The Upper Crust Catering

I used Upper Crust for my 50^th birthday party. In summary: great experience and service ramping up to the event, mediocre experience at the event, zero responsiveness since then. I worked with Michael months before the event to secure the space and get the menu together. When I came to a tasting of the menu items I thought they were great.
At the party, the staff was great although they weren’t setting up the room as the contract stated, so I had to correct that. The food, however, was just mediocre. It was pretty much what I had seen at the tasting, but was lackluster (e.g. the beef and pineapple skewers had no pineapple and was cold and somewhat mealy).
Michael emailed me after the event to check in and I wrote him a detailed email with my concerns (including one about parking that I had paid extra for). It’s been nearly a month since the party and I Michael hasn’t responded to either of my emails, or my phone call.

We interviewed and had tastings with about half a dozen caterers for our 90-​person wedding this past July and the result was this: the ones with great food had unresponsive staff while the ones with great staff had bad food. We went with Upper Crust because they seemed to be happy medium and the best rate.
PRO’s:
— Staff, and especially Joey was great to work with, answered e-​mails & phone calls in a timely manner, professional
— They have their own dishes, silverware, linen and stemware so you don’t have to pay extra (at least $ 1000) to rent these items like at many other
caterers we looked at.
— They didn’t add on mandatory gratuity or lots of extra fees.
— No min. order — if your guest count drops you don’t have to pay extra.
— Flexible menu and tastings. We also requested that they source produce from a farm on our venue for the salads for dinner and Joey made that happen
while the other caterers we interviewed didn’t want to.
— They do great charity work in their community feeding homeless people and donating their services and products to other charitable organizations.
CON’s:
— The food was not great — just ok. Our pork and salmon were overcooked and the rice pilaf side lacked some of the ingredients we had during the tastings. We accepted this from the beginning because we decided that since catering is our biggest cost we were going to cut back on this.
— The staff arrived late on our wedding day which put extra stress on our friends who were putting decorations on the tables.
— Lackluster presentation of food — one of the cringe-​worthy thing was the sauce for the pork chops being served from a beverage jug.
— I wanted rectangular table cloths for our rectangular tables and Upper Crust only had round table cloths so they agreed to order rectangular ones for us. On the wedding day I only saw the round table cloths. One of them was also missing (and we did have to pay to rent each table cloth).

Upper Crust did the catering for our wedding and we couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. Joey is extremely helpful and worked very well with our planner. We went back for a second tasting and they were very accommodating with plenty of delicious options. The food was well prepared and hot when served to all our guests. We loved working with them and would do it again in a heartbeat!

We recently had Upper Crust cater our wedding for approx 70 people. Upper Crust has been in the business for a long time. After contacting several catering companies I was amazed by the responsiveness of Joey. He made working with Upper Crust so easy. We scheduled a tasting and were blown away with the food and the display they did for us. While I had read some negative reviews on Unilocal and was a bit nervous, I was upfront to Joey about my concerns He and I discussed it at length and I felt confident going forward with them. I also realize people are more apt to write a bad review than a good one.
I have to say, everything was perfect! The food was plentiful and fabulous. Our guests had nothing but compliments. I was also able to add a mac and cheese dish for the kids. The servers were excellent and the bartender handled the group easily. Once we cut the cake, Jim sliced it up and plated it for the guests. Clean up was great too. They had everything boxed up nicely. I was able to pick up the linens the day prior so that a friend could start setting up the reception early in the day. It wasn’t until after the room was set up and the Upper Crust crew was there that I saw the reception and I couldn’t have been happier.
I have done many events in area and worked with different caterers. I find that most issues often arise due to lack of communications. Joey represented Upper Crust well and was very responsive. Thanks Upper Crust from a very satisfied customer!

They just catered my wedding and I could not be more pleased. They were easy to contact, were able to make sure my picky eaters, my seattle foodies, a vegan and a gluten free eater were all well fed and so happy, everyone commented it was nice that I did food they loved.
Joey was great at coordinating everything and I never doubted that they were going to be amazing. If you dont book these guys you are going to be missing out on something really amazing.
In addition to that when we came in to do our first tasting my fiancé was stuck on 90 in 2 hours of backup but instead of rescheduling everyone on staff decided to just wait. In this time I was able to learn they cater food to the homeless in the area, this is not something they were advertising to me but I just happened to find out. So they are fantastic cooks and just great caring human beings who are bettering our community.

First of all, I don’t like to give poor reviews.
I tried to communicate with The Upper Crust about the issues at our wedding, and got no response so I feel like I have to write this review to caution other brides/​grooms about the services.
The Good
— The food tasted good, from the little I ate.
The Issues
— They handed out champagne for the toasts while my husband and I were not even in the area (we were signing our marriage certificate) so we weren’t ready for toasts and our guests had to wait while the champagne got warm.
— NEITHER my husband or I were served champagne during our toasts! (I drank my Uncle’s)
— The cake was NOT cut, or served, so my $ 500 cake went to waste
— There were not plates/​forks out at the dessert bar — my friend had to find some
— Guests were told there was no champagne left, however we had 18 bottles left over
— Plates, cups, and silverware piled up on tables
— Our venue coordinator (NOT employed by Upper Crust) was busing tables because the Upper Crust staff was not doing it quickly
— We had 3 meetings with Upper Crust where I made my expectations very clear, still these issues occurred.
My Advice?
Go through Shooby Doo. They did our rehearsal dinner and everything was perfect. They even cut our cake and boxed up the extra for our guests.

**Edit**: as of May 2012, The Upper Crust Catering contacted me after posting this review. I was happy that they took the initiative, even if it was almost 3 years our event, to reconcile. Ben was gracious in hearing out my complaints, and letting me know they’re striving to better their company. While it does not change the service we received at the time, I appreciate Ben, and Jim, addressing my concerns and receiving clarification and answers to some of our questions we’ve had for so long. ***
My husband and I hired Jim and The Upper Crust Catering for our wedding and unfortunately we did not have a good experience with them.
When we initially met with Jim (the owner) to go over packages to see if this company was a good fit for us, he was great. He seemed understanding that we were on a budget and promised he could provide a great product for the amount we had to spend on catering. We spent more than an hour there talking about our wedding plans and such and walked away feeling truly blessed to have found a vendor that «cared» about their clients and provided an estimate inside our budget. Unfortunately this was not how it panned out.
Not only were they extremely difficult to get a hold of (several emails AND calls were required to get one response), but a week before the wedding when we provided our final head-​count they tacked on an extra $ 1,000 to the bill because we had 25 more guests RSVP (considering we were spending only $ 2,500 on appetizers for 200 people, paying $ 1,000 more for only 25 people seemed overboard). He explained that they wanted to make sure they didn’t run out of food (which is totally understandable) and that we needed several more tables (and therefore linens and such) even if it was only 25 people. He explained that because it was so much extra on top of our deposit and estimate he’d do us the honor of personally being at our wedding to oversee everything and make sure it went smoothly. Knowing that it is worth the money not to run out of food and make sure our guests were cared for, we happily paid the extra amount even though it went way above our budget.
The day of the wedding 1) They ran out of food, which sucks (I didn’t even get to eat at my own wedding). 2) The «bartender» they provided did not check ID’s and we therefore had underage drinking at the event — something the venue AND we would have been personally liable for. 3) Jim did NOT, ever, show up to the event. We paid for him to be there and he never showed. 4) At the end of the night when they were packing up, they started carting the alcohol we purchased INDEPENDENTLY from the catering company into their truck to take back with them. My mom had to stop them from taking it, explaining the bride and groom purchased that themselves… they left it all on the sidewalk for my mom to pick up.
Obviously being seriously upset with the service we received and paid for, we sent SEVERAL emails and called dozens of times within a month of the wedding to speak with Jim and explain to him what happened — simply just to hear that he was sorry for their poor service or to just acknowledge what happened was wrong. Not only did it take several emails and phone calls to receive a response, but Jim denied any of this happening and that since he wasn’t there he couldn’t confirm that our complaints were valid. No apology, no attempt to make things right, not even an acknowledgement or consideration of these complaints.
Sadly we were left feeling scammed us out of money on the most important day of our lives. On top of that, the company failed to even respond or acknowledge our complaints, which are 100% legitimate. If Jim had owned up to these shortcomings and even apologized once for any of them we would gladly forgive and move on, but I do not want any other bride or groom to suffer a similar fate.

There is simply no better option for excellent service and food when working with a caterer in the Pacific Northwest. Jim Lustig and crew at The Upper Crust are fantastic! They have made our fundraising dinner absolutely exceptional; their professional and thoughtful service is the perfect compliment to great food.
I’m proud to call the people at The Upper Crust my friend. We have always appreciated their relational approach to partnering with us in our events.
Thanks, Jim for what you do and who you are.

I was a DJ for a wedding that these guys catered recently and being a Pescetarian, I was both stunned and delighted when one of the caterers brought me a plate with Salmon in Cherry sauce, smashed potatoes and two dishes made from Field Roast (my favorite veggie treat).
Needless to say they saved the day, giving me fuel and inspiration to play an awesome set of music.
Jorge introduced himself and complimented me on the music. Not sure of the other guys name however, I was able to get in his request for a Louis Armstrong classic. Kudos to the woman who brought me the plate of food!
If you are planning to include Vegetarian food on your Wedding menu (and you should.) Give these guys a call.

these guys cater the vegetarians of washington dinner a couple of times a year and with each meal it becomes increasingly clear that these people cannot cook vegetarian food! the only meal they ever made that was good was sponsored by field roast, who provided the roast, which was amazing. most recently they made a field roast thanksgiving sauté, butternut squash, wild rice pilaf and chocolate pumpkin pie with maple cream. horrible!!! i spent $ 16 on a meal that was way below par, and i’m not a pro — just a home cook with some experience.
i even skipped dessert, which is a no-​no for me. i wiped the maple crème off the cherry and ate that. next time they cater it i won’t be there.

The Upper Crust caterers were absolutely fantastic.
I worked with a man named Blair, and he was very great because he worked through e-​mail, which is great for me working in an office. I was able to set the whole thing up, and he even came and checked out our space in advance to find the perfect fit.
We got our estimate, and I was pleasantly surprised that this catering company actually did not charge extra for the silverware, cups, etc. They were part of a set-​up fee, but it was nice that they provided all of this. They came with some tables and a great idea for a color scheme. They had wonderful fall serving platters and linens. It really matched our mood and theme as an office open house party for close friends and clients.
When the caterers came, they were very professional and set up according to our needs. The food was delicious and plentiful. We received so many compliments from our guests on our choice of caterers. Apparently, Upper Crust has made quite a name for itself
The best part was, the caterers cleaned up, labeled the food, put it in the fridge and had the party finished up on time. They worked quickly and independently and were fun to talk to.
Next day, I get a follow-​up call from Blair.
Everything was wonderful. The party was a success. Thank you.