3Citron Caterers

3Citron is an excellent caterer--they make delicious food, they are full of creative ideas and they know exactly what they're doing. The owners are extremely nice and were willing to work with our smaller budget and complicated schedule (planning from a continent away). They seemingly effortlessly made a beautiful and smooth-running reception. I think they'd be perfect for brides who want a caterer that will expertly handle all the details and make them a great reception.

3Citron isn't as good at handling a high amount of customization. When it really counted, they did what we'd specified (the menu, colors, setup, and adjustments for allergies were all done correctly) but there were other things that inexplicably just didn't happen as planned (e.g. not offering sparkling cider as an alternative for champagne for teetotaling guests, the leftover food that had been promised was non-existent).

3Citron always responded to me quickly, but I think that in the months leading up to the wedding they were preoccupied with other events. They really can (and perhaps prefer) to pull together all the details at the end, so I agree with the others, don't worry if they don't seem to be paying much attention to you months ahead of time, make a list of what you want and tell them when their focus is on you. They're pretty laid back about the whole contract process, so do look over the contract to ensure they've included what you talked about and gotten the numbers right.

And a word of advice to 3Citron (soon to be Washington Parties?): Please ensure that your waiters know exactly what they're serving. They were great, but there were a couple instances where they gave out incorrect information.

3Citron provided many tastings and opportunities to see menus. However, since they can and do make anything, they don't have set dishes to pick from exactly. They did try to make some dishes we suggested for a tasting, which we didn't wind up going with.

The food was wonderful and the service on the day-of was top notch. Leading up to the event, we felt that sometimes we have amazing one-on-one service, while other days our questions were just not being answered.

We also ordered our linens through them. This became a bit of a last-minute mess with third party vendors, which 3Citron was not entirely to blame.

My biggest complaint is that we received a quote early on that wasn't revised until right before the wedding, at which point the cost was MUCH higher. They worked with us to meet our budget goals, but it was an unnecessary stress.

There were times that I was frustrated with 3Citron because at times they were super responsive. However, they came through when it mattered most. The food was amazing and they handled the days leading up to the wedding and the wedding day wonderfully. They were also very willing to work within our budget and we know for a fact they put some things on our menu that were out of our budget but they did not charge us more. My guests were raving about the food. I would hire them again.

3 Citron caterered an event for us, a non-profit, in early 2010. At first they were very nice to deal with and we thought we received a good price. Be careful when the price is low, you get what you pay for. About a month before the event they were difficult to get a hold of, would not respond to emails or phone calls. They promised the world yet delivered very little. They took it upon themselves to change some menu items and did not notify us in advance. We made the mistake of paying them in full that night, should have held some payment, you will read why in a minute.
They arrived only 30 minutes before guests, and yes, they had all the tables and chairs. A fiasco!!! They had only 2 bars with one bartender each for ~400 people. Needless to say the lines were very long and guests who paid good money were upset to say the least.
They offered 2 catered dinners for 10 including wine for the auction. One dinner they did do but did not bring the wine. That couple that paid $1500 was not happy. The other dinner they never called the winner back and our organization had to refund $1000.
Their staff worked hard, but I only found 2 that spoke any English making it very difficult during set up and when guests would ask for something, they did not understand the question and obviously could not answer.
I have worked for another caterer for over 20 years and know the ins and outs of the business. I know this is not the way a reputable caterer should do business. I regret recommending 3 Cirton to this organization.

My experience with 3Citron seems to be very similar to most other reviewers' experiences: the food was great, they did a great job the day of, but they caused me some stress b/c they were very slow at responding to emails and phone calls in the weeks leading up to the wedding. But whenever I did manage to meet with my 3Citron event-coordinator or spoke to him on the phone, he was always very helpful and professional. I had to use 3Citron because they were the exclusive caterer for the venue I had my wedding at. I think that's important to know b/c, while I was stressing out about how everything was going to be set-up, etc., 3Citron has done tons of events at the event venue, so they already knew how everything is going to work and didn't need to plan very far in advance. So while I was (needlessly) stressed about everything for the weeks leading up to the wedding, the day of the wedding worked great! 3Citron was arrived in plenty of time (I had a morning wedding), and had everything set-up and looking great before the guests arrived. Everything ran so smoothly during the reception that I barely even noticed they were there; they just took care of everything without having to ask me a lot of questions. I also appreciated all their work on the menu: I asked them to prepare me a unique menu, and they were very accommodating and had good suggestions. It was also incredibly nice to have them take care of all the table/chair, linens, and place-setting rentals. It's so much easier dealing with one vendor for all of these things rather than several different vendors.

My advice to anybody who wants to go with 3Citron is don't worry if they don't respond to your phone calls or emails; they will get in touch with you when they need information. They can pull everything together last-minute, so they will probably call you a few days before the wedding to iron out the final details. That's stressful when you're planning a wedding, but I realize now that I didn't need to worry b/c they did a great job!

3Citron is the exclusive caterer for our venue so we didn't have any choice. I will say the service and set-up on the day of was perfect. We went to a bunch of tastings and they were all fabulous and the owners are really nice. My husband and I didn't think our entrees on the day of were as good as they were at the tastings, but we're pretty picky about food so it could have been us. Our guests raved about the food (but what else would they say) and the one or two passed appetisers I managed to eat were great on the day. This company includes a day of coordiantor as part of the package which is nice, however, we were assigned 3 different coordinators during the course of the year we worked with them. Communication could be spotty, and we weren't kept up to speed when coordinators changed, we just wouldn't get any responses to our emails for weeks at a time. So by the time we settled on the person who would be our final coordinator, our confidence in them was a littly shaky. Overall it all worked out great, but there were definately frustrating times leading up to the wedding. Our napkins on the day of were also slightly off from what we picked (no-one noticed but us), but it would have been nice if they'd told us, and we had asked in advance that they pack up some food for us to take home at the end of the night as we knew we wouldn't get to eat much, and that didn't happen. Minor details in the greater scheme of things, just a little annoying.

3 Citron Catering was fantastic. Loved working with Stuart. We had some specific ideas about the menu and he worked with us and our budget. I cannot say enough what a superb experience we had with 3 Citron.

The exclusive caterer for McLean Gardens Ballroom, they went hand in hand. The food was amazing, the options were great, and although a little pricey, definitely worth what we spent, down to the penny

Reading Erin's comments below, I was shocked to see how much in common our experiences were. In fairness, both of our weddings were in April, which must have been a busy time for the company. There must also have been a lot of turnover within the company - we also had our "day of coordinator" switched on us twice. First, the positive: the food is indeed delicious (which was a relief, as like many others we had no choice in the caterer which was the exclusive provider for our venue), and they knew what they were doing in using the outdoor space to create a chic garden wedding. The servers and set up people seemed capable enough.

But the response time was terrible - our wedding was in DC, but we live in Seattle, which meant that communication was key, and often there would be two or three weeks between when we emailed a question and when we got a response. This caused plenty of stress, and often to get an answer on something we'd have to go over our coordinator's head and contact her boss. During the wedding itself, our coordinator seemed overwhelmed and really it was our DJ who kept things going. And, much like Erin mentioned, our cupcakes (which were considerably expensive) and cookies were slow to be replenished on the cake table, and dissappeared at the end of the night. The sugar free cookies we'd bought for diabetic family members never made it to the table. Like Erin, 3Citron ran out of many of the alcoholic drinks, and in addition our bartender went AWOL a couple of times during the reception.

We mentioned these concerns to the company shortly after the wedding and have yet to receive a response. Again, the food is wonderful, but my suggestion would be to provide your own planner. Unfortunately, this caterer has a monopoly on some of the venues, so you may find yourself without a choice.

I have extremely mixed feelings about 3Citron, who catered my wedding in April.

On the positive side, 3Citron's food is very, very good. My guests raved about the food at our wedding, and I was very happy in that respect. The waitstaff was professional the day of, and one of the company's execs was there to make sure everything went smoothly.

That being said, I have many complaints about 3Citron. First, a "day-of-coordinator" is included with your wedding package. This person acted as an account manager for us and managed the planning of our wedding. 3Citron changed our coordinator twice. The second time our coordinator was changed was only about a month before the wedding. This caused me a lot of stress because my fiance and I had to repeat all of our notes that we gave our old coordinator to the new person. The new person did not treat us well, was rude and acted as if our event was nothing but a big inconvenience. Our floorplans weren't completed until just days before the event and overall this person was a terrible manager and left me very frustrated. She spent the two weeks leading up to the wedding arguing with me about the timeline and other details - trying to make us do things out of order and would not listen to what we wanted. We "won" in the end and did things our way, but not without a lot of arguing and back and forth. It was very annoying. When I told our caterer that I wanted to do the maid of honor and best man toasts before dinner, she said that we couldn't because "if they ran long, your food will be ruined." I did not think it was out of the ordinary to do the toasts before dinner, and I would HOPE that they are professional enough not to ruin $20,000 worth of food because a speech ran a few minutes long.

On the day of, 3Citron was scrambling to get our tables and dining areas set up, even as guests were arriving.

While the food on the day of was good, it was not exactly what we ordered. We ordered sliced sirloin steak for our main course, but everyone was served one hunk of steak on their plates. It was still delicious and everyone enjoyed it, but it was not what we ordered. I was also annoyed because we had favors (hand-folded origami cranes) at each place setting for decoration. The waitstaff was throwing these away as they cleared the plates. I had to tell them in the middle of dinner to stop throwing them away.

Probably the biggest issue we encountered was the bar situation. I specified with our coordinator that we had a rowdy crowd coming and that they needed to be sure they had enough supplies. My fiance and I put a lot of thought into what we should offer on the bar. We chose several types of liquor, as well as champagne, wine and 3 kinds of beer (blue moon, amstel light and yuengling). 3Citron ran out of all kinds of beer except blue moon. I also saw them serving heineken, which we didn't even order. They also ran out of almost every kind of liquor before the reception was over. This was a big disappointment and I was annoyed about this.

Finally, I know there was a lot of leftover cake - they must have thrown it away because I never saw any leftovers. Extra favors and table decorations (which I made, purchased and supplied) were thrown away before I had a chance to gather them at the end of the night. They mixed up our waterford crystal cake server with the caterer's supplies and it took me several weeks to get it back - apparently they had it on their catering truck and brought it to other weddings. It was an engagement gift and it is now scratched and the box is lost. Only after threatening to go over my coordinator's head to her boss did she magically "find" it.

3Citron will make you great food. But I got the feeling that they just didn't care about my wedding reception at all. We spent a lot of money with them - they are not cheap!!! - and I expected better service.

3Citron is the exclusive caterer for our venue and at first we were really worried about that because we were afraid of wedding caterers and were thinking of using a restaurant to cater instead. But their food was really good and their prices were very reasonable. They were super accommodating and allowed us to sort of invent our own dish in order to incorporate Torsten's German heritage into the meal. They also provide a complimentary Day Of Coordinator, who was great. The food was delicious and we got lots of compliments on it. The service was impeccable and the bartenders were great as well. The presentation was fabulous and we even had one waiter assigned just to make sure that the two of us were set.

We had a couple billing issues when they updated the cost with the final head count, but it all got worked out. It's definitely important to pay close attention to the numbers to make sure everything matches up, but once we pointed out the discrepancies, they resolved them right away and everything worked out. Then, after the wedding, it took over two months before they refunded us the security deposit on the venue (this was 3Citron management, not the venue management). We heard all manner of excuses through the course of our persistent emails and phone calls before we finally got the check back. It’s too bad that they had these logistical money-related snafus, because the food and coordinator were great and on the day of, everything went perfectly.

3Citron is the exclusive caterer for our venue and at first we were really worried about that because we were afraid of wedding caterers and were thinking of using a restaurant to cater instead. But their food was really good and their prices were very reasonable. They were super accommodating and allowed us to sort of invent our own dish in order to incorporate Torsten's German heritage into the meal. They also provide a complimentary Day Of Coordinator, who was great. The food was delicious and we got lots of compliments on it. The service was impeccable and the bartenders were great as well. The presentation was fabulous and we even had one waiter assigned just to make sure that the two of us were set.

We had a couple billing issues when they updated the cost with the final head count, but it all got worked out. It's definitely important to pay close attention to the numbers to make sure everything matches up, but once we pointed out the discrepancies, they resolved them right away and everything worked out.

Great food, super personal staff, well-organized! Highly recommend 3Citron!

3Citron is an exceptional catering company with tons to offer! They have a great vision of how food should look and be served, with a great selection of different foods, and the flexibility to add items that you may want. Their food is EXCELLENT and the owners/managers are a pleasure to work with. Their catering staff is the BEST staff I've seen at an event, they were very polite, quick, and worked the room really well. I highly recommend 3Citron for your next event!

3Citron Caterers and their staff provided the food and catering services (tables, linens, etc.). The food was delicious. Many guests at the reception complimented us on the food. We had passed hors d'oeuvres, seated first course and buffet dinner. The staff working our reception were professional and helpful. We had planned for an outdoor event, but weather forced everything indoors. They were flexible and made the shift almost flawlessly. A few of the tables did not have the correct # of place settings. Not a huge problem that was resolved quickly, but something that took some of my husband's time when guests were being seated. All in all the reception went well and we received many compliments.

During the planning stage, we went to two delicious tastings that totally sold us on the quality and presentation of their food. Because they were busy with multiple bookings during the run-up period, however, a few of our meetings with the planners were complicated with late arriving staff. No big deal but a minor inconvenience at the time. We were very happy with the outcome in the end.

We used 3 Citron because they are the exclusive caterer for our venue (Tregaron). We planned our wedding on a short timeframe and they were very flexible about setting up an informal tasting for us. In the end, the food was wonderful and everything turned out okay. However, we found them very hard to get in touch with and to get information from, and this was our vendor who proved to be the biggest source of stress for us. To be fair, we were planning a wedding on a short timeframe and during the busy season. All in all, things turned out fine and if we had it to do all over again we'd probably still use the same venue and caterer.

They were great! Very professional and dependable. Everything was well organized and I was able to reach Marc whenever I needed to. I would definitely recommend them in the future. The food was lovely, and decorated great. We had our own waiter and I actually ate and drank all night! Thank you so much :)

My husband and I had a destination wedding followed by a local reception where we wanted to serve fine wine and hors d'oeuvres, as opposed to a traditional reception with a sit-down dinner. But that isn't to say that we wanted to skimp...we wanted first-class hors d'oeuvres (our friends know we're big-time "foodies"), and in sufficient quantity to fill people up and take the place of dinner.

We learned about 3Citron Caterers because they catered a wedding we attended last year. For our reception, we evaluated them alongside 3 other catering companies, all of which seemed to be rather high-end. But the differences became apparent immediately after we reached out to them, which was over email. They were quick to respond, but more importantly, they listened to what we wanted and rather than sending us a generic menu, the first sample menu they sent to us was already pretty close to what we wanted. One of the other caterers simply responded to our email inquiry with a price range per-person, I think expecting that we would be scared off by the price, but we weren't, so we suggested that we continue the discussions and asked if they can answer some questions. Their response almost looked computer-generated. They didn't answer any of our questions. Sample menus were attached, but the burden was on us to sort through it all. This didn't leave me with a warm-fuzzy. Then another company asked us good questions, but then when we saw the sample menu and terms and conditions, it didn't look like they heard anything we said. Additionally, the recommended staff seemed way overblown and padded (for example, for our group size, 3Citron said 1 bartender was enough, but the other company said we need 2, plus additional resources whose roles I never really understood). And the third company seemed too busy to want to meet with us early on, which was a turnoff.

The reception turned out to be a huge success. There are so many little things that I never knew to think about that 3Citron took care of. For example: they put lots of candles out, they helped us unload and carry the things we were providing (i.e. wine) and helped us take leftovers back to our car. They cleaned up the venue, they moved furniture around, they brought a person to handle coat checks, they worked with the building people on lighting, they had beautiful serving dishes, and their staff was all native English-speaking and, frankly, a very good-looking bunch - even the people workign in the kitchen. But the food is what we got most of the compliments on. It was really wonderful. EVERYONE said so. But you wouldn't necessarily know it from looking at their menus...they don't describe their menu items like poets. Don't assume that because they don't talk about "essence of lavender" and "vanilla perfume" that their food doesn't compare to the snobby guys. It absolutely does. They're just a bit more straightforward about their descriptions, which I actually appreciate. Even the coffee they served received compliments, which I didn't expect.

The last thing I'll say is that I also appreciated their flexibility. We wanted to provide our own tea, wine, beer, chocolates instead of a cake, we wanted them to hand out descriptions of the wines, prepare some dishes a certain way, etc. They even worked with us in making a couple of changes to the legal T's and C's in their contract, which, by the way, was a much more reasonable boilerplate contract than what I've seen from other caterers.

I hope to have another reason to use them in the future.

We found 3Citron when we went to look at a location. They manage the Tregaron site at the Washington International School. We had thought about using that location, but after visiting it, it wasn't a good fit for our needs, but the caterers we met were great. We finally decided on a different location, but decided to go with 3Citron for the catering. They were very nice, easy to work with and very accommodating. They were willing to work with Lisa's many food allergies and design a custom menu. Lisa is allergic to several foods (flour, eggs, shellfish), and we wanted all the food at our wedding to be things that we both could enjoy. When we mentioned this to other vendors, some said "We'll make sure there's something there for you to eat." This was not the response we were looking for. 3Citron said that they understood and would come up with a menu that was COMPLETELY Lisa friendly. The tasting they had for us had several options for each course that all worked with the allergy limitations. In a service industry, I don't know how the other vendors could have replied that there might be one dish Lisa could eat at her own wedding. The complete menu design was very thoughtful and it all tasted great.
We also had a very non-traditional ceremony and reception in mind. 3Citron was excited to work with us and maintain the feeling we wanted for our day; some other vendors wanted to impose their usual formal feel for the day. They helped us choose fun linens, silverware and stemware to match the theme for the day. On the day of our wedding, they were at the site early and setup the ballroom and worked with the site manager and the other vendors very well. They helped to run various items through the day by keeping us on schedule. We had a very wonderful day and having complete faith in our vendors was a key to that feeling of enjoyment for our wedding. We can't say enough about 3Citron's catering services.

Attention All: 3 Citron does not pay their event invoices, even when they have already been paid by the client for our services. Two years the owners have said that we would take care of the $700 invoice and NOTHiNG!! Very sad and would not recommend for anything.