Chowgirls

Our first tasting with Chowgirls took 3 hours, we didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day, and we knew we’d found our caterer. They do a wonderful job working with you to create an interesting menu that really speaks to you as a couple. The food was just as good on the day of the wedding as it was at the tasting, and the service was very good as well. The only complaint I have was that the person we originally worked with had to go out of town, and a few details were dropped in the handover (they didn’t plate and pre-serve our vegetarian entrée, so a few people didn’t get it, which wasn’t a huge deal because there were other options). Overall, I’d still recommend them without reservation.

I would recommend Chowgirls to any foodie couple who cares where your wedding meal ingredients come from. Chowgirls instinctively understood our desire not to have a cookie-cutter wedding or meal, and were very professional and responsive to help us plan a menu that was within our budget and tastes. They were especially great at working with us to help us write our menus, and were able to tell us which ingredients were local, organic, or both. This, to me, is the sign of a caterer who cares about the products they are serving, which every caterer should, but does not! Chowgirls even provided biodegradable dessert plates made from fallen palm leaves, which added a unique and green twist to our table settings. Some guests told me that it was the best wedding food they had ever had. The only wrinkle we encountered was a miscommunication to our event staff that changed how our coffee was served (we wanted it at the tables but a coffee buffet was set up instead.) Chowgirls has profusely apologized for the error and a refund for the porcelain cups not used is in the works.

Delicious, organic, locally sourced (when possible) food. Heidi and Greta were extremely helpful and brought an amazing team with them. We had 210 guests and a plated dinner. They were super flexible when we asked them to add some Indian dishes that were not on the menu and the food was delicious. They were enthusiastic and genuine, and I enjoyed working with them!

Pros: They have delicious food and sustainable practices. At our reception, things went very smoothly and they did a great job at coordinating timing with us! We did speeches after hors d'ouerves and before dinner, so Leah our event manager had the brilliant idea to serve the plated kids meals early! The moms came up and thanked us later :) They staffed the buffet and portioned out the food to people. Also, they provided compostable trash receptacles at our reception which worked great for our biodegradeable plates and forks that we used for serving both the hors d'ouerves and cake! Their food presentation was lovely. Cons: There were some staff changeovers during our booking time that made communications challenging and as we neared the wedding; they weren't able to assign a new event manager and schedule an on-site meeting until a month later than they had initially promised... it got a little too close to the wedding for my sanity. Additionally, they do not provide plates, glasses or silverware for guests... you have to rent or buy them on your own. We found this to be a cost savings for us, but a bit of a headache to coordinate. They charge you extra to coordinate rentals or set up tables. At the reception, it took awhile to get all 190 of our guests through the buffet line, but I'm sure we could have benefitted from an extra line! They were running a little short on food towards the end of the guests and rationing some of the items a bit. Their mashed potato bar was just too darn delicious :) Overall, we were very happy with our decision to choose Chow Girls out of our four options at our reception venue! There were only a few minor issues.

Of all of our wedding vendors, we started out wedding planning being most excited about Chowgirls. When we met with them the first time, we sampled the menu and it was definitely one of the most delicious meals of our life. They came up with a great menu for us, introducing some Japanese flavors into food our midwestern relatives would still enjoy. We looooove that they are part of an artistic community, have so many smart women employed in their organization, and their dedication to local and organic foods. In the months before the wedding, their communication was spotty and somewhat unreliable. I had to do a lot of followups on emails that were never responded to. The day of the wedding, the food took longer than expected to serve, so dinner dragged on longer than we would have liked, and some of our guests (including the bride's table) got cold food. I must state that this was very likely due to our less than ideal catering setting at an indoor park with a small kitchen. The thing that upset me most was that when my mom went to check on the food, the staff leader snapped at her. Of everything, that was the most upsetting part of our experience with Chowgirls. I really would have preferred my mom (the woman footing the bill) be treated respectfully on my wedding day. I communicated with Chowgirls about the pros and cons of our experience and they seemed to take our feedback really seriously. I have some reservations about recommending them, but in the end I think they are such an exceptional and unique business that I do hope people continue to hire them for their weddings and allow them to grow into the business I'm sure they can be.

The food was amazing! My husband and I still regret that we couldn't eat more of it! Chowgirls designed our menu around what we wanted and our favorite foods. They also use local food, which was important to us because we had a lot of out of town guests and we wanted them to experience MN food. Chowgirls also cut our wedding cake, set our tables, passed our wine during the cocktail hour and made our favors (amazing caramel apples). There were some issues at the event about not having enough food, which still confuses me, but I think everyone got enough to eat and enjoyed it.

Our experience with Chowgirls Killer Catering was second to none! We were looking for a catering company that could handle a light lunch time reception after our 11 am August wedding and they delivered. Their menu of sandwiches was exactly what we needed and they were very, very capable in providing interesting combos for our meat-eating and vegetarians guests (including the Bride!). They provided great responsive feedback for most of the time leading up to the wedding. A couple of our requests and questions got misplaced towards the final stretch but a quick phone call always worked things out quickly. Their staff showed up on time and were amazingly unobtrusive. We received so many excellent reviews of the food from our guests that we couldn't think of a better caterer for our wedding day.

We used Chowgirls for our August wedding and couldn't have been more satisfied. They were extremely flexible when it came to figuring out what we wanted. The food was FABULOUS! Not only was it some of the best food I have tasted, it was good to know that it was all local, organic, and seasonal ingredients! I was struggling to find a caterer that provided more than your standard chicken, veggie and starch option, and Chowgirls was exceptional. I love ethnic food and their menu covered all parts of the globe. I would heartily recommend them to anyone!

Chowgirls is amazing. Not only do they all local, organic, and seasonal ingredents, but they have a HUGE selection of cuisines! They are also very affordable, and were willing to go above and beyond our expectations! I will highly recommend them to my friends.

Chowgirls catered our wedding last weekend, and they were GREAT. The wedding had an entirely vegan menu, and we were shooting for a "Midwestern comfort food" theme so as not to scare off our mostly ominverous guests. Chowgirls pulled this off with gusto. We had a fantastic bruschetta with crostini, homemade mac and cheese with garlic bread crumbs, roasted baby veggies, a succotash, and these little mini somosas that were fried on site. It was GREAT. Chowgirls seems to be growing pretty quickly, so we had some problems getting details nailed down in the beginning, until about three months before our wedding. After that, communication went very smoothly. Overall, our interaction with Chowgirls was very good, the prices reasonable and the food was of excellent quality. Chowgirls was recommended to us by meat-eating friends for their omnivore-oriented food, so they could easily do your omni wedding too, but for those of you planning a vegan wedding in the Twin Cities--give them a call.