Milan Catering and Event Design

She doesn't pay her employees.
I worked for her at an event.
When I didn't receive her check I called and texted with no response.

Got hired as a caterer and showed up to the location at the time and date to have nobody there. No catering event going on and no answer from the company as to whether or not there was a time change in the event. They wasted 3 hours of my time because the address was an hour away and I waited an hour understand last minute things come up, hoping for somebody to respond from catering company. No one has reached out and its been two days. Caterer's beware if you're looking to be employed here!!

BRIDES BEWARE! DO NOT USE MILAN CATERING! They ruined our wedding. The Chef (and owner) lied to us on numerous occasions, was insanely rude to us, and the food was disgusting. The chicken was so rubbery we couldn't even eat it! Many guests complained. The Chef contests her bad reviews on places like The Knot and Wedding Wire, so it looks like it's a good company, until you look at other review sites. She told The Knot we were not customers, even after we sent in proof of payment, they still will not post it. She has no bad reviews on the knot... but if you look on google and yelp, there are tons of bad reviews! So if you're a bride looking for a vendor, make sure to look at sites where they can't take off bad reviews. We found tons and tons of customers being treated the same way afterwards. All in all, for how much money we spent for catering alone, they were TERRIBLE! I would recommend to use anyone but milan catering!!! They will ruin your wedding!

We are having our wedding at the Powel Crosley, and Milan was listed as a preferred caterer. We had read the "glowing reviews", and made a trip from Tennessee to Sarasota specifically for a tasting. When we got there, Chef Roberta told us she had left out two of the foods we had requested because she decided we might have guests that were allergic to nuts (why put it on your menu then?), and the other she omitted simply because she didn't think it went well. I tried not to let that bother me, but as I watched her reheat food across a bar from me (we were even early to our appointment), and then proceed to hand me food that was already cold, my hopes began fading. I was given three enormous hunks of meat that were pictured in their menu as thinly sliced skirt steak. When I asked if they would be cutting the meat thinner for the wedding, Roberta had the audacity to look at me and say "I'm not cutting your meat for you", as if I had asked her to spoon feed it to me. The steak was accompanied with potatoes that my fiance and I both agreed tasted instant, and I'm not even sure she went through the trouble of seasoning them. Next, I got to eat a random citrus chicken meal that she took the liberty of adding to our wedding menu, and imagine my surprise when the chicken was cold. We hadn't voiced any concerns, and three quarters of the way through our tasting she asked what we thought. I politely told her that I wasn't pleased with the cut of steak, but undertood that may have just been the type that we picked, and that a lot of the food was cold and bland. She told me "Well I'm having to take time to plate it and prepare it", to which I asked what the reality of the wedding would be when she was preparing it in a different building and bringing it out to 100 guests. She abruptly said "Alright well it doesn't seem like you're satisfied with anything so it doesn't seem like this will work", tossed down her napkin, and left. Baffled, as we hadn't even made it through the rest of the food, we sought out the manager. We explained everything that happened and were expecting her to reply with an apology for Roberta's behavior, and instead she looked at us completely blank and said "Okay, thanks". I asked her if she was planning to fix the issue, and she said "No." My fiance and I stood there in complete shock. We had traveled quite some distance to be there, and because we simply raised concerns regarding the food for the $6,000 they were wanting to charge us, we were essentially asked to leave the tasting halfway through. We sat in the car in silence for the next half hour because we were so stunned. Neither of us had ever witnessed such poor management and customer service.

If you want my advice, go with Pier 22 catering. We received better quality food, the best customer service I could dream of, and it ended up coming out cheaper for us. I have not had a single stressful moment as a bride, except for my experience at Milan catering. It was to this day the worst thing I have ever witnessed. The only thing that erased the stress of finding a caterer from my mind was visiting Pier 22, and dealing with Joanna. She is amazing and I would recommend her any day of the year.
As for Milan Catering, do a little further digging on their reviews. At first glance, they seem to have good reviews, but please do your research and look on multiple platforms - you'll read plenty from people who had the same experience as me. Multiple brides who unfortunately had to deal with Chef Roberta's attitude on their wedding day. I can't think of anything sadder and would write a thousand more words to keep brides from booking with Milan and having to experience that if that's what it takes.

I just thought I'd update my review, to respond to some of the truly odd claims by this vendor.
All I can assume is that Roberta has us confused with another wedding... taking it most favorably to her. Because frankly, this is weird.
As the Mother of the Groom (and yes, payer of half of this contract), I never spoke to any of her employees. The bride wasn't upset; she didn't skip dinner; nobody cried. There was zero "family drama'. There was no damage or mess at Crosley.
The horrible coffee damage was a crack in a small glass carafe, available on Amazon for about $35, caused by either a guest or her employee.
Nothing was knocked over. No one was rude. Videos and photos show everyone smiling and enjoying dinner and dancing.
Had Roberta simply apologized for the missing vendor meals and other irregularities, and had she been polite and cooperative with the resulting small adjustment to her invoices, we could have recommended her.
After all, a complicated formal wedding is a challenge and all contracts need good faith efforts and adjustments at times. Wait staff can get overwhelmed and miss elements. Food can get cold in an outdoor event.
Instead, she resorted to either intentional lying or some kind of delusional accusations against the parents and bride. By doing so, she made the whole situation so much worse.
She even told the website The Knot that she never had this contract; we had to provide proof of the contract and payment to them for the review to be posted.
Why? Obviously we had the written contract and receipts; what is gained by lying about it?
Perhaps this behavior has protected her reputation in the past, but at some time it will catch up with her business.
That's a shame, because the woman can cook.
However, the truly bizarre behavior here has put an unpleasant aftertaste on an otherwise storybook wedding for our families. Everyone always says how wonderful it was.... "except for the part that came afterward with that crazy caterer".
What a shame for everyone involved, including Milan's.

This catering company did a satisfactory job with their food. However, I was horrified that an hour and a half before the wedding was due to end the wait staff was ordered by their boss to take water glasses, napkins and silverware from the guest's seated at tables. This was before the dessert was served! Unbelievable.

What a great job Milan Catering did with our company's Christmas party. This was the first time I had ever planned a large event and their event planners made everything seamless. Professional staff, their Chefs are even on site at the events cooking. So the food is amazing quality. They handled our bar service, tables, and linens too which made everything WAY easier. After the event, we received so many compliments. We will definitely hire them again!

Overall, Milan Catering did a great job for our wedding. Everyone was professional and we received many compliments on our food selection and choice of catering. The endless food options were one of the main reasons we chose Milan Catering. Everything was set up as we were told it would be.

We loved the idea that guest could order from menus and the only thing we had to collect was who was coming and if they needed a vegan/vegetarian meal. There was a miscommunication with the servers and a few of our guest who order vegan meals. A guest asked about their vegan meal and they were told it wasn't an option and they had to order off of the menu. Following up with a few other guests who order vegan meals there were 2 people who did not eat at all because they could not get their vegan meal. I did reach out to my day of coordinator and she spoke with Chef Roberta and they did refund me some money which was very appreciated. Thus, still unfortunate that there were some guest that could not eat.

Otherwise, we had a great experience with Milan Catering from start to finish.

As far as your response about water bottles, I have no idea what you are talking about. Water bottles were never even discussed. Are you making up stories to make the customer look bad??? Sure looks like it based on your responses.

Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT use Milan Catering. There is a previous comment on here that my Mother-in-law Paige had written, and this is in response to her and Chef Roberta (the post wouldn't let me comment). Paige, as the Bride from this wedding, I completely agree with everything that you had said. The wedding was an incredible day, but there were several issues that are currently being addressed. I am not sure what delusion Chef Roberta is under, but what she commented is complete fallacy. Not once did Paige, my Mother-in-law, contradict what I wanted or said. Paige didn't even speak to the staff except to thank them for serving her meal. The team also did not follow my instructions, and made many errors that can't be overlooked. All of the problems Paige listed, and then some. I am utterly dumbfounded at the lies that Roberta is commenting on Paige's review. For starters, I wasn't in tears..... ever.... except happy tears when I saw my groom. I NEVER hid in the bridal room, and I was with my guests (elated) all evening. Also, what really strikes me is the audacity that Roberta has saying that, "at the end of the evening, the couple thanked our team for their empathy and compassion". I'm sorry, what? No. What is funny is Chef Roberta wasn't even there the entire evening, which in the contract, she was supposed to be. So who was there to thank for this apparently over dramatic night that Roberta is painting out for people? The staff was rude, they were LATE (after we paid for extra time), they weren't considerate of allergies, they did not even have WATER on the tables for the guests, they didn't feed the vendors, AND they didn't serve the bride and groom hors d'oeuvres during the cocktail hour. May I say, that either Roberta has us mixed up with another wedding that week, or she is just trying to cover up the mistakes that her staff made...? Hopefully others won't use Milan Catering for the simple fact that regardless of the mistakes on their behalf, they try to blame it all on the Mother of the Groom. Sad. I had high hopes for this company. If I could give negative stars, I would.