Calihan Catering

I worked with Nicole at Calihan - they were the exclusive caterers at our venue. My family and my guests were blown away by the quality of the food. They prepared stations for us that they had never done before, so it was incredibly unique. I come from a family of foodies, so they were very particular about what the menu would be, and Calihan was wonderful in working with us to develop a menu that was interesting, unique, and above all, delicious!

seriously amazing food... so delicious... and so many options for us to choose from. and they were very helpful coming up with ways to make some of our food vegan for me. the big however -- the staff are somewhat difficult to deal with. the major issues we had: - our day of coordinator told some of the staff they could take a couple vases of flowers after the event had ended... we started with around 150 vases and when we went to pick up the few odds and ends the following monday, we went home with about 100... their staff had taken around 50 of our flower vases! and even though they had warned us saying, "you are welcome to leave items here until monday, but things always turn up missing." - okay, thanks for the warning, but all you are telling me is that you hire staff that steal your clients belongings! - our families/friends are HUGE scotch drinkers, which we told them up front... we asked to substitute the base level scotch with a higher end scotch and instead of raising the cost, we lowered the quality of beer... about 2 hours into the wedding, they ran out of the fancy scotch and were using an even lower level than what was in the original bid... when we asked them about it after the event, they said they felt they provided plenty of scotch based on our guest count. oh well. overall - we had such a great time and enjoyed the food so much, we can't say they are terrible... just a few items that came up that we were not...

If you don't want stress up until the very moment you say "i do," DO NOT, and i mean, DO NOT USE CALIHAN Catering! Prior to our wedding, Calihan tried to charge us tax on top of gratuity, as well as multiple county taxes since our venue was in DuPage County - equating an excess of $4k. My now husband and I had to create an EXCEL sheet illustrating their creative accounting to them, for which we are still battling to get our money back. They throw in hidden charges whenever possible, do not respond to emails/return phone calls. I think our contract changed so many times, I cried monthly every time I got a new version back, battling for the old one! Their food is awesome, but comes at an emotional and stressful cost. Our contract changed so much, 5 minutes after saying "I do" I had to answer contract questions and battle for them to honor their word. In regards to their contract, READ EVERY WORD, look up the EXACT Definition of the wording they use, because they are very very very slimy.

Calihan catered our wedding reception cocktail hour and dinner. Nicole was an absolute pleasure to work with. The food was top notch and they were very willing to work with our comfort food menu (including our shamrock shake late night snack). They are a full service caterer, and Nicole helped to take care of so many little details. I really felt like she was striving to make things go smoothly and make sure that I enjoyed the day. The food was absolutely delicious and we are still hearing raves from our guests. I would definitely recommend!

The Calihans and their entire staff are extremely professional and unbelievably nice and easy to work with. I truly cannot recommend them highly enough. I can't imagine anyone not wanting to work with them. If I could give them 10 out of 5 stars, I would.

Nit of Calihan is the exclusive caterer to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. He was one of the main reasons why our wedding pulled together. He went BEYOND just catering. He helped coordinate many of the details of the ceremony/coctails/dinner/reception, layout, rentals, etc. Whenever my day-of coordinator needed help, he was there to pitch in. Calihan Catering is a well-known, prestigious catering company in Chicago and has been rated at the top, if not among the very top, for several years. The food/bar/wine selection was fantastic. We had Brazilian Caiparinhas and Lychee/Pomegranate martinis. I loved our appetizers and the presentation was excellent! The tasting was such a fun experience! We asked to have Seabass with Nobu's black bean sauce, as well as Filet Mignon, and they did it! We were on a budget, so the portion size, I'd admit was kind of skimpy. He was very professional and patient throughout the entire planning process. I know I am very demanding and he was able to make most of our individualized requests happen. The service and food is top notch, but keep in mind, that you do pay for it! If you've got the money, don't want any worries whatsoever, and have a sophisticated palate...this is the catering company for you.

If you want THE BEST TOP NOTCH wedding food and service, call Nit and get the process started.

The food was fabulous, and the prices reasonable for what was included. The wait staff was wonderful and efficient.

Pam was a godsend! She was knowledgeable, friendly and very resourceful!