Eat & Smile Catering

We had Eat & Smile cater our 100-​person wedding at St. Francis Hall, which included passed hors’doeuvres and a plated dinner. Katie, Chef Oliver, and the rest of the Eat & Smile team were fantastic to work with. Chef Oliver worked with us to create a menu that was perfectly set to our preferences, and the food itself was well-​prepared and delicious.
Katie was our main point of contact starting with the tasting all the way to the wedding day. She is awesomely communicative and fun to work with! Katie provided valuable input not only on the food, servers, and linens which we contracted for through E&S; but also on things like beverage service (we used Ace Beverage for alcohol), table placement, timeline, and guest flow. Our wedding guests also pointed out how personable and professional the entire E&S serving and bartender staff were during the event itself.
I would HIGHLY recommend Eat & Smile as your wedding caterers.

We had Eat and Smile cater our wedding and they were so fantastic. Having good food at the wedding was at the top of our priority list, and they really delivered exceptional food and service at a very reasonable price. We went with the passed small plate option and it was a big hit. Guests raved about the food and we were able to accommodate all of the different dietary restrictions of our guests. I also loved that their food is locally sourced and that they used compostable plate and silverware.
We worked primarily with Katie, and she gets extra kudos for being on top of everything. We had some issues with Eat and Smile’s partner rental company but Katie was always there to sort things out and make sure that we had the correct size and colors to go with our seating arrangement. Chef Friendly was also great to work with in planning our menu. After giving him extremely vague descriptions of what feel and type of food we wanted, he was able to come up with options that we really enjoyed!
I highly recommend Eat and Smile for your catering needs!

We used Eat & Smile catering for our office holiday party and they knocked it out of the park! We got tons of compliments all night on the food. And the specialty cocktails were delicious. Erin and the entire team were so professional and friendly throughout the whole planning process. They even recommended awesome vendors like a day of coordinator and lighting. Absolutely recommend!

Eat & Smile is fantastic. They came recommended to me by two different people, and I would happily refer E&S to anyone needing fantastic catering. From the tasting til the end of our wedding night, Katie and the team were responsive, easy to work with, and really helped us understand different ways we could approach the night and what we needed to have a successful event. On the night of our wedding, the E&S servers were friendly, helpful and made everything flow successfully. They went above and beyond helping a couple of our guests with strict dietary restrictions. We’d absolutely use them for an event in the future!

Eat & Smile did a fantastic job catering our rehearsal dinner at The Gibson. Katie, Erin, Oliver and the whole team were incredibly collaborative and responsive, and helped us plan and manage every last detail. Highly recommended.

Hire Eat & Smile for your next catering need and you and your guests will be gushing for weeks about how amazing the food and service was! We cannot say enough great things about this group of people. Katie was our point of contact for the planning process. From the first phone call to the last email right before our wedding, she was always kind, upbeat, professional and timely. She and Chef Oliver made the entire planning process so easy and was extremely patient with my never ending list of questions. Michael was our day-​of captain/​show runner. He too was a delight and kept me confident that the service would be top notch. Seeing as I was the bride, I relied on my guests to evaluate the service. There was not a single complaint. Guests said the staff was friendly, helpful and funny. Michael made sure my husband and I ate, and the food was everything we had hoped for. It was also very cool that this company is very green and Eco-​friendly. One of the best decisions we made for this wedding was hiring Eat & Smile.

Just had our wedding last week and the food was amazing. What was even better than the food was Eat & Smile’s service.
We worked with Katie throughout the planning process and she answers emails within 15 minutes. How amazing is that? Everything was so organized and I had no worries about the biggest part of our wedding. There’s no set menu so everything is customized to your taste.
Food was fantastic and fresh. We had a mixture of appetizers and passed small plates. Definitely more than enough food. I was so full and happy.
Michael was in charge on the day of the wedding and they set up EVERYTHING. Decorations, tables, whatever. I didn’t have to think about it, it was just done. They really made sure my husband and I were taken care of throughout the night.
I would recommend Eat & Smile to everyone! You will not be disappointed.

A chef from Eat Smile Catering cooked a fantastic meal for a group of my friends on 8÷22÷15.
Erin (who works in Eat Smile Catering’s «front office») was also very easy to work with. She was very quick to respond to any questions or concerns I had.
I was the only pescetarian within my group of friends. Eat Smile Catering was able to create a main dish for the meat eaters (which was everyone but me) and replace my meal with a piece of fish (for no extra cost). I was really happy and impressed that my diet was taken into consideration.
I am not a «foodie». I was worried that the menus Eat and Smile Catering would suggest might lean a little fancier than what I am usually inclined to eat. I was wrong. The menu choices Erin sent ahead of time to choose from where a nice mixture of something I couldn’t prepare myself and casual comfort food.
The whole meal from start to finish was fantastic and restaurant quality.
The best part of catering a meal at home it was stress free. Our chef Sabina (might be spelling that name wrong) came with everything she needed (prior to our meal we communicate what our home kitchen was equipped with). She also cleaned up (I turned around ready to help her and, the kitchen was already cleaned).
I highly recommend having Eat and Smile Catering to cater a party in your home, if you not a cook (or want to make sure you have time to your company). Several of the people who came to the dinner told me afterwards that they would consider using Eat and Smile Catering to cater something similar in their homes.
In a nutshell, a really great company to work with who knows and loves their craft.

Eat & Smile Catering is a fantastic group to handle your catering events! I have had nothing but great experiences with them. Not only is their food excellent, but they’re also environmentally friendly wherever they can be. Many things on their menu are locally sourced, and the owners are so so friendly and pleasant to deal with. To me, the customer service is as important as anything when I’m dealing with a company, and the Eat & Smile team is unbelievably kind and accommodating. I look forward to working with them more!

This is long overdue as my wedding was in September of last year (2014) and I kept meaning to write about my wonderful experience with this catering company but a bunch of things got in the way.
From the very start, E&S was easy to work with. A close family member had backed out of everything as soon as my wedding planning began and I was stressed and confused about catering my 50 guest wedding. On top of that, I was worried about finances. At the same time, the people we invited were the most important people in our lives and I wanted them to feel special and enjoy themselves. So, E&S really saved the day. I was probably frantic in my first email interaction with the owner, Chef Oliver Friendly (very fitting name), due to reasons mentioned above, and he could not have been more accommodating. In my search for caterers, I learned that everyone I had communicated with wanted a down payment or some kind of certainty that I would choose them before I even knew what their food was like. Chef Friendly did not. He invited us for a tasting, giving us a range of dates and times, asking what style of food we were going for, and did not pressure us one bit.
The tasting was phenomenal. My [now] husband loves to cook and he does it so well that he is quite picky. Chef Friendly talked up his food during the tasting but it actually tasted as good as he boasted. He was confident and so were we. He explained that all vegetables and fruits he used were grown within a 100 mile radius and the fish and meat he used were raised in an ecological and sustainable fashion, also in close distance, describing the distributors and farmers with whom he worked. This information was obviously important to him but also to us. The prices were totally affordable too, considering the high quality. I’m not going to spout off the specific numbers but I’m a social worker, so that should give you a good idea of what I could afford. Anyway, he let us try a range of items, from fried mac and cheese balls to fish tacos to soup to yummy fruity and nutty salad (unfortunately I don’t remember the specifics because it was a while ago) to some fancy chicken dish to 3 kinds of dessert and other stuff. I don’t remember which ones but I remember 3 delicious sweets. Not long before, I had accompanied my friend on her wedding tasting to a place she had already committed to and they had actually told us to «imagine» various toppings and fruit as we tasted the cake. That was silly. E&S prepared everything for us, despite our noncommittal tasting.
In addition to the excellent and beautiful food, the Chef threw in plates, glasses and silverware just because this was a small wedding. Not one other caterer offered this and I had been racking my brain trying to figure out if I should rent from some place (which was difficult with the small guest number) or buy off ebay. Like I said, he couldn’t have made the experience easier.
Every single staff member I had worked with through this process was professional, helpful, empathetic, and creative. I was not allowed to let the caterers use the kitchen in the cottage I rented so they helped me every step of the way with that debacle. If I was ever in their line of business, I would want to work for them myself.
The contract was simple and direct, covering everything concisely. They never calculated the down payment into the total until the very end so it was like saving a quarter of the final price. I guess that encouraged me to leave a good tip but I was going to do that anyway.
There was one tiny slip up and they handled it gracefully. I had ordered ice but they forgot. So, in the middle of nowhere (my wedding was in a pretty remote area), they immediately went out and got it in time. In a way, that makes them even more professional, to be able to work through a mistake the way they did.
The servers were really great at the wedding. They were available but not intrusive at all. They even left a little jar of homemade chutney in the fridge wishing us a good marriage. Our wedding was a bit unconventional (no bridesmaids/​groomsmen/​planners/​moh) and yet they were able to work everything out with my sister-​in-​law without taking up all her time at the wedding (I hope). She said they were excellent.
Oliver, I hope you and your staff are doing well. Thank you again for such a memorable experience. My husband and I appreciate everything.

Eat & Smile General Impressions
* Timely in response to my million e-​mails containing questions regarding timelines, menu planning, questions with regards to the kitchen available at the venue, etc.
* Unlike the big box caterers in DC (Occasions, Ridge wells, Windows, etc.) Eat & Smile is more of you pick what you want and need and they help to put together exactly what you are looking for — however, with that you need to be mindful of costs as they are individualized vs. one lump sum (recommend maintaining a detailed spreadsheet with your costs)
* Oliver is very friendly and flexible in helping to build your menu and plan your event
* Alcohol and general rentals are not available at E&S thus requires more coordination with additional vendors
* My overall impression is that guests did like the format and the food however, I think we could have used additional /​heavier
* Catering staff was very friendly and we were extremely happy with the service on the day of
Eat & Smile Passed Hors D’oeuvres Format PROS:
* Food warm is available to guests throughout the event unlike a plated dinner
* Guests are able to choose from a variety of foods which is particularly helpful for guests with dietary restrictions
* Costs are reduced as you do not need to rent utensils, plates, etc. (consider having enough seating for older adults even though the meal isn’t sit down)
Eat & Smile Passed Hors D’oeuvres Format CONS:
* Unlike a sit down dinner keeping to your timeline of events (special dances, cake cutting, bouquet toss, etc.) can be more tricky as you really need either a coordinator or bridesmaid to stay on top of things and alert you when it is time for any of your events
* Tables can look empty without dinnerware — suggest wide centerpieces
* Guests can be a bit confused as to when and what food is available — printing the menu can placing it on the seats at the ceremony or at the reception can help!

My wife and I had an amazing experience from start to finish with Eat & Smile.
We’d met with a couple potential caterers for our wedding before finally finding E&S. We envisioned a casual wedding atmosphere featuring passed hors d’oeuvres and small plates, but every catering manager we met with discouraged us from doing so and would steer us toward their way of doing things.
When we finally sat down with the folks at E&S, they «got it» right away. They are amazingly flexible, which they proved time and time again as we planned our wedding. We got advice, suggestions and help throughout the process, and I doubt some of their larger competitors could have matched their level of «can do.»
Our guests came to us throughout the evening of our wedding with praise for the food («This is the best wedding food I’ve ever had!»), the people («Everyone on the catering staff is so friendly!») and the service («My glass was never empty!»). A friend from Chicago (a huge foodie) even tried to convince E&S to travel to cater her wedding next summer. They’re that good.

Disclaimer: The only time I had Eat and Smile’s food was at the 10 Year Unilocal Birthday Bash and it was hands down the best food at the entire event (and that is saying a lot because the best of DC food was at the party). They made what was like a scallop on pickled cabbage and it was the best thing I’ve had in months. For dessert, they made bite size s’more cookies which were amazing.
The next event I do in DC, I am calling Katie at Eat and Smile. I HIGHLY recommend you do the same!

Oliver and his team at Eat & Smile Foods were fantastic! From the very beginning at our food tasting, it was obvious how much he loves what he does and how much thought and preparation he puts in to all of his work.
My husband and I are from very different backgrounds — he’s from the South where the food is more buffet style and I’m from the North where everyone is used to a cocktail hour followed by a sit-​down dinner. So, we needed a caterer that understood both of those traditions and would meet all of those needs. Oliver delivered!
What’s great about Eat & Smile is that they will work with you to come up with a menu and a style of dinner exactly how you want. Oliver and his team also design your menu to whatever price point you want to spend and they will work with you along the way based upon that price point.
After telling him what we were looking for as our food options, he came up with a menu that exceeded our expectations — a true representation of the North and South. Everyone is still raving about the fried green tomato sliders and the braised brisket and mashed potatoes!
A special accolade must be given to Erin, Eat & Smile’s operations manager. With Oliver’s business (rightfully so) becoming so popular, Erin came on during our wedding process and from day one, handled everything for us! She was extremely responsive to all of our questions and concerns, highly organized and very attentive to detail. We didn’t have to worry about anything when it came to catering because she was so on top of everything!
The night of the wedding, Oliver lit up when he saw my husband and me when we arrived at our wedding venue and he gave us a huge hug — a testament to how personal he treats his job and his clients. The rest of his staff — from the bartenders to the servers — were attentive, friendly and seemed to really enjoy themselves at the wedding.
We would recommend Oliver, Erin and Eat & Smile Foods in a heartbeat and hope to work with them in the future.

We had a standing reception and these guys fell perfectly in line with our budget! The menu is highly customizable (our theme was «Kentucky meets Korea») and it was amazing. The staff was amazing and even sought us out to make sure we were eating enough. I was a bit worried that there wasnt going to be enough food, but there was PLENTY! I highly recommend Eat & Smile.

I was just a best man in my friend’s wedding, and helped out with a lot of the planning. There was a huge weight lifted off our shoulders when we decided to go with Eat and Smile. Not only was every single detail laid out for us in the planning process (which answered all of our questions and eliminated any surprises going into the big day).
They were able to plan a menu that perfectly encapsulated the personality of the grooms, and his staff were absolutely the best. From start to finish they were super professional and very personable with the guests. Every detail was taken care of, and the food was delicious!
I will be definitely recommending them to all my friends and family!

Our wedding was wonderful, and Oliver and Alex had a significant part of making that happen.
From the tasting through menu selection up to the day itself, they were communicative, fun, professional, and so easy to work with. Our wedding day was low stress and easy — because we knew we could trust them to take care of everything (along with our wonderful wedding planner Tabitha Roberts who I would review if she were on Unilocal…)
Anyways, the dishes themselves were fantastic. Everything was locally sourced as best as possible, and were full of flavor — not an easy feat when you’re talking about catering a 200 person wedding. The staff they hired for the service were fantastic, and the whole thing ran perfectly smoothly.
I seriously cannot recommend them enough — this combination of flavor and professionalism is rarely encountered. Highly recommended.

Eat & Smile catered our wedding in April 2013, providing 8 passed hors d’oeuvres along with all the servers (including a bartender), and they were fantastic. The food, service, professionalism, and value were outstanding.
Oliver and Alex were extremely easy to work with. They were very responsive, and always clear about what they could or would be able to do (and provided suggestions for alternatives whenever our initial idea wasn’t going to work). From the start we were excited to work with Eat & Smile after they had us over to their house for a lovely, relaxed tasting.
Eat & Smile is a great value. The food they prepared for our wedding was delicious, exciting, and locally-​sourced. Our guests were all in love with everything they ate. Eat & Smile takes a lot of pride in the food they serve, and it shows. Some of the fan favorite dishes were the fried mac ‘n’ cheese, mini crab cakes, and tuna tartare. (As a side note, we initially decided on the passed hors d’oeuvres approach for our wedding because it was more affordable, but in the end it proved way better than a seated meal; guests could mingle freely without being confined to a table and they got to taste 8 different mini-​dishes instead of a single plate; and trust us, everyone got plenty to eat!)
The service at our wedding was also outstanding. The servers were friendly, helpful, and ever-​present without being in the way. It was a special treat to have food sent downstairs to us (the bride and groom) while we were signing paperwork and doing pictures so that we were able to eat something in the midst of the revelry. Michael, who ran the show during the wedding, was very nice, attentive, organized, and professional. It was such a great experience being able to just enjoy our wedding, and the food, without having to think about any of the behind-​the-​scenes logistics.
We really can’t recommend Eat & Smile enough. If you want delicious food, good service, and care at all about your wedding food being sourced locally, go with these folks and you’ll be happy.

This review is for the tasting only.
So I finally got off my lazy butt and started planning my wedding. There are about a bazillion different catering companies on Unilocal but I immediately felt compelled to contact Eat & Smile Catering for the following reasons:
— The name of the company is Eat & Smile and the owner’s last name is Friendly. Can it get any more perfect than that?
— They are passionate about using local, sustainable and organic food. They even make their own soy sauce which according to Oliver (the owner) is a nine-​month fermenting process.
— They came highly recommended on Unilocal,Wedding Wire, and the Bitten Word (a food blog that I follow).
Robert S and I scheduled a tasting with them last night and were blown away by Oliver’s passion for the business as well as his helpful tips to keep our costs down. He does not charge a mark-​up fee on rentals which is something I can’t mentally comprehend. Doesn’t everybody charge mark-​up fees on everything?
The tasting was held at his home and was a low key, no pressure situation. The food was prepared as if it was going to be made at the venue site so it would be as close to the real thing as possible. The menu was a mish-​mash of his greatest winter seasonal hits.
Rob and I were especially impressed by the items by the items that had a back story to it. A mini chicken empanada was paired with a Bizbaz sauce (a spicy sauce made with yogurt, cilantro, jalapenos) that was made especially for a couple of Somail and Latino descent.
Dessert was a refreshing blueberry gelato from Dolcezza another local business that the company supports.
I was kind of hoping that the tasting would be more in tune with the theme I had in mind (Asian fusion) but after speaking with Oliver he said that he would work with us to create the perfect menu once we signed the contract. He had lots of fun ideas off the top of his head which assured as that he understood what we were going for.
After receiving tons of proposals for blah chicken and steak dinners or caterers who assured me that they did Asian food only to offer up stir fry as a dinner option, meeting with Oliver was a refreshing experience (and for those who aren’t a fan of Asian food… apparently his specialty is Southern comfort food).
He definitely gave me a lot to chew on while I make my final catering decision (literally…I have tons of leftovers to eat for lunch today!).

The first caterer I contacted was a dud. I said to him, «our tastes lean toward more southern and Italian cuisine» to which he responded, «so like pasta and fried stuff?» My head exploded, and left me immediately feeling defeated. I decided that it was appropriate, at that point, to contact our caterer of choice and see how that conversation went. He got it right the minute the question escaped my mouth («fresh, local, seasonal food!»). Oliver was bright and energetic, clear and organized in his monologue about his company, and filled me with such hope about our plans. We went to a tasting at his house and we were served the most incredible, fresh, local, sustainable and hearty morsels of food we’ve ever had. His enthusiasm for great food was inspiring, and we left his house knowing he was the one.
The next 18 months involved a lot of e-​mailing, a walk through of our venue to make sure we were on the right track as far as layout, appliances, tables/​chairs, and so on. He really helped us navigate the unconventional wedding space (a single family home) and was excited to cook in the kitchen, which was spacious, well-​equipped, and perfect for the day. He, and his partner/​wife Alex, also helped us refine our menu, clarify our choices, and the sequence of events that we wanted to have for the evening. They were warm and understanding in situations where I feared other caterers might be cold and detached. It was a refreshing experience overall.
The dedication to impeccable tasting and perfectly composed food is what led us to Eat & Smile, and we hoped that our friends and family would appreciate our decision to go with them. The staff that Oliver brought along with him was friendly, focused, and immediately welcomed into the fold of our big day (especially Michael!)…even by my brother, who has cater-​waitered at some of NYC’s finest events and is a bit of a boss about things, loved the team from E&S. Guests would chase down the servers or wait, salivating, along the kitchen counter for the next thing or a favorite they developed. Our friend’s boyfriend stood guard at the entrance to the kitchen to make sure he got a codcake every time a fresh batch left the kitchen. We were worried that people might not get enough to eat with the small bites, but everyone left feeling impossibly and delightfully full.
Despite the small bites model being a bit of a fad, I think it works perfectly for an out-​of-​the-​ordinary kind of wedding. People have more flexibility with how much, when and what they get to eat, and you are able to choose from a wide variety of cuisines rather than sticking to one or two. E&S accommodates people with special dietary restrictions seamlessly, as well. Our wedding felt exactly as I wanted it to feel — relaxed, more than anything — and 95% of that success is due to the team from Eat & Smile Catering.