasn't sure at first if everyone was getting chicken nuggets because the groom had the taste of a child, so I didn't say anything until the adult's meal had finally arrived. I assume the staff just didn't bother looking at who they were giving children's meals to, but they didn't ask or even look at me, so I'm going to go ahead and say the staff is just as incompetent as the food they made was. They were also incredibly rude and did not even look to me directly when I tried to tell them about receiving the incorrect meal. Ultimately, nothing was done and I was left having been treated like a literal child, except sub-human because they refused to look or speak with me. All this alongside the worst food I've ever had...