Ann Walker Catering

Ann was able to keep our wedding motto of "Everything within 75 miles of our location". Most of our food was grown locally and sustainable/in season. We started with passed appetizers - amazing! We had the pork sliders, crab bites and curry chicken in filo dough.
Our dinner was served family style - in which they brought large platters of food to each table to then we passed around. This worked perfectly and everyone enjoyed the method. Our table was set with loaves of Acme bread for breaking and cazuelas of house marinated olives.
It was very nice to see Ann there at the beginning of the wedding. Ann was expensive, but delicious! And for the feedback we received from our guests - everyone LOVED the food! I want more!

If you have the opportunity to work with Ann and her son Morgan, I would highly recommend taking it.

AWC is a mother/son team who complement each other very well. From our first visit with them at our tasting, they were very hospitable and Ann took time to ask about our family food traditions. She created a menu for our wedding that was pleasing to our less adventurous family members, vegans, children, and foodies alike. She made great suggestions for the menu but also helped us with drink pairings, a wonderful floor plan, and reception details. My husband and I had never been to a wedding where the food was served family style, but when we told her we didn’t want anyone to be the ‘last table’, she recommended that we consider family style and it was great. Less wasted food, people who wanted seconds had their fill, and everyone was served at the same time. She also recommended we consider a sweetheart table since we didn’t have a wedding party and it gave us a chance to catch our breath and enjoy the amazing food – small details we wouldn’t have known to ask for that she was already on top of in planning. They were also very responsive to phone calls and emails.

The day-of was so stress free for us. The wait staff was spectacular! They were attentive without being obtrusive and considered every detail. We received many compliments on the food and they continue to pour in. Ann and Morgan were also very thorough in their proposal to ensure that there were no hidden fees. We knew after our last talk with Ann and Morgan that we could relax at the reception – they had everything covered.

After the wedding day, we found out there had been an accident on the Golden Gate Bridge that caused a few of our friends to run a bit late. Ann happened to be making the last trip up to the venue when she saw our three friends running up the hill to the chapel and she was so kind that she stopped and gave them a ride so they could get to the church on time! I would recommend AWC to anyone looking for a...

I loved working with Ann Walker and Morgan. We did tastings with several caterers - Ann's food was the best. She was also lovely to work with, had great suggestions, and knew our venue well. would definitely use her again!

We met Ann and Morgan at a small wedding vendor expo at the Brazilian Room about eight months before our wedding. We enjoyed the food they had and loved that they were passionate about tapas, since we were hoping to do something different than the typical wedding dinner. During the next few weeks, we looked around at a number of other local caterers, but ultimately we came back to AWC because they offered great food at a very reasonable price and were happy to come up with a menu that fit what we wanted. In the end, we drafted a nice menu of passed appetizers, tapas and vegetarian paella, and a variety of pies and tarts for dessert.

Because we were organizing everything ourselves, we asked Ann and Morgan *a lot* of questions via phone and e-mail in the months before our wedding. Both of them were always happy to take time out to answer our questions and help us with the planning. This was especially helpful when it came to the finer details of coming up with a table layout, stocking the bar, etc.

On the morning of our wedding it was raining and no one was certain if we’d be able to do things as we had originally planned (ceremony and cocktail hour outside, dinner and dancing inside). Luckily the rain stopped a couple of hours before the ceremony, and Morgan and the catering crew went above and beyond by helping us reconfigure the main room where dinner would be served in about a half hour flat.

The feedback from our guests about AWC both during and after the wedding was nothing short of excellent. Everyone had good things to say about the appetizers, dinner, and dessert. (The pecan pie was a crowd favorite.) In addition, our guests loved the staff – especially the bartender (always key). From our perspective, AWC was also great during the wedding. The staff made sure we had drinks and appetizers during our yichud (a ritual seclusion after the wedding ceremony) and worked very well with our day-of coordinator, Brittany Piehl of Va de Vie Events.

All in all, we have nothing but good things to say about AWC and would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone, especially if you'd like Spanish-style cuisine at your wedding/event. We know that there are some negative reviews on Yelp about the responsiveness of AWC, but we personally never experienced any trouble with that. (Maybe it’s because we’re very proactive when it comes to communication?) Last, but not least, don't forget to ask Ann about her (non-wedding cake) desserts -- they aren't necessarily advertised on the website, but they are delicious.

Ann and Morgan Walker are an amazing team. The only tough part of this process was that every single thing we tried at the tasting was delicious, and we had trouble choosing which appetizers and entrees to go with!

They were very flexible throughout the process, even when our numbers kept changing. They also dealt with all the rentals (of tables, linens, etc.) -- my husband and I never had to worry about rentals for second.

I would highly recommend this catering team!!

We highly recommended Ann Walker Catering. The food and event coordination was great and went smoothly. We're really glad we went with the caterer that shared the vision of our event rather than the less expensive one that we would have to micromanage. Even when we were going back and forth on details and were trying to get the final quote at the end, I was never worried that the event wouldn't meet our expectations. Our reception had food stations, no assigned seating, and an extended cocktail party vibe. AWC did a great job with figuring out the number of tables and where to put the stations and the bar. The stations were great - we did a "taste of San Francisco" theme, and there was an oyster bar with a shucker and grilled oysters, local artisan cheeses (soooo good), a mexican station, and a beautifully decorated asian station. People were mingling all night, which was what we were going for. Many guests complimented us on the food. The stations were beautifully decorated. They took down the decorations and brought them and the leftover alcohol back to AWC at no extra cost. We loved the staff.

Months after our wedding (we got married in September), we still get raves about our food! Food was an extremely important element of the wedding for us, and Ann was the perfect caterer. She and her son are great to work with and talk to, we had a great time meeting with them.

Our food was fabulous – in addition to passed appetizers, we had several different food stations, with different wine pairings at each station. We sort of came up with this idea while we were brainstorming, and Ann just ran with it. She was really enthusiastic about it and it got us really excited too. Our food was asian fusion. I am Chinese and I emphasized to every caterer I contacted that the food really needed to be asian fusion, otherwise my relatives were going to wonder why we didn’t just have the reception at a Chinese restaurant. Unlike most of the other caterers I contacted, Ann really came up with creative food ideas, not just chinese chicken salad and steamed pork buns. And everything was delicious. Ann also emphasizes using local, seasonal, and fresh ingredients, something we really appreciate. She also was very helpful when we were picking wines.

Ann also served as our day of coordinator at the Brazilian Room – I was thinking of hiring one and she told me there was no need. She was right - everything went off without a hitch. I sent her contact information for our other vendors, we came up with a timeline, and she pretty much handled the rest. When we arrived at the venue, the cake topper was on the right cake (we had a cake table of single-tiered cakes), our centerpieces were arranged just as I wanted them (we had dropped those off earlier in the day but the tables hadn’t been set up yet), and everyone knew where they were supposed to be. I would definitely recommend Ann Walker.

I can't say enough kind words about Ann and her son Morgan. Professional, caring and cost effective. We wanted a laid back family style meal that our guests would see at our home. People are still talking about how great the meal was and if they can get the recipes. The hor'dorves were imaginative and the main course was cooked to perfection. Her serving staff was caring and attentive, if we wanted something they were there within seconds. They also needed no direction in arranging and setting out the various items for the reception. I was worried that things wouldn't be in the right spot since I didn't have a day of coordinator but everything was perfect. Morgan connected with our other vendors and organized accordingly.

Ann catered our wedding to outstanding reviews from our guests. In fact, people liked the food so much we have been asked to get the recipes and her contact information. She was very helpful in the planning and suggested some great ideas. Much like the review below weeks after people are still talking about the food and saying it was the best wedding food ever!!! We can't wait for our next big party so she can provide the food again.

Also important, she was incredibly affordable and the rental company she uses was much less than any other prices I had seen. Finally, the service was also outstanding and a lot of personal attention was given to all of our quests which we really liked.

Ann catered for our wedding and it was perfect. The food was delicious and everything was set up exactly as we wanted it. People told us that it was the best wedding food they had had in a long time. Ann and Michael were also really helpful in other aspects of our planning. Highly recommended!

This is "The Caterer."

Our tasting here set her far apart from the other three catering tastings we attended. Ann herself ran the tasting from her kitchen located among some beautiful seminary buildings in Marin County. She was the most professional of everyone we met with, and it was obvious that were we to pick her, the day would run as smooth as silk. And it did - the servers were great, and Ann and her son provided excellent online communication leading up to the wedding.

Among Brazilian Room caterers, Shai's, Serves You Right, Schumann's Four Seasons, and Culinary Excellence were cheaper, but Ann Walker was still cheaper than half of the caterers on the list, and she was worth every penny.

Everything we tried we loved. There was not a single clunker on the menu (something that definitely could not be said for the other places we tried). Even though Ann believes strongly in seasonality and only has you taste dishes that are in season during the catering (which therefore might not be the ones you'd have for your event), everything tasted so good I felt I could put my trust in her for dishes we would not be able to try before the wedding.

At the tasting we tried:

Apps
-Spanish olives
-Marinated mushrooms (this and the olives were very good, but I didn't want to serve Spanish appetizers I felt I could get anywhere and weren't special enough)
-Nori with chicken mousse and wasabi creme freiche (I'm not a big meat mousse fan but this was done expertly well)
-*Chicken satay with cilantro peanut sauce (excellent with an unusual dipping sauce)
-Spinach empanadas (one of my least favorite apps but still really good; had another caterer served it during a tasting it would have made the final menu)
-Beef picadillo empanadas (very good)
-Duck confit spring rolls with cranberry apple chutney (this was one of my favorites but unfortunately it's not best served in August at the time of our wedding)
-*Shittake mushroom cakes with black bean aioli (loved it; very interesting flavors)

Entrees and Sides
-*Roasted vegetables with brava sauce (I never knew I liked turnips before trying this dish; the other vegetables were awesome as well and the sauce was amazing)
-Chicken with white beans and Madeira sauce (really yummy; we added it to our menu but ended up tossing it favor of steak)
-Spinach and three cheese rolled pasta (very rich tasting but not too much so; this made our wedding menu but then we removed it in favor of something that was vegan)

* = Good enough to make our wedding menu

We also added to our menu:

Apps
-Potato and pea samosas with mint chutney (our vegan friend loved these; they were very good)

Sides
-Heirloom tomato salad with marinated mozzarella and two basil dressing (my husband's and my absolute favorite dish)
-Crusty breads and sweet butter (brought in from another bakery)

Entrees
-Hanger steaks topped with romesco butter (we got a ton of compliments on this dish but we thought the meat was a little tough; maybe that's typical of hangar steak)
-Wild Salmon with a corn relish (good but didn't blow us away)
-Saffron risotto cakes with mushroom sauce (a great vegan option; this dish really grew on me and was one of the husband's favorites)

Dessert
-Seasonal fruit salad (this was served with the cake and was very good; it was a nice not too sugary alternative for the non-cake eaters)

Ann suggested we add a seasonal fruit agua fresca since our wedding is in August. That sounded wonderful to us since we love agua fresca! She also recommended serving sangria, which sounded delightful. Our canteloupe agua fresca was on the bland side, but we really liked the sangria.

A foodie friend of mine used Ann Walker for her Brazilian Room wedding, and raved about the food. Apparently, Ann created a menu of Iranian specialties just for the occasion (my friend's husband is from Iran).

I'm just sad she doesn't have a restaurant so that I can eat my favorite dishes again after the wedding.

Everything is made to look and taste like nothing you have had before. Five Stars!

Ann Walker is a preferred caterer at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and is located onsite. She provides beautifully prepared cuisine with a fantastic, "can-do" attitude.

Ann Walker Catering has great food and an attentive staff. They have been a pleasure to work with.