Hoopla! Catering Reviews
Reviews
4.9 out of 5 rating
4.9 out of 5 rating
15 Reviews
97% recommend it
Awards
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![Candice]()
Candice B. Sent on 01/19/2024Absolutely incredible from beginning to end
My husband and I are local to Baltimore so when we started to plan our vendors for our wedding, Hoopla was the only choice. Food Market is our favorite restaurant in the city and their catering experience gave us the exact same experience we love. We cannot thank the team enough for their help and support. I was a newly gluten free bride and the team customized ALL of our desserts and made a special Gluten Free salad just for me. Our guests raved about the food during and continue to bring it up months after our October wedding. We decided on a buffet, which I was nervous about. The staff served the guests food to help maintain a proper flow and it allowed our guests to come back for seconds. I cannot imagine a better partnership than we had with hoopla.
I’ve included photos from our photographer but also from our tasting, in Food Markets private room. The chefs were on hand to make any adjustments we wanted (gluten free problems) and were so accommodating. Dori took away all the stress I gave my self on seating plans, table set up, and linens. Just wow from start to finish. -
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Lauren J. Sent on 06/11/2022
Best Wedding Food Ever
Hands down the BEST catered food anyone at our wedding has ever had. The one thing our guests continue to rave about is Hoopla! We were utterly blown away. Dori was so incredibly easy to work with - from rentals to food choices. She was so knowledgeable and professional. The food not only tasted incredible but was absolutely beautiful as well. -
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![Kelly]()
Kelly Sent on 09/10/2022The best wedding food you’ll ever have!
Hoopla was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day! From our perspective, everything was PERFECT! Everyone raved about the dinner and they were so impressed with all of the passed apps. My husband and I have been to over 20 weddings, and we wholeheartedly agree our wedding food was the best we’ve ever had! Thank you for sending incredible staff to assist all night long. I heard the bartenders were fabulous (I don’t think I ever got my own drink!!). Dori answered every email so quickly and knew exactly what was needed from rental companies to make our vision perfect. -
Kelly Sent on 10/02/2019
Delicious and beautiful!
WOW! Hoopla did an amazing job catering our wedding! The food was so delicious, it was beautifully displayed and plated, and the servers were super nice and helpful. We received SO many compliments on the food at our wedding—from the many fun and yummy appetizers (gazpacho shooters, tuna, cauliflower, pretzel with beer cheese, etc.) to the family style meal (the salmon was incredible) we all shared with our tables, it was SUCH a hit. Dori was also super great in helping us plan the wedding. I am SO THRILLED that we chose to work with Hoopla!Hoopla! Catering's reply:
Thank you Kelly! We loved working with you too and are so thrilled that the experience, from beginning to end was a great experience!
Congratulations to you again! -
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![Carol]()
Carol Sent on 04/02/2019Perfect from beginning to end
Creative, attentive, beautiful, delicious, and top notch service!!! This is my go-to caterer! It's a given that your event will be flawless! -
![Ben]()
Ben C. Sent on 10/23/2019Excellent Food
We chose them primarily based on quality of food. We were able to taste short rib with every caterer we were considering for a truly fair comparison and Hoopla's was far and away the best. They were very flexible for some of the odd things we wanted including a duet plating and some more unusual plans with dessert and drinks. Hammering down the final details was a little difficult but that was at least partially because of the complexity of the venue. Day of everything went smooth and everyone loved the food. -
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![Karla]()
Karla Sent on 06/04/2019Food was Amazing. Customer Service Could Be Better
TL;DR - 5 stars for the food! It's amazing and not your typical wedding food. 5 stars for the bartenders, staff, and chefs the day of. 2.5 stars for customer service/interaction. Unprepared bar, unprofessional responses as well as pushy sales tactics leading up to the event.
The Good:
Let me start off by saying the food was amazing. Hands down the best food I've had at a wedding. If you've been to any of the Hoopla! events or restaurants, it's the same quality that you find there. We're a little over a month after our wedding and our guests are still talking about the food! We did a taco buffet (curated by Chef Kat and Dori), an appetizer station of a charcuterie board, and churros for dessert and had plenty of food for our 90 guests. Chef Kat and Sam were a pleasure to work with and executed our vision perfectly the day of the wedding. If you're looking for a funky take on wedding/event food and aren't afraid to step outside of the typical baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables that many other caterers were trying to sell us, look no further than Hoopla!
We found a venue that allowed us to bring in our own alcohol and Hoopla! supplied the bartenders. They were on top of drinks all night and I never saw a line at the bar, even during cocktail hour.
The Not So Good:
Our main POC was Dori. She's extremely responsive and typically got back to us the same day and was always eager to take our calls. Unfortunately, the 3-4 months leading up to our wedding and dealing with Hoopla! were pretty stressful. On multiple occasions, we felt pushed to add passed appetizers to our menu even after we were told our menu would be more than enough food (it was). At a time when our budget was set and our deposit was already down we were weary of additional and unjustified costs. No less than 4 times we had to tell Dori that we were not interested in passed appetizers. It got to the point where it felt like she was trying to upsell us.
The day of the wedding the bar staff did not have all of the equipment needed for our signature drinks (our email exchange specifically stated that the bartenders would provide the equipment if we provide the alcohol, mixers, etc.). While the bartenders ultimately ran out to get the equipment, working through that situation with Dori was less than pleasurable and her responses were very unprofessional.
Overall, I'd recommend Hoopla! because of the food. I'd caution to get everything in writing and communicate via email for records when handling the details of the event. Details changed from our final walk-through to the week before the event that could have been avoided if we would have received them in writing right after our walk-through.Hoopla! Catering's reply:
I am obviously disappointed to hear that the last 3-4 months of planning your wedding with us was so stressful. That feeling was unbeknownst to me. I had hoped that all of my communication, encouragement and coordination with you and eventually with Mary was taking that stress off of you.
When I offered the passed appetizer to you it never intended to to a "push or an upsell". My intention was to have some guests have a bite while they waited on the line for the bar or so they didn't have to wait by the charcuterie. It is something I encourage at all weddings. If it felt like a push, I apologize. I just wish you had said that to me in our conversations, instead of assuming that I was trying to upsell, which was not my intention ever. My intention was to make the experience the best it could be for you and your guests.
Additionally, I am sorry if you felt I was unprofessional on the day of the wedding (assuming you are referring to our email exchange which I have read several times and didn't interpret that way). We/I have yet to have anyone say that about me/us as an individual or a company. Of course, you are 100% entitled to those feelings and if I caused you to feel that way, for that I apologize. I think there was a misunderstanding (in my mind tools were shakers, knives, and wine openers, not a juicer - I thought you were using orange juice and the oranges as garnishes) and as I said to you in my email, our team was on it and the problem was fixed and addressed.
As you can imagine, I take great pride in the work that I do and the service we bring our clients. Fortunately, this is our first review of this nature and I am just sorry that you had the experience you did.
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