Blue Ribbon Cooking Review

I am so grateful to Blue Ribbon Cooking, because they helped save my wedding in July 2019! I was originally planning to be married elsewhere, but found out 7 days prior to my wedding that my venue had been shut down by the City of Seattle, which left me scrambling to find a new venue/caterer. Very fortunately, the team at Blue Ribbon reached out to my wedding planner and offered their services. They were very understanding of my situation and with 4 days to go until the wedding, we were able to finalize the new wedding logistics and menu.

Comments on different facets of the wedding experience:

Bridal Suite: They converted one of their rooms to a bridal suite area, which was spacious and had windows, work tables/chairs, a hook for my dress, and a full-length mirror. Having the natural light (in addition to the indoor lighting) was great so that we could see how my makeup looked in the daylight as I was getting my hair/makeup done.

Venue Space: We did formal photos outside prior to the ceremony. There is a willow tree nearby which has Lake Union in the background--we did my first look photos there and got some gorgeous photos! We held the ceremony indoors with the chairs facing the boats/water, and Blue Ribbon decorated the space with sheer draping to form an archway for our ceremony. I already had flowers/centerpieces from another vendor, but appreciated how Blue Ribbon arranged my decorations. After the ceremony, the guests moved to another room for the cocktail hour while the main room was converted to the dining area. My guests stated they thought the venue was cozy and charming. Since the building is older, the main room did get warm towards sunset because there were many windows and it was a sunny day, although opening the doors did help cool the room. Another photo tip--ask Blue Ribbon staff for access to the dock area--we got some great artistic photos by the water that are among my favorites.

Food: Given the last-minute nature of my wedding, my menu options were somewhat limited to the food that Blue Ribbon had already ordered for the week. Nevertheless, they were able to accommodate and include a substantial vegetarian entree option (pesto ravioli) and starch (polenta) for my vegetarian guests, as well as salmon and meat appetizers for the non-vegetarians. We got many compliments from our guests on the food. Although I already had an outside dessert vendor, I did like the artful way my dessert table was set up.

Overall, the Blue Ribbon Cooking team was communicative and willing to work with me to accommodate my requests. I m very grateful to the Blue Ribbon Cooking team for pulling everything together for my wedding with such short notice, and I have many wonderful photos and memories from my wedding day!

It was a fun team-building event. We split into 3 teams of 11 and did an iron chef style "competition" with a professional chef. I really enjoyed it.

Our daughter will be married on August 8, 2015 at the Sanders Estate, which was recently purchased by BRC. The wedding-planning process with Ami, our wedding planner at BRC, and the venue manager/day-of coordinator, Lisa, has been fantastic! Our vision for this celebration is quite specific, and our expectations are, admittedly, much higher than average. Ami, BRC, Lisa, and their teams have been an absolute joy to work with. The last year has been largely stress-free and very enjoyable thanks to all of them. We recommend both BRC and Sanders Estate to anyone who wants quality, value, and a special and unique experience.

Did a company offsite with a group of 20 and had a great experience! Perfect choice and would definitely recommend to others.

Nonee, Michael and the Blue Ribbon Cooking crew are beyond amazing!
No detail was overlooked. The staff was extremely friendly, the food was flavorful, presentation was lovely and service was spectacular. I was blown away with their vision. It was such an incredible experience. I highly recommend Blue Ribbon Cooking for your next catering event. They are seriously a dream team and I look forward to working with them again.

Vanessa saved the Diva Wedding. We were introduced to Vanessa and her amazing crew of folks via one of our favorite event venues - Velocity Dance Center. Our wedding coordinator quit the day of our tasting. We asked if Vanessa would help us in addition to doing the catering. And let's just say she took our vision and made it bigger, badder, and more awesome. She was gal on point for everything. She was calm in the midst of artistic chaos. And to top it off Blue Ribbon Cooking way exceeded our super snobby foodie needs.

Had to wait a while to rate this so that my feelings and emotions on the day did not cloud my judgement in a heat of the moment posting.

My wife and I flew over to Seattle for a friends wedding from Toronto. We left our then 12 month old son back home and thank the heavens we did! For a company in the customer service and satisfaction industry based in one of the wettest cities in the world you'd think they would have contingencies prepared for bad weather.

Positives:

1 - Food was decent. Nothing out of the ordinary but I would have expected more from a company in Toronto if I had to pay what my friend paid. I understand cost of living and US exchange rate, but at the price I should have been wowed.

2 - Venue was gorgeous. Old world charm with that country inn feeling in the middle of the city. Location was easily accessible by car even for someone who was not from the area.

Negatives:

1 - Venue runs on a well system. No electricity equals no clean flowing water. I guess its part of the old world charm? However, to function in the 21st century I can't believe there was no back up system in the case of a power outage. My wife and I walked into washrooms with overflowing human feces as the toilet system stopped working. Guests couldn't wash their hands and only near the end of the night did bottles of hand sanitizer start showing up in the washrooms.

2 - Everything that required electricity in this world didn't work. This is the part where I was glad I didn't bring our 12 month old son. By the end of the night we were litterally freezing our butts off. How could a business not have a back up system for electrical failures? No heat, no lights, no music. The officiant had to yell at the top of his lungs for people to hear him over the ceremony. The poor bride had to walk down the aisle with no music, no lights. Her first dance was done with a car backed up into the tent running music out of the car's system and all her guests using the smart phones as lights to light up the dance floor. Not exactly the wedding any girl would have dreamt of having on her big day.

Hopefully this event would have helped them make some changes to the way they operate the business. If not, I wouldn't recommend this place unless you're 100% sure your wedding day is going to be sunny. For the price my friends paid for this wedding, I could have had a real fancy wedding in Toronto.

2 stars because I'm Canadian and I'm being nice and polite. Can't help but compare them to what we would have expected from a Canadian company. By far the worst wedding I've ever been to. Not sure if I should be sorry for the bride and groom, or for my wife and I who wasted our money to fly over. Sorry A & T, but your wedding really kinda sucked..... =(

What a great evening! At Blue Ribbon you work with terrific Chefs to make your own meal. They provide step by step instruction and support. This is best enjoyed as a group, and we made fresh pasta, salads, olive cake and chicken piccatta. Great fun, and the meal was excellent.

We had our wedding here. Winona was amazing. She helped us through the entire process. The food was amazing and i am still getting comments almost a year later. I totally recommend the family style dining. This way no one could bug us when we were trying to eat. Because we only did beer and wine we didn't have to have a bartender. My wife gave them some ideas about her flowers but nothing specific and they were amazing. They set up for the remote (gasworks) venue for the ceremony. They provided expertise when asked and really helped make our day perfect. We highly recommend them.

Went for the tasting for my daughter's vegan wedding reception dinner and it was fabulous! My husband and I are not vegan but loved the food and were very full afterwards. Blue Ribbon does an excellent job on all their menus. I'm also a planner and recommend them to my clients as well as choosing them for my daughter's wedding!

BRC made our wedding a dream come true! Keali was our wedding coordinator and created a perfect day that our family and friends still rave about. She worked so hard to incorporate all the details we mentioned and made it seamless the day of, I didn't worry about a single thing! The food was delicious, very gourmet for a buffet! I can't say enough about the service, food, venue and the planning process. A fantastic service for the price!

WORST WEDDING EXPERIENCE EVER

If I could give Blue Ribbon zero stars, that would be appropriate. This was by far one of the worst customer service experiences ever, worsened by the fact that it was for a wedding where things are supposed to be happy and joyous in celebration for a once in a lifetime event.
Everyone knows weddings can be stressful and things don't always go according to plan like the day of the wedding I attended as a groomsman. Unfortunately, that day had a severe rainstorm which caused a power outage at Sanders Estate (wedding venue). That is out of Blue Ribbon's control. We get it. What is unacceptable is the way BR handled the situation. Everything seemed rushed and there was a lack of organization, compassion, accountability, problem solving, and simple courtesy.

The first thing we thought to ask for was a generator and they said they didn't have one. We asked if they could get one and they told us the house was too old for a generator to be used. Well, the wedding venue was outside, all we wanted was a generator to power up some lights and to power up the speakers so there could be music as we walked down the aisle. Nope, not possible and not even a hint of helpfulness to try to look into it. A few groomsmen would later go out after the ceremony (more on that) so that we could get some music and lights for the dancing and they easily found a generator. You would think that a company that caters events would think to have one in case of emergency situations.

As guests started to roll in, there were no directions to parking. No signs and no one to direct traffic so the groom himself went out into the rain to direct people.
We asked the planner for some time to figure out if we wanted to start food/dinner first to allow more time to see if the power would come back up. The bride was hoping to have the music to walk down the aisle. The ceremony was supposed to start at 3:30pm and we were constantly being told that we had to start the ceremony.

As for the venue, there were holes in the tent and one large one right around where the bridal table was so that it looked like a water hose was running. There were puddles and no attempt to mop/clean the worse areas. There was two lamp heaters which wasn't enough to keep the 150+ guests warm. Regardless of a power outage or not, a wedding in October should have more heaters. There was no running water in the kitchen set up so I'm not sure how hands were washed...pretty sure that's a health violation. Also, we were told that they would set up tables and linen for the rehearsal dinner the night before at the house. They didn't and we had to set everything up ourselves. Not a big deal, but again, promises that were made and not kept.
The worst issue is the rudeness of the "owner". One of the caterers came into the house and asked for help to bring in a guest that had a little too much to drink. I went with another groomsman and found some people helping a guest walk to the house. The owner said that the guest was a liability because he had fallen down and she threatened to shut down the wedding. She kept telling us that the guest needed to get into the house and how he was a liability even as he already to the house with the help of other guests. Well, it's a wedding and I'm pretty sure this wasn't the first time a guest had too much to drink, and the place he fell was the outside restroom that had no light and no caution slippery sign.

This is all from what I personally observed and I can only imagine what other problems occurred throughout the wedding. I would highly encourage looking elsewhere if, after spending so much time and money, you don't want a half assed job and be rudely rushed through your special day.

We used Blue Ribbon to cater our wedding at Within Sodo and let me just say, they made my whole wedding planning process very seamless. Jill was our wedding coordinator and we just loved her upbeat personality and willingness to do anything for us. Our wedding came perfectly together and Jill had the venue decorated just as we envisioned. Now, on to the food...it completely exceeded our expectations. I have to admit that during our tasting we weren't overly thrilled about the food, but at the wedding, it was AMAZING. We had so many compliments about the food from our guests all night, and in fact, we are still hearing how good it was 2 weeks later! One of our guests said it was the best food she has ever had at a wedding! THANK YOU Blue Ribbon and Jill for being so awesome to work with and making our wedding planning process so easy!

Had amazing time here. Great staff. Really great people here. Can t wait to go back

I love love love working with Vanessa, Adam, and everyone at Blue Ribbon Cooking School.

As local Wedding Planning company, we have worked with many different catering companies. What stands out with Blue Ribbon is their custom menus, passion for food and a great event, and can do attitude! I LOVE how they try to find new and unique ways of making a menu tailored to the couple. Not just a "choose option A or B" type of catering company. . . they truly care about the whole experience for our clients throughout the planning process, as well as the experience of all of the wedding guests on the actual wedding day!

Their menu tastings are hands down a favorite, and such a great event for our clients! We leave SO full, with so much great info, and amazing options for their menu. They also offer many other services, which can be so nice to make things easier on the couple and logistics (instead of booking outside rentals, flowers, cake, etc!).

I've worked with Vanessa for years and years and am still so impressed with her, and the whole company. They handle even the toughest, most logistically-challenging events with grace and a smile. One of my top go to's for any event, I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone and everyone! LOVE working with them!

We held our son s bar mitzvah party at Blue Ribbon in August and had a truly great experience. Keali Lerch, the planner, was amazing, and, looking back, I so wish we d had someone like her to help when we planned our wedding in Boston 18 years ago. She was on it and really helped guide us through the menu and event schedule.

She was so helpful when we had suggestions and really talked us through the options so we could find exactly the menu we had in mind, including tweaking some of the standard items. (We re tough critics, and we were overjoyed with the results, as were our guests.)

The place looked fabulous and she was very patient -- and helpful -- with all our questions. We knew if we brought any concerns to her, we d see results fast and get help for how to stay within our budget. Coordinating with the DJ and photographer and the venue were made very easy for us. And Blue Ribbon and Keali were also very helpful and attentive to detail with a guest who has a severe egg allergy and guests who are gluten-free.

It was a great experience overall.

Beware of this shady, unprofessional business, especially during COVID. They are literally trying to rob us of $15,000 and 1) never provided a single service, 2) admitted to missing Zoom meetings because they were "sleeping," and 3) our in-person tasting menu in no way reflected what we requested for our actual wedding food and 4) even though they provide dishes, linens, etc., you won't want to use them because they are worse than what you'd see in a hospital cafeteria. Save your money and go elsewhere.

Such a beautiful little place on the lake! The food is fun and delicious, too.

Went for a group building event. The staff planned well and was ready to make the event memorable.

My office chose to do a team building event at Blue Ribbon Cooking and it was such a blast. We did a one hour wheel throwing session with Lindsey which was super informative and fun. Lindsey was very helpful and supportive as we all were beginners :)

It was really fun, with great companies and excellent service

I was at Blue Ribbon for a corporate team building event. We all loved it, the staff is so much fun to work with, every cooking resource is available, the location is perfect. Thank you Mike for sharing the zucchini and yellow squash from your garden.

We used their catering services for my sons wedding and found them to be very reasonably priced considering the high quality of the food. Service could have been a touch better otherwise I would have given 5 stars.

Staff was grouchy. We had to wait 20 minutes standing in a hall before we started. It was crowded chaos. The bar was not attended properly. We were told we could bring desserts home at the end and provided to go boxes. Then another person yelled at us and made us give the desserts back. I have never worked so hard on a dinner I was paying someone else for and then treated rudely. NEVER again!

My company recently hosted a team building event at BRC. The reason I give a 2-star rating is the poor customer relations skills of Iron Chef Mike (the white-haired gentleman in the photo on the About Us page of BRC's website).
After cocktails, our large group was divided into several smaller teams--my team and Mike's team occupied adjoining workspaces. At one point during preparation, our chef asked me to find rice for our recipe. When I realized the large container of rice had been removed from the community pantry area by one of the other teams, I began wandering from kitchen to kitchen in search of it. When I entered Mike's kitchen looking for the rice, he barks "If you're not on my team, get out of my workspace." Eventhough I found that response very offputting, I let it pass since the rice wasn't in his kitchen and I still needed to find it. The workspace my team occupied contained the walk-in refrigerator for use by all teams and 10minutes or so later, Mike enters our workspace to access the refrigerator. As he passes-by to enter the refrigerator, I say to him "I see now you're entering our workspace." His response (without looking at me): "It's my kitchen." In both exchanges, Mike gave no indication he was joking or kidding.
At that point I thought of registering a complaint, but decided I did not want to put a damper on the evening for my colleagues.
Other than Mike, the rest of the staff was friendly, and the food we prepared was tasty. If that were not the case, I would have rated 1 star.