Catering By Herach & Ara

So I will start by saying that the service provided by the servers of this company are always a pleasure to see and very nice all across the board. Now going forward with FOOD STANDARDS, this company has provided Food services for my company on many different occasions this year. Their most recent attempt at breakfast today was just very sad over all. Their lunch menu the day before was a joke all across the board. Their quality has dropped drastically and it is sad because many years ago it was not like this. So those who want MEXICAN FOOD please do not ask for it from this place because TACO BELL would be a better option. Their Chinese food Makes PANDA EXPRESS look like a five star restaurant in Beverly Hills. The final act was there PINK CHICKEN which they covered in butternut squash aka BABY FOOD! If this is their way of running their business this is a very long sad road of how this company will end up.

First contact… Mari is GREAT! She’s detail, professional and courteous. The company I work for has used Herach & Ara’ catering for many years, way before I started and I continue with them. Food is EXCELLENT!!! With Mari’s help, I was able to change our traditional holiday menu around. Now every year we try something new. Always happy with food, the service and the professionalism.
Not to long ago I met Ara at a different event he was catering. Very sweet and gentle. It was nice to put a face with a name.
Highly recommend!!!

Herach & Ara catered a party at my home for my son’s bar mitzvah and I can’t say enough good things about them. I had not had a big event catered before and originally thought of going with a restaurant that offered «catering services». Quickly enough I realized that most restaurants do not really provide full service in the manner that Herach & Ara do and I certainly didn’t want to have a few trays of food dropped of. First, the food was absolutely delicious, fresh and plentiful. They did a Mediteranean menu including chicken and meat kabobs and the best babaghanoush I have ever had. They were flexible with the menu choices which was helpful too. Their set up was beautiful and elegant. We were away all morning attending the service for our son. When we walked into our house at 1:00 p.m. everything was just perfect — all tables set, decorations out, and food beautifully presented. Ara handled all the arrangements with me and he is patient, caring and professional. It did take a while to get the paperwork squared away, but you can trust them to make your event picture perfect.

I have been to many events catered by Herach & Ara over the years, and I am always happy to see them. They are always spot on with each of the various types of situations, professional staff handle all the little details and the food never disappoints. If you haven’t used them, you should. This is how it’s supposed to be done!

Ara, Alec, Mari and everyone else at Catering by Herach & Ara are top notch genuine professionals. I’ve called on them countless times over the past 20+ years for business, school/​sports team, and personal events. I could go on and on about how great they (and their food) are — there’s no other caterer for me :)
p. s. Dear Unilocal,can I please have another 5 stars for them?

I may never use another caterer ever again! As an event planner, I have a number of caterers in my go-​to arsenal. Herach & Ara are hands down the best I’ve ever worked with. Across the board everything was perfect! I’ve never been able to say that about anyone I’ve worked with in all the years I’ve been in my profession.
*The food was fabulous! Everything was fresh, flavorful and perfectly prepared.
*The staff was great. Very friendly, hard working and eager to please me and all my guests.
*Very creative thinking when planning the event. Sometimes I need all the additional help I can get. Owner Ara is VERY detail oriented and came armed to our meeting full of great ideas that he executed perfectly.
*Everything looked amazing! The fall color scheme with gorgeous flowers and decorations really made everything so beautiful.
*They offer an excellent price point. Everything was more than fair and reasonable.
*Both the set-​up and break down was quick and efficient.
The event I had was for over 350 people and even more showed up who failed to RSVP and yet, there was enough food thanks to their generous planning. They took the stress out of the event for me and I was actually able to eat with my guests — this NEVER happens! — as well as enjoy my own party.
Everything was extremely professional and I feel like they went above and beyond to meet my needs, make my event shine and wind up being one my most successful I’ve ever had. Weeks later, people are still talking about it. I can’t wait to have another occasion to call on them. 5 stars many times over!

Catered by Ara’s tonight at company’s event. Great service & set-​up by Martin & Matilda! Set-​up & break down was quick, clean, & professional!

BRIDES & GROOMS: Catering by Herach & Ara is the cater to work with ! The owner Ara/​main chef is soooooooooooo sweet ! As a bride it can be very stressful finding a cater. Thankfully because of the Montebello Chamber of Commerce we found Ara. He catered our wedding with exceptional delicious food, amazing service, and awesome presentation! If you have any questions about Ara you can privately message me! I will forever refer him and think of him when I am planning my next event!
Thank you Catering by Herach & Ara for being a apart of the best day of my life!!!

One thing I know about myself is I love food. And what I love even more than that is really delicious yummy food. I have known Ara and Herach for years and I’m so happy I get to write a review about how amazing their food is. These guys are top notch and are such a great bang for the buck. I’ve hired them to cater my movie sets and cater Family events and they have never disappointed and prices are amazingly affordable for what you get. Thumbs up five stars I love them.

We had a morning workshop in a large building that is not easy to navigate, which made me a bit nervous for a morning event.
However, I worried for nothing — they were there early for set-​up and brought everything for the breakfast buffet and it looked AMAZING!
We will definitely be using Catering by Herach and Ara in the future!

My first time using Herach & Ara myself – but have heard many good things with them from colleagues. I will warn that they get VERY busy during the Holidays. But bear with them – it took a bit of nagging but Mari got all my details confirmed and quotes sent to me (2 weeks!). She is very nice and great to deal with, but there is a bit of lag time to get the paperwork (so book early!).
Matilda and «little» Poncho were our servers for our holiday event. they were so great I will be requesting them to be servers for our second holiday event next week. They came early to set up, and the food was kept piping hot. They even gave us decoration tips (we asked for it!). The spread was absolutely beautiful, they provided Christmas tree branches and pine cones to spruce up the serving table as well as a nutcracker! They even bothered fanning out napkins on the side of the food warmers for added décor. After the event they even helped clear finished plates off the tables and offered to help with anything, really. Absolutely LOVE these two!
Everyone was happy with the food. I give props to the catering company in general – very few times have I seen food actually kept on warmers from pick up to delivery on site, and there was even warmers for the gravy. The ham was kept with ice packets during transport, and the salad dressings had ice in their tray to keep cool. There are very few places that take the extra step to actually take care of their food in transport to make sure people do not get sick. I am VERY impressed.
I would recommend Herach & Ara catering to anyone that has an event coming up. Some of the best holiday food and servers I have ever had!

I love Ara & Marie! always so professional and pleasant to do business with. Out of all catering services I prefer to go with H&A, not only is the service great but the food is wonderful at decent prices. They never let us down… keep up the great work guys!

Ara Balayan is a prince among men. I volunteer each year at Christmas at the Halls, the holiday party for the kids living at Central Juvenile Hall. Ara provides excellent Mexican taco bars for over 1,000 people in at least 15 different buildings. It’s a caterer’s nightmare. Yet, the food is hot and delicious. The tortillas are exceptional and that can make such a difference. True soft taco aficionados know that the condiments are not complete without the radishes. The radishes are there! I highly recommend Ara and his team. (I also believe that Ara’s company donates all that food and staff to the Christmas at the Halls event. That’s some big donation. For that alone, I’d ask you to consider him for your next event.)

Our company always caters with Herach & Ara and we have yet to be disappointed. Working with Marie is great… she is professional and always confirms before the event and follows up after the event to make sure everything went as planned. Workers are always on time, preps in a timely manner, and presentation is always so perfect. We always get the pepper steak (so good!), mushroom chicken (guests always rave this entrée), and cheesecake bites (to die for!). One time, we wanted an Asian theme lunch and Marie gave great choices and the beef teriyaki was absolutely delicious along with the other choices.
Thank you Herach & Ara for always taking great care of our catering needs!!!

Good fast service they grilled the steak and chicken on site and the smell was amazing!!!
I had the steak and rice… the rice was dry and hard. But the steak was WOW… Alittle dry but packed full of flavor!!!
The servers where super nice and didn’t make a mess they also got everything set up very quickly.
For a company holiday meal it was very very good much better than I expected.

Dear Ara,
Words cannot express the gratitude and appreciation I have to Catering by Herach and Ara for providing our meals and beverages for our 2011 USC Math Finance Conferences this week. Our attendees have raved about the catering «Wholesome», «Nutritious and Filling», «Not to spicy — just enough kick to satisfy my taste buds and stomach»…and the comments go on and on.
More important than the food were your catering assistants/​servers. Eddie — who greeted me each morning at 7:00 AM sharp with a smile– he worked efficiently and succinctly that nothing was left to be desired. Martine and Hargoe– preparing/​setting up/​serving/​replenishing/​breakdown, etc., etc., and with a sense of humor– I felt comfortable enough to go handle other tasks for our conferences because I knewthese men had EVERYTHING under control. Also the behind-​the-​scene personnel– those who cooked, packaged and even washing the dishes– thank you.
Mari and Margie (whose name I thought was Shelby– J), were kind and patient with me and the other members of the organizing committee as menu items added, changed, subtracted and switched. They were attentive to my every phone call and e-​mail and for that I am forever grateful.
Lastly, Ara– thank you for having the vision to start Catering by Herach and Ara. Your professionalism and hospitality should be mirrored by other catering companies. Your experience and proficiency helped make this week run smoothly for me and I am certain that I will be contacting you for future events.
Thank you again and continued success to Catering by Herach and Ara.

If you read nothing else in my review, read this:
It doesn’t get any better than the catering done by Ara! You can never go wrong with them. Him and everyone who works with him are absolutely great!
Now, if you want a little more detail, keep reading:
At work, we regularly cater our events through Ara because we know we’re never going to find anything better (taste-​wise, price-​wise and customer service-​wise).
We have had many different types of events, themed and not-​themed, catered and delivered, small-​sized or bigger, and everyone always raves about it.
Examples of some of the types of food we’ve had catered/​delivered:
–Southwestern theme: We just did this yesterday and Alek (Ara’s brother) was great at working with us to get everything just right! It turned out perfect. (mini tamales, veggie chorizo quesadillas, bbq chicken/​southwestern mini pizzas, shrimp with chipotle dipping sauce, seven layer southwestern dip)
–Southern Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, corn (I wish I could eat it every day but sadly, my hips won’t let me lol)
–Chicken Alfredo (my co-​worker can’t get enough of this!)
–Enchiladas (we’ve only had them once, but they were soo good!)
–Mediterranean: Beef, chicken, veggie kabobs, with rice pilaf, greek salad and hummus (BIG HIT!!!)
–Strawberry Spinach Salad (Can’t wait to have it again!!)
–Hors d’ouevres/appetizers: spinach & artichoke dip!!!, bbq chicken mini pizza, mini egg rolls
–Mini croissants with the breakfast :)
–We also regularly get boxed sandwich lunches catered by them and they are so great at giving us a variety (regular bread, pita bread, croissants, french rolls, wraps/​cookies, brownies, lemon bars, etc).
Basically, ANYTHING you order will be good.
I’m already looking forward to our next event with Ara! =)

When it comes to the main course, the prime rib or chicken with mushroom sauce just don’t do it. I know they are catering for hundreds or even more but the concentration needs to come onto the main courses.
They both were dry and lacked flavor.
The baby potatoes and sides are decent.
I was really happy by the service from the workers. They made sure to offer service and attentive to the large party.

Ara s has catered our Gala event (Cathedral Alumni Association) for the past 5 years or so for over 1000 people– with great success. This year though, was exceptional. The Medditerean Salad of Feta, Kalamatas and roma tomatoes was fresh The Rice pilaf the baby potatoes cooked with dill were cooked evenly had great flavor The chicken breasts with tomatoes and a light sauce were juicy flavorful The treat for me were the roasted tomatoes persian style the sqaush and green chilies That was a great taste n texture flavor explosion. He also served a steak w a creamed peppercorn which lots of people ate but cream sauce on steak isn’t appealing to me. Great work Ara looking forward to you catering our event again!