"I really want to make this review constructive, and helpful to the staff at the O&P, because I do believe they try hard, and want to do a good job. However, I think they over stretch themselves, and in my case, despite turning themselves inside out in so many ways on our behalf, they were wide of the mark when it came to the actual event we arranged with them. My daughter and I had been planning a very important birthday party for most of her life. Her 30th birthday, my 60th. We impressed on the venue how very important this was to us. We discussed in great detail the food we wanted for the evening, went over and over the menu selections with Nick, who came up with lots of great ideas for us, and we attended to all the other details ourselves, to ensure everything looked great on the night (it did! Nick decorated the venue for us, and it was lovely). Where we were disappointed MASSIVELY was the food. I paid a great deal of money for it. We didn 't want a buffet, because we wanted people to be able to relax and just have food arrive on a regular basis. So we elected to have canapes brought up. Lots of them. I repeat I paid a GREAT DEAL of money for the food. However, on the night, we saw hardly any. I think I saw one of each item of food we had selected, but not everything on the menu was even cooked. For example, we had mini macaroni cheese on the menu we selected. They were never cooked or brought up. We had mini prawn cocktails. We never saw them. Our guests were hungry. Some of them even went and bought chips after the party. The following day, we went to collect presents and so forth, and were met by Nick, who had boxes and boxes of uncooked food for us. And a huge tub of prawns. This was food that couldn 't be frozen, because it was defrosted. We had to take it all home and cook it and give it away. This was food intended FOR OUR GUESTS AT THE PARTY. I didn 't pay for it so it could be given back to me uncooked the next day! Nick said that the guests 'kept sending the food back '. I think he misunderstood the point of canape food. People take one item. They expect that canape platter to return at some point so they can take another. But the platters came around once, then disappeared. People were saying to me they wanted another of such and such a thing, but it had gone. Back to the kitchen, presumably. Just because people don 't take thing when it 's offered doesn 't mean it 's 'being sent back '. It means 'not right now thank you, but please float back again later when I don 't have a mouthful of something else or am in the middle of a conversation '. I did say to Nick that to do this platter canape thing, extra staff would be needed, because they need to KEEP CIRCULATING with the food! I only had one taste of each item myself, and that amounted to about 6 mouthfuls of tiny food items. For an evening that ran from 8pm through to gone 3 in the morning, that 's ridiculous. When Nick presented us with the boxes of uncooked food, I was so appalled I couldn 't even speak. I said nothing at the time (which I know is ridiculous, but I don 't do conflict, and it was the day after the party and we were all knackered. I didn 't really trust myself to stay calm). The party itself, to put things in perspective, was excellent. We put a lot of money over the bar we had a minimum spend and had paid a deposit, which would be repaid if we reached the minimum. We more than smashed the minimum just on our own, let alone the amount our guests spent. But I had to badger and badger to get the deposit back. There was a problem with the bank, apparently, so I had to go in and collect it in cash. The staff were all lovely, but this kind of thing leaves a rather sour taste in the mouth. So I would say if you 're planning a party, don 't spend loads of money on the food, and make sure you get all of it ON THE NIGHT, not in boxes the next day to take home and deal with. And on another positive note, the food that we did have was absolutely delicious. No complaints there. But you don 't want your guests going hungry at a party, do you?"
Hastings
