Berghoff Catering

I got married this past July and had Berghoff Catering as my caterer. I couldn’t have been more thrilled with my decision. I worked closely with Mary Galvin throughout the process. She made everything very easy for me. From changes to the menu, to details on the linen and décor, she made sure she was on top of it all!
The day of the wedding, set up went smoothly and we continued to stay on the timeline throughout the evening. My guests raved about the food the entire weekend and still to this day they mention how phenomenal it all was. I am so happy to have worked with Berghoff and will recommend them over and over. I cannot say enough how pleased my family and I am with the turnout.
Thank you to Mary Galvin, Berghoff Catering and the entire team! You made my day one to remember!
Nicole

I am a local event planner with Storybook Weddings and Events, and I love to work with Berghoff Catering. Their sales team is such a joy to work with, and I love having them on site for our events. They are so wonderful with working with clients to help build unique, beautiful, and affordable menus for their events. I just did a wedding this past weekend with them at A New Leaf, and they once again blew me away. Their service was attentive and efficient, and the guests raved about the food all night! Bravo. I look forward to working with you all again soon. I cannot recommend them enough :)

We worked with Nicole Knuerr at the Berghoff to cater our wedding at Salvage One in early March. Prior to making our decision, we tasted with two other catering companies. We were looking for a little less traditional tone for the evening and wanted to offer a variety of options to our guests. The Berghoff did a wonderful job putting together a tasting for us with food stations that offered a wide variety of delicious dinner and dessert options. They made the decision easy for us! We initially began working with another event manager who left the company shortly before our wedding. Nicole and the Catering Group at the Berghoff did a great job of handling the transition smoothly and giving us assurance that everything would go perfectly on our big day — and they definitely delivered! They had great attention to detail and we’ve received so many compliments from our guests about how great the food was and how nice all of the staff was. A BIG thank you to the Berghoff team for all that you did to make our night perfect!

We worked with Sarah Hermanowski on a proposal and even though we didn’t end up going with Berghoff (because we were having a casual wedding that didn’t justify the higher cost, but for more formal weddings, the cost was definitely competitive) I wanted to write a review because of her stellar service. First, she was so responsive, and good with checking in every few weeks — which I thought was the perfect amount to seem attentive without being pushy. But what really blew me away was when she sent the proposal and also said she’d be happy to walk me through not only Berghoff’s proposal but any competing proposal I got so that she can explain the differences and help me get a better idea of what to look for. I had been feeling very frustrated with the lack of ability to compare apples to apples with caterers and so I sent her a copy of a rival proposal (with the company name redacted) and we had a 20 min conversation where she walked me through the details of the rival proposal, pointing out things that I needed to ask the other caterer about, but ultimately being very honest about the fact that it seemed like a good proposal and explaining why Berghoff was a bit higher on certain things, which I felt helped me make an informed decision about what I needed and didn’t need for the kind of wedding I was having. She spent way more time with me than any other caterer (not counting the ones I had tastings from), and I never felt pressured at any point so she was just incredibly generous with her time which (having been knee deep in the wedding planning process for the past 4 months) I can say is incredibly rare in this industry. Above and beyond service!

We had Berghoff cater our wedding of 250 people in December and they were nothing short of amazing. Emily Yao, our main event planning with Berghoff, was incredible. From the very start, we knew we could not use anyone but them. Emily was friendly, reassuring and was so accommodating in so many ways. The tasting was just amazing– we tried so many things and to ensure we knew what we would get, they served us the full portion. We actually had two other tastings scheduled, and cancelled them after meeting with Berghoff because there was honestly no contest. Aside from that, the staff at our actual wedding was incredible. I received compliment after compliment about how nice everyone was and how seamless everything was. I would use Berghoff again and again and would recommend them to anyone who asked. Thank you so so much Emily and Berghoff for all your help with everything. You played such a big role in the perfect evening!

Berghoff recently catered my wedding at the Chicago History Museum and they provided the most outstanding service imaginable from start to finish. Sarah Hermanowski was an incredible communicator and she was totally on the same page with my detail oriented personality. She listened to my vision of the food for the wedding and then produced almost exactly what I said at the tasting. The only changes made were improvements and intelligent suggestions. I was a little overwhelmed by all the linen choices so Sarah picked for me and the wedding reception room looked like a fairytale. It was exactly what I wanted. On the wedding day, she was professional and polite. Berghoff delivered everything promised and more. The food at the reception was actually better than the tasting. The dessert station was out of this world delicious and the wedding cake was awesome. The guests gushed about the food all night. Thank you Berghoff!

I worked with Sarah Hermanowski for my wedding at the Chicago History Museum which took place last Sunday. She is amazing and you are making a mistake if you don’t choose Berghoff as your caterer. I am a planner myself and also love food, so making this choice was big for me and I definitely made the right one. Sarah was a pleasure to work with — so nice, professional and an expert at what she does. She made that portion of planning the wedding super easy and I was 100% confident in her and her team on the day of the wedding. We received endless compliments on the food — quality, service and presentation. No little detail went unnoticed, Berghoff’s attention to myself, my husband and our parents was impeccable and they really made our special day perfect. Thank you, Sarah. To all brides out there — do yourself a favor and hire Berghoff (and request Sarah!). You will be forever happy that you did!

I worked with Carrie Bucaro and Sarah Hermanowski for our wedding catering, and could not be happier with how everything turned out!
They were such pleasures to work with from day 1. We were on a strict budget and they went through several rounds to get the proposal to the number we needed, offering helpful suggestions for ways to make it work. The tastings were well organized and Carrie and Sarah thought through every detail of the big day to make sure it was perfect — and it was. I can’t even count the number of compliments we received on the quality of the food (from the apps to the cake), as well as the service. We also had some rain delays to contend with, and Carrie and Sarah were incredibly flexible with the schedule, making sure things ran smoothly and that we didn’t have to worry about a thing.
I would highly recommend Berghoff Catering to anyone! It was worth every penny, and then some!

I posted this on The Knot for brides-​to-​be, but I also wanted to put it on Unilocal for any other events people may be researching :)
I would 100% recommend Berghoff for any of your Chicago catering needs, and I hope to be able to use them again in the future. We hired them for our September 2013 wedding at Promontory Point and had the honor of working with Carrie and Emily. We originally felt extremely overwhelmed by all our stipulations (and many companies seemed turned off by all our requests and unwilling to make it happen): we were planning a Chicago wedding while in DC with three months’ notice (with only one trip to Chicago before the wedding), on a smaller budget with an extremely small number of guests (38 guests total, including bride and groom). Berghoff Catering was completely unfazed by every tricky element we threw at them, and put together an incredible menu and set up our reception as beautifully as I could have hoped. To make it more complicated, the majority of the wedding was supposed to be outside, but it had poured all morning (but slowed in the afternoon), making it difficult to make a weather call and set up appropriately. Immediately after we decided that it was safe to set up outside, the rain started again and at the VERY last minute, everything had to be shifted again. The staff was professional and kind, and everything got done in time for the guests to be seated inside without any problems. Further, the food was delicious (seriously — everyone was pleased), the waitstaff was excellent and efficient and gracious, and I can’t think of anything that would’ve made it better. It was an absolute pleasure working with Carrie and Emily, and we are so grateful that they were willing to do almost ALL the planning with us over the phone and email. They helped us navigate every tricky detail (including a rather strange idea we had of serving the guests rootbeer floats, which my husband and I wanted to put together and hand out ourselves after dinner) and were as thorough as could be. WE ARE SO GRATEFUL for how perfect our wedding was for us, and how much they did to make it happen.

Carrie Bucaro and team executed the culinary dream my husband and I dreamed up for our June wedding. We initially started the catering courting dance working with Jeanie Biles back in August/​September 2012 and she won us over with ease. I point this out only because about one month before our big day Jeanie sadly left Berghoff and put us in the equally capable hands of Carrie. Berghoff is really hiring some amazing people to have two catering managers on staff that could help us bring this large event to life virtually seamlessly. I think that’s a true testament to their organization. Carrie worked with us at length to get up to speed quickly and work with us through the last details prior to the event. She documented everything (including my nasty food allergy) you could think of and the meal was everything we expected and more.
We had a fabulous time on our wedding day and Berghoff’s team were a key player on our dream team. Everything went to plan, everyone LOVED the food, the cake and the bar! Everything! It’s been almost a month post wedding weekend and our friends and family are still talking about the duck tacos, lobster quesadillas, chicken with lemongrass beure blanc, squash napoleon (which I got and was awesome), the beautiful and cool square tables with the awesome runners (thank you for encouraging us to go big), etc. Guests who don’t eat/​like salad are STILL talking about the poached plum salad with honeycomb and the entrees and extra sauce at the table were a home run! Berghoff’s pastry chef took our random photos of cool cakes and created a cake that fit us and our venue perfectly. It was beautiful AND yummy; which never happens! Wedding cake is usually dry and boring but ours was something that I look forward to having again.
Carrie and team were organized, responsive, attentive, kind and courteous. They rolled with the punches throughout the process and really helped us put together a menu and flow of events that our guests enjoyed. Berghoff is a Chicago institution of food. While we don’t plan to get married again, I am going to be looking for excuses to throw a party just so we can work with Carrie and Sarah again.

My company & produce fundraisers, on very-​very small budgets. We had been working with another catering company for our biggest event to date, since launching in 2006, and that company bailed out just days before the show!
With very few options, we started contacting alternative options– including Berghoff Catering. Considering the circumstances, Berghoff was beyond accommodating! They got us a proposal within hours of us calling in, were willing to work within our budget, and the service was outstanding!
Many of our guests, who frequent, other fashion shows and fundraisers, told us that this was the best catering that an event had in quite some time. We are definitely looking forward to working with Berghoff again!

Berghoff was one of 4 choices for a caterer and I never received a proposal. I spoke with Jeanie for 15 minutes to explain our interests. She said I would receive a proposal by the following Friday. When I still didn’t have it the Monday after, I followed up and never received a response. Very bizarre.

My fiancé and I are planning our wedding for the summer of 2013 and our first choice for catering was Berghoff.
My fiancé tried to contact them three times before he gave up and sent a random tweet out.
He was then contacted immediately by someone at Berghoff who told him a catering manager would be in touch with him soon. And she was. We went through hours of planning a menu and trying to figure out what would work for us only to be ignored again.
I sent three emails asking when we would see a proposal and got nothing, so we gave up.
Berghoff might be great with food, but they are terrible when it comes to service.
If you want a company to pay attention to you, do not hire Berghoff.

Berghoff is one of the most recognizable restaurants in the city and if I am honest, I had no idea they even had a catering department! I was worried at first that they focused on their restaurant business with catering as a secondary (and lesser) focus).
I could not have been more wrong and I am happy to admit it. We worked with Jeannie and throughout the whole process she was brilliant … attentive, flexible, professional and always willing to work with us on our requests. The tasting that we had was great. We had lots of choices and Jeannie really helped us through the process to mix and match the elements that we liked to make it very personal. Our venue had a preferred vendor list too that we had to choose from and Berghoff were very reasonably priced compared to others and given that everything costs a zillion dollars when you are getting married, this was an added bonus.
Jeannie really helped us to relax on the day of the wedding by catering to our needs while knowing that all of our guests were well fed and always had their glass full. The appetizers were delicious and always within arms reach. The main course was phenomenal and I would have been happy to have it at any restaurnant in the city, let alone a wedding where the food can be a little blah sometimes. We had one guest tell us she licked the aioli off of her plate! Later on in the evening we had milkshakes and cheesburgers for snacks and the guests loved this idea too.
The service from Berghoff was exemplary. There was enough staff so that timing was not an issue as to when people were being fed. There was always someone at the bar if anyone got thirsty and Jeannie was there to handle anything that cropped up. To my mind nothing did … but if it did then Jeannie solved it without us hearing about it which was a weight off mind.
I cannot recommend Berghoff enough (and especially Jeannie). Looking forward to revisiting Berghoff again soon.

Wow, reading Pamela H.‘s review below is kind of eerie, because I signed in to write basically the EXACT same review. After weeks of calls and emails, and getting the run around with Sheshe before she left, I have yet to receive an individualized proposal from Berghoff. Calling and trying to get in touch with a manager or someone in charge in order to escalate concerns just gets me shunted off to voicemail. It is SO frustrating. My guess would be that Berghoff is just riding their good reputation in this city, but enough of these lousy Unilocal reviews and they won’t even have that anymore. I would recommend saving some time and not even bothering to reach out to them for your wedding.

I have no idea how this company is still in business. They do not return phone calls or emails. And, they have that reputation in the business, when I mentioned it to another catering company their reply was yep, and that’s how you’ll be treated during the entire process by Berghoff. So, in my case the first phone call they did not return because someone «lost the message on their desk». Then, after a second call, I finally got some information emailed to me, with my name spelled incorrectly on it., and, it was spelled terribly wrong and I do not have a difficult name to spell. Then, after emailing them a couple more times, they said that Sheshe would be following up with me. Well, Sheshe left the company and I fell through the cracks, but that doesn’t explain why the manager was not responding to my emails. Finally, I received contact back from the manager that someone else would follow up with me. I started from square one again with the new coordinator, who was not given any of the information that I’d submitted in the first place and had yet another twenty minute phone conversation. We set a date that she’d send me a proposal by and chat again. A few days went by after the date that we’d set and I hadn’t received the proposal or any communication. I emailed her directly and now it has been two more weeks, and, with no reply. Needless to say, I won’t be using their catering services.

Berghoff catered my November 2010 wedding. Kelly Parker was my contact and she was super amazing! The food preparation was not only absolutely unique and beautiful, it was very hard to make choices because everything was delicious! Our tasting was wonderful and not rushed, we very much enjoyed our meals. After deciding Berghoffs was for us, Kelly Parker jumped thru hoops to make our menu fit into our budget.
During the event, the staff was amazing. The food was served promptly and without fail. The glasses were always full and our guests did not have to wait for a thing! Tables were cleared with a smile.
I would have given Berghoffs five stars if not for one glitch. Our contact was no longer available one month prior to our event. We met with a replacement. She was very friendly but not very familiar with our event. When we walked into our reception I noticed we were given the wrong wedding cake. We had ordered a two tier chocolate filled chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting and ivy down the side. We received a three tier vanilla filled chocolate cake with white butter cream frosting plain. Thankfully our florist did the best she could to pull some flowers for the cake! It was a major disappointment, especially when looking at photos, but at that point what can be done!?! It tasted great and we weren’t about to let cake cloud the evening. We were hoping to perhaps hear from Berghoffs about the mishap, eh it happens!
I would still choose Berghoffs because we were extremely satisfied overall.

I just attended a wedding (100 people) at the Nature Museum in Chicago (Peggy Nortebaert) this weekend and was really surprised by the catering. The food was great and well presented. But what was the best were the servers. They were excellent, polite, and attentive. Usually the caters bring in servers who don’t really care and just want to get paid. However, these servers and hosts were 5 star. I felt like I was at Charlie Trotters! I didn’t know who were the caters until the end of the night, and was surprised that Berghoff had caters. Good job Berghoff catering!
Also I asked the wedding coordinator and she said that they were professional, accomadating, patient, and super friendly. Wow I can’t believe I’m giving 5 stars to a catering business.

I have never used the Berghoff Catering (although eaten at the restaurant millions of times), but when our company event was going to involve a lot of Germans we decided to go with their catering for our in-​office event. I didn’t work with them start to finish, but I did do the on-​site event execution of the event.
First, I’d like to say that from arriving they were extremely professional. Arrived on-​time with everything organized and ready to get set-​up. Responded quickly to any concerns, and even made a trip back down the street to pick up some décor because our table was pretty «blah».
For an event of about 60 people we had two bussers, one bartender and a sous chef. (Originally, they had wanted to charge for two chefs and 4 bussers which was kind of ridiculous.)
The food was great for what we got, which was quite simple — potato pancakes, wursts, cheese platter, veggie platter, potato salad, pretzel rolls and desserts (recommend the carrot cake minis!) Clean-​up was quick and overall very pleased with our catering experience.

I had a WONDERFUL experience with Berghoff.
First off, Justin is wonderful and pleasant to deal with, and so is his assistant Nicole.
Everything was perfect and he had wonderful ideas. I didn’t want a sit-​down dinner for my wedding, and Justin helped pick a «grazing buffet» menu and passed food that was just splendid. I got so many complements on the food — everyone loved it!