A Taste of Excellence

December 2015 our group of 12 women chose TOE to cater our Christmas dinner party. We had salad with dressing, rolls (hard rolls with chopped olives inside) & herbed butter, roasted potatoes, pork loin stuffed with fruit, lemon chicken breasts (piccata), and green beans. This dinner was as fine as eating in a high end restaurant – truly. There were so many leftovers that over half the party took food home for a meal the next day. None of their food is store bought but homemade (especially the rolls). I felt the cost was exceptional for the quality and amount of food we ordered (under $ 20 a person).
In the past I have also had a simple salad with grilled chicken entrée, rolls with butter and vegetable for this same group that was fresh and plentiful with leftovers. I am a fan of TOE for fine dining in-​home for small parties.

HORRIBLE SERVICE.
I was set to use them for our food and rentals for our 2016 summer wedding.
I had emailed them and had several phone calls before narrowing down what we wanted exactly. Once I received a quote, I was a little shocked at the price, but knew i could make it within our budget, once I edited a few things. Surprise, surprise, when I told them we wanted to keep it below 10k total, they cut out all contact. Wouldn’t return my calls or my emails.
VERY DISSAPOINTED.

I requested information about A Taste of Excellence Catering online. No one ever responded to me, however a friend of mine knew Dawn, the owner, and gave her a call. To Dawn’s credit, she did have someone call me right away. This woman claimed she never received my email and was so sorry she didn’t respond. We moved past that and talked about my budget, she said she certainly could work with that, and we should meet to see a venue. I was really excited! I took PTO time from work to meet her on a Friday afternoon. After seeing the venue she estimated that their lowest cost would be MORE THAN DOUBLE the budget we discussed over the phone. She said she would send me an email the next day with more information and menu choices. I still have yet to hear from her, I am guessing this is another email of hers that got lost… Overall it was a waste of my time, she knew my budget and had me take off time from work to meet with her anyway. A simple, «we are out of that price range» would have sufficed, but how much more rude to then not even send me the quote and information? There are plenty of caterers in Northeast Ohio — choose one who actually cares about your time, business and wedding day.

Leading up to our wedding everything was great with A Taste of Excellence. We worked with Kaitlyn who was always very prompt and professional in all communications.
On our wedding day Kaitlyn was not able to come, and to this day I’m not really sure who was in charge of the catering staff. The uniformed staff arrived as planned but the truck showed up later than expected which created a rush in getting the reception area put together due to not having the tablecloths.
Our guests thought the Hors D’oeuvres served during the cocktail hour were delicious. However, we had requested (in just about every meeting, it was in red on our contract) that our bar have margarita mix which our guests were told was not available. I had requested this as it is a favorite drink of my aunt who did A LOT of work to help out leading up to and the day of this wedding. Later on in the evening near the end of the reception it was found, but by then it didn’t matter.
The buffet opened a bit late and the prime rib was very rare. It was supposed to be served medium rare and be able to be brought up in temperature on request. When I was asking people about the food in the days after the wedding, one of my guests told me that when the individual slicing the prime rib was asked for something more well done he stated that he had asked the cook, but this was all they had. Some guests informed me in the days after the reception that some of the thicker cuts of chicken were still pink in the center. The mashed potato bar was a bit hit though, so there’s that. Our guests indicated that the food that they were able to eat had a good flavor, however much of it was wasted.
There was also a privacy issue in that they left their file which had my address and full credit card information at the venue.
Overall the uniformed staff was very friendly to our guests. A Taste of Excellence did issue us a partial refund based on the outcome of the evening. In my opinion I would not recommend this caterer based upon my experience with this event as I was disappointed.

My boyfriend knew about A Taste of Excellence because they cater events at his former workplace, Case Western Reserve University. For his retirement & birthday party, we decided on a outdoor picnic style venue. We planned on about 60 people attending, so in addition to the hot dogs and hamburgers we were going to have, we added the make it yourself taco/​fajita station from ATOE, driver arrived right on time, was very pleasant, set everything up great — we got a LOT of food, pans of seasoned ground beef and seasoned chicken, along with every possible topping anyone could want, and plenty of taco shells and fajita wraps — all was served piping hot.
BIG success, guests enjoyed the quality of everything! It made US look like geniuses for hiring them! The next time we have an event for a large group we will order from them again.

Amazing! A Taste of Excellence catered our wedding on May 18^th, 2013 at Cleveland City Hall Rotunda and everyone was just blown away. Through the entire process a Taste of Excellence was just fantastic. They scheduled multiple meetings through the process to go over details, had multiple tastings to determine what food we wanted and made sure everything went smoothly our wedding day. The food was fantastic! All of our guests were inquiring about who the caterer was and had quotes like «This is the best food I’ve had at a wedding». The service staff the night of the wedding also went above and beyond that night and would book with A Taste of Excellence again for any other party needs we might have.
If you are getting married or throwing an event and want top notch food, great service and a number of different venue options, this is the company for you.

So far, we are completely impressed. Our wedding is planned for May 18^th this year. We went in for a tasting and were extremely satisfied with the professionalism, quality of food, organization of team and the excellent bed side manner of the team as well. They presented us a fantastic 5 course meal of superior quality and worked with us to make the best plan for our wedding.
We had a quote from another catering company that gave us an estimate of $ 11,000. Taste of Excellence quoted us $ 8,000 for even more food and more importantly, of much higher quality. And, they bring a food truck to your event to cook all of the food on site, rather than slopping it into chaffing dishes. We are getting two meat searing stations, a fresh pasta station, cooked veggies, h’orderves, back bar, coffee/​tea etc!
Hopefully, I will be able to write a review in May saying again how satisfied we were with Taste of Excellence for the big day.

Very Unprofessional! I would not put the responsibility of my wedding in their hands!
On a snowy Cleveland day a week ago we met the Chris Winter, Vice President, at Josaphat Arts Hall. Chris boasted over seven years of experience… I was shocked at what happened.
My fiancé arrived before me and the VP Chris sat in his jeep while my fiancé tried to open all the doors around the church… the place was completely locked up. She was walking back to her car when VP Chris finally got out of his jeep. The VP Chris unlocked a back side door so when I arrived a few minutes later all of the front doors were still locked and I had to try every door in the snow until I got to the back side of the building. Unbelievable.
Josaphat Arts Hall
First they want $ 3000 just for the building not including food from 4pm — 11pm. Be ready to tell your guests to sober up early because your party is going to be cut short. The venue is not impressive it is what it is just a mediocre deteriorating church. There were race car tracks, toys, Wii videos games setup in the space that made it look like a daycare again, unprofessional.
To top it all off we then followed the VP from E 33^rd St. in Cleveland to Strongsville to see the Bella event center. When we got there 40 minutes later Chris when to open the door and he didn’t have a key!!! The VP did not have a key to show the venue! Then he had the nerve to ask if we wanted to reschedule for the next day. OMG! He didn’t even start offering discounts for how unprofessional he was.
It will put a «bad taste» in your mouth.

Wow. Wow. Wow! I hired A Taste of Excellence after attending a friends wedding they catered at Grey’s Armory and witnessing the fantastic food and stunning display. These things plus the review my friend gave about how graciously accommodating they were to her wedding demands led me to contact them — with only 10 days to go before our company Open House (150 guests expected).
I had called several caterers and quickly learned that none could compete with the variety of food A Taste of Excellence offers and the PRICE! For under $ 25/​pp total we were able to offer a classy variety of hot and cold hors d’ oeuvres and desserts WITH service (two servers and a bar tender), tables, disposables, champagne glasses, table cloths, and complete setup and tear down!!!
To be fair, we saved by choosing to bring in our own non-​alcoholic beverages and purchased alcohol from Minotti’s (since Minotti’s allows you to return for refund any unopened beer/​wine/​champagne to them — not true for liquor). The caterer served any beverage we had on site and was glad to do it! End price after buying our own beverages was still only $ 26.50/pp including service!!! Can’t be beat.
Marci was our account manager and provided prompt, detailed information. It was obvious she listened closely to my requests and provided suggestions that helped make our event meet our budget and still be stunning.
The staff that serviced our event (Sue & Mark) were extremely kind and professional. This was extremely important to us since this was an event in which our clients, brokers and friends and family would be attending.
We DEFINITELY will be choosing them again in the future.

If you are unsure about how catering services… have no fear with A Taste of Excellence. My entire experience from beginning to end was one of the best experiences I have ever encountered when working with a catering company to plan our private event.
I work for a large corporate business and through the years we have used several different catering companies for different events. After using Taste of Excellence we will never use any one else again.
Their Sales Reps were extremely helpful, attentive, and caring. Their unique, inexpensive, and customize services attend to your every need no matter the event. Anything you want they are willing to provide especially when it comes to food options. For those who are not sure what you want they give you suggestions and help you every step of the way.
Lastly, the staff exceptional, everyone is always dressed professionally and extremely attentive to our needs when using services.
Thanks Taste of Excellence!

Most unprofessional company I’ve encountered in a long time. Multiple ignored phone calls and emails, appointments set up and broken with no contact. Thank goodness we figured out how irresponsible they are before we hired them for our wedding!

If you are having the classic chicken, salad and roll style wedding reception, Taste of Excellence may be a great choice for you. However, if you want a menu with a less traditional style it may be best to look elsewhere. The person we worked with was very friendly, but the menu proposed for our fiesta-​style reception (think Spanish/​Mexican style foods like empanadas, etc) was boring and perplexing. On the proposal were antipasto, poached salmon and tacos.
Pricing was quite fair.