Chef In My Kitchen Reviews 11

I received a Christmas dinner which cost £55 and it was poor. A timing plan was drawn up for its preparation and the meal was prepared according to instructions. Beef, rather than poultry gravy was supplied, a Yorkshire pudding!! and broccoli and cauliflower cheese. The food did not have a freshly cooked flavour and the entire experience was dreadful.

We ordered the Christmas Day meal for 7 adults and 3 children. 2 of the adult meals were vegetarian.

Communication leading up to the delivery was good.

While the food we received was lovely, the issues were plentiful. Such as:

- The food arrived in one large insubstantial box which was sodden and torn in one corner (to the extent I'm suprised the couriers didn't send it back) due to several of the contents having been broken and subsequently leaking in transit.
- The food was not packaged with any sort of thought regarding movement in transit. As such, glass bottles rode roughshod over thin plastic pots which broke, distributing the contents over the rest of the items.
- I spend the best part of an hour cleaning sticky cranberry sauce and vegetable soup off the entire box.
- There was zero ‘temperature control’ packaging as indicated on their website. The only packaging, apart from the outer box was some silver bubble wrap.
- The labelling was inadequate. Some things were labelled, some were not. This led to an unnecessary issue where an unlabelled bottle of gravy was mistaken for the vegetarian gravy. This could have been avoided with correct labelling.
- The 20cl “complementary” mini bottle of prosecco per adult came as one 70cl bottle and one mini 20cl bottle. This amounts to 90cl meaning we were short-changed by 50cl or 36%.
- The “artisan bread” we were instructed to toast with the salmon starter was in fact, granary bread rolls. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to serve toasted bread rolls to my guests.
- No picking list is included so you have no way of checking any discrepancies without a complete rigmarole.
- We felt the portion size was mean and had to supplement with our own additions. A feast it was not.
- The vegetarian option had no Yorkshire puddings making their lunch even sparser than ours.

I’m more than aware no organisation is perfect, that these things happen, and I accept it’s a part of life. An acknowledgement of mistakes made, a heartfelt apology from the company and a reasonable refund would have sufficed. Alas, this was not to be.

After an initial desultory offer of £30 compensation, I outlined my issues in detail. After pushing for a reply and finally having to threaten leaving a detailed review to get a response, Emma came back with a variety of non-apologies where she thought it pertinent to apologise for my feelings rather than her service, such as:

“I am sorry you feel our packaging was insufficient”
“If you think the box was poorly packaged (sic) I am sorry”
“I am sorry you feel this”
“Our opinion was that the labelling was sufficient (sic) and I apologise if you feel this was not the case.”

She stated they provide ice packs and have a process where they are counted out before and after packaging and said:

“We didn’t have a problem with this on the day we packed your box (sic) so I am unsure why this happened…”

So, from this statement I am to infer it is I who must be mistaken as they didn’t have any left-over ice packs so it couldn’t have been their fault? Let’s just say I’m a tad upset by this!

A further justification was received from her in the form of the bottles of Prosecco were “an additional gift from us as a thank you.” I got no response when I pointed out they were most certainly not, unless she was confusing ‘complementary’ with ‘complimentary’ – which it appears she was.

For the price paid (£55 for an adult and £22 per child) I do not consider it value for money at all.

In summary, their food is good (if a little on the mean side) but their packaging, labelling, delivery and customer service is absolutely atrocious, bordering on diabolical.

Used for my mums 60th garden party, we had the bbq menu. Everything was good beforehand, communication, planning etc. But on the day we had several mistakes. The largest of which being we were told all the salads were vegetarian, only to find anchovies in the potato salad after many vegetarian guests ate it. We were mortified, the menu hadn't mention it anywhere and it really ruined the atmosphere. When I raised this to Emma, she was entirely unapologetic, and would not acknowledge any mistake had been made. She said because we had ordered other fish and meat dishes, it shouldn't have been an issue to find fish in the salad. Other issues included beingserved lamb liver instead of rack of lamb, we did not get a bread selection and our halloumi was served plain with no marinade. We were refunded for the lamb liver but told that they could not assist us any further with any of the other issues. Emma wouldn't even acknowledge or sympathise with the vegetarian issues. It felt like once they got paid they didn't want to deal with us anymore. Such a shame as the chef was very pleasant but the customer service from Emma, who told me she is Director of the company, was terrible in the end.

Booked the chef for two evenings to celebrate a special birthday we had 14 people each time and my expectations were exceeded, the set up, the staff the food all were fabulous if we wanted to tweek the menu we could nothing was too much trouble.
At the end of the night all was tidied away and no mess, perfect would definitely recommend and definitely use again.

Superb food and service, never had to lift a finger and house returned to perfect order. All of our guests loved the evening and several asked for your details. Very many thanks for making our Golden Wedding celebration so special.

Chef in My Kitchen did an outstanding job of catering for a very large group of people at a special party we held. The location was challenging, but they overcame that, dressed the tables spectacularly, and produced delicious and beautifully presented food. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone.

Excellent experience

Absolutely brilliant! I hired Chef in My Kitchen to prepare a sit-down meal for my 50th birthday. Wonderful food and service, everything was perfect, would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

Delicious food, excellent and efficient service. Charming staff. What more can IsY!

Awesome. Superb food. Superb service. Have used them more than once and they make a special event extra special. Very highly recommended. Many thanks. Ian

The food was excellent and received a lot of positive comments from the guests. The timings were perfect, and we will certainly be using your services again in the future.