Willowstone Catering & Events

I don’t know how to describe the experience willowstone provided us in a Unilocal review. It was perfect, Willowstone literately provided the best meal some of my guests have ever had at a wedding.
The appetizers were perfect, plentiful, economic, tasty, there were cheeses, and fruits and meats and people were having fun with them… Who has fun with appetizers at a wedding? People who eat at a wedding catered by willowstone.
Dinner was beautiful, the chicken was cooked to perfection, and the vegetables were hot and crisp.
We had a wonderful experience working with Arianna and Nicole and could not have asked for a better catering team. Of course there were hiccups along the way, but through communication and professionalism and taking time to explain, this team made my wedding flow perfectly.
Happy wife=happy life, and I don’t think my life could have been kick started any better than how willowstone started it up. Unilocal,I promise to update this review with some photos and maybe some proof reading by the boss lady. But I needed to get it out there, willowstone catered my wedding and it was stupendous.

As an update. I had my wedding in October 2013. We wound up going with Checkers Catering, based in Livermore, and I couldn’t have been happier! Dollar for Dollar it was a virtual tie with Willowstone (after their correction for missing 25% of the cost) but without the headache of getting dropped after placing a deposit. Every vendor we talked to about this incident stated that they would have, or had, eaten the cost of a mistake like this. Willowstone was unwilling, even after we negotiated a compromise to help them pay for their mistake, to keep us as clients.
Thank you Carly for dropping us as clients. We wound up with a better caterer for the same (non-​erroneous) cost!

I cannot say enough about Arianna and her team at Willowstone. As a former sales manager for a hotel I have had over 6 years of experience in the catering/F&B world. Needless to say my expectations were high but I can honestly say that I received more than I expected. From start to finish this company went above and beyond my expectations to ensure that all of my needs were met on the day of my wedding. They offer competitive pricing, delicious food, charming staff and were always very prompt with email and phone call responses. It is easy to tell that Willowstone has made a name for themselves based on the relationships they build with their clients. Hands down one of the best teams a bride could ask for!

I am an event coordinator and have had many bridal parties choose to use Willowstone and it has never turned out well. It is kind of hit and miss on whether or not the food will be good. I have had some guests say it is great food and service, but just as many complain. I myself have never been thouroughly impressed when eating the food, especially for the price. Most of the employees are great, except the one owner. I have always had problems with Carly, and she really brings down the company as a whole. It’s a shame for all the employees to have to work alongside her and not pleasant to have to communicate with her trying to coordinate. I now strongly advise my clients and everybody else to use another catering company, because there are a lot better choices.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Willowstone Catering for both professional and personal events. Willowstone has been catering my student events at UC Berkeley Extension for the past few years and have been awesome to work with. They are always on time, the presentation is wonderful and the food is great. Because of the fantastic working relationship I’ve built with Carly and Jen, they were the first caterer I thought of when my now husband and I started planning our wedding last year.
I had always been impressed with the service, presentation and food Willowstone provided at my work events… but they exceeded my expectations at our wedding! The process of working with Jen and Carly leading up to the event was fun and stress free as usual, but the food was out of this world! The Willowtone chef came up with this amazing plated appetizer that was a take on a sausage roll as a nod to my husband’s English heritage. It involved sausage (of course), a potato pillow wrapped with bacon, English mustard, caramelized onions… I’m not sure what else but it was to die for! Our friends and family still talk about that appetizer even now, 3 months later. The rest of the food was just as great. Quite a few of our guests told us that it was the best food they’d ever had at a wedding! I’d definitely recommend Willowstone for both corporate and private events.

We hired Willowstone to be our caterer last month for our wedding at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and they were absolutely fantastic. Hire them! We worked with Jennifer, who was simply wonderful, extremely professional, super organized, and a lovely person to boot. Everyone from Willowstone who worked at our wedding was just awesome. All of our guests commented on how delicious the food was, how nice all of the catering staff were, and how beautiful everything was. They do an incredible job. The Seminary is also a particularly difficult venue for caterers and Willowstone, who has worked there many times, did an amazing job. It was VERY helpful to work with a caterer who knew the space so well, particularly since it was a difficult space for them.
We worked closely with Jennifer, who was terrific — she was prompt in replying to our emails, organized the best tasting we did (out of 5 caterers), and pulled everything off flawlessly day-​of, making it look effortless. She took care of everything — all the rentals, day-​of setup, coordinating with the DJ during the day (DJ Amy Foster, who she knew well), and just generally making everyone (mostly us!) feel like everything was under control. We didn’t think for a second to worry about anything day-​of, knowing Jennifer was in charge. The food was fabulous — in particular, the grilled radicchio was out of this world (highly complimented by one of our guests who is a professional chef!), and we gave Carly, the owner and pastry chef, our family strawberry shortcake recipe to replicate — couldn’t have been closer to the version my mother makes. We were delighted! And the personal touches are amazing– they packed us a box of the wedding food to eat later that night, and even sent us a sweet thank you note after the wedding!
We had a truly wonderful experience with Willowstone and would recommend them to anyone!

Jennifer and her team at Willowstone Catering are amazing. We did two tastings with them and the food was just spectacular. My husband and I got married at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and Willowstone was their recommended caterer. Jennifer was very prompt with emails and phone calls. She’s very professional and organized. Before the wedding, Jennifer even helped us plan out a rough timeline for the evening and gave us advice and ideas to incorporate into our special day. I would recommend Willowstone to take care of your catering needs!

We used Willowstone Caterers for our 4ht of July party for about 50 people at our home in San Francisco. Everything was perfect! I was able to relax, and enjoy my own party. Kendal and Crew worked really hard and did an amazing job. The food was the best catered food I’ve ever had; the presentation was beautiful; and the service was impeccable. And it was great to be left with minimal cleanup at the end.
The owner, Carly, Jennifer, who I worked with to design the event and everyone else involved all were a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. One of my guests suggested the enter their cupcakes in Cupcake Wars. They were amazing! I would use them again for any event, and recommend them to others without reservation.

I use Willowstone for a small catered birthday party at a private house. From the moment I emailed to the end of my party everything went wonderfully. The staff was professional, the food was delicious and my event went off without a hitch.

this is a long overdue review for Willowstone Catering and Tim Snyder.
If you care about what your guest do not think of food and have money to waste then by all means use this company.
I hired them for my son’s weddding and we went to taste the food which was out of this world. But on the day of the Tim was not there and some chick who thought she knew how to cook was doing the wedding. The meat was so fatty that there was more fat then meat, the Chicken Cordon Bleu was covered with this horrid red sauce and the salad which I was anxiously waiting to have again especially the croutons was so wilted and soaked with dressing that no one ate the food. With store bought croutons. When I approached the chef she told me I did not know what I was talking about. I knew what I ordered and did not get anything close to what was served.
People were embarrassed to mention the food as 90% of it went uneaten and this is the topper: I am DEATHLY allegic to nuts and made sure that Tim knew this. I go to my room and guess what… a tray of nuts and cheese were sitting on the table. I returned the tray uneaten and the next day I tell Tim what happened with all the food and the tray he totally disregarded everything and said I ate the nut and cheese as it was half eaten. I would be dead if that happened… his staff ate the returned food and all I got was a lousy 100.00 back. The good thing was the wedding was so much fun that the guest said it compensated for the horrid food.
DO NOT USE THEM… or if you do be prepared to be totally disappointed and robbed blind

Carly and the Willowstone staff catered my office holiday party this past December. We could not have been happier with the event! The food was to die for, the service attentive and efficient. All my guests left full and happy, and the Willowstone staff left our home sparkling clean. Wow! We plan to hire them again for our next event, and I can rest assured it will be a success. Thank you Carly and Willowstone!

Do not book for any important event. We worked with Tim (owner) for our wedding starting one year before our wedding date. He painted a great picture with a fantastic menu and preview/​sample diner. His staff even came out to the wedding site for a pre-​planning site visit. LESS THAN 6 WEEKS BEFORE OUR WEDDING DAY HE CANCELLED BECAUSE HE GOT A BIGGER GIG.
You have been warned.

I’m so happy to write this review about the current owner and staff of Willowstone. My holiday party has grown into quite an event over the years and I really wanted to «take it up a notch». Knowing I needed a professional chef and staff, I booked Willowstone after attending many of the events they catered. I could not have been happier with the outcome!
I worked with Carly and Jen who provided me with outstanding service. The range of menu items was fantastic and they were flexible in terms of what I could select and tweaked the menu when necessary. Their advice on the set up for the stations, passed hors d“oeuvres and bar was spot on. Also, it rained the night of the party and we had to move the bar inside and stage the Willowstone staff in the garage — there were no complaints and the staff was extremely accomodating.
The food was super tasty and the presentation was beautiful. All of my guests were delighted and I was able to truly enjoy myself knowing that my guests were being attended to — what a difference it made having Willowstone cater my party!
As a side note, I plan high level corporate events for work and have worked with the chefs and staff at most of the top-​rated restaurants and resorts in the country. I am VERY particular about not only the quality of the food but presentation and service. Willowstone absolutely met my standards and as a bonus they were fun to work with!

This review is a bit out of date, but I didn’t Unilocal back then!
I hired Tim in 2006 to do our wedding and had very specific needs and ideas of what we wanted. He created a menu that sounded great and worked with our budget. He wowed us at the home tasting and we hired him on the spot. We were confident and didn’t give it a second thought. He also was great working with our venue and did plenty of coordination of kitchen stuff for us.
I agree with Shanna M — what we got at the tasting was NOT as good as what actually showed up at the wedding. We specifically asked for a certain appetizer and spent more money on it. There was so little of it, hardly anybody got any of it o eat. I only got half a bite that another guest gave me! It also was not presented on «toast points» but instead on wilty endive. (Wilty not from the heat — it was a cold night!) We also had a grilled bread and curry dip appetizer — which was a huge disappointment. Instead we got a bucket of pita chips and toned down sauces compared to the tasting. In general, all the dishes were toned down in flavor and were just «blah» at the event compared to the tasting.
If you do hire them — do NOT leave the decorations of the buffet table up to them. Fake leaves and fake flowers as decorations??? I was embarrassed. Get your florist to take care of it! Don’t leave it up to him.
Willowstone was the only vendor that I regretted hiring, even thinking about it many years later.

THANK YOU WILLOWSTONE CATERING, YOU ARE AMAZING!!!
Having recently moved out of California, and having our event take place in the Livermore Wine Country, we needed to make all our arrangements long distance.
Willowstone served up a beautiful and sumptuous buffet for our daughter’s wedding reception. They were wonderful.
I was a bit surprised by some of the negative reviews since we had such a wonderful experience. The event planner at our venue took care of the rentals, set up and décor and Willowstone was one of her preferred vendors.
Tim Snyder worked exclusively with our bride and he was so very helpful when the guest list continued to grow ~ his suggestions to keep costs within reason were perfect. She stayed within her budget and honestly every dish was amazing. The kids had a special request, bagel bites, which they wanted served late night when the candy station was to be set up. I thought most caterers would nix the idea, not wanting to be associated with such a menu item… Tim surprised us with his good humor and understanding that this was a fun addition for the younger crowd and obliged us. I knew right then he’d be easy to work with.
Our event took place on one of the hottest days of the year, outside in an olive grove. The cocktail hour, which was to have been outdoors had to take place inside due to the extreme heat; dinner was able to be served in the olive grove as planned. We’re talking triple digit temperatures and his staff did not break a sweat to make it a beautiful and memorable affair.
We are still receiving compliments on both the chicken and pasta dishes months later.
Tim Snyder and Willowstone would be my caterer of choice if we still lived in the Bay Area. I don’t think you will be disappointed one bit. I’d give more stars if I could

My wife and I used Willowstone Catering for our wedding in May and we both enjoyed the food and service that they provided. They have a great list of vendors that they work with and really took a lot of the pressure off of the wife and I. We met with them once to do a tasting and the food and presentation were great. One thing that could be improved would be a tasting of the items we selected for our menu before the event.
On the big day Willowstone and their vendors did a wonderful job of setting up the venue. The staff was polite and professional during serving and I never had to look far for more food or drink. The food was great, although like I said a pre event tasting of our menu would have been nice.
I would recommend Willowstone to anyone who is looking for a professional, tasty and affordable caterer.

I have been meaning to write this for sometime now. We used them for our wedding and we were very disappointed with Tim Snyder and Willowstone catering for several reasons.
To start with, the tasting we went to was delicious. We brought some friends and we were all impressed, we hired him on the spot. The food on the day of the wedding didn’t even almost compare to what we had at the tasting.
Both of the appetizers we picked out never made it to our reception. They were replaced by food I could not eat and couldn’t believe was even being served. I have a severe allergy to onions. We had picked out stuffed mushrooms, those were replaced by these deep-​fried wontons with some sort of disgusting looking goop on the top and a bunch of onions mixed in. We had also picked out a bruschetta type of appetizer that I specifically emphasized several times I did not want onions in, and guess what, onions everywhere. Then they LIED to me and said, «oh, we made you some special ones without onions». They brought me some that they had obviously just picked onions out of because I could still taste it and some of them still had several pieces of onion still in them. Luckily I saw the onion before I ate them, that would have ruined my wedding big time!
I have a few allergies in my family, my mother was supposed to have a salad with no dressing, which she never received.
There was supposed to be bread on the tables, there wasn’t.
There was supposed to be a coffee station set up, there wasn’t.
Half of my left over wedding cake «disappeared» at the end of the night.
His staff cleared my full plate every time I turned my back, I had to get a new plate about 6 times.
They started clearing the tables way too early and I feel like they were pushing people out. It was a Sunday night and I understand they wanted to go home, but I paid for extra time.
Somehow, my bill was about $ 3,000 more than we had agreed on.
I guess I was the most p.o.‘d about not being able to eat the appetizers I paid way too much for even though I told him about my allergy several times.
I would have definitely used a different caterer if I knew what was going to happen.
To top everything off, they didn’t even try to come to any kind of restitution with my husband and me. Once they got paid, they were done, and didn’t care to try and make any amends.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Thumbs down on Willowstone!

We used Willowstone to cater our wedding in livermore this past spring. Tim the owner was fantastic at the tasting and extremely helpful– putting our minds at ease to work within our budget and presented to us a ton of great ideas for our reception. However, because Tim was out of town the weekend of our event, the Willowstone staff fell short. Instead of serving mini homemeade pizzas, they served sliced up CPK FROZEN pizzas to our guests as one of the passed apps. They never delivered our artisan bread table (claimed it had been on the truck but forgotten because of rain issues) and served tomato soup calling it lobster bisque which made our guests think the soup was terrible (we ordered the tomato btw).
There were just so many sloppy things about the service that I would advise CAUTION when considering Willowstone. If you expect certian dishes and expect them to be «homemade» and not frozen, better ask and then get it in writing. Ask them if they have a back up plan for any emergencies (aka bad weather) so that all of your dishes will arrive and be presented as expected despite any hiccups.
Tim is a wonderful, caring man to work with, and if you are lucky enough to get him to cater your day, I bet everything will go smoothly, but we were extremely dissapointed none the less. We received a small refund for the missing breads, but our pleas for a refund on the pizzas were ignored. Use caution when dealing with Willowstone. Make sure you get what you pay for.

I used this company for my wedding. Really great food at affordable prices! On top of that, they were really easy to work with even though my reception hall didn’t have a kitchen. I miss that mango salad with the tortilla strips. The Willowstone Chicken was to DIE FOR! I got a ton of compliments on the food. The rental equipment from the furniture to the lighting was flawless.

We were lucky enough to have heard of this out of town caterer from someone in our local community. We had them here last night catering our housewarming party and the staff and food was awesome.
We had a buffet set up and did some tray passed as well and we couldn’t have been happier Very nice people from the planning all the way to the clean up. Huge thumbs up to Willowstone for a job well done. Not only did the food look good but the setup and presentation was super classy
We’ll totally use them again. give them a try or at least check out the website … it showcases their work and I think you’ll agree. they’re great !