The Serving Spoon

I think it’s a shame that the reviews here are skewed toward the Groupon grumblers. My experience with Serving Spoon (catering as opposed to personal chef) is that the food is eyes-​roll-​back-​in-​my head amazing, brings-​tears-​to-​my-​eyes delicious.

Kerry catered my birthday party and did an excellent job. Her food got rave reviews! But that isn’t the only thing you want in a caterer. She was the consummate professional and so easy to work with. This was the first time I’ve ever used a caterer so I peppered her with a million questions, each of which she graciously answered. She was accommodating of my (nearly) last minute changes. The presentation was very nice. And the server she brought was very attentive but unobtrusive, professional, easy-​going and cute! He contributed significantly to the success of the party.
I would — and will — use both of them again.

I’m terrible at cooking and I hate eating out all the time, so I decided to give The Serving Spoon a shot. I had a great experience using The Serving Spoon and will probably try it again in the future. I have a few allergies and the chefs were very accommodating when it came down to ingredients and preparation. The portion sizes were perfect even though they were small– they were the right sizes for me, and I didn’t over eat. Only one of the dishes was somewhat mediocre, and I absolutely loved the asian chicken. It’s a lot easier than going out and each meal was customized to what I wanted. I’d definitely recommend it to friends.

I was sooo happy to receive this groupon. THe prospect sounded delish and healthy. Until the reality showed up at my door. Very very small portions and I am a very petite lady. Also the asian chicken was sooo salty I believe my blood pressure was high that whole week. Veggies were overcooked and oily. What a disappointment! Would have done better with some street food. :-((((

I think some of these reviews are unfair. Yes, you can buy groceries at the store cheaper than the groupon price. But you’d also spend a lot of time cooking those groceries, and you likely wouldn’t do it nearly as well as the chef as Serving Spoon does.
I bought three groupons for Serving Spoon and then kicked myself that I didn’t have my boyfriend max out the deal too. We enjoyed every meal. The selection was great. The food was delicious. It was incredibly convenient and it saved us tons of time and stress for three weeks — so much so that I was considering continuing the service in the future. That’s when I went on the website and realized it was a lot more expensive than I had bargained for. It has been a while since I purchased the groupons and I thought the service was probably twice the price of the groupon. Not so. I can’t do $ 335 a week.
Regardless of the prohibitive cost of regular Serving Spoon service, I received delicious food at a good price with my groupons.

Some of the food is good (the salmon curry and the artichoke stew were both excellent) some of it is pretty bad (the carrots and olives were unpalatable), and most of it is just okay (very sugary bbq beef, mediocre vegetable lasagna, mostly bland sides, etc.)
But in what universe are two small tilapia filets or three tiny chicken drumsticks a $ 67 meal for two?! Even at the groupon price of $ 17 a meal, the portions are barely reasonable. In this city, you could get far better food, at larger portions, delivered hot to your door for cheaper than $ 67 a night.
That some of the food was good does not excuse the ridiculous portions and exorbitant sticker-​price. If I had paid full-​price instead of the groupon, I would have demanded my money back. And if another groupon becomes available, I doubt I would purchase it again.

I agree with everyone here saying that, though an acceptable deal with the Groupon, this would absolutely be a crime at $ 335 for «five» meals, which comes to $ 67 per night for two people. It’s fairly easy, at least here in DC, even when ordering in food, to eat healthy for far less than $ 67 a night. I think the Groupon price was spot on, and should actually be the retail price.
The food was good enough that after receiving our meals, I considered signing up for the service regularly, but the prices made me stop in my tracks.

I also used a Groupon. Food was okay… some stuff good, some not so much. Servings were barely big enough for one person, much less two. It should be noted that my wife and I are averaged/​petite size and not particularly big eaters.
I don’t know if they reduced the portion sizes for Groupon or if their portion sizes are always this small. Nobody in their right mind would pay $ 335 for such a small amount of food. If they did indeed change their portion sizes for the Groupon, that’s a big, legal, no-​no. I intend to find out!

While the food was decent I wasn’t bowled over by anything. I used a Groupon. What was really irksome was the lack of orginization. The website ordering using the Groupon was very basic and it asked you to select a date that you wanted the food delivered based on their area delivery schedules. I did that and got an email saying that they were booked that day and to pick a date at least a month from the original one I selected. I explained that I was moving and gave a new address and date. A month later I got an angry phone call saying I wasn’t at the address I had provided. When I explained the situation and that they had my new address on record they treated me like I was the one who screwed up and that I would need to pick up the food myself. The next day I got a phone call from the chef saying that she left the food outside my new address and that noone was there to receive it. Ugh, one of the hottest days of the summer. Luckily I had off that day and could run back home to put the food in the fridge. Geez. They need to get their act together.

I agree w/​the first review. Good food (esp. the pulled pork) but its half of the food you would expect. It threw off our meal planning because we thought we were getting 10 meals when it was really more like 5. Its a smart way to make money for them. Unless people keep writing reviews like this. :)

The food that comes from The Serving Spoon is pretty good, however, I’m in the same camp as others, the portions were tiny, the delivery schedule was thrown out of kilter by the groupon and we didn’t get our groupon purchased in March (and redeemed the next day) until last week. Nothing that I got was labeled with ingredient listings something that for me is pretty critical. Their response times lag often via email, though I have never tried calling.
Fish items were ok, bbq pulled pork my husband devoured along with the coleslaw. Veggies looked fresh, they do come with reheating instructions.
The groupon was a good deal, but not when I wanted it in April and got it in July.

Food was good (IMHO, can’t say it was great), and for the price (300+ for 10 meals) I would certainly expect much more. Would not do this again even if there were a Groupon ($ 85 for 10 meals) or ‘deal’ — and that should say a lot.