Wow, where do I even begin to describe how incredible Chef Thao and her team are. My husband and I are avid foodies, so we both agreed that the number one thing we did NOT want to compromise on for our wedding was the food. However, given that we are both from a Taiwanese background and wanted to incorporate our culture into the food, we were stuck. Most wedding venues don’t allow you to bring your own food and a lot of the caterers we had looked up only seemed to serve the standard chicken, steak, and salmon. After a lot of googling, I came across Green Mangos catering and tucked them away in the back of my mind – when they ended up being one of the approved caterers for our venue, we decided to choose them and give them a try.

Nothing could have prepared me for how amazing the experience would be and how many guests would RAVE about the food. Right away, I LOVED how communicative Chef Thao was from the start; at baseline I am constantly checking my email and she never left any message hanging or unanswered. The biggest challenge for us was making sure that the food would live up to our expectations AND live up to my very picky parents’ expectations. Chef Thao took things in stride and really stepped up to the challenge, working to make sure that we could relax easy on our wedding day.

Which brings me to the other many things I love about Chef Thao. She is absolutely the perfect combination of assertive, loving, and humble. Whenever we were talking through decisions and logistics, she was fully transparent about the pros and cons of each option and always knew when to step in and recommend things when I truly had no idea which direction to go. By being so transparent, she never made me feel like she had any other interests in mind, and I knew she was 100% on my team and that I could fully trust her suggestions – honestly, she almost felt like a second mom. When we were looking for wedding vendors in general, we really wanted vendors who made it a point to honor diversity by showcasing it in their work. Chef Thao’s humility in tackling cultural foods is unparalleled, and I am so impressed by the efforts she went through to research and improve our food after our first tasting. To illustrate a couple of examples, by no fault of her own, I had given her a generic recipe for Taiwanese Cold Noodles that I had found on the internet, and my parents…were not impressed. She was so patient as we went through several rounds of troubleshooting to make sure the sauce lived up to my dad’s family recipe and on the day of the wedding the sauce was AMAZING! My parents also had some issues with the fishy taste of the sea bass on the first tasting and Chef Thao willingly took on the challenge of researching different ways to mitigate that taste – the sea bass ended up becoming everyone’s favorite dish of the night and my entire family devoured the leftovers at home immediately the next day (before we even got around to it)!

Minnesota and its wedding industry is SO lucky that Chef Thao and her family fell in love with the area and chose to stay, because the food and service offered could easily thrive in a bigger city. Somehow, she managed to win my parents’ trust by the second tasting, which is a huge accomplishment in it of itself. Tom, the maitre’d made sure we were always well-fed and hydrated the night of, and the buffet line went so smoothly and quicker than expected. I used to roll my eyes a little whenever I saw the word “investment” on various wedding vendor websites, but now, after experiencing Green Mangos catering, I understand that it truly is an investment into the best day and food possible. You can taste the love Chef Thao has for her couples and her business in the food that she makes and if you want a celebration full of love, Green Mangos should absolutely be your number one choice for any catering needs.

We love working with this team and would highly recommend them for your special day! Thao, Tom and their entire team were extremely courteous, not to mention their food/service was excellent.

We are thrilled to have worked with Green Mangos for our recent black-tie wedding! From beginning to end, the entire experience was nothing but excellent. If you are looking for a top-notch vendor who provides seamless communication, will get creative with you on menu customizations, and provides service that is out of this world, look no further. We cared deeply about our overall guest experience, and Thao and Tom not only helped to bring our vision to life; they truly exceeded our expectations. Also, it does not hurt that these are incredible humans who impart passion and dedication into their work. Cheers to Thao and Tom, and thank you for helping to make our day amazing!