D & H Catering

D&H Catering is a small operation, run by two excellent chefs that used to be part of a larger catering company. This, inherently, has its advantages and disadvantages.
We had our 160 person wedding, in April 2015 at the Muttart Conservatory, catered by D&H, and chose them over one of the most recommended and established companies in the city, Bridges. Many of my notes will be a direct comparison of the two.
Pros:
— The food is the bottom line as to why we chose them, and is, after all, the most important thing. Simply put, it is fantastic. We wanted a diverse menu, serving a gourmet appetizer buffet with items like Pulled Pork Sliders, Thai Red Curry Coconut Mint Rice Balls, and a Mac and Cheese bar. D&H provided a much more creative selection list, and the tasting was much better — reminiscent of a $ 100 meal at a fine restaurant. While the day-​of product wasn’t quite as good, some things a bit different too, I’m guessing that’s pretty standard with catering large events. Our guests absolutely loved the food at our wedding.
— Their prices were lower, probably about 10−20% for the type of menu we were looking at.
— The staff they sourced for our event were great, if not a little disorganized as a whole unit, as detailed below.
Cons:
The big drawback to D&H was the coordination leading up to the event, and organization on the day of. While Bridges made it seem like they would take care of absolutely everything and it would be of zero worry for us, D&H didn’t instill the same feeling at the beginning, and that quality carried through to our wedding.
Because they are a small operation, the chefs do everything — including planning and communicating with clients. When you’re planning a wedding and are in constant contact with multiple vendors, you appreciate when calls and emails are returned in a prompt and complete fashion, and of all the people we relied upon, D&H was the most lacking in this regard. Questions were overlooked, emails not returned until we followed up a week later, and they could be a bit scattered during planning sessions.
In their defense, our event WAS high maintenance in that everything had to run right on schedule, our menu was extremely labor intensive, the venue presented a few atypical challenges, and I am very detail-​oriented so was demanding from a planning perspective. That said, these were all things discussed in advance and we were assured would be no problem. D&H does much larger events, up to 800 people they told me, but if your event is detail-​oriented, you may want to go with a larger operation. We were frustrated on many occasions leading up to the day, and I personally had to do some coordinating minutes before my own ceremony, during cocktail hour, and during dinner because they either didn’t have staff in the right place at the right time, or didn’t know how something was supposed to run — even though we’d previously communicated this to them before.
I would strongly recommend they hire someone that is tasked solely with communicating with clients and coordinating on the day of, as this significantly tarnishes what would otherwise be a great experience, and I believe is separating them from being one of the best in the city.
Overall, we were happy with the result and I would still recommend D&H, but only for a simpler, straightforward event. This group has the potential to be great, but need to polish the coordination aspect of their business.
Thank you to Deidre, Holly, Amy, and the rest of the staff for helping us get married!

Was really happy with the service we received. We came in with a budget and they helped us meet that budget. And the food was excellent.
Only down side was they have to rent all are silverware and china.

My fiancé and I met with business owner Deidre to discuss catering for our summer wedding. She was incredibly prompt in her responses to my inquires and very flexible accommodating our hectic schedules for a first meeting and even offered to meet after hours or come to our home!
When we did go in to meet with her (despite it not being a scheduled tasting), she had a delicious food tray prepared unexpectedly (including bacon wrapped steak with horseradish aioli!) because she knew we were coming straight from our work offices. When then sat down and began discussing menu. It was the most personalized service I have ever experienced. She is very passionate about quality food and giving us exactly what we wanted (as we have a large wedding with different tastes, food allergies, etc.). Once we had come up with our ‘wish list’ menu, she made it happen on our budget. Could not say enough positive feedback and would highly recommend working with Deidre.