Darae & Friends Catering

I emailed Allison when we decided on a last-​minute birthday party for 25, and she helped me decide between their staff serving appetizers vs. me just picking up food for the night. I decided on the pick up. We had 2 different lasagnas (which I heated up right before the guests arrived), one veggie tray, a lemon meringue pie, and their famous pineapple upside-​down cake. All of our guests RAVED over the food !!!
Thanks to Allison for guiding me. I can’t wait to call and set up our Holiday Party plans.

DaRae & Friends catered one of the events during my wedding weekend in May 2014. I would not recommend or use this catering service again. We were asked by DaRae to pre-​pay for the entire event, over $ 4000.00 in food, non-​alcoholic beverages and service– BIG MISTAKE! I had three face to face meetings with DaRae, made several phone calls and emailed her plenty of times in order that she understand my vision for the event; which was a heavy hors d’œuvre and cocktail party over the course of 3 hours to welcome our out of town guests to Lexington. I’m not sure how things got so lost in translation but my expectations were hardly met. DaRae was not easy to get a hold of by phone, nor was she prompt with her email replies.
There was simply not enough food, my guests were looking for food during the event and left the party hungry. DaRae reassured me as I confirmed our guest numbers with her, that she would supply so much food, there would definitely be left-​overs. Several of the hors d’oeuvres were not prepared the way I had asked, other items which were to be crispy turned out soggy and there was absolutely zero creative effort in its presentation. I had sent her specific and detailed emails about presentation and had a face to face meeting about this yet my requests were not met. There were approximately 100 people at this event and food was served flat on small trays without an ounce of imagination.
I found her staff hanging out together across the street from the venue where our event was occurring. This happened to be during our toasts where not a single member of her staff came to refill our glasses during the one hour we toasted. We had supplied two cases of champagne for refilling, an entire case was left in the refrigerator and returned to us 2 weeks after the event. One of her staff actually came up to me during the party and asked why I had not chosen DaRae for my actual wedding reception, totally inappropriate! However, as you can see, these would be the reasons I would not have her cater another event of mine.
We wrote to DaRae. by email and US post, after our event expressing our concerns and with the request she respond. We have yet to hear anything back from DaRae.

Fantastic! The food was amazing, the price reasonable and Darae and Allison were SO easy to work with. I have zero qualms about recommending them to anyone who needs a caterer.