Rustic Food Custom Catering

A couple of things first. It is very difficult to find a vegan caterer in my area, and to find a good one is a real gift. I know Rustic isn’t strictly vegan, but for our party they put together an excellent purely vegan menu which delighted everyone, including the meat eaters! Elaine was very easy to deal with, responsive to all requests and changes and patient. Lora, the chef who also delivered our food, was very nice, on time, and our choices arrived packaged very well with explicit instructions on what to do to serve everything properly.
I ordered food for 50 people, and there was absolutely more than enough with plenty of leftovers– not because people didn’t like the food, but because the portions were so generous.
Every dish was delicious but highlights included stuffed peppers with pasta and garlic breadcrumbs, risotta fritters, israeli salad (my favorite of the event), pasta with grilled summer vegetables, artichoke and sundried tomato tarts, tofu skewers with sesame ginger drizzle, and black bean empanaditas. The only dish that wasn’t really a hit were individual polenta gratins– they were too dense and a bit dry. No matter, some people did enjoy them, I just wouldn’t necessarily choose those again.
I would not hesitate to contract Rustic Catering again for any event. As I“m writing, I’m wishing I had more of those stuffed peppers… very memorable food!

I contacted Rustic Food for an upcoming 40^th birthday party. Here is my review about this organization:
The packages and prices offered by Rustic Food is affordable for the amount of food they are offering me.
The client representative (Elaine) is very helpful and responsive. When I say quality service she has definitely provided everything she can to help me prepare for my party.
Though I ended up not taking their service due to the hall limitation and policy on external caterers, I still highly recommend them for the initial support and responsiveness to my needs.
I do hope to use them in my future event personally and business events.
Thank you Elaine!

Needing a caterer for my child’s upcoming birthday party, I did some googling and came across Rustic Food. I could only find a few reviews online (all which were excellent) but nonetheless I was still apprehensive to pull the trigger without a personal recommendation. Will it be enough food? Will it be tasty? Will they be on time?
After some emails back and forth with Elaine, I decided to go with them. Well, as you can see from the 5 stars, I was beyond satisfied with my decision. The food was fresh, delicious, and creative. Our friends and family raved about the food at and after the party. I would recommend this caterer to anyone.
–MJ

We used Rustic Food to cater a ~90 person wedding at an outdoor location on a Saturday. The food alone was great but there was a small miscommunication and a large unfulfilled clean up task, which led to a subpar experience.
The whole experience of choosing the menu, the tasting, and the actual event, was more than satisfactory — it was pretty easy, and Rustic Food was very accommodating and responsive to all of our questions. Their suggestions helped our planning process. Guests commented that they really enjoyed the food, it was tasty and fresh. The staff were friendly. The only small miscommunication here was that we asked for coffee and tea all through the event in our contract, but it only came out during dessert.
However, our site required rentals (chairs, tables, dishware, etc.), which Rustic Food coordinated, and the logistics of the catering staff clearing and storing the rentals after the event was a failure. We had agreed with Rustic Food that the staff would clear and store all rentals before leaving, since the rental company would not pick them up until Monday morning. It was clearly stated in email correspondence with Rustic Food that the staff would bring down the rentals from the Pavilion level and bring them to the storage area.
At the end of the night, we (tired bride and groom) were cleaning our own decorations and other miscellaneous wedding items up outside, and the staff told us that everything was finished and ready for the rental company pickup on Monday. We let them go, believing that they fulfilled all of their contract duties (all of our interaction with them up to that point had been great and we had no reason to doubt them), only to later realize that all of the dinner tables and chairs were still up at the Pavilion level. Also, the dishware and the other rentals were not securely inside the storage area, but adjacent to it. Imagine yourself in this situation if you are the only ones left at the site after your wedding. Thank goodness we still had some guests around to help us bring everything down the steps and store everything inside the secure storage area. The next day, we notified Rustic Food that we were very disappointed about this. Elaine did apologize in the email, but it felt a bit more like a subtle dismissal of the situation.
We had completed the final payment during the morning of the event, since Elaine was on site and requested it at that time. But, we should not have made the final payment until ALL contract work was completed.
* Update on 9÷30÷2014 *
We were contacted by Rustic Food to try to rectify our issue. We appreciate this second response, and the admission that there was a mistake on their part. But the explanation does not change anything from our original review. We still think that the food and friendly service were great. This was just our one unfortunate experience.

Rustic Food catered our wedding just a few days ago. We were certain that we wanted to have an all-​vegetarian and mostly vegan wedding, and Elaine delivered to such an extent that guests of all diets were thrilled with the food. Elaine was extremely on the ball and quick to respond to any questions that we had along the way. I could not recommend Rustic Food Custom Catering more for whatever your next event may be. Thank you Elaine!

Rustic Food catered my wife’s 60^th birthday party last Halloween. Our guests were wowed and we were relaxed enough to have a very good time at our own party. From the moment the melted brie and walnuts went on the coffee table, everything was perfect. The taboulleh and other super-​fresh salads were great. Short ribs were yummy. The vegetarians were happy, too, with the pumpkin ravioli. Service was prompt, unobtrusive, skilled and totally professional. We got some good, sensible tips from Elaine on menu choices.