Food tasting

[Diamond Confused]

Is it customery for venues to make you sign a contract and pay the deposit before you can do a food tasting? What if the food is awful???

 

[elrohwen]

My venue did. I pretty much went for it because (a) I had read numerous recommendations of their food and (b) they are Culinary Institue trained chefs. Anything less than that and I wouldn''t have been comfortable without tasting first.

 

[elrohwen]

Double post.

 

[choro72]

Some places don't require you to book the place, other places do. I personally wouldn't book it if it was the latter, unless I was confident about their food. I would say just ask. Some venues charge for tasting too, as ours did. But we could order however many we wanted, or felt like paying for.

ETA, I think the "book before tasting" rule works for people who are looking for something other than food from the venue (like the feel of it, functionality, service, etc).

 

[wyndham]

Date: 2/5/2009 4:34:26 PM
Author: elrohwen
My venue did. I pretty much went for it because (a) I had read numerous recommendations of their food and (b) they are Culinary Institue trained chefs. Anything less than that and I wouldn''t have been comfortable without tasting first.

Ditto for me! My venue is a hotel so I also had dinner at their restaurant because the same head chef supervises the restaurant and the ballroom facility.

 

[sunnyd]

My venue had an open house where people could go see the place, taste some food, get a feel of the room decorated, etc. Luckily the food was amazing because we were ready to book before tasting it.

 

[tlh]

My venue did. Which sucked!!!! Dh and I grew up in the same town, and met each other across the country! Its a small world... anywho, we decided that since our families were both in the midwest, we''d marry there. So our folks kinda did all the work for us. (So when things weren''t perfect, well... we weren''t really involved...)

I thought we could just go to the venue and I could taste the items on the menu... and well not all options were available. Which sucked. The food was great though, they were highly recommended, and I was not disappointed. But, no, my PARENTS did not get to do the tasting until after signing on the dotted line.

 

[emilina22]

you would think that they wouldn''t charge you but alot of places do...

we got lucky for our wedding because our venue allowed us to taste first before booking, this tasting was just for M and I and then we get to have a second tasting with up to 4 guests.

but for our engagement party we were not give this option, we had to book first than we were given a complimentary tasting

 

[Diamond Confused]

Seems kind of crazy doesn''t it. Well, I read revies online and they all say the food is good.

 

[Sabine]

Mine did. We could have paid for a meal there previous to signing the contract, and even at our tasting, only 2 full meals were free.

 

[Octavia]

Remember that you can negotiate just about anything, if the vendor is willing. You don''t have to just accept their terms. It might not work if they''re really popular and know they''ll book someone else for that date if you don''t do it first, but it''s worth a try. A venue that was on our preliminary list made you pay a tasting fee upfront, but then credited it toward the booking fee for people who decided to have their weddings there. It seemed a reasonable way to let couples test out the venue before booking, while not giving people who weren''t serious a free meal. Maybe you could suggest something like that as an option, if you''re worried?

 

[Diamond Confused]

We definitly don''t mind paying. The problem is that it''s a private club and only members can eat there. We would need a memeber or the wedding coordinator to set it up.