Ever been to an under catered party?

[Crunchymum]

Just back home from a party with a generous doggy bag and I remarked how I'd never been to an under catered party as the host was divvying up the leftovers. Cue lots of stories of horrifically under catered parties and weddings?

Other than a few occasions where I've known there won't be food, I've never experienced it? I've never had to share a burger at a BBQ or nip out for a super market sandwich at a wedding.

Is it really that common? What's the worst under catered event you've been to?

@FishesThatFly

It wasn’t me that undercatered!! I just quoted some precious miserable poster!

We were invited to a wedding, cousin of dh. It was obvs a last minute invitation and I have no idea why ( weren’t in touch for 10 yrs before and haven’t been since). Anyway, off we went at 8am with baby, drove for hours, attended wedding and rocked up to venue for reception. The staff were frantically dragging more tables in, so I assume there were way more guests than they expected. Dh queued for the buffet while I held baby, after nearly half an hour he handed me a plate with 1 potato wedge and 2 triangles of sandwich- all that was left. When dessert came out I dropped the baby and pretty much karate kicked my way up to that buffet - there were 3 desserts laid out for about 120 people (1 cake, 1 cheesecake, 1 something else). We stopped for takeaway on the way home and I was shovelling food in with 2 hands, 14 hours after breakfast and breast feeding as well.

I remember going to a deli in NYC and the pastrami filling in a sandwich was honestly about 4 inches thick, it was ridiculous.

Katz's Deli most likely. It's primarily for tourists and the crazy huge sandwiches (which cost as much as a full entree in most restaurants) are part of their branding.

Portions are big here, probably because food is relatively inexpensive, but I also think that socially it would be considered more important to offer a full meal and ensure that there's enough for everyone. I would never hire a caterer without extensive reference checks and I had my reception in a restaurant we had been customers at for years.

One of the shitty tricks the caterers pulled was taking the (early evening) buffet food away far too soon ... when we went to retrieve it they were packing it into boxes to be taken somewhere else

Early evening you say? Almost certainly on its way to another venue owned by them or a mate, so it could be "sold" twice

DaveGrohlsBeard TRIPE?? At a wedding buffet??!!

I ought to stop reading this - it's no good for my (usually perfectly normal) blood pressure

Yes I have. Everyone was sneaking out to go to the nearby shop to buy snacks. There was hardly any entertainment either. Shit party in general.

I went to a wedding where we were served a chicken breast accompanied by a smidge of salad and a small bowl of new potatoes for sharing on the table. Initially I thought it was quite an unusual and perhaps generous starter (it wasn’t serve on a dinner sized plate) until it was followed up with a slice of apple pie and a shared jug of custard. Might not have been so bad if the Apple pie wasn’t still frozen in the middle!

This was at about 1.30 as I recall, there was no evening buffet and the only other food option was a nearby McDonalds - we were sooooo hungry, couldn’t wait to leave!

I also bought a fab hat for that wedding and she turned up to mine in a cardigan!! 😆

i'll sy this about evenin receptions-dont assume there'll be lots of food for u eat before u go

actually any [arty that states theres a small buffet just eat your dinner and u wont be hungry

@thenewaveragebear1983

That’s a totally different post to the initial one you gave. You didn’t say it was a 3 year olds birthday party in your initial post.

You said you’d provided one tiny pot of coleslaw, one tiny pot of potato salad, a small salad and gammon sandwiches. Not any of the rest.

Quite a drip feed there and no wonder everyone thought it was miserly!

@missconductus i love your portion sizes never go hungry in the states!

Quite possibly it was there, I can't remember MissConductUS. But every meal was ginormous, the breakfasts ... mountains of pancakes covered in bacon, maple syrup etc, one portion enough for 3 people. I used to not have the healthiest relationship with food so, for me, I just found it a bit much, but that's my problem and everyone to their own. Hearing the stories on here, perhaps we need a bit more of US portions!

I went to the evening reception of a wedding where the buffet literally disappeared in about 3 minutes - I think I may have managed a handful of crisps. Dreadful! (and everyone ended up getting very drunk😵 )

i'll sy this about evenin receptions-dont assume there'll be lots of food for u eat before u go

This is why I don't bother going to them, they're usually nothing but a swizz for more gifts.

Buffets at weddings? I’ve never been to a wedding with a buffet. And certainly not my own. Didn’t want guests having to queue up as though waiting for their school dinner.
Three course indulgent meal all the way at wedding

Re under catering. I did once . Sunday lunch, just for family thankfully but still embarrassing. As I was serving I realised I’d forgotten to cook half of the stuff I’d planned. It was pitiful! We laughed about it but I was really cross with myself. I love spoiling guests.

@Queenbean

You’re right!
@thenewaveragebear1983 read your first post and then read your second. You actually admit to purposefully under catering in your first. In your second youget defensive and start listing a banquest!

I went to a wedding in the Spring that was held in quite a rural location in a church hall (so no bar) on a Bank holiday Monday.

The wedding was 3pm till late so we had travelled through lunch.

The wedding breakfast was some scones - it was supposed to be a cream tea, but there was no tea or drinks really, just a tap in the kitchen of the hall and half a glass of Prosecco each, some dry scones with a few tiny pots of cream and jam for every other table.

The hog roast was served at 8pm. I'm vegetarian.

We left at 8.15pm. It was such a shame. I knew the B&G were a bit cost conscious, but people left in droves. It ruined the event a bit. The bride is a good friend of mine and I really tried to stick it out as long as possible but DS1 and DH were not happy and I had a 10wk old baby and was fairly hungry&thirsty by that point.

Not a wedding, but I was working overseas at an international organisation when I was 24. My (British) boss invited me and some other youngish Brits over to dinner. When we arrived his wife was clearly resentful at the invitation. We had: one small roast chicken to feed 8, one small potato each, a spoonful of peas and stewed prunes for pudding. His wife took a real dislike to me and announced loudly at dinner that I "looked like the sort of girl who would seek out a married man to have an affair with." (Her husband was at least twice my age and I had a long term boyfriend.) That killed conversation. We ate up and left as soon as we could and went straight to the pizza restaurant next door. It was a good way of making new friends though, as all the other guests felt very sorry for me!

@Ali1cedowntherabbithole
My other bugbear is greedy guests and I take a particularly dim view of adults who allow young children to pile their plates up, usually with food that is never eaten as the little ones inevitably lose interest. I hate to see food wasted, especially when others don’t have enough to eat
Absolutely this.
Having learned from bitter experience I alays stand behind the desserts now and make sure that greedy kids don't heap their plates full of stuff they are not going to eat before the adults have all been served.... and I also keep a couple of desserts in reserve in the kitchen to be on the safe side - they can always come out for "seconds" if there proves to be enough first time around.

When our eldest was about 14 months old we were invited to a friend's 40th brithday party (in the middle of nowhere - at keast a 30 minute drive from home). It was the first time we'd left her with a babysitter and we'd promised to be home by 1 a.m..... it seemed reasonable for a party that started at 7, and we were pretty sleep -deprived so didn't want to be out until stupid o'clock..
The aperitif went on, and on and on..... finally at about ten thirty p.m. the starter salads were brought out..... but people were so starving by then that the first to get to the table heaped their plates and when she realised what was happening the hostess started serving people to make it all go further.... so we only got a serving spoon of salad each.... and we never saw whatever she served for a main because it all took so long that we had to leave to get home for the babysitter.

These days if I am at all worried about not getting enough to eat I have a bowl of soup before I go.

Yes, i have actually been to a few! At least 2 wedding evening dos and 2 bbqs. My husband hates it!!! He always well over caters.

At one bbq we knew we needed to bring our own drink so we stopped at a supermarket en route. He said ‘do we need to take food?’ to which i replied ‘no’. He then went and threw 4 burgers into the trolley as a gesture. The only meat we got at the bbq were a burger each out the pack we brought! It would seem the hosts were more interested in drinking booze than eating

Ah but was it a Mumsnet chicken Mrs S?

Uninvited guest turned up to my wedding and my guests were left with nothing to eat in the evening. I'm still gutted now.

*guests

@Roussette, it's unfortunate but one way restaurants here compete is on portion size. The cost of the food itself is quite low in most cases (e.g. pancakes and bacon) compared with the cost of the labor and overhead, so rather than risking bad reviews on yelp they overdo on the portion. Very few people will complain that they got too much to eat.

People do vary quite a bit in appetite too. My 18 year old son will easily finish a dish that I'd take half home. I have no problem asking for a doggie bag and eating the rest for lunch the next day, unless of course my son finds it in the fridge and eats it first. I'll also often order two appetizers instead of a big main dish.

I think weddings are a bit special because you've got the guests for most of a day and they're relying on your hospitality for the whole event.

We went to a terrible wedding once.
My dh is an expert at buffets. Luckily he got to the head of queue and took a modest amount for us both. They had run out of food by guest 20 ( out of 60). But they were tight gits by nature.

When my daughter got married we opted for quality over quantity and only invited the number of people we could afford to cater for. We went for the top option and the evening buffet was fantastic and plentiful. When my sister, who looks on me as the poor relation, organised her daughters wedding at the same venue we all expected, at the very least, similar. Evening buffet turned out to be a dinner sized plate with sandwiches and sausage rolls put on each table. There were 10 of us at the table and plate had 16 quarter sandwiches and 8 small sausage rolls. Unfortunately 2 sons and husband thought that there was more food coming and by the time we realised that this was it there was only 7 sandwiches and 3 sausage rolls left for the other 7 of us. Left early and straight to the chippy, which was quite busy, with the hungry wedding guests!!

Does anyone mind if you go in and order one dish between two people MissConductUS? Or do you have to order one each and get a doggie bag... I haven't been to the US for a while.

I love having parties and I always over cater massively because I would hate there not being enough.. of anything..