Stanford Catering

We are a Stanford University group, and while located off of campus, are ONLY 2.9 (one way) miles away from Stanford Catering. I called to get a quote and didn’t even get to the food prices. I was quoted a $ 50 (count ‘em, FIFTY) dollar delivery charge EACH WAY!!! I was flabbergasted. Needless to say, we are going with an another caterer.

I attended a business school program completion ceremony today, catered by Stanford Catering. Oddly enough I can’t find our menu on their pdf menu online, so I’ll just go from memory and upload a few pictures later.
I would have given it 1 star if it weren’t for the beautiful layout… they used high quality satiny napkins, glass plates with gold mirror beads all around it, and the whole gamut of a nice banquet dinner — 2 wine glasses, water glass, all the utensils in the right place, etc. Remember, your drink is on the right and your bread is on the left. Make the «b» and «d» sign with your hands to remember! ;) All this gorgeous setup made us think we were going to have a fine dinner… but…
Let’s start with the bread bun. The event was outdoors, so everyone’s butter was completely melted and the bread was soaking in the butter, but I couldn’t blame them for that. But I bit into the bread and it was hard and dry. I only took one very difficult bite and put the rest down.
Then the appetizer. It was gazpacho, and it tasted like you were drinking salsa. Not really that appetizing… I would’ve liked some tortilla chips to go with that so I could actually treat it as salsa.
Next came stuffed chicken and veggies. The veggies were not very good — the string beans were hard and the other veggies just didn’t taste that great. The chicken itself was a little dry, but I really didn’t like the stuffing.
Finally, the dessert. It was some little round cake with sweet syrup and apple chunks on top, plus some flowers for garnish (which we were debating whether or not they were edible). It was alright, most people at the table said it was a 2 star (out of 5). I was going to say 3 to be nice, but it definitely wasn’t that great. That was the only food I actually finished though.
I thought the wines were good, but I’m not much of a wine connoisseur. We also had some pre-​dinner finger foods, and the fried shrimp on a stick was pretty good. The beef satay on a stick was a little too dry. This melon shooter drink was alright, but nothing spectacular.
The caterers were really friendly and courteous, so they definitely get a star for that. They did a great job… it’s not really their fault that the food was rather underwhelming.