j8.ly (s)

I love Mile End Deli food, Montreal Jewish cuisine available in Brooklyn. I've written about them about smoked meat (pastrami but so much better, and then contributed a photo to this bagels post (Montreal vs. New York, neverending rivalry). Plus I've eaten there a number of times.

I liked them enough to use them for a Hacks/Hackers event (we've had too much Asian food).

But after last night, we've discovered their catering service has a lot of problems, so I'd just to raise caution to those who are thinking of using them. Update: their response is below.

1) They forgot the brussel sprouts we had ordered for the vegetarians. (Okay, things like this happen. In and of itself I would not be a problem.)

2) They didn't include the extra rye bread I had asked for, knowing there was a bad meat-to-bread ratio. I'll admit they did not acknowledge it in my order, so I should have pushed harder. We were willing to pay for it.

3) But what really got us was that unlike almost every other catering service I have ever deal with in New York City (probably over 100), they don't include plates, utensils and napkins. That really floored us. So the organizers had to scramble to buy that stuff minutes before our event began at not trivial cost.

It's so standard in New York (and probably everywhere), that if they don't include it, they should warn people. No where on their catering site does it let people know they have to provide their own.

I've sent them an email and will let you know what they say

Update 2/17/2011.

Here is their response, which made me feel better. And I will add, of course, that people though the food was delicious.

Hi Jenny,

I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed with our service.

As soon as we realized that the sprouts had been mistakenly sent out with another catering order we roasted a fresh batch and had Noah personally deliver them. When he brought them by he spent time cleaning up the table and reorganizing the food. I was going to contact you this afternoon regarding the refund for the error on our end.

In terms of the bread: In your initial email you wrote "plus extra rye bread?". I understood that to mean that you wanted to make sure that there was rye with the delivery and indicated that directly on the invoice. It wouldn't have been a matter of 'pushing harder' but rather simply clarifying a request for additional bread. The amount of bread we provided is the standard amount we provide for that weight of meat.

We have filled hundreds of catering orders and have never provided plates and napkins without request; this is the first time that anyone has complained. Contrary to your opinion, our experience thus far indicates that this is not a standard practice. Had you expected paper goods to be provided, you should have at least shared the number of expected guests. We are happy to provide paper goods, but find that sending them with each order is unnecessarily wasteful.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we think your decision to write a negative blog post for an event that you did not attend without first giving us an opportunity to respond to your email is unfair and misleading to your readers. Despite food being the overwhelming part of any catering service, not once throughout your post do you mention whether guests of the event actually enjoyed it.

You can expect a $48 refund for the late arriving sprouts to post shortly.

Best,

Rae

Rae Cohen
Mile End Catering

I'm surprised that this is their first complaint re utensils and napkins, and wondered if it was because they did a lot of home catering. Our events are in venues, so we need things provided. Either way, Rae also said they would add the caution re the napkins and utensils, which is what I was hoping for anyway.