Critic's Choice Catering & Event Production — Restaurant in Redondo Beach

We used Critic’s Choice to cater our wedding in September 2023. It was not a good experience and people should know what we experienced in case others are considering them. We encountered many issues with them on our wedding day, most of which we heard about in the days following our wedding.

Here’s a snippet of the email we sent to them explaining the issues that we had during our wedding:

People were receiving the wrong meal and the staff wasn’t checking to see who was receiving what. You told me on the night of the wedding that this was happening because people were switching their food. But after speaking to a good amount of guests, the case was that the waitstaff were just giving people the wrong food and were even asking people what they ordered instead of following the list. The waiters seemed very unprofessional and inexperienced. This even occurred on one of the VIP tables (both of our immediate families) where several guests received the wrong meal. When one of the guests mentioned they had ordered chicken and not surf n’ turf, the waiter told them they didn’t order chicken even though the menu and name card indicated chicken.

It seems as though there was no plan as to how to go about the dinner service, which is so disappointing given the level of detail and upfront work that was done on our end to ensure this wouldn’t happen. (fully detailed spreadsheet, color-coded place cards, customized menus)

Additionally, when guests tried to relay the issues they were having, they were brushed off by the waitstaff, simply stating they were doing their best. We were told that the waitstaff were quite rude, which is again very disappointing.

We spoke to one of our friends who has a daughter that ordered the kids meal and his daughter never received their food. They didn’t get anything. This is honestly infuriating and one of the worst things that happened on this list. There’s simply no excuse for this.

We heard from many guests that their food was cold and that the risotto wasn’t cooked all the way through.

We also heard from many that their water jugs weren’t being refilled and others didn’t get water at all apparently.

The serving of food to the tables was also very inefficient. We know of a few tables that didn’t receive their food until way later than others. We heard many complaints about this.

There was also a huge gap between salads and entrees. This is something we noticed and was echoed by everyone we spoke with.

The late night snacks weren’t being served until around midnight, which isn’t what we had scheduled. Many people didn’t even know about it. That was very poorly executed.

We also heard one of our cake boxes got infested with ants. We had a refrigerator in the bridal suite to store this away in there and if there wasn’t any space left, we wish this would have been flagged so we could have removed items from the fridge to prioritize the cake(s).

The fruit/charcuterie station during cocktail hour was swarmed with flies at one point. Not sure exactly when it was brought out but if this was put out before cocktail hour started, shouldn’t this have had some sort of covering beforehand to prevent this?

After explaining all of the above to Kaycie and Michelle from Critic’s Choice, they offered us a $4,949 refund out of a total of ~$38,000 (of which was a $3,300 optional gratuity that we paid in advance, which was a big mistake). After requesting more of a refund, they became litigious and reduced their refund offer to just $3,300, the amount of our prepaid optional gratuity. Needless to say, that won’t be enough and we will be taking the matter to court.

Please do your due diligence before hiring this company to cater your event. They will impress you at the tasting but fall completely flat on the day of your event.

The service provided from them really put a damper on our wedding and hopefully putting this out there will prevent it from happening to others...

Critic's choice is great at selling tactics - where it falls incredibly short is in organization and execution. The lack of attention to detail and the required hand holding throughout the entire year plus of planning was very exhausting and resulted in a mishandled wedding.

My husband and I were swept away in our initial tasting and were told they would handle "every detail including day of coordination except for guiding us down the aisle". We thought we hit the jackpot for our wedding seeing as we needed event rentals and they sold themselves as a one stop shop that would handle it all.

Throughout the entire process, things were missed that were repeatedly discussed and agreed upon down to the details of the color scheme. We provided numerous spreadsheets, marked up PDFs correcting invoices, several meetings on site at the venue, meetings at Critic's choice on site location, driving down to the rental warehouse personally, and so on.

At the venue itself during the walk through, no notes were taken and luckily I had taken my own notes and had to provide them to CC.

We met for our second tasting and went through every line item again and watched notes being taken of our requests. We had our own copies and everything looked good in the end on paper.

Flash forward to the week of the event, there was still a great deal of confusion on their part about the event. To name a few: They were surprised we wanted plated salads which we had agreed upon on our first tasting. They asked us if we had a schematic layout of tables and chairs which was their responsibility. The night before rentals were delivered I drew one up on a piece of paper to be brought to the venue for delivery organization. We were told the day before rentals were delivered that we needed to be there to check off the list and count the rentals and ensure all was there. This was news to us but we made it happen. My husband was there from 9 am managing things while CC didn't arrive until well after noon and made it sound like it wasn't their responsibility.

We planned to have a cocktail hour with passed champagne constantly being walked around and refilled. We were later informed by guests that they only got 1/4 glass of champagne and were told "that's how the bride and groom want it" and we were left with several unopened cases of champagne. Everyone was confused as it was truly not a post ceremony happy hour.

We also provided a timeline (that we had to create) and it was not adhered to. Partial fault here lies on the DJ as he was supposed to release tables to the buffet at 7pm, yet a simple discussion between CC and the DJ could have corrected that seeing as they were aware of the timeline as well and supposed to be "day of vendor coordination". Instead, people didn't get to eat until 8:30 PM and food sat there waiting for them throughout toasts and events.

They interrupted us at 10:30PM on the dance floor asking if they could have 4 more people stay for overtime and charge us later. We told them that they quoted us for the staff and we added people for OT already and should have factored additional people ahead of time. They knew every detail down to expectations for timeline and headcount and there were no surprises so unsure why they needed to interrupt our evening for this.

The food itself was very good and was received wonderfully (except for the undercooked churro "bar" which was underwhelming. We paid a thousand dollars for a plate of undercooked sugarless dough with squirt on sauces still in the bottle).

They were very pleasant and kind to us overall, but we truly feel the high price point we payed for this service was not worth it in the end. We had way too much responsibility during planning and on the day of as customers. The evening felt like it was executed in a mediocre manner leaving a bad memory and guest recap...

Michelle Paul and Critics Choice Catering catered our wedding in mid-May 2014 at the Norris Center for the Performing Arts in Palos Verdes, above Redondo Beach, CA. We really do not have enough positive feedback to share on Critic's Choice, and Michelle herself. When you book Critic's Choice as your caterer, you are really booking an event planner in addition to a caterer. Michelle acts as the general for your entire reception, helping with planning, interfacing with other vendors, interacting with the venue, and obviously coordinating your food. The statement that my wife made more than any other during the planning phase was "whenever I am stressed out, I talk to Michelle, and she makes me feel SO much better!". You really have nothing to worry about once you start working with this caterer. We had 2 different tastings, met the chef, get to know the staff and really let Michelle just take care of everything. And when it comes to the food - our guests stated that it was the best wedding food that they had ever had. And we agree. The menu is so loaded with options that it is impossible not to find the perfect combinations for your event. The presentation is amazing - they take care of decorations, table settings, linens, etc. The servers were extremely professional and attentive to our guests. The best part was that we were able to utilize their bartenders, but purchase our own alcohol at CostCo. The amount of money that this saved on this aspect alone was in the thousands of dollars. All in all, we cannot recommend Michelle and Critics Catering enough. We cannot imagine what our wedding would have been like without her. She was...