I can’t recommend the chef by design team enough!!!! They catered my wedding two weeks ago and people are still raving to me about the food. The service and food are top tier, I highly recommend using them for any event!!!!
Julia Miles
I cannot begin to recommend this company enough. From the beginning, they had been very attentive to making sure they knew every detail of what we wanted on our special day. They have an expansive menu to choose from and were even accomodating to adjustments we wanted to make to the french fry bar. The food was excellent both at the tasting and at the event itself. We got so many compliments and would be happy to hire them again!
Marianthi
We were absolutely thrilled with our choice to use Chef By Design for our wedding! The food was nothing short of delicious! We worked with Kellyn throughout the planning process and she was so organized and made the planning process seamless. Every detail was taken care of, which allowed us to focus on enjoying our special day. We highly recommend Chef By Design to anyone looking for fantastic food and an stress-free catering experience!
Lindsey Gasecki
Chef by Design was so great to work with for my wedding!! We had the pleasure of working with Kellyn during our planning process and she was professional, nice, helpful, and quick to respond. Kellyn and her team made the planning process so easy and day of was so smooth and amazing.
Their food display looked so great (not just in boring silver chafers), their staff was SO nice and quick day of. Their bartenders were so attentive and always made sure my husband and I had a drink in our hand while also making sure our guests had what they needed. I 100% recommend having Chef By Design for your wedding or any of your other catering needs!!!
Michael Mahgerefteh
Quite literally the most infuriating and shameful waste of money I’ve ever encountered. If you’re even considering this company, stop now. Do not give them a single cent of your hard-earned money, and especially not for an important event like your wedding.
They catered my wedding, and it was an absolute disaster. First off, you should know that this company is obscenely expensive—hundreds of dollars per person. And for what? For them to butcher one of the most important days of my life. I’m warning everyone: DO NOT hire them.
We paid for what was supposed to be a top-tier, high-class service, and they delivered the absolute bare minimum. Let me start with the wedding cake—no decorations. None. Can you believe it? A wedding cake with no decorations! And when I pointed it out, their excuse was that they thought it looked “good enough.” A wedding cake! Just a plain, white slab sitting there as if it belonged at some cheap buffet.
The food was bland, uninspired, and lacked any semblance of presentation. Just sad-looking food sitting on cold metal trays. Supposedly, this was their premium service, yet they didn’t even cook on-site—everything was just reheated. And the bartenders? Slow as molasses. So slow that many of our guests couldn’t even get a drink for the first part of the wedding. The service was so appallingly slow that we had to cancel parts of our planned programming and extend the wedding just so people could eat. And the most insulting part? When we voiced our completely justified complaints, they had the audacity to offer us a free lunch as compensation. Tens of thousands of dollars spent, and all they had to offer was a lunch. It was insulting, degrading, and downright pathetic.
This company has no concept of customer service. They are fully aware that once you sign the contract and hand over the deposit, they’ve got you. They no longer care. They know you have no recourse, and they are completely shameless in their ripoff tactics. The only way I can warn others is through this review because, unfortunately, they know exactly how to get away with providing subpar service while pocketing your money.
I wanted an exceptional catering service for my wedding, just like anyone would. They lure you in with their fancy tastings and expansive menus, making you believe they’re the best choice. But I’m begging you—do not fall for it. These thieves will take your money, give you the most lackluster, unprofessional service imaginable, and then act like they did you a favor.
If you think the presentation in their photos looks passable, just know that we were charged tens of thousands of dollars for that disgraceful excuse of a “service.” I am absolutely furious that I trusted them with one of the most important days of my life, only to be completely ripped off.
Oh, and let repeat one more time—THEY BROUGHT OUT A WEDDING CAKE THAT WASN’T DECORATED. A blank, white, sad excuse for a cake. This is the “top-tier” service they offer. And when a significant portion of our guests didn’t stay for dinner, they gave us ONE small box of leftover food. So, they pocketed money for the meals that weren’t served—just straight-up robbery.
And for anyone at that company thinking of responding with some smug excuse, save it. Their reasoning for the delayed service was that one of our speeches went 10 minutes over. TEN MINUTES. You’re supposedly a top-of-the-line catering company, yet you can’t handle a 10-minute adjustment? No contingency plan? No professionalism? It’s laughable.
To anyone reading this—don’t make the same mistake I did. Do not hire these thieves. They’ll rob you blind and ruin your day without batting an eye.
Tiffany Wood
Absolutely incredible catering company. Their team was amazing to work with, answering all of my questions and making sure we had the perfect menu. Our guests raved about the food, they loved it so much we barely had any leftovers! Could not recommend them enough for any event.
Jeff Ludvik
Emily was amazing. Our daughter's wedding was this past weekend, during Hurricane Debby. They pivoted so many times for us. The food was amazing, We had over 200 people and they made accomodations up to even 15 minutes before the event. They made everything work in the event space, the servers were fantastic, and there was NEVER a line for food or drinks. We had some people with severe allergies and they made their food separately and brought their food to them directly. Everything was excellent, communication was fantastic the entire process. 20 out of 10!!
Thank you so much!!
Amber Brady
I'm a local wedding planner that owns Amber Justine Events. I've had the absolute pleasure of working with Chef By Design on dozens of occasions. From booking to event breakdown, they give such excellent care to both their clients, guests, and vendor teams on wedding days. Not a fork is out of place nor a rental missed on an order. Food is never cold and always top of the line. Dietary needs are meet and drinks are perfectly crafted. Their pre-event notes are the most detailed out of any caterer in the area, which pleases us on a planning level. We know for certain that the careful plans made by us/couples are going to be seen through to the end. For this reason and many more, they are always one of our top recommendations to couples. We promise that they are worth every last penny! I could go on and on forever <3
Stephanie Harron
Thank you, Chef by Design, for being so easy to work with and allowing our business meeting to be a huge success! Emily and Josie were super nice and provided exceptional customer service. My colleagues were extremely impressed with the quality of food and wonderful staff on-site. I would give them six stars if I could! Highly recommend!!
Kelsey Hunt
We booked Chef by Design and The Neon House for our wedding rehearsal and wedding on 04.20.24. Both are owned and run by the husband-and-wife team, John and Marcy. While The Neon House was the perfect venue for us (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!), if it doesn't fit your wedding vision, Chef by Design can still provide the ultimate catering experience in any venue!!!! Not only do they have an extensive menu with so many delicious options; they are also open to customizing the perfect menu for every couple. After reviewing the menu, we knew that just one event would not be enough to fully experience everything that Chef by Design has to offer (hence booking them for rehearsal and wedding day). As basic and simple as these items seem; their house made bread and Caesar salad are a MUST! We had them at both events, I don't think any salad has every received so many complements and I will forever crave their bread! At the rehearsal we kept the menu fun with some of their grilled flatbread pizzas and custom milkshakes from their late-night section, yum! For the wedding in addition to the salad and bread, Marcy helped us customized a few hors d'oeuvres to make them perfect for our picky palates. We selected a few plated main course options that were again customized: Marcy helped us turn one of their pasta options into a vegetarian and dairy free option for our guests with dietary restrictions, though it wasn't specifically on their menu they were able to create my favorite dish, and my husband selected their Grilled New York Strip Steak. All of these were absolutely incredible, but we aren't done yet; we also had desserts, our wedding cake and drinks provided by Chef by Design. These were also phenomenal. Though it is controversial, my husband is an Ohio State fan and requested buckeyes that John begrudgingly agree to make for us ;) thank you! I wasn't picky about our wedding cake as we are not cake people and I mostly just wanted it for the cake cutting picture, but WOW was it good. Food is so important, and Chef by Design does it right! Looking back, the tasting and working with Chef by Design to customize our menu was my favorite part of wedding planning by far!I cannot say enough about the incredible team at Chef by Design. In addition to the food, the staff is absolutely amazing! Everyone is so kind and they made sure that my groom and I did not go hungry on our big day. Despite our busy timeline, there was always a server ready with a drink or tray of hors d'oeuvres for us to grab between photos, and a hot plate of food for us once we were finally ready to eat. From start to finish the entire team took such great care of us. And of course, we had so many complements on the food and service from our guests. Cannot recommend Chef by Design enough for not only excellent food but top tier service! Thank you all again!
My husband and I had our Wedding Reception at The Neon House on 12/1/23, and to this day we are still getting compliments about the food from our wedding. We absolutely loved our Cocktail Hour choices, and deciding to go with a duet plated option for dinner was probably one of the best decisions that we made that day. Our meals we're perfectly cooked, and we received TONS of compliments about each of the apps/entrees that we're served. We could not be happier with our decision to not only have our wedding at The Neon House, but the fact that they made it easy for us with their in house catering services with Chef by Design. Our day was absolutely perfect, and we cannot thank everyone for their hard work in making it all come together! Love - Nick & Olivia Walker
Tori Davis megia
The food was delicious everyone raved about all of it , the staff was amazing if your looking for a top notch cater look no farther so many choices to make your special event exactly what your looking for
Tony O.
Their food is fantastic and the service is fabulous. We had them cater our wedding and everything was perfect, not a single complaint. They did the cake too, five stars for that as well.
Nichole Beebe
We were married at The Neon House on Saturday 10/28/2023 and used Chef By Design since they are the on-site caterer for The Neon House. When planning we knew that having really great food at our wedding was important to us and we were so lucky to have Chef By Design dropped into our laps. Joanie and Marcy (the owner) were wonderful to work with and helped us set up a menu that mixed and matched custom items with some of their regular offerings. We wanted to incorporate some Filipino food and they were so game! They listened to what we wanted and offered amazing suggestions. At our tasting I took one bite of short rib and knew we had made the right decision. The appetizers, entreés, desserts, wedding cake, late-night snack, and even the bread had our guests raving. We received SO MANY compliments on the food and the presentation. The serving and bar staff were professional, friendly, and fun and created the perfect atmosphere throughout the night. If you're looking for a delicious menu and some truly awesome people to work with, I can't recommend Chef By Design more!
Ally Curtis
Julia and Emily were both such a pleasure to work with, they were so responsive and went above and beyond to make my wedding vision a reality :))
The food was amazing!! Warm, fresh, and flavorful! and the waitstaff was the best I've experienced at any other wedding!!
I can’t recommend the chef by design team enough!!!! They catered my wedding two weeks ago and people are still raving to me about the food. The service and food are top tier, I highly recommend using them for any event!!!!
I cannot begin to recommend this company enough. From the beginning, they had been very attentive to making sure they knew every detail of what we wanted on our special day. They have an expansive menu to choose from and were even accomodating to adjustments we wanted to make to the french fry bar. The food was excellent both at the tasting and at the event itself. We got so many compliments and would be happy to hire them again!
We were absolutely thrilled with our choice to use Chef By Design for our wedding! The food was nothing short of delicious! We worked with Kellyn throughout the planning process and she was so organized and made the planning process seamless. Every detail was taken care of, which allowed us to focus on enjoying our special day. We highly recommend Chef By Design to anyone looking for fantastic food and an stress-free catering experience!
Chef by Design was so great to work with for my wedding!! We had the pleasure of working with Kellyn during our planning process and she was professional, nice, helpful, and quick to respond. Kellyn and her team made the planning process so easy and day of was so smooth and amazing.
Their food display looked so great (not just in boring silver chafers), their staff was SO nice and quick day of. Their bartenders were so attentive and always made sure my husband and I had a drink in our hand while also making sure our guests had what they needed. I 100% recommend having Chef By Design for your wedding or any of your other catering needs!!!
Quite literally the most infuriating and shameful waste of money I’ve ever encountered. If you’re even considering this company, stop now. Do not give them a single cent of your hard-earned money, and especially not for an important event like your wedding.
They catered my wedding, and it was an absolute disaster. First off, you should know that this company is obscenely expensive—hundreds of dollars per person. And for what? For them to butcher one of the most important days of my life. I’m warning everyone: DO NOT hire them.
We paid for what was supposed to be a top-tier, high-class service, and they delivered the absolute bare minimum. Let me start with the wedding cake—no decorations. None. Can you believe it? A wedding cake with no decorations! And when I pointed it out, their excuse was that they thought it looked “good enough.” A wedding cake! Just a plain, white slab sitting there as if it belonged at some cheap buffet.
The food was bland, uninspired, and lacked any semblance of presentation. Just sad-looking food sitting on cold metal trays. Supposedly, this was their premium service, yet they didn’t even cook on-site—everything was just reheated. And the bartenders? Slow as molasses. So slow that many of our guests couldn’t even get a drink for the first part of the wedding. The service was so appallingly slow that we had to cancel parts of our planned programming and extend the wedding just so people could eat. And the most insulting part? When we voiced our completely justified complaints, they had the audacity to offer us a free lunch as compensation. Tens of thousands of dollars spent, and all they had to offer was a lunch. It was insulting, degrading, and downright pathetic.
This company has no concept of customer service. They are fully aware that once you sign the contract and hand over the deposit, they’ve got you. They no longer care. They know you have no recourse, and they are completely shameless in their ripoff tactics. The only way I can warn others is through this review because, unfortunately, they know exactly how to get away with providing subpar service while pocketing your money.
I wanted an exceptional catering service for my wedding, just like anyone would. They lure you in with their fancy tastings and expansive menus, making you believe they’re the best choice. But I’m begging you—do not fall for it. These thieves will take your money, give you the most lackluster, unprofessional service imaginable, and then act like they did you a favor.
If you think the presentation in their photos looks passable, just know that we were charged tens of thousands of dollars for that disgraceful excuse of a “service.” I am absolutely furious that I trusted them with one of the most important days of my life, only to be completely ripped off.
Oh, and let repeat one more time—THEY BROUGHT OUT A WEDDING CAKE THAT WASN’T DECORATED. A blank, white, sad excuse for a cake. This is the “top-tier” service they offer. And when a significant portion of our guests didn’t stay for dinner, they gave us ONE small box of leftover food. So, they pocketed money for the meals that weren’t served—just straight-up robbery.
And for anyone at that company thinking of responding with some smug excuse, save it. Their reasoning for the delayed service was that one of our speeches went 10 minutes over. TEN MINUTES. You’re supposedly a top-of-the-line catering company, yet you can’t handle a 10-minute adjustment? No contingency plan? No professionalism? It’s laughable.
To anyone reading this—don’t make the same mistake I did. Do not hire these thieves. They’ll rob you blind and ruin your day without batting an eye.
Absolutely incredible catering company. Their team was amazing to work with, answering all of my questions and making sure we had the perfect menu. Our guests raved about the food, they loved it so much we barely had any leftovers! Could not recommend them enough for any event.
Emily was amazing. Our daughter's wedding was this past weekend, during Hurricane Debby. They pivoted so many times for us. The food was amazing, We had over 200 people and they made accomodations up to even 15 minutes before the event. They made everything work in the event space, the servers were fantastic, and there was NEVER a line for food or drinks. We had some people with severe allergies and they made their food separately and brought their food to them directly. Everything was excellent, communication was fantastic the entire process. 20 out of 10!!
Thank you so much!!
I'm a local wedding planner that owns Amber Justine Events. I've had the absolute pleasure of working with Chef By Design on dozens of occasions. From booking to event breakdown, they give such excellent care to both their clients, guests, and vendor teams on wedding days. Not a fork is out of place nor a rental missed on an order. Food is never cold and always top of the line. Dietary needs are meet and drinks are perfectly crafted. Their pre-event notes are the most detailed out of any caterer in the area, which pleases us on a planning level. We know for certain that the careful plans made by us/couples are going to be seen through to the end. For this reason and many more, they are always one of our top recommendations to couples. We promise that they are worth every last penny! I could go on and on forever <3
Thank you, Chef by Design, for being so easy to work with and allowing our business meeting to be a huge success! Emily and Josie were super nice and provided exceptional customer service. My colleagues were extremely impressed with the quality of food and wonderful staff on-site. I would give them six stars if I could! Highly recommend!!
We booked Chef by Design and The Neon House for our wedding rehearsal and wedding on 04.20.24. Both are owned and run by the husband-and-wife team, John and Marcy. While The Neon House was the perfect venue for us (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!), if it doesn't fit your wedding vision, Chef by Design can still provide the ultimate catering experience in any venue!!!! Not only do they have an extensive menu with so many delicious options; they are also open to customizing the perfect menu for every couple. After reviewing the menu, we knew that just one event would not be enough to fully experience everything that Chef by Design has to offer (hence booking them for rehearsal and wedding day). As basic and simple as these items seem; their house made bread and Caesar salad are a MUST! We had them at both events, I don't think any salad has every received so many complements and I will forever crave their bread! At the rehearsal we kept the menu fun with some of their grilled flatbread pizzas and custom milkshakes from their late-night section, yum! For the wedding in addition to the salad and bread, Marcy helped us customized a few hors d'oeuvres to make them perfect for our picky palates. We selected a few plated main course options that were again customized: Marcy helped us turn one of their pasta options into a vegetarian and dairy free option for our guests with dietary restrictions, though it wasn't specifically on their menu they were able to create my favorite dish, and my husband selected their Grilled New York Strip Steak. All of these were absolutely incredible, but we aren't done yet; we also had desserts, our wedding cake and drinks provided by Chef by Design. These were also phenomenal. Though it is controversial, my husband is an Ohio State fan and requested buckeyes that John begrudgingly agree to make for us ;) thank you! I wasn't picky about our wedding cake as we are not cake people and I mostly just wanted it for the cake cutting picture, but WOW was it good. Food is so important, and Chef by Design does it right! Looking back, the tasting and working with Chef by Design to customize our menu was my favorite part of wedding planning by far!I cannot say enough about the incredible team at Chef by Design. In addition to the food, the staff is absolutely amazing! Everyone is so kind and they made sure that my groom and I did not go hungry on our big day. Despite our busy timeline, there was always a server ready with a drink or tray of hors d'oeuvres for us to grab between photos, and a hot plate of food for us once we were finally ready to eat. From start to finish the entire team took such great care of us. And of course, we had so many complements on the food and service from our guests. Cannot recommend Chef by Design enough for not only excellent food but top tier service! Thank you all again!
Restaurantji Recommends
My husband and I had our Wedding Reception at The Neon House on 12/1/23, and to this day we are still getting compliments about the food from our wedding. We absolutely loved our Cocktail Hour choices, and deciding to go with a duet plated option for dinner was probably one of the best decisions that we made that day. Our meals we're perfectly cooked, and we received TONS of compliments about each of the apps/entrees that we're served. We could not be happier with our decision to not only have our wedding at The Neon House, but the fact that they made it easy for us with their in house catering services with Chef by Design. Our day was absolutely perfect, and we cannot thank everyone for their hard work in making it all come together! Love - Nick & Olivia Walker
The food was delicious everyone raved about all of it , the staff was amazing if your looking for a top notch cater look no farther so many choices to make your special event exactly what your looking for
Their food is fantastic and the service is fabulous. We had them cater our wedding and everything was perfect, not a single complaint. They did the cake too, five stars for that as well.
We were married at The Neon House on Saturday 10/28/2023 and used Chef By Design since they are the on-site caterer for The Neon House. When planning we knew that having really great food at our wedding was important to us and we were so lucky to have Chef By Design dropped into our laps. Joanie and Marcy (the owner) were wonderful to work with and helped us set up a menu that mixed and matched custom items with some of their regular offerings. We wanted to incorporate some Filipino food and they were so game! They listened to what we wanted and offered amazing suggestions. At our tasting I took one bite of short rib and knew we had made the right decision. The appetizers, entreés, desserts, wedding cake, late-night snack, and even the bread had our guests raving. We received SO MANY compliments on the food and the presentation. The serving and bar staff were professional, friendly, and fun and created the perfect atmosphere throughout the night. If you're looking for a delicious menu and some truly awesome people to work with, I can't recommend Chef By Design more!
Julia and Emily were both such a pleasure to work with, they were so responsive and went above and beyond to make my wedding vision a reality :))
The food was amazing!! Warm, fresh, and flavorful! and the waitstaff was the best I've experienced at any other wedding!!
Thank you Chef by Design!
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