San Diego Paella

Unbelievable food and presentation. Booked for wedding rehearsal everyone loved it. The food is out of this world no wonder they have won awards. Augie and Lynne are the best take much pride in everything they do. Anyone looking Paella must try them you won’t be disappointed at all.

If you’ve never experienced a meal from San Diego Paella Company, your missing out!
We first had food from San Diego Paella at a friend’s wedding and we knew immediately that if we ever got married :) that we would could not get anything else! It was the best wedding food we had ever tasted!
Fast-​forward 2 years, Augie and his crew catered our wedding of 200 people and they were fantastic. Along with their amazing appetizers and salads, they prepared three delicious options of meat lovers, seafood and veggie for the main course. The quality of their ingredients and expert cooks made for a phenomenal meal.
Their staff was unbelievable as well. They were so sweet and so excited to be part of the wedding.
After my husband and I did our grand entrance, one of the staff gave us a plate of the all the appetizers and served us the main course — which was so crucial as many brides and grooms miss their meal altogether. To have staff that is looking out for you on your big day makes it that much more special and we really appreciated it.
Before we signed the contract with San Diego Paella Company, Augie came over to our house and prepared appetizers and a full main course for us and our folks for a tasting. He was very friendly, professional, and proud of his family owned business.
They made every part of the experience so enjoyable and delicious.
Thank you… Thank you… Thank you!

It’ hard for me to enjoy food at parties. I went to a party and I was so lucky to try the vegetarian paella, chef lynne was very professional and taught me alot about paella I didn’t know

One of my co-​nurses at Scripps was retiring. I was involved with planning his retirement party. I wanted to make sure a man dedicated to the medical industry for 27 years, had an elegant and exciting farewell. I looked at many caterers, some basic and across the board common. I found San Diego Paella and got a quote on an all Tapas event. I loved what they had to offer.
I needed to present my quote to the doctors paying, but just before I did, Lynne, the woman I was speaking to, had an idea. She added a small Paella, to be served as appetizer sized portions, along with an attendant to serve it. The quote was instantly approved.
On the day of the party, San DIego Paella arrived early, had everything with them, and I was very happy with their professional and courteous attitude.
I found out… the last minute Paella addition, was the best idea ever. The nurse of honor, had a strange love for Paella, in fact, he took all of the leftovers (which wasn’t much) in a container home.
Overall, I would be more than happy to recommend and use San Diego Paella in the future.
Great food, great service and a great party.

San Diego Paella catered our backyard style wedding in November 2015. Our guest still are raving about the wonderful flavors and the authentic style.
They were easy to work with. We called them over the phone and David gave us good information on the different alternatives. All our follow up interaction was handled smoothly by email. I have to be honest, maybe they are not that great on an expedite communication service but you will not be disappointed. They truly know their art. We ordered the vegetarian and the rancho paella (all meat). It was served with a delicious and nice looking Mediterranean salad and French bread. In addition we also had an order of their tortilla Española which disappear immediately after been served because it was so good!
The chef was polite and very welcoming to our guest questions and curiosity.
One of our guest is from Spain and she was absolutely blow away with the quality of the food. She told me that it was one of the best paellas she had ever tried.

David and SD Paella are simply awesome. I really enjoy that the food is wonderful to look at as well as eat (I am partial to the seafood paella, but you should try them all) — so fun to see them making it all afternoon before the event. They also fed over 200 guests in a short amount of time (around 45 minutes), which was simply amazing. I would never hesitate to recommend or use them again for a party, event, or wedding.

San Diego Paella recently catered our outdoor wedding. And their name says it all, they make an EXCELLENT paella. I’m half Spanish and our venue was the former ranch built by the Spanish actor, Leo Carrillo, so having San Diego Paella was a perfect fit! It was so fun to have the big, colorful vats of paella cooking right near the party, with saffron and olive oil in the air! The paella was absolutely 5 — star fantastico! So delicious, savory, and fresh. Our guests loved it and I’ve heard nothing but complimentary responses from them about the food. The scallops in the tradiciónal were the best I’ve ever had. And I particularly enjoyed the Tortilla Española appetizer, a favorite whenever we have gone to Spain. Also Chef David was very accommodating about a special request we had for one of our appetizers. And he clearly has a lot of passion for the incredible quality of his food and his family traditions.
The only disappointment was the staff, there were 4 that we hired through SD Paella, for purpose of: pouring water & wine at the tables, passing appetizers, and bussing/​clean-​up. It was a hot day, and there was water in each guests’ glass as they sat down for dinner, but the staff never came around to refill the water during dinner. I had even requested and paid for SD Paella to bring 10 gallons of water, so I’m not sure where the water all went. I found out later guests were getting up from the table to seek out water. Additionally, the servers didn’t pour the wine! We had provided 2 special wines, a basque white and a spanish temprañillo. They were perfectly paired and selected to go with the paella. Towards the end of dinner, our DJ had to get on the mic and ask the staff to pour wine at the tables, and then the servers finally came around with the wine. We ended up with lots of cases of leftover wine, that our guests never enjoyed.
We appreciated that the staff set-​up the large coffee-​maker later in the evening, but they never set out the creamers that we had made an important note to them about, just a day prior. At the end of the night I saw one of the catering staff toss both unopened creamers from an ice-​chest and into the garbage. So there were some service issues, and possibly communication problems from management to the staff.
However, overall the food and the experience of having San Diego Paella was really great and memorable! I would definitely recommend them for your event!

Last Saturday we had a party for 40 and everything went perfectly. Acho, who was very personable, showed up on time and quickly set up and started cooking. The smells were amazing and everyone enjoyed seeing how it was cooked. He served on time and the portions were HUGH! Every guest told us how delicious and special it was and truly had a good time. We would use them again in a heartbeat. Thank you Acho for making our evening sooo special.

Sooo great! Their on-​site cooking «show» was awesome and lasted about 1.5 hours, then buffet service was served out of the same pan they cooked in. They plated each guest with detail, pride AND artistry! I will highly recommend SD Paella to my friends for quality Paella and top notch service.
Their shellfish was plentiful, their olive tasted great and they did not skimp on the saffron…
PS: I had no idea they won a competition this year where 50 Paella teams competed! Some of my friends had the «other» Paella catering company before and said theirs DID NOT even compare. Wow, good things on the horizon for SDP :-)

What a fantastic way to entertain. We had small group of people celebrating their 70’s and also a reunion who grew up together since elementary. They all came from MN, FL, KS & Reno, 8 guys n wives. Our chef was Acho brother of David who owns the the catering. We had the standard paella, seafood consist of shrimps, clams, mussels & scallops & chicken. Everyone raved about it until now. San Diego Paella is the best!

Was at an event recently that had the best food. Being that I lived in Central America for a few years, i’ve had paella before. I was blown away by their authenticity and overall taste! They will definitely be at my next Fiesta!!!

This is by far the most amazing paella I’ve ever eaten, truly delicious and so flavorful!
My Mom used this company a few years ago to cater my brothers rehearsal dinner at their home, it was fun because it was also entertaining to watch David and his team cook the food and it smelled fantastic! Since then my parents friends have used them for a bridal shower and 2 New Year’s Eve parties and everyone’s loved their food. They come fully prepared and also serve salad, bread and even a tapa. As a host you only need to provide plates and silverware so it’s pretty relaxing to have them also.
I went to the San Diego paella festival yesterday and tried 3 paellas and they were good but nothing to rave about. As we were walking around we saw the most amazing paella being cooked and that’s when I realized it was David’s booth, the same guy who had come to my parents house a few years ago. We made sure to wait in line to try their fabulous dish and I’m so glad we did and it was by far the best one there and I just saw on Facebook that they won best overall which they definitely deserved!
For a catering event it’s extremely reasonably priced, works out about $ 20+ per head which is not bad at all and its definitely a 5 star meal. They do have a tasting room in Miramar and cater events all throughout San Diego county. They also do delivery, it seems you can have the food simply delivered to an office also if you don’t want them there for the 3 hours.
Overall, amazing food and great service! I’d love to know if you can simply purchase a few dishes from them as I’d love to have some in my freezer!

I recently had San Diego Paella cater an event for my clients and it was AMAZING!!! Everyone absolutely raved about the food, which looked and smelled delicious. Augie, the owner, was prompt, very accommodating, respectful and friendly. I highly recommend you give SD Paella a call and check them out.

This is the best Paella I’ve ever tasted and the staff is great! They added such a fun and unique dynamic to my wedding. I would recommend them to anyone having an indoor/​outdoor party.

We had SD Paella cater our Christmas party for 50+ guests. Acho and Marty were the chefs and servers. It’s amazing everyone checked out the cooks as they made the paella. The Paella was fantastic and there was plenty of seafood and chicken in the dish. The appetizers were also very good. David the owner was a pleasure to work with. Like Italian food it is just as good or better the next day. Highly Recommended

A HUGE HIT! SD Paella came through big time! Had our engagement party with 65 guests and every single person commented on the great food! Not only were we all impressed with the food, but the quality of ingredients, friendliness, and attentiveness was superb. Hell the left overs are even spectacular!
Thank you!

We live in Ventura County and were making a party in San Diego for our daughter. Someone gave us San Diego Paella and I called David. He was great! (I even texted him from Costco about the type of plates to get!) We paid for two attendants and they were awesome! Helped us with everything, served appetizers, poured wine, set up and clean up! They filled the Sangria pitchers and the guacamole bowls when they got low. They were extremely personable and even put up with the 6 year old following them around for Empanadas!
As for the food, the appetizers were awesome! We added the filled and bacon wrapped dates and they were really a hit! The attendants passed the appetizers around and were a great help with the timing of everything.
David started cooking and answering questions about the process, food, etc. We loved seeing all the fresh ingredients going into the pans. The seafood (traditional) paella was amazing! Everyone who ate the meat paella loved it as well. When serving, David made sure everyone had shrimp, mussels, scallops and claims on their plate. My sister in law was so impressed at the care in which David served. The salad and bread were delicious as well!
All of our guests were so impressed with the paella! It was so different.
Thank you David. You were great. I hope we have a chance to use your wonderful business again!

We very much enjoyed the food SD Paella made for us at our wedding. We had rave reviews and really think this added value to our special day. Thank you so much for making our day so awesome and positive.

As a wedding planner and San Diego native I can confidently say David and San Diego Paella are the REAL DEAL AMAZING!!! It’s fabulous food and onsite cooking which also doubles as entertainment as guests can watch them in action, cooking from scratch. I have used San Diego Paella for personal parties, family holiday parties, non-​profit functions, numerous client parties both weddings and other festive occasions. My clients and their guests are always beyond complimentary, they love the food, the service, the staff and the price!
The value, quality and tastiness of San Diego Paella is unmatched in San Diego and I look forward to many events in the future and many happy clients! My mouth is actually beginning to water!
Seriously, the classic seafood paella is amazing and 2 years later my boyfriend is still talking about the potato sausage paella. We are constantly looking for occasions to hire David and his team. Be looking out for a call soon David, I have an 80^th birthday client coming your way ;)
A well planned party is a happy party and with San Diego Paella on your team, it’s that much better!

Ok wow sounds like Bridezilla was served a dish of her own medicine. Give me a break, these reviews should be about the food, not about someone too cheep to order the correct amount and then blame it on the company. That is like when your kid out grows a happy meal and is still hungry you don’t go crying on Unilocal and sue McDonalds WTF.
This place is hands down the BEST Paella money can buy in San Diego. If I had to book a wedding I would hire these guys and either order enough or at least have the decency to order appetizers for my beloved guest. There was more than enough food at the event I attended a while back. I hope you take those little negative reviews with a grain of salt and continue to make the Best Paella I have ever tasted.