Le Meridien Hotel for Catering??

lmk329

Hi there!
My fiance and I are getting married at The Bently Reserve in San Francisco. They have a large list of preferred caterers, one of which is Le Meridien Hotel (the hotel is next door to the venue and actually connected in the basement so the food comes straight from their professional kitchens to tables). Using Le Meridien also would get us additional perks (free use of all rental items, free hotel rooms, etc.).  I haven't been blown away by the responsiveness of my contact over there so far (we're trying to arrange a tasting) and thought I would put out some feelers to see if anyone else used/is planning to use them for catering services? Yelp reviews seem to only be about the hotel itself (understandably) so I'd love to get some reviews from people who may have worked with them on a wedding. Was the food good? Were they more responsive once they'd booked you? Were they organized?
Thanks much!

maried812

Helllooo! I'm getting married at the Bently as well (November of next year, woohoo!). How about you? When's the big date?

Anyhow, I've been in talks with someone at Le Meridien as well in regards to both catering and for guest accommodations. My contact hasn't been quite responsive either, or when she does respond it seems as though she may have skimmed over my e-mail as I typically only get one question answered for every five that I ask. In their defense, the woman is very nice and I ask a lot of crazy questions, but it IS a bit frustrating.

I've tried to find reviews as well, and came up equally empty-handed. I'm not sure if they're new to the catering biz or what, but for me...I was having a difficult time justifying the rates I was offered, even considering the extra perks, without having reviews to back them up. Sure, I could have asked for some and I'm sure they would offer them up, but I guess I found it wasn't worth it. I'll definitely be staying at Le Meridien on our wedding weekend though (just can't beat its proximity to the Bently!)

Lol, I guess I wasn't quite helpful in terms of answering your initial question, but we Bently brides seem to be far and few, so if you have any other questions or, conversely, helpful tips...be sure to share!

Hope to talk to you soon and be sure to let us know how that tasting goes!

-Marie

slubkin

I work at Embarcadero One right across from the Bently (actually we can see it from the windows of our suite).  I wish I had some experience with La Meridien to share but it's too expensive for our office to have ever used them for anything.  I'd go with your gut feelings though if you feel they haven't had good service with you so far.  Catering contracts are big money and if they aren't treating you like a VIP then take your business elsewhere.

sparkySF

I used their catering for a business event and the food was excellent.  Their bacon is particularly good (don't know what they put into it, but yum!).  You might just want to call Emily Preston- their catering manager and deal with her directly (she was great!).  Her phone number is 415-296-2919 or Mark Murphy who is the Associate Director of Sales at 415-296-2925.  Hope that this helps!

lmk329

Hi All,
Sorry for my unresponsiveness to your posts above--I promised myself I'd lay off the wedding planning for a couple of months and enjoy the hoilday season.

Just a quick update-- we went to a tasting at Le Meridien and were actually blown away by the quality of the food. Not only is it a better deal financially (especially considering the perks of free rooms, starwood points, free "rental" items, such as tables, chairs, servingware, etc.) but the food was actually the best out of the caterers we tried. I also like that the food will come directly from the kitchen to our guests-- the hotel is connected to the Bently Reserve thru the basement floor, so they don't have to reheat any meals, it all just comes directly over from their chef's kitchen for dinner service.

The contact we've had has been much better about responsiveness, too. I get the sense that we initially caught her at a time when she was working on several events. She actually acknowledged the slow response time we experienced at first, and said that her first priority is always to the events that she is coordinating at the time (which seems appropriate--I wouldn't want her ignoring last minute coordination details for my wedding in order to answer questions from a prospective bride for next year).

In any case, we've signed a contract with them and are excited to be working with them. We're using Best Beverage for our beverage service (their prices are basically unbeatable for a full open bar... even if you go buy all the alcohol yourself and hire your own servers, etc. by the time you add it all up, you're probably not saving nearly enough to justify all that extra work/stress on your wedding day).

Feel free to send me a message for more specifics about Le Meridien Catering. I will update next summer with a full review of their services, but so far I feel comfortable recommending them as at least one to consider!

Happy New Year!

acarmignani

I am considering having my wedding at the Bently and would love to use Le Meridien as the caterer due to their proximity and prices.  Any updates on how the event went would be greatly appreciated!