Juan Carlo Plated Caterer Review

The biggest chunk of your wedding budget will definitely go to your caterer (unless it’s a very small intimate wedding), so choose wisely. Make sure to taste test, make sure you have a good relationship with your accounts manager, AND make sure your caterer has worked in your venue before and have done the same setup as what you want.

We tasted several caterers before finally deciding on Juan Carlo – plated. For a detailed breakdown of our wedding taste testing experience, you can check out my thoughts here: Wedding Tasting Menu Review – Juan Carlo, K by Cunanan, Bizu, Chef Jessie

Gosh, the caterer we got (Juan Carlo – plated) was for sure one of my regrets and it still makes me angry to this day! To be fair, taste-wise, they’re really good! We got them because their plating and flavors really blew us away, even if we thought it was rather expensive (literally, every add-on had an additional charge). Also, I really liked the account manager as she was very nice to talk to. So even if they were charging us for everything, I felt we were in good hands.

Now the only wrinkle here was, they HAD worked with Arocarria before, BUT they had never done plated AND especially not for 300 pax. Nevertheless, they assured us that they could do it, and that they would assign one waiter dedicated to each table to make sure service would be smooth. Plus. They also asked that we get a separate tent for them so that they could cook faster etc.

However on the day, it was just horrible. A 1.5hr meal (which they assured us was doable) turned into a 3hr meal. The food came out SO SLOWLY, it was ridiculous. Certain table were already done eating, while other tables had only just begun their main course. What was worse – the guests in each table weren’t served on time even. For example, 4 soups would come out, but the other 6 would be left hanging. And if they served the table while you were in the bathroom, forget it, you wouldn’t be served that dish anymore. What’s worse, THEY RAN OUT OF CERTAIN DISHES AND DRINKS. When my brother came back and noticed he hadn’t been served a drink, he asked the waiter to bring him a drink. And the waiter told him they had already run out. How is that even possible? We paid for 300 pax, but we only had around 290 guests. Plus they had assured us that they would have a buffer of ~6 pax, just in case. So how could we have run out.

After the wedding, I raised these complaints to our account manager, and was insulted by their response. They essentially gaslighted us, saying we didn’t give them enough space/facility to prep properly, that they had always told us it would take 3 hours to serve fully etc. Lies. I screenshotted all our conversation previously to show what we had agreed on, that we had gotten a tent with the exact specification they had requested etc. Then they promptly stopped replying to us.

Overall, very very disappointing. I later found out that another friend had also gotten them for their wedding, and the same issues were also experienced. So overall, avoid Juan Carlo at all cost. I think they might be ok for buffet style, but definitely NOT for plated. Such a shame because the food taste and plating is really quite beautiful, but overall horrid experience with them.

Anyway, for your reference, this was the menu we got with Juan Carlo (food was great, to be fair to them):

• Cocktails Food & Drinks: (although we also had Casa Nostra Pizza + Deevo’s Cebu Lechon)
  • Wrap ala Portofino
  • Money Bag with Pork, Shrimp, and Leeks
  • Green Cucumber Lemonade
• Appetizer: Baked Scallop with Pastis Prado Wine and Paprika Cream Sauce
• Appetizer Drinks: Juan Carlo Signature Rose
• Soup: Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Truffle Oil and Biscotti Bread
• Salad: Fresh Baby Leaf Salad, Chianti Poached Pear with Cambozola Cheese, Caramelized Peach, Candied Walnuts
• Sorbet: Coco Lychee Sorbet
• Mains: US Certified Prime Angus Rib Eye with Tricolore Pepper Cream
• Dessert: Duo of Sesame Pana Cotta
• Drinks: Fresco Citron