** Advisory regarding YELP.COM:
In the interest of fairly representing The Chichi Chef, we hope that any potential client whom may be deterred after reading our reviews on yelp.com may consider the following:
Our business is one of many in the midst of a website controversy with yelp.com. We have received 15 reviews, 13 of which are five-star rated, while two are poorly rated (written by a mother and her daughter and are based on untrue facts). Yelp has “filtered” out 12 of our five star reviews, which leave us with an undeserved representation. For better assurance and understanding, we suggest you visit http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/yelp-class-action-lawsuit/ .
We have copied below the “filtered out” reviews.
In addition, we have consent from the following clients to be contacted for a referral.
Cobb M- Manhattan, NY
I cannot recommend Chichi Chef highly enough; they catered our wedding in September and they were superb. Working with Susie was an absolute pleasure–easy, efficient, dependable and the end result was excellent. Susie’s food was a dream–our guests are still raving about the perfect lobster rolls served on arrival night, and the wedding dinner itself was unbelievable–perfect beef, delicious fish, brown butter pumpkin ravioli that I still dream about! Even more than this, everything was carried out by Susie and her team with the utmost care and professionalism. The settings were beautiful as was the presentation. It is hard to adequately describe how Susie and her team really go above and beyond — from the day of the wedding when her team brought delicious lunches around to the entire wedding party while we were getting ready, to the night itself when Susie made sure that two plates were set aside for my now-husband (yay!) and myself because we were too busy to actually get ourselves food, she and her team just thought of everything. Some might say our wedding was logistically challenging (on an island in Maine, 180 guests, a weekend of catered events), but Susie didn’t bat an eyelash. The entire weekend was seamless. Several wedding guests have enquired after Susie to enlist her for future events. I also have pictures I would be happy to share. Bottom line: Chichi Chef is wonderful in every way.
Camille W- New York, NY
I can’t say enough good things about our experience with Susie and ChiChi Chef, who catered both our rehearsal dinner and our wedding. The food was outstanding – we are from New York City and our family and friends are used to eating out at amazing restaurants down here. They were all incredibly impressed with the food and kept coming up to us throughout our wedding telling us how amazing their dinner had been. My mother, who never orders dessert, is still talking about the blueberry crumble we had at the rehearsal dinner. But what made the experience with ChiChi Chef so positive was much more than the food. Susie was my favorite vendor to work with. She is so friendly and listened to everything we wanted and managed to make it all work despite our limited budget. Every time I started getting nervous and panicky about wedding plans, I called Susie and she managed to calm me down – something my now husband is forever grateful for! Her staff at both events were polite, friendly, and a lot of fun to be around as well. They were well dressed, discreet, and paid attention to every detail and every guest. Susie handled the rentals for us since we got married at a private property and nothing was missing. In addition, she took the few items we had brought with us and worked them into beautiful table and buffet arrangements so that our reception room was even more elegant and well decorated than we had imagined. Like the previous poster, Susie did all of this for us in a location that did not have a kitchen, but she somehow managed to make it work. I too noticed the negative review below, and do not understand it. Susie was the first vendor I hired after booking our venue, and worked on planning this wedding with her for nine months. She was so willing to work with us and make sure that we got exactly what we wanted, and it showed beautifully in the end result. Even in the final stretch, she was coming up with new food and other item suggestions that made our final event even better. We can’t recommend Susie and ChiChi Chef enough. We now want to plan a party in Maine every year so that we can hire her to handle them!
Aaron G- Tahoe City, CA
My wedding was just over a year ago, and by most measures it could be called ‘big’ and ‘fancy’ and ‘extremely fun!’. The reception was a surreal blur of hugs and smiles, food, drinks, photos, speeches, and dancing. Amid the happy blur, several things stand out about the trappings of the night. Front and central is the food, which was incredibly well-prepared and well-presented. We didn’t micro-manage the caterer or her staff- we just let them run. Not only would I call it one of the best meals of my life (seriously, wow), but even now when the subject of the wedding comes up with my family or my wife, the food ALWAYS gets mentioned as one of the highlights of a great weekend. As a Yelper and a person with a very critical eye for customer service, I am sad to see a negative review posted here. I can’t comment on another person’s reported experience, of course- but I can come to the defense of a company that I carefully chose for my most special event, and who blew us away with their delivery, professionalism, smiles, and most of all- the best food. On a website like Yelp, we have to hope and believe that over time the cream will rise to the top, and that the ‘truth’ about a company will emerge from the mist.
Hillary J- Camden, Maine
Susie is amazing and fun to work with – she catered my daughter’s graduation party from college. Susie and her staff made the event stress free and the food was delicious. I highly recommend the Chichi Chef for any event.
Judy G- Manhattan, NY
Our wedding was in Central Maine this past June and we were absolutely thrilled with Chichi Chef. Susie worked with us over several months to come up with the perfect menu and presentation that would work well for our venue and guests. Everyone raved about the food–which was fabulous–and the entire staff of servers were helpful, friendly and professional. The beef was out of this world and a guest–who is a professional chef–complemented the butternut squash ravioli. I am a native Mainer, but have lived in New York City for the past 5 years, and I would say without a doubt the food, service and experience was top rate. I would highly recommend Susie and Chichi to anyone getting married in Maine!
Jen C- Warren, Maine
Without question I would highly recommend Susie, and her great crew of Chi Chi Chef catering! I’ve worked some in the catering business and the restaurant business for many years and was so impressed at how easily and professionally everything from day one to our special day was handled…a complete joy in every way. The food, it’s presentation wonderful, using local and fresh, service just super! I know many say years after, how wonderful the food was at many of her events, as was with our own I say ditto, we also are still getting compliments. Once I told her what we wanted and how, she just took care of it and was very helpful with creative ideas.
Kate D- Washington, DC
I can’t sing the praises of Chichi Chef and its owner, Susie, enough! Susie did a phenomenal job catering my sister’s wedding in Camden five years ago. My sister had a wonderful experience working with Susie, and guests *still* talk about how good the food was. So naturally the decision was very easy for my (now) husband and me as we looked to plan our own wedding outside of Freeport this past August. We enjoyed all of our planning calls with Susie — she had great ideas that enhanced our menu and had a wonderfully pleasant customer service. Her prices were incredibly fair for the quality of food she offers — locally sourced from sustainable Maine farms. She served as our caterer for both our rehearsal dinner (a classic lobster bake) and wedding, and our own guests raved about her and her team’s can-do customer attitude and the quality of the food. I would hire Susie again in a heartbeat and highly recommend her to anyone.
Eliza D- Camden, Maine
Susie went above and beyond for my graduation party this summer. The food was delicious, and cooked to perfection. Everyone was able to have seconds if they wanted. Susie and her staff were all very friendly and helpful, they worked very hard to make this party perfect so that I didn’t have to stress and I could just relax and enjoy my party and my guests. My friends and family raved about the party for weeks afterwards.
Avi G- Rockport, Maine
Susie has catered our galleries annual summer event every year for the past 10 years. We also worked with her to do a private dinner party which went off without a hitch. She is fantastic to work with, presents beautifully, and most importantly, makes the yummiest food. I would highly recommend her for anything from a casual cocktail party to a formal dinner and everything in between!
Sarah C- Cape Elizabeth, Maine
My husband and I hired the Chi Chi Chef to cater a dinner party over the holidays. The apps alone were so delicious I almost didn’t have room for dinner. The staff was charming and very professional, the attention to detail was amazing and we will be having them cater again in the future.
Ken C- Warren, Maine
Chichi catered our wedding and it was first rate. She was easy to deal with before the event – we got everything we had hope for. The food was amazing in taste and presentation. Everyone had only positive things to say and the Cupcakes were amazing! We are going to another wedding in October that she is catering and we can’t wait. A year later and we’re still talking about the entire event and the catering certainly made a great different. Highly recommend ChiChi Chef.