Tastings Caterer

We sat down with Sue today of Tastings Caterers. What a delightful person! She really thinks up creative ideas with her husband and business partner, John. The pictures of past weddings and other events were just gorgeous. They've been in business for 25 years and really have the system down. We were impressed. Sue is going to get back to us with a proposal for the price range we put forth per person. She could even do something that sounded great for about $20 under what we were thinking... so this is going to be good!

We are still shopping around, but Tastings looks great. Some online reviews I found (that weren't on Tastings' site):

From Tony's blog:

John and Sue Zahner of Tastings Caterers are an absolute joy to work with! The food is amazing, and Sue’s French Almond Cream cake is what I think of when I think of Wedding Cake. They were the caterer for my wedding, and their food is what I judge all others’ against.

From Yahoo:

Tastings Catering catered our wedding for 200 at the Endicott Estate in Dedham. From the moment we had our first consultation we knew this was the caterer to choose. Sue and her entire staff are warm, friendly and really know their stuff and the food is absolutely delicious. And not just one or two things, I mean everything they create is amazingly good, from the salads to grilled steaks, chicken and seafood to the wedding cake and dessert buffet. A friend that attended our wedding was so impressed she chose Tastings to cater her wedding as well and boy, it was great to be invited as once again the food was delicious. This wedding was only 50 guests and the same care and attention to detail in the presentation of the food that was present at our reception was also present at this reception two weeks ago. For the rest of my life, whenever we plan a large or small gathering that is to be catered, we will undoubtedly choose Tastings Caterers!

and

I was lucky enough to be given the name of Tastings Caterers from a close friend of mine who has hired them for all of their events for the past 20 years.
It was beyond what I thought a caterer did... they took care of everything for us it seemed ( except our attire.).. the food was presented like a magazine layout.. and the desserts are still being talked about to this day (Event was in March).

They were not hard to get ahold of as long as you didn't call on Mondays which is their only day off... but they somehow treated us like their only event of the year and which made us feel very comfortable just calling with any questions at all... not like some other caterers that we heard about!!

My parents were so pleased with everything.. including their prices.. so much better than all others we checked out.. they go above and beyond.. and someday.. who knows.. we may end up as a treasured employee of theirs like some other past clients have !!

We were invited to attend a group "tasting" at the Pierce House in Lincoln.. and we met really nice people who were enjoying the late afternoon of grazing with us. We all agreed that the Wild Mushroom & Leek Strudel should be sold to the public somewhere and soon... it truly was outstanding..

I could go on and on about the food... and the staff was right there when you needed them.. and always with a smile.. which we all know must be hard at times with so many people to take care of. but they did a great job... and do they ever work hard! I never realized that they are pretty much building a restaurant for us and us alone.. and then breaking it all down and starting all over the next day! WOW I appreciated all that they did to help make our day the truly memorable event that it was.

Our guests were very pleased and so were all of our family members.. we would not hesitate to recommend Tastings... they care and they love what they do.. and it showed for us in a big way.

I hope to use them again and again and again!

To be fair, there were also two short negative comments on that page... Countered, of course, by all the rest of positive ones:

From Insider Pages:

I had a wonderful experience with this caterer. I helped plan a friends wedding and they did an incredible job!! The food was excellent and the service impecable. Everyone raved about the food. My friend was thrilled with the reasonable pricing. I would hire them again in a heartbeat! I saved a stack of their business cards so I would always have their information available to recommend them.

And

They were truly wonderful to work with. Both Sue and Barbara are sweethearts to deal with. They answered my endless questions and allowed me several in-person meetings. The food was good and the pricing was extremely reasonable no hidden costs and they didnt charge the typical 18% gratuity, 5% administrative fee. The stationary hors devours were ready to go when guests arrived a half hour early. Tastings also baked our 3 layered, 3 flavored cake for very little extra. We also got ALL of the leftover food to take home with us. Negatives were relatively scarce table service (see above water incident) and they were sometimes difficult to get a hold of. They ran out of potatoes at one of the food stations (not a very big deal though since we had so many other starches to choose from.)

And

Tastings Caterers catered my wedding last year and did a fabulous job. That day, I was very at ease and confident that their event coordinator had everything under control. People loved the food and especially the cake. I've been told by many guests that it was the best wedding cake they've ever had. This is because you can have multiple flavors and they are made with mousse or cheesecake fillings. Yum! Prior to the wedding day, working with them was very easy. They were very helpful when it came to selecting the menu items, and their pricing couldn't be beat. They were tough to get a hold of sometimes, but that didn't affect their performance on the wedding day.
Pros: Awesome cake, great food, great prices
Cons: Tough to get a hold of on the phone