Citron Catering

I hired Citron Catering to handle my daughter’s bat mitzvah reception. We didn’t really have any idea what were doing or what was entailed in catering a party. We met with Ken and he explained everything to us and had us do a food tasting with our daughter there too which was very important to us. We selected all of our food and desserts and as time progressed we made several tweeks to the menu and Ken never blinked an eye. When the big day came, I was completely blown away! Ken and his staff were incredible! The presentation of the food was beyond what I had envisioned! The food itself exceeded my expectations and was of excellent quality. His staff went above and beyond to make sure that my family was taken care, they asked if we needed help with things they weren’t even responsible for. My guests have been calling and texting me for 2 days now telling me not only what an amazing party we put on, but specifically how cordial and friendly the catering staff was and how tasty the food was. I could not have put this party together the way it turned out without Ken’s help. My gratitude goes beyond words and it really takes putting an event together of this magnitude to understand just how important your vendors are. I am so happy I took the referral from a friend and used Citron. I cannot thank Ken and his team enough for every single thing they did for our family. We will be forever appreciative!

Went to an event last night catered by Citron.
I cannot say how amazing it was from start to finish.
The staff was exceptional and the food was divine.
Everybody was friendly and courteous, the bartenders poured great drinks, and the presentation was fantastic.

I am the VP of Programming for a mid-​sized charity organization here in Los Angeles and I just used Citron Catering for a 200 person charity event in Malibu. In a word, they were AWESOME!
It’s quite common for these events to have several problems throughout the planning and production stages due to the nature of the event. When dealing charity most of the people planning the event are volunteers (including myself), and the vendors are asked to work at discounted rates; this means that inevitably, things fall through the cracks. This was most certainly NOT the case with Ken and his team at Citron! In fact, Ken was able to troubleshoot many of the issues we had before they became an issue and allowed us to have an extremely stress-​free and successful event.
The food was fantastic too! Everyone in attendance commented about how delicious the food was and how elegant the presentation was. Ken was able to craft a menu which was able to accommodate our palates and our limited budget. Bravo Citron, you absolutely did exactly what you were hired to do.
I highly recommend Citron Catering for your next event!

Pleasantly surprised by this place for a work function. I tried a roast beef sandwich and a delicious chicken wrap. Everything was so fresh! Really tasty and well-​combined. The chicken wrap was full of tender chicken, almost twice the amount I’ve seen in other wraps. Every sandwich was well-​made and presented. I was very impressed. Everyone also enjoyed the sandwiches, which included two vegetarian options.
It’s always hard to review caterers because you don’t get to sample everything, but I think this is one of the betters ones I’ve had!

Ken and his team at Citron catered our silent auction at the TAG Gallery, at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. The food was AMAZING! I can’t decide which were my favorites… beef sliders or Brie Pizza… Ken was easy to work with, he worked within our budget. We were able to choose between a huge variety of both savory and sweet, and there was enough food for everyone. Everyone went crazy and couldn’t get enough! I HIGHLY recommend using Citron and plan on using them for future events.

I’ll make this short and sweet. Ken and his team were a delight to work with from start to finish. I hosted a housewarming /​labor day party at my apartment in Venice and they made the whole experience effortless. Their menu is quite extensive and has something for every taste imaginable. They came, set up, replenished throughout the evening and cleaned up at the end. I highly recommend this company. and that’s coming from someone who is incredibly hard to please :)

Let me start this review by giving you this — a email quote from the guest of honor «This week I realized that this birthday was easily one of the best days of my life and always will be. I knew this experience was incredibly special as it was happening too. It’s not often that one can say this.»
I am going to be thoughtful in writing this review because I really do want it to reflect the spectacular impact that Ken and his employees had on this party.
Our party was to boast 2 bands and over 100 guests, many of whom are well-​known music industry professionals. I wanted everything to be amazing. I had been given an unlimited budget and asked to do whatever it took to put on a remarkable party.
After interviewing a number of catering companies, I decided to go with Ken at Citron. I appreciated that he was responsive to my communication requests and his felt that his follow-​up was perfect. When Ken and I finally met, I began to realize just how artistic and creative he was and, working together, our ideas started to form the basis for the party.
When Ken and his staff arrived, they descended upon our kitchen like nothing I’d ever seen. There were many of them — all happy and smiling — greeting and hugging each other like they were long-​time friends. From the chefs and servers, to the bartenders and runners, I thought it was so funny because ‘everyone’ was good-​looking and… ‘nice!’ — no attitudes here. Then, what came next was amazing to me and, when I knew that Ken was a gem of all gems. When the time came to begin prepping the food, it was like a ‘hush’ came over the group. Everyone took their place and began working, quietly and purposefully, with obvious respect for Ken and each other. Nothing was stressful — nothing was missed — everything was done right. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet Ken’s wife — she is beautiful and aboutely lovely! (Are these people actually from LA?)!
Ken and I worked hard on the menu to make sure we had just the right combination of food for our guests. He came with the funnest collection of tray-​passed hors d’oeuvres, a variety of skewered meats/vege’s cooking on huge grills by a ‘grill-​master’ chef, an enormous spread of the ‘perfect’ summer foods (actual comments from guests) and the most outstanding array of coffee and desserts. Everything was so delicious and perfectly presented.
Because the decision was made to ‘not’ serve alcohol, Ken came up with the idea to create a menu boards of ‘mock-​tails’ non-​alcoholic mixed drinks that we cleverly named ourselves, personalizing it for the birthday guest of honor. Such a great idea — everyone had such fun trying them all that I really don’t even think they missed the alcohol. Ken also made custom birthday cake and pie, based on family recipes of the guest of honor. He made personal size pies and sheet cake slices for each of the guests, so that the guest of honor could take take his beautifully decorated cake and pie home with him. So smart.
From the presentation to the way the staff handled the guests was utterly amazing to me. There were even few times during the entertainment part of the evening that Ken kept me on track with his flexibility and his calm demeanor. When the time came for the party of wind down, Ken and his staff seriously left our kitchen exactly as they found it.
It was truly an evening of perfection. I cannot thank Ken and his staff enough for ‘making me look sooooo good!’ I would hire you guys again without hesitation and recommend you to anyone who wanted to host an amazing evening, on any scale. You brought a quality ‘so special’ to our party that I don’t think could have been brought by any other catering company. Many, many, many heart-​felt thanks to you guys! Truly the best caterers in LA! We will be all talking about the party for years to come!
My husband stated (and I agree) that Citron Catering is the best investment you can make in your party :-) :-) :-)

I looked at several caterers and selected Citron based on their Unilocal reviews. My husband and I organized a surprise party in our backyard for our parents last week with 25 people. I had selected a bunch of finger food and everything was delicious, especially the sirloin sliders were a huge hit. On top of little pies and the cookie dough truffles dessert bites, we had the triple lemon blueberry cake and that was sublime as well. Pretty much all the food was gone by the end of the party and I had ordered for 28 guests, people left here stuffed and happy.
We paid for a service person and Isaac did a great job, professional, clean, he took care of everything and found his way in our kitchen without asking for a thing, so we were able to concentrate on our guests. He showed up in nice little van and the food was properly stored in those big adequate containers (keeping things cold or hot).
I also rented all kinds of stuff through Citron, and LM Productions showed up with very clean and beautiful furniture, linens, etc.
Both Citron and LM Productions showed up on time (actually, even a bit earlier) and took everything down as/​when agreed as well. It was a wonderful party without a glitch!

catered from citron for an office lunch
called about two weeks ago to try and order
left a message and did not receive a call back
tried again a few days later
and while the person who answered was somewhat friendly
she seemed frazzled and abruptly asked if she could call me back
as she had someone on the other line
strange because she had been talking to me for a good five minutes
she called me back and we tried again
placed my order and she said i would receive an invoice via email
in total, i received about 4 – 5 different invoices
as there seemed to be major confusion when it came to
the correct number of sandwiches and pricing
not a huge deal, but not the smoothest ordering process
delivery was prompt
we ordered 5 different types of sandwiches
chicken breast, turkey, roast beef, prosciutto & goat cheese, chicken curry
along with two salads
spinach with caramelized pears & brie and the orzo with roasted veggies
all the food, including the small and unexciting «dessert» platter
that was basically a dozen of
store bought quality cookies, brownies and cheesecake
didn’t really meet my expectations
for less in terms of price
and a lot more in terms of flavor, quality, and presentation
i think we’ll stick to catering from champagne bakery

We cater breakfast every morning in our office and Citron has had some of our favorite food. The service is always very friendly, always on time and most importantly the food is delicious. I feel relieved to have Citron in our regular menu.

Excellent food. Excellent service. Really tasty desserts. Ken is great to work with. We used Citron twice during our shoot.

Citron caters a monthly meeting for a non-​profit group that I am involved in. The food is absolutely fantastic, every single time. Ken and company are just awesome. They accommodate our challenging lay out and always bring a bit more food than we request to make sure that everyone is well fed. Cheers to Citron. Thank you guys!

I work at a studio that has food catered three or more times a day during crunch time, no expense spared, so we’ve had quite a few restaurants and catering companies roll through.
Citron has catered our breakfast on a number of occasions and simply put — they are peerless. I’ve had items from their burrito breakfast, beakfast croissants, eggs benedict, and mini-​quiche and every one of them are among the most perfectly made, decadent (but not heavy) breakfast dishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.

My boyfriend contacted Citron Catering for my 40^th Birthday party this past weekend. They only had 5 days notice to put together a special «Southern» themed Birthday party for 30 guests. Everyone LOVED the food! The staff, presentation and professionalism of Citron was unbelievable. Ken Novak was very helpful with suggestions on the menu and how to put it all together. Sarah Novak stayed at the party the entire time to ensure everything turned out to our liking. I can not thank them enough for making my birthday one to remember. I will definitely use them again and again and again.
THANK YOU!

If you’re looking to a great event and you need to impress, use Citron Catering. Look, I like to maintain my street cred. I don’t «like» every single friggin thing that comes across my facebook page. I don’t write reviews about every single particle of food passes between my lips. I try to be the guy to let you know about things that you may not know about BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEM.
I work in an office in Westwood. As an employee of an awesome teck company we get a good amount of kick ass meals for free, but on this particular night there was a meeting of the Crème De La Crème at the office so instead of ordering from LABITE we went with a caterer. This is how I have come to know Ken Novack.
I’m sure if you look at several of the other reviews you notice the name over and over again, because unlike most places where there is some nameless faceless entity preparing your food, with Citron Catering there is Ken (and his wife). Oh, yeah, Spago is OWNED by Wolfgang Puck but he hasn’t touched a pot there since he smoke a joint in the storage closet back in 2002. Ken cooks the food at Citron Catering (having learned how to cook at The Cordon Bleu in San Francisco [I chatted him up]). Everything that you have, Ken had a hand in it LITERALLY.
Okay on to the food.
Ken made a Filet Mignon that was one of the juiciest, tenderest pieces of meat this fat man has ever tasted. Literally I’m sitting in a conference room overlooking Westwood eating a 1 inch cut of meat that I’m using a plastic knife to go through. Seriously, not a steel steak knife, not even a butter knife, I have a good olé fashion plastic costco knife and I’m cutting right through this thing. (Let me explain: I’m the receptionist, not the crème de la crème, They got all the steak knives I got all the left overs). There was a port demeglase that was tasty, but the meat was so good, so tender, so delicious, I didn’t want to adulterate it with anything else. Hell, this steak was so good I wish I could change the laws so I could marry it.
Another Highlight was the Tilapia Ceviche. So many killer flavors, so good. Watermelon, Citrus, Cilantro, Jalepenos. So f’n good! The presentation of the Gazpacho salad was so beautiful that I didn’t want to eat it. I’m glad I did though, so crunchy and flavorful, while not being over powering. It really played with all of the different portions of the palate. The grilled vegetables were KILLER and his warm Chocolate brownie Pudding was outrageous. Oh I almost left out the halibut which was flaky and juicy with a phenomenally potent walnut pesto sauce. [The food was so good, I sapped out my ability to use different adjectives]
I wholeheartedly recommend Citron Catering, and more than that, I will be pushing to use them for my alumni events and other to dos in West LA.
Sorry for not being as funny in this review as I normally am, I’m moments away from a serious food coma.

We used Citron Catering for a private dinner for 44 people, and I was thoroughly impressed. Ken Novack, one of the owners in this husband-​wife team, prepared a delicious meal. He was very responsive to our coordinator, and he worked with out budget. We had a chicken dish for the carnivores and a fabulous vegan meal (yes, vegan) for others. The dishes were:
Baby Spinach Salad topped with Caramelized Pears and Brie Cheese Served with Honey-​Raspberry Vinaigrette — this was simple, but delicious. The dressing was super fresh. There were tons of fresh spinach leaves, and the pears and sheese were great quality.
Succulent Marinated Orange-​Rosemary Chicken Breasts with Yukon Gold Potato Gratin with Gruyère Cheese and Roasted Veggies — I can’t eat potatoes, but the gratin was a huge hit (folks were calling it potato lasagna). The chicken was moist and sliced on the bias, so it was pretty to look at, with a delicious sauce atop. The roasted veggies were well-​seasoned and flavorful.
Vegan eggplant rotini with pumpkin seed pesto and marinara with the gratin and roasted veggies — FREAKING AWESOME!!! He used tofu in place of ricotta and tempeh in place of meat. This dish has so much flavor that your forgot there was no meat. I would eat this all the time.
Hot Chocolate Brownie Cake with a Chocolate Biscotti and a Lemon-​Vanilla Sugar Cookie and whipped cream — awesome and homemade. The cake came to the table hot, and teh cookies were a nice contrast in texture.
We will definitely be working with Ken again for our special events. He put together a spectacular meal that was enjoyed by all.

We used Citron Catering a few times at my old job, and when we needed catering for some recent events at my new job (when their previous go-​to caterer went out of business), I remembered them and decided to give them a try.
We’ve had 3 events within the last two months, and Citron never failed to deliver impressive results. Everything from invoicing, to response time, to delivery time was right on and perfect, and they never fail to communicate. Citron offers a wide variety of customized menus, but you can swap out any item for anything on another menu. We happened to go with their signature grilled chicken in lemon-​caper sauce with roasted vegetables, which everyone loved. They brought us more coffee and supplies that we ran out of and needed on the event day, and were extremely flexible if there were any changes we wanted for future events. We had a very strange/​confusing setup too (lunch orders going to different places in different amounts, some needing to be put away for later, some items going to one place but not the other) and Citron rolled with it and took care of everything perfectly. And for such high quality, the prices are amazing!
Thanks for making me look good at work, Citron! I’d recommend them to anyone.

I have used Citron Catering for a work event, and they really delivered! And who can beat the prices?!! For someone who has to coordinate events on an ongoing basis, I can say that Jan Marino (owner) is fabulous to work with. She can customize menus, and she delivers on time. I also have a colleague at a law firm that utilized Jan for many events of which I also attended. I am also considering using Jan for my wedding.

I wish I had read the other two comments before ordering from Citron Catering, for work. It could have prevented a lot of misery. It was, hands down, the absolute worst experience I’ve ever had with a caterer (and I’ve been ordering catering, regularly, for upwards of seven years).
The food was so-​so. It was adequate. One minor problem was that I ordered water, but it was never delivered. We received empty carafes with ice, but no water. I did call the emergency number at Citron, to let them know, but never received a call back. Not a huge deal. What was more upsetting was that the caterers came to pick up all the food and coffee service, halfway through our event. We paid for the food. At the very least, they could have put it on paper plates and left it there. I did not tell them to come at this time nor did they tell me they would pick up at this time. Not good.
But what was infuriating was that after I contacted them to say how disappointed we were, the owner, called to yell at ME. She took her frustrations out on me. (She even hung up on me.) I said that we didn’t want to pay for the water, since it was not delivered and that an additional $ 25 should be deducted because they took away our food (which was generous). She continued to verbally attack me. She said that we were getting the event for free. Not true, we were paying close to $ 600. What poor, poor customer service! I know for certain that none of my colleagues will be using Citron Catering. No one, especially a customer deserves to be treated and disrespected like I was. I feel nothing but sympathy for the people working for her.

Work had catering today. Presentation is not terribly appealing. Odd combinations. We had slightly overcooked greenbeans/​bokchoy thing. Steamed rice, something in a pastry crust that looked like eggplant parmesan but was called «mushroom wellington»? I didn’t see mushrooms but it looked like a spinach and cheese turnover in pasta sauce, folks liked it tho. I had the chicken with a sweet sauce almost a cross between chutney and salsa, it would have been better except the chicken was a little dry. Their salad was delicious! Mix of greens jazzed up with mandarin, mango, and pineapple and a cilantro lime dressing, tasty. Good dessert platter, the berryor cherry lemon bar got raves.