Paracel Events & Catering — Restaurant in Westminster

If you've been looking to wow your guests with a multi-course Asian family style meal at the venue of your choice, for an incredible price and paired with amazing service, congratulations, your search is over.

Paracel is one of very few places that will cater Asian banquet food at your venue and actually cook the food on-site in a mobile kitchen. Let me repeat. These guys actually cook the food ON SITE at YOUR VENUE. Not at their restaurant & then bring over in a box so that it's been sitting/lukewarm when dinner starts. No, it's actually served hot & fresh. Go ahead and try to find another place that does it better. I'll wait.

Our journey with Paracel started in 2019 as we searched high and low in for a caterer who can serve Asian family style food for our then-2020 wedding at South Park Center in DTLA. We've also looked at Grace, Top, Panda, and Furiwa. In the end, Paracel emerged as the clear winner in terms of value and menu selection. We even sent our picky bridesmaids to do a tasting on our behalf, after which they collectively responded with two big thumbs up.

When we had to ultimately postpone our wedding to 2022, Matthew the catering manager was more than understanding about moving our date. Throughout the entire 3 year process, we've bugged him with countless questions via text, emails, and phone calls. He's honestly one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and was always happy to address all our concerns quickly and thoroughly. Even when logistic hurdles arose as our big day drew close, Matt took the initiative to resolve them with our venue directly and saved us a ton of headaches.

On the actual wedding day, Paracel arrived promptly to set up the mobile kitchen and all the tables. As a big surprise, Matt upgraded our standard plates to a beautiful translucent floral plate set that elevated the elegance of the entire table setting. They also moved 100 chairs for us between ceremony and reception spaces during cocktail hour, which was another gesture of goodwill that we greatly appreciated.

And course, there is the food. We opted for the gold package that consisted of the 6-star platter, fish maw soup, house special lobster, the shaken beef, honey walnut shrimp, Peking duck, whole-steamed fish, yang-chow fried rice, and the fruit soup. We were only able to sample the first 4 dishes until we had to make rounds at all the tables, but all of them were delicious - with the lobster & garlic noodles being our personal favorite.

To say that the food was a huge hit our guests would be a massive understatement. Many of them have told us it was simply the best dinner they've had at a wedding, or that they couldn't believe we were able to have this level of quality Asian banquet food served outside a restaurant. There was not a single guest who didn't overstuff themselves by the end of the night because the food just kept coming and coming and coming. Luckily Paracel also provided to-go boxes, so many of our guests ended up taking the leftovers home.

At the end of the day, we could not have been happier to have chosen Paracel to cater our wedding. We booked them with high expectations and they absolutely knocked it out of the park with both the quality of the food and their professionalism.

It had been such a pleasure working with Matthew, his father, and the entire Paracel team, and to be able to support their family business in Westminster. Thank you Paracel once again for helping make our dream wedding...

Paracel is THE SPOT to have your wedding reception! When wedding planning started, our one nonnegotiable was having family-style Asian banquet food. After extensive googling, I stumbled across Paracel and decided to book a tasting!

During the tasting, we got to try one of the menus Paracel offered, tour the restaurant, and talk to Matt, the event manager of the place. The food blew our minds and left all in attendance of the tasting stuffed. Matt walked us through the costs of hosting our restaurant at their banquet hall/catering, all the add-ons they offered, and any food adjustments we needed. Matt is bilingual, so he was able to explain things in Vietnamese to my parents, while speaking to my husband (not Viet) and I in English. His dad, Chu Thong, was also there for more extensive Vietnamese explanations for my parents, which they appreciated.

In terms of the restaurant space, we had 200 people on our guest list, but the space can definitely accommodate more. There is ample parking in the back of the restaurant. As for the interior, the walls were decorated with nice, white draping and crystal beads. It's a perfect blank canvas for you or an event planner to dress up! They also rent a white dance floor your actual wedding day, which really elevates the look.

Communication with Matt leading up to the wedding was flawless. I'd have random questions I had to ask, and Matt answered them seamlessly. Since he's been in the wedding business for such a long time, he was also able to give us any recommendations we needed in varying price points. Not only does Matt is on top of communication, he is also an AMAAAAZING MC/DJ! Definitely be sure to book him, you will not regret it!

On the wedding day, everything went smoothly! If there were any problems, I did not know about it at all! My parents wanted to push the reception start time back a little bit for the room to fill up, which Paracel kindly accommodated to. Once the night began, Matt dazzled everyone as a host with his contagious energy! We really loved that he was able to speak both Vietnamese and English, keeping everyone equally engaged in the evening! It never felt like he was reading off of a script! When others went up to do their speech, Matt always monitored how people were speaking and adjusted the audio, so we never heard a crazy screech! So many people gave me compliments about him after the wedding, and I wish I could send all their love to him! One of my cousin was also very proud that he was able to take a photo with Matt! We loved that he interacted with our guests; his job didn't feel like just a job. It felt like he enjoyed being there and talking to our guests!

The food on the day of was the same as the tasting--flawless! The plating presentation was beautiful and I've had so many compliments about how good the food was. My only gripe was that my husband and I couldn't eat everything since we were being pulled left and right with "bride and groom" duties! I'm impatiently waiting to be a guest at a wedding hosted at Paracel, because I want to eat the whole menu!

Book your event with Paracel! You and your guests will be...

I had my wedding reception here last weekend, and let me tell you Paracel was everything I was looking for in a venue and more!

Matt: Matt is reason enough to book Paracel! On the day of, he was the DJ/MC. He was SO great, so engaging, detail oriented, so fun throughout the whole evening! So many of our friends and family members told us unsolicited how great he was! We gave him free reign with our playlist only as a starting guide, and he kept the vibes going! Not only was he great on the day of, but throughout the entire planning process he was so helpful and nice. We didn't have a coordinator, so he helped us plan a lot of the event. He even accommodated us when we happened to be in town for a quick visit, to answer some questions and help us nail down our signature drinks (aka he made us some specialty cocktails to taste and we loved them!). Definitely go with the open bar :). At every step of the way, he expressed excitement for our big day, was responsive for any questions we had, and made sure we felt taken care of. We really appreciate you Matt!!

Food: We got so many compliments on the food! of course as the wedding couple, we didn't get a chance to eat much that night, but several of our guests did tell us how good it was. The few dishes we got to eat seemed to be even better than it was during the tasting! Also I love that they provide guests to go boxes so that the food doesn't go to waste. Our family and friends are still joking about how full they are from the wedding :P.

Venue: they recently redid the outside of the building, and it looks really nice! Also the inside already looked so nice that we didn't feel like we needed much other decor. The day o,f they even had a beautiful flower wall at the entrance with a neon sign that said "happily ever after" which was such a pleasant surprise! this is family run business so they're willing to work with you and accommodate your needs. This meant we got to do really fun stuff like beer pong for one of our wedding games :). Also they were able to accommodate a next day clean up of our decor, so we could go out and party after and didn't need to worry about it that night.

Staff: every interaction we had with the staff was so welcoming. They were all so nice, from the tasting, to the pre visit, day of wedding, and even on the day we came to clean up! A few of our friends also complimented the bartender for his mixology skills!

Proximity to park & great food: It's so close to Mile Square Park which was a nice park for our pre-wedding photos. Also it's really close to Brodards and other great food options for appetizers or just other meals outside of the wedding.

Overall, we had a great wedding and felt that it was such a great value for what we paid for. I highly recommend Paracel to anyone looking for a...