Reviews of Russo's Catering (Catering)

Karen Zimmer

Our wedding venue was at Silver Oaks Chateau and Russo's was our caterer. Silver Oaks is an exceptional venue and Russo's did an unbelievable job with their service and excellent food. Their roast beef, cranberry stuffed pork, Caesar salad and in particular their white cheddar mac n cheese was absolutely delicious. The appetizers were also exceptional. Drinks were not watered down and the service by their entire staff was efficient and friendly. Props also to how they handled the flip of the room. I highly recommend Russo's.

Karl Stevens

GREAT customer service!!! Kathy is such a sweet and helpful woman.

Erin Shepard

Oh, Russo's, where to begin? I have past experience with Russo's through their Easter and Mother's Day brunches (which are both excellent, although now I may never go back). When my husband and I chose The McPherson for our wedding, we were totally comfortable using Russo's. The Russo's coordinator that works with The McPherson is Kathy Costello. Before I go any further, I'd like to say that on our wedding day (3/23/19), the food was EXCELLENT. The service staff was EXCELLENT. The cake was EXCELLENT. That is literally the only reason they're getting more than one star. Kathy was almost impossible to get ahold of from the beginning. She would take days and weeks to respond to emails and calls. We did an initial phone conversation and then I didn't really hear from her again for like 6 months. We almost missed the November tasting because we were never contacted about it. Our 50% payment was due in the first week of January and she never contacted me with an invoice. When I contacted her she said she'd send something out but never did. I emailed her about 5 weeks before the wedding to get our food choices set - although reaching out really should have been HER job - and 10 days later, when she emailed me back, she said we could do a phone meeting because she "already had most of our choices". I asked for an in-person meeting because I was a little confused already at this point, and she agreed to meet in person (thankfully). At our meeting, we very quickly realized that all the "information" she already had about our wedding/choices WERE FROM ANOTHER COUPLE. She had gotten us mixed up with another McPherson couple. I didn't call her out on it, and we corrected everything (literally everything was wrong, including guest count, room set up, color scheme, cake flavors, and day-of coordinator's name), but it was really, really off-putting. Then a few days later she asked me for a picture of what we wanted on our cake... which I had handed her... at our meeting... and she told me she was going to show her grandkids because it had the Batman symbol on it. Thankfully she found it after that, but again, it really made me worry. The day our final guest count was due - one week before the wedding - I called Kathy. I also needed to make some corrections on our menu AGAIN because they were still wrong - including our cake flavors. I got her voicemail, which indicated that KATHY HAD GONE ON VACATION UNTIL AFTER MY WEDDING! At this point, I was very angry, and demanded to speak with a manager. I got Courtney, who was very pleasant. I told her all the issues we'd had with Kathy, and that she was now ON VACATION and never told me or gave me any other point of contact or advised me how to handle issues while she was gone. Courtney made all my corrections and dealt with my wedding herself from that point. After that, everything was fine, and Courtney did a great job. In fact, it was Courtney who verified that Kathy had gotten us mixed up with another McPherson couple (both of us had Mc- last names apparently). This is literally the ONLY less-than-5-star review I have given ANY of our wedding vendors. I hate to say it, but I'll never deal with Russo's again and aside from getting me someone competent, they never offered to make this right in any other way. Kathy has not even emailed to apologize. The service is definitely not worth the money it cost.

Nicole Gilligan

We used Russo's Catering to cater the food at our 5/6/17 wedding. We had a great experience with this company! Per a recommendation from our venue, The Thaxton, we set up a tasting session and their food was so delicious. We were able to taste several options for each course of our wedding dinner and were able to make informed selections. We dealt with Toni Callas during the entire planning process and she was nice and very responsive to any questions. We were able to talk through our plan for the day including butlered appetizers during out cocktail hour, our buffet style wedding dinner, and all setup and visualizations. Toni was very helpful and made wonderful suggestions. The food arrived on time and was amazing on the day, we had SO many positive comments from our guests. The staff during our event were dressed nicely and were very accommodating and helpful. Everything was set up exactly to our plan. We could not be more happy with our experience and would highly recommend Russo's for any event catering.

Lauren Fennewald

OMG I am soooo thrilled my Husband and I went with Russo's for our wedding! They are incredible! We worked on the planning our menu and table linen/chair set up with Courtney. She was so helpful and made the planning process so smooth. We had a few problems with needing changes from our end and she was so happy and quick to make sure things were changed to our specifications and that our day was as perfect as she could help make it! Then the actually night of the wedding, the staff working at the venue were just wonderful! They made the room so gorgeous and set it up so fast! Also when serving and talking to guests they were very professional and pleasant to be around. Now to the BEST thing, the food! Russo's food was AMAZING. The appetizers and the main courses were so delicious! All my guests gave me the best compliments on the food, I only wish I could pass them all on! I would definitely use Russo's again for other special events!

M Thomas

We were so thrilled to work with Russo's Catering at our recent party that was held at New Covenant Church. Toni, in the office, kept things organized, kept us in the loop and was always there to answer our many questions. Mark was awesome with our versatile (and delicious) food & beverage package, which earned GREAT reviews! Chaz was the consumate friendly bartender and he was so helpful to us throughout our event. THANKS to Russo's for their part in making the evening so successful and memorable!

Tyrone White

#Good Service , clean & orderly. very respectful. and timely

Jennifer Mosby

The Fish Tacos, great service

Blake Potzmann

Food good

Lorenzo

One of the best that I've seen in over three decades of dining out. The staff is so helpful and attentive. The food is truly honest, and the auora is so clean and crisp. It's like their there.

Casey Davis

We used Russo’s to cater a birthday party, and it was absolutely fabulous! Not only was the food delicious, it was delivered in easy to serve containers, included everything we could need (plates/warmers/utensils/serving utensils, etc) and a great selection of food! People were raving about the food! We’ll definitely be repeat customers!

Sarah Kopatz

Outstanding service and food selection!! Consider Russo’s for your next corporate event or wedding dinner. This family owned business does thing right and with care for your needs.

Lorenzo Jamison

Cleanest restaurant that I've ever worked or enjoyed a meal at.

Freddie Spellman

great

Kimberly Tigue

Best chef salad in the lou. Fresh

#J squad

Their selection for express catering is AMAZING!! I absolutely love the presentation of the boxed lunche. And everytime I order something different I'm never disappointed. We also get great feedback from our clients! Russo's is definitely my go to for catering!!

R F

Only Gets Better

April Clark

Always professional staff and great food!

Jenny N

I used Russo's for my wedding a while back and had a friend ask for contact information because they enjoyed the food at my wedding. I will start by saying the actual service and food at the wedding was amazing. The servers were extremely nice and professional so my review reflects every step of the process up to the moment we sat down for dinner. I just don't think it is fair for other couple to go through the process without a warning. I worked with Kathy and this is the main reason I would never recommend this place to friends or family. She was very nice the first time we met to go over initial details but all professionalism went out the window following that first day. It took us 6 MONTHS to get a copy of our contract, after we were promised it would be to us withing 2 WEEKS. Every time I inquired about its status it was "coming by the end of the week". When we finally got the contract, it was incorrect and missing information about food selections and drinks. I actually ordered another wedding cake from a different bakery and used Russo's for the sheet cakes as extras because I was told that what I wanted "couldn't be done". The other bakery handled it magnificently and did "the impossible". Kathy never remembered my face when we would meet; always had to ask who I was even though we met many times. She forgot details from a phone call or email from the previous day or week so I would have the same conversation repeatedly. Every step off the way was like pulling teeth to get anything done. I took home napkins to pre-fold and dropped them off with table clothes (that I bought myself because of lots of hidden linen fees not explained to me beforehand) to be taken to the venue beforehand. Thank goodness they got there. I will say again the staff there the day of was so helpful with setting everything up, and my family did have to help because of the time crunch. But my aunt had to take over the planner role the day of because Kathy was zero help and was apparently only there for about 5 minutes (and we only know this because my aunt had to hunt her down to get information from her.) So after all the hassle, she was not even there to manage the chaos she helped create. Again, good food, great day of service but the journey to get there made the whole thing not worth it in the end. I would have done it differently if the first meeting had been a true representation of how unprofessional my wedding planning was going to be handled. I don't personally think that catering should have been my biggest struggle with my wedding but it was and I just want to make sure others are warned.

AP AP

Working with Kathy Costello of Russo's Catering was easily the worst decision of my life. She was inadequate, incompetent, and easily overwhelmed by even the most mundane of tasks. My experience with her will never be forgotten and that is not in a good way. Using Russo's started off rocky, as it took her 1 month to get the contract to us, even though we had already locked down our date for all of our friends an family. Luckily there wasn't another bride wanting to work with them at this time, or else our wedding date could have easily been taken. After we secured the contract, we immediately cut Russo's a check for the deposit payment. From then on, my experience was of what nightmares are made of. She showed up to the linens meetings with no linens, the glassware and tableware meetings with no glassware of tableware, and even stated to us that in fact you could fit 10 table settings (chargers included) at a 60 inch round, knowing each of our tables had 10 people at each, and a 60 inch round can only fit 8 settings. The food was so horrible at our first tasting, we had to take a second tasting to go over food. Per the contract, the tasting is complimentary. Russo's in fact charged us for said "complimentary" tasting. She also showed up to the tasting with nothing she was suppose to come with: ie; ALL linen selections, plate selection, silverware selection, glassware selection. She also first served us our wine tastings in PLASTIC cups. My dad was blown away and had to ask for a real glass for the tasting. I cannot understand how this woman has a job in this field. Skip to the day before our wedding, a diagram I completed was sent to her via email for her to set up the room, based on diagram. When i got there, nothing was right. I spent the entire day with a bridesmaid resetting up the entire room, which then in turn led me to not pick up my wedding dress, as they had closed for the day while i had to redo the entire room over, and we had lost track of time. On our wedding day, Kathy had 1 job, she just had to put tables 1-22 on the table. SHE COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT! She called my brothers phone 3 times in the middle of pictures and asked where to put tables 1-22. I will never understand how she couldn't figure that out and why she would call me about this dilemma instead of use her common sense. A few family members also told me they got sick the day after our wedding from the food, including my mother-in-law. We are currently taking legal action.

Bill Wittke

Good food, friendly staff

Chris Dickhans

I had Russo’s cater an event at my home for 38 people. I would highly recommend them. The food came ready to serve and was fantastic. The endive Spears with roasted sweet potatoes, bacon and chèvre mousse was the most popular, followed by the smoked salmon blini as a close second. My personal favorite was the sesame encrusted chicken satay with Thai peanut sauce. Thanks Russo’s for the excellent catering.

Colleen Beckner

I called Cathy from Russo's to cater my daughter's bridal shower and from the first phone call up to the day, Cathy and her team were outstanding! They were so courteous to all the guests as well as calming my nerves with reassurances that all will be well. The food was fresh and perfectly displayed. We even had sangria! I can't thank them enough for their great service and kindness.

gregory taylor

I really don't know I delivered food to them

Lucia Busch

My daughter got married on October 27th 2018 At The Stone House of St. Charles such a beautiful venue. Russo's catered it and all food was amazing! We had three different stations..Pasta station...Taco Station and Meat and Potato station. Each station was fabulous! Our cake that came with our catering package was one of the best cakes I have ever eaten. The room was set up exactly as we had asked! People that had attended the wedding have text..called...Facebook and said our venue was absolutely beautiful and the food was amazing!! Thank u Toni Callas and her amazing crew! The bartenders were the best!:)))

japaneseflea .

Eat nearly once a week. Banika is wonderful.

Arlie Hayes

Had two experiences with Russo's catering and both were excellent!!

Cassy O’Daniel

Russo’s did an excellent job providing the appetizers and dinner we needed to make our wedding reception the most magical night we ever imagined! It was an absolute blast and it would not have been so without their services. They were very responsive and helpful throughout the planning process and were great to interact with day-of. We highly recommend them for your catering services at your next event!