A Taste of Excellence Catering — Restaurant in Strongsville

By far my favorite vendor.

When I was searching for reviews for caterers, I saw the overwhelming positive reviews for this company. I had my wedding this past Friday at the Happy Days Lodge in CVNP. I am absolutely backing up the other reviews to say they truly are the best catering company and will make the difference with your wedding.

I found this company through Happy Days Lodge since they allow you to work with few caterers. They are a full service caterer with glassware, linen, and chair rental which is extremely convenient for coordination. Cost wise, they are very reasonable for what you are getting.

Initially, I worked with Amanda prior to her promotion, and she was a delight. I was then switched to Madison who is lovely and answered every question I had along the way. I also had contact with Gavin who was very helpful and responsive! Ask for Madison as your point of contact!

Foodwise, I promote food and hosting on social media. This company is on par with the level you want to show off for one of the biggest days of your life. Many people came up to me at the wedding to report it was the best food they have ever had at a wedding. Taste of excellence cooks the food on premise so everything is hot and delicious, which is not the case for many catering companies. For appetizers, I had the lobster slaw en croute, the artichoke wonton cone, the banana pepper popper with remoulade sauce, and the thai chicken skewers with peanut sauce. Each one was delicious, but the guests liked them in that order. For dinner, we chose to have plated chicken or beef. We went with the beef short rib which was definitely a crowd pleaser paired with Yukon mashed potatoes and broccolini. We did the tasting for chicken florentine which was good but went with the chicken maderia because it was delicious! The chicken madeira was wrapped in a puff pastry and since it is cooked on premise the puff pastry was still crispy when served. We paired that with the scalloped potatoes and the broccolini.

For dessert, if it is in your budget, I highly recommend the sweet endings option. My guests had a choice of bananas foster or cherries jubilee which was served over French vanilla icecream. For $5.50 per person, it was an absolute hit and guests are still talking about it. I would say this company made for a lasting impression.

Service wise, we had Cindy day of to organize and she was so wonderful. She lit all my candles, wrapped up extra food for people that did not show, and answered all questions I had. I rented my glassware and chairs for my outdoor ceremony through them so it took less things off my plate.

If you are looking for a truly seamless wedding experience, I would say go for...

We used "ATOE" for our wedding day in the fall of 2020. Our original contact was fantastic, very nice, very accommodating and willing to help. She unfortunately left for another opportunity about 3mths before our big day.

We were then placed with another lady who was kind of rude, made me feel like my wishes didn't really matter and was not as near as helpful as or original person. Example: 1st lady said she would be happy to help with the day of items like telling the DJ where to set up, when to start the processional. The lady who took over said she wil not do that, she will be in the kitchen (doing what I'm not sure, she's not a cook or chef...). So ended up getting a day-of-coordinator.

However, the food was fantastic. We opted for a cocktail hour as well as our main dinner..

Cocktail hour: wanton with a articoke moose, a loaded potato bite and proscuitto wrapped herb chicken tenderloin. Completely gone at the end of the hour - we only got to try one of each ourselves.

Family style dinner with two options: chicken parmigiana and Prosciutto wrapped pork tenderloin. Sides were roasted red potatoes and roasted root vegetables. This also came with a mixed green salad. We wanted a sit-down style but wanted a bit more food to make sure everyone was happy. This gave us the best of both worlds (sit-down & buffet). People loved the food, no complaints and the vegetarians liked their grilled vegetable terrine.

Being an interior desinger space planning is very important to me and having people comfortable with the right look is just as important. I went the lengths of creating a floor plan showing exactly where I want all the tables placed from our main tables, guest tables, cake table, escort cards ect... using AUTOCAD, not just a sketch.

We even PAID to have extra people staffed to achieve a quick turnover from our ceremony to reception done as I wanted since everything was in one room. The turn over was quick, quicker then I was told which was great but the tables were not as specified by the layout I provided. Main issue was guest tables almost touching our main table... This was due to the lack that out caterer point person didn't really care what I wanted and our day of coordinator was off doing 100 other things.

Moral of it all great food, get yourself a couple day-of people to make sure your day is perfect and how...

Where do I start with this company. From the very first taste testing that we were served to the actual wedding reception was just a huge disappointment and disaster. We had to go twice for a taste testing dinner due to the first one had nothing we selected. Every time we went in there, they seemed to be confused on who we were and if we had appointments, even when confirmed hours before. Moving on to finalizing things and them not having the paperwork correct. Having to go back and fourth correcting thier errors multiple times. Just so things didn't get screwed up. Let's now talk about the food. They supposedly have a top tier chief in which he needs to go back to culinary school. To now moving forward to the night of the event. The event planner that was assigned to us rest assured us that the brides belongings were safe in a room that they always use at this particular venue. Well they were not. Most of the brides stuff was stolen. Let's talk about the specific instructions that they were given. We purchased out own alcohol for this venue. Beer, top shelf liquor etc... they were instructed to open the beer progressively so that we were not stuck with all this beer and alcohol. That wasn't done because at the end of the night cans and bottles were being put back in all the boxes they came in. So whatever that wasn't used, I now had to keep because the boxes were opened. We had one cake made especially for the bride and groom, because the bride has allergies. They were told this cake was for us only. They ended up serving most of it to our guests. Along with the traditional cake the bride and groom was supposed to take home. They had sheet cakes to give to our guests. We paid extra to have steaks for the the bride and groom, because of the brides allergies, we told them we wanted both rare. We got well done. And not to mention cold. The brides salad was to be served plain, they served her a loaded salad. So all in all if you want a company to ruin your wedding day, eat cold food, and waste your money, go ahead and hire them. Otherwise steer clear, and take your money elsewhere.

UPDATE, we were contacted by one of the managers and they wanted to correct some mistakes. Therefore instead of a 1 star I...