Chef by Request Catering

Chef By Request catered our wedding in September, and we couldn’t have been happier with them. Katie was so incredibly helpful and responsive throughout the process. It felt like making our special day perfect was her top priority. Despite having chosen a somewhat exotic buffet menu, CBR had no trouble accommodating various special requests (vegetarian plates, chicken-​only plates) and all of our guests had wonderful things to say about the food. More importantly, CBR flawlessly took care of all of the setup and organization the day of the wedding, coordinating with the venue and other vendors so that we didn’t have to do a thing. The wait staff and bartenders were cheerful and attentive. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

We love CBR! We’ve used them so many times for different things; graduation parties, birthdays, anniversary parties, and even one Christmas when we just had way too many people coming over to cook. Always fantastic, but they really outdid themselves for my wedding! I had a multitude of guests tell me it was the best wedding food they ever had. The Sicilian chicken and garlic smashed potatoes were the favorites among guests and the duck quesadilla they served during our cocktail hour was fabulous. Always a great choice to go with CBR!

I attended a wedding in May that was catered by CBR and was very impressed with the menu and quality of the food, so when I got engaged, I reached out to CBR for a proposal for my wedding. I emailed back and forth with Katie Merkle multiple times regarding various details and options. I emailed her after not hearing back almost a month regarding a proposal she was planning for me and my fiancé, and she responded right away that she would get a proposal prepared. That was almost two months ago. I was very seriously considering using CBR for my wedding of 200+, but I do not think I should have to keep reminding their wedding coordinator to prepare a proposal.

We had a very special event where the Mayor of Naperville had dinner at our house. Dave was amazing, food excellent, involved with the chamber where he caters and I go to the events just for the food sometimes. What else would expect from a previous small business of the year winner. Keep up the great work!!!

Here is the update. This past Saturday CBR catered our wedding and it was fantastic. You kind of expect a few things to go wrong at a wedding and the food is usually where that happens. So we were prepared for a few hiccups, but they never came. Honestly, my wife (that’s still weird to say) and I love Katie. She and the rest of her team were amazing. We had a difficult venue and were were on the second floor with no elevator. Which meant that everything that had to be served had to be run up a large flight of stairs. But I will go through this better point by point.
The Food — Probably the most important. Was great it was exactly like what we tasted at the tasting and not just ours everyone’s was perfect. All the steak perfectly cooked and the salmon was the same. The apps were a huge hit and they even made my grandmothers meatballs (perfectly I might add). Oh and everything came out hot! Which is tough when 150 people get served at once.
The service — the entire team was great they worked quickly and were excellent with all of my guests.
The Katie — Honestly made this great. Every time I saw her she was running around like crazy. If something went wrong we never saw it. Also in the planning she was so easy to work with and made sure that we were getting exactly what we wanted. She even followed up the day after our wedding making sure everything was ok and apologizing for some minor thing no one noticed.
I cannot recommend these guys enough. They worked with in our budget and created the dinner for our wedding that was exactly what we wanted. All of the issues were on our side including a literal 11 hour guest who Katie handled with ease. In short all of our guests were happy we were happy and it all went well.

I got married and Danada House so Chef by Request was already a recommended vendor which made my decision really easy. I was choosing between 2 caterers and I chose CBR because the food was fantastic and Katie, the sales manager, was attentive, but not pushy. The process was incredibly easy for us. Katie was easy to work with and completely on top of everything. She worked with Danada house and our Band on everything so I only really needed to work with her instead of 4 different people. The day of the wedding the wait staff was very nice and attentive and Katie was there and on top of things. They were extremely accommodating. The 3.5 year old ring bearer really loved macaroni and cheese, but also wanted the beef entrée the adults were getting so they put together a combination plate for him which he loved. My fiancée and I loved all 3 entrees and had a hard time choosing so they brought all 3 for us, while only charging for 2. They also brought out extra meals for our photographer when my fiancée found out he didn’t enjoy the vendor meal all that much and wanted to make sure he had a good meal since he had been so amazing to us all day. I have no complaints about Chef by Request and highly recommend them to anyone with the amazing food and the amazing service from Katie.

Katie Merkle is a DREAM! We had a hard time finding a caterer that would be a good fit for our less than traditional, oversized wedding. Chef by Request was everything we wanted and more. Their food was incredible, we did Chicago-​themed served family style for our 270 person outdoor wedding. While the food was delicious, the service staff and professionalism of CBR was what really blew us away. Like I said, Katie is one of my favorite people on earth. Amazing energy and ready to take on any challenge. And our wedding was definitely a challenge. Our reception was in a tent located probably 30 feet away from a lodge that had the kitchen for the CBR staff. And right about dinner time it decided to monsoon, meaning the staff had to run back and forth through INSANE rain, trying to get the food out to all of our guests in a timely manner, while at the same time, keeping it covered so the rain wouldn’t destroy it. They were INCREDIBLE! And the servers were all amazingly attentive and very kind! Honestly, they were the best choice we could have made and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a STELLAR caterer for any event! Thank you Katie and the CBR team!

Just got home from my son’s wedding this evening at Gillson Park Beach in Wilmette. We used CBR Catering and could not have been happier. Katie was easy to work with and set our wedding up and then had to leave for another event. She left us in extremely capable hands with the servers. The entire event was flawless and i can find nothing bad to say at all. The food was terrific and i heard from at least a dozen people that while not the usual «wedding food,» which we did not want, it was by far the «best wedding food» they had even eaten. People were so impressed with the quality, the presentation, at attentiveness of the servers and it made it possible for me to relax and enjoy the evening. I would not hesitate to use them again or to recommend them to anyone, regardless of how demanding or picky they are because I am certain they would be as happy as we were with Chef By Request.

My husband and I used Chef by Request for our wedding at Danada House in March. We were so happy with everything from start to finish. We were working on a relatively tight budget and found that we had trouble finding a caterer that could both work with our budget while also providing the type of event we wanted with a menu we could actually be excited about serving our guests.
Although I had initially ruled out Chef By Request (I can’t even remember why), Katie was persistent in seeking out our business and made it clear that they wanted to work with us for our event. We were able to come up with a menu that my husband and I could be excited about while also keeping it within our budget. They were flexible as we made numerous changes leading up to the event, and were so accommodating when it came to schedule tastings during afternoons and on weekends. Really, Katie was a pleasure to work with.
On the day of the event, everything was handled great. We received so many compliments on the food, and Katie and her team were professional and added to the enjoyment of the guests in many small and large ways (even running out for a last minute missing pocket scarf for the best man literally 15 minutes before the ceremony was about to begin!) If I were planning a second wedding (which I certainly hope I never will :)) I would definitely work with Chef By Request again.

We are planning our daughter’s wedding in Chicago, to be held at A New Leaf. They have a list of caterers they exclusively use. I have had no luck getting feedback from a few of these caterers. Katie Merkle from Chef by Request Catering, however, has bent over backwards with menu suggestions, ways to cut costs, etc., without even knowing if A New Leaf will allow them to cater our wedding. A wedding planner in Chicago raved about Chef by Request, saying she would choose them over any of the city caterers, with both fantastic food, service and affordability. If Chef by Request’s food is even half as good as the customer service I have been receiving, then I am really hoping A New Leaf will add them to their preferred list!

They catered our annual fundraiser for 200 people on April 4^th. They did a great job! They helped us consider possibilities for the event and were able to help us plan for a few things we hasn’t considered. The food was great and I heard nothing but positive reviews from everyone in attendance. We will be calling them for our next event.

I was at an event this weekend that was catered by this company and it was awful. The steaks were all over the map. My wife’s was well done, mine was medium, my uncle’s was rare on the boarder of raw. All of them had huge slabs of fat. They should have been trimmed before they cooked them off site.
Twice baked potatoes were gray bland no seasoning. The Shrimp Dijon was so salty no-​one could eat it. The shrimps were like eating salty rubber bullets. The servers were good. The did a great job. I feel bad for the hosts. They did not get their money’s worth. I would not use them.

I run a venue in the city and I was introduced to Chef by Request by one of my clients who was having a party in my venue. Since they were not on my preferred list I was prepared not to like them but to my surprise I LOVED THEM. The food was incredible and the staff was a delight. What a great find. The owner Chef David was so accommadating and very easy to work with. It is a pleasure to reccomend them to my clients.

We had a corporate lunch today. I call it the ballpark special. It was burgers and brats, with slaw chips and carrot cake for dessert. It reminded me of the food at the rooftops by wrigley field. And we all know that we don’t go to a rooftop to watch a game for the food. The slaw was. well I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t made with real mayonnaise and had no flavor. The brats and the burgers were cold 5 minutes after delivery, and they put some kind of stinky green leaf all over the dessert plate [it’s like someone went into the backyard and picked them right off of the tree]. Who does that?
They were inexpensive, and now we know why. Epic fail on the taste testers part. Sorry, I could not find anything good about the food today.

Serving raw chicken at a friends event! Not cool at all. Then topping it of by stopping payment on the reimbursement, and telling them to F them selves? I wonder how long these people have been doing this type of stuff. Bad caterer! BAD BAD they only got one star so I could post this rating

Chef by Request served as the beverage and bussing caterer for our wedding recently. We had another caterer (Smoque Barbeque!) do the food. CbR was excellent throughout the planning process and did a fantastic job executing our event. They were flexible and understanding of our nontraditional requests. They worked well with our other caterer both before and during the event. We couldn’t have asked for smoother or friendlier service!

Great company. Helped me with a corporate luncheon event. Great service and food is amazing and FRESH.

Amazing appetizer selection and each was more delicious than the next. We had a milestone birthday celebration in a home and it felt just as grand as if we had a more formal venue. All thanks to the team at Chef By Request!

I requested a quote from Chef by Request for my wedding, and did not receive any type of response or reply for 2 weeks. I emailed again to follow up, and thought maybe my email got lost and give them the benefit of the doubt. I received a generic response saying the wedding coordinator, Danielle Guzman would be in touch that day. She did not get in touch with me that day.
A few days past, and Danielle said she would get the quote out to me that morning, but I did not see anything all day. Finally, the following evening I contacted her and a few hours afterwards I had received a quote. This was probably the most unorganized quote. None of the items that I had requested were on there, and I knew that I did not want a caterer that I would have to chase down all the time. It was no surprise, Danielle did not bother to follow up on the information she had provided me. Who knows if they would even show up on time and prepare for my wedding day.
I am not sure if this company is extremely busy or the staff is completely incompetent. Good luck to anyone trying to get a quote or customer service out of this company.

We had a corporate luncheon for the holidays and this was the caterer.
I had some pretty good food, but this was by far the best catering I have had.
Very professional presentative, and tasted exquisite.
If I ever need a caterer I will be calling them first and I recommend them for any event!
Thank you Katie Merkle who was the event specialist