Chef By Design Catering

Reviews 3

ST

Steve J

As a couple who comes to you with over 3 decades of combined experience in the restaurant industry; nearly half of which spent in the NYC dining scene, you have blown us away with your creativity, focus and dedication to your craft. After meeting with you to discuss our vision and concluding the introductory tasting it was obvious that there was simply no other choice by comparison. Through your influence, the bar for which every other catering business in VA Beach is measured should forever be set by you. All other businesses, whether it be bar or restaurant should fall in line and learn from your example. It is our belief that you set the standard in VA Beach and our hope is that others will learn of you by any means necessary, including this letter. From a culinary and service standpoint you are truly in a class of your own and you are deserving of being one of the most coveted food and service professionals in the Hampton Roads. There are very few chefs who could pull off such an exceptional menu for over 100 guests and maintain the integrity of each dish as it was intended; in addition to having a staff that provides a separate beer or wine pairing for each of the five courses and are able to time is flawlessly. The NY Times would award you no less than three stars for achieving this on a consistent level given the quality of production on both ends. Our guests have said to us time after time that it was the best dinner that they have had at a wedding or otherwise. Chef John Telfer should be commended for his ability to execute at such a high level. Also deserving of praise is Co-Owner/Director of Catering Marcy Telfer and Catering Manager Joanie Powell for their tireless efforts to seek perfection and for their personal, hands-on approach to achieving it. These three lead an all-star team of service professionals who carry with them a wealth of knowledge and are more than capable of working in the finest of dining settings. We cannot say enough how happy we are that Chef by Design was our caterer for what was the most important day of our lives. We sincerely and wholeheartedly want to thank you all for your exceptional service and hospitality. You exceed our already high expectations and made our wedding reception one of our top dining experiences ever and an evening that we will never forget. We wish you all continued success!

KE

keyia

Stacy did a good job, she was a really big help to us as we prepared for my moms 50th birthday. I wish I could rate them higher but I had some issues. We were excited to work with them because they were very friendly on the phone. We did feel however that they took a while to respond in the very beginning when we were trying to get our menu together. Once we finally did, we did a food tasting and found the spinach dip to be a bit salty and my mom doesnt eat corn so I asked that the corn be taken out of the rockfish cakes. They assured us that they could make any changes we requested. I had an added bonus to my rockfish cake.....A HAIR. I was immediately turned off but because of the limited amount of time we had before the party and the fact that they were one of the preferred vendors of the venue, I decided to let that go (mistakes happen). The venue we had our event at didnt allow use of their oven, they only supplied a prep kitchen and they stated that all of their preferred vendors knew that however we didnt find this out until one week before the party and guess who had to pay an additional $350 bucks to rent an oven? WE DID! I was upset because I felt that the caterer knew this already but withheld this additional expense until the last minute. I think the venue and the caterer share blame in that detail. In addition to that, we came in the week of the party to make our final payment only to be told that there would be a 4% fee to pay by credit card (just because). Buying catered food expensive enough, why try to nickle and dime someone. Between the rented oven and credit card convenience fee, they got almost $500 extra bucks out of us they we never got to see. The night of the party was hectic for me, I was too busy hosting to really sit down and eat my food. Later that night I got home and began to eat party leftovers and guess what i found in my Rockfish cakes......CORN. We only asked for two changes, no corn in the Rockfish and less salt in the dip. The dip was ok but we paid thousands of dollars and im not quite sure why we didnt get exactly what we asked for.

ME

Meredith Law

Loved them! Our wedding was awesome, and people are still talking about how delicious the food was. Chef by Design covered an upscale cocktail hour, to a country style dinner, and it was all amazing!

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