Hilton Universal City/Los Angeles

Good price, good Chinese food, and good service. However, I wish our catering manager was more responsive on emails because it was hard to get a hold of her. I really like the atmosphere as well.

I never really saw their ballroom, but this was one of the venues that we
were considering before pricing came along. So since budget is your concern,
then this is the information we recvd about 2 wks ago: for the starting plate for dinner on a wedding package, the price starts at $69 per person. Now if you have a lot of people then you can go based on the banquet menu which includes your 3 course
dinner of salad, entree and deserrt for about $39 per person. For saturday
night we must meet a food and beverage minimum of $9,000++++. Hope this
information helps! Elvira was very helpful, and she answered all my emails w/i
last 24 hrs.

We had looked at the Hilton, and were originally going to do something at a more standard restaurant instead. After our first venue screwed us over, we took another look at the Hilton. I liked that they had a separate vegetarian menu (a full 10 course banquet menu) available as one of their Chinese catering options, and their standard fare was a little more diverse than your usual Cantonese seafood restaurant.We had a good experience with Tammy, our primary contact for the venue. She was very organized and helpful, and worked well with our day-of coordinator and other vendors. While flexibility is not necessarily the strong suit of a large hotel, she did do her best to try and accommodate special requests within reason.Their prices are not too crazy, and the packages are convenient and provide the kind of things most people will probably want, but sales tax and a built in tip / service charge is tacked on to virtually *every* charge from the hotel (even things like adding extra power boxes that you wouldn't think require either sales tax or service fees), and this does add to the cost. While they did give us a free hotel room the night of the event, they charged us $18 for overnight parking (the free parking only applies to non-overnight wedding guests). Given the amount of money our wedding gave them, between our fees and all the business from guests, etc., you'd think free overnight parking is something they could manage.Booking group blocks at the hotel was kind of a pain - in this area, the Hilton wasn't very helpful, and reservations go to their centralized (and, I think, outsourced to another country) reservations system. The coordinator we had for group sales within the hotel was not that helpful or on top of things.The banquet and ceremony facilities are Ok - they look a little dated, but they're well taken care of and are serviceable enough. Once things were decorated and setup for the event, our guests and family seemed happy enough with how things looked. There are probably nicer looking venues / ceremony locations, but overall, not too bad.The night of our event, there were several other events going on, and we did have some music bleeding through from a wedding next door.Food - we were worried about this, since the Hilton doesn't have a way for you to try their Chinese banquet food without booking a table for 10 at close to full cost. We had heard mostly good things, but not from many people we knew or trusted. I'm vegetarian, and of course the bride and groom don't get to eat that much anyway, but we heard almost entirely good things about the food from our guests, and my wife, who's a pretty discerning food critic, said all the food she tried was good. Both the Asian and non-Asian guests universally seemed to enjoy the food. The lobster and the roast chicken seemed to be two of the favorites, and apparently the fish was perfectly cooked. Quantity was also not a problem - I don't think anyone went home hungry. The service was good - unobtrusive, but helpful.

If you want a Chinese wedding banquet, good food and a great value, the Hilton Universal City delivers. We were directed to this venue based on a number of family friends' recommendations. While you aren't able to taste the food prior to the wedding (this made me very nervous), I relied upon the excellent taste buds of several friends who had been to Chinese wedding banquets here in the past. We were not disappointed. The food was excellent and plentiful. Exactly what a Chinese wedding banquet should be.We had an Americanized version of the wedding banquet because most of our guests would not have appreciated sea cucumber or abalone. The chef was able to provide additional dishes the day of due to picky eaters and he was able to make delicious vegetarian Asian dishes for the vegetarians of the group. In terms of value, the Hilton was extremely flexible in figuring out which plan and what types of food you wanted (up to 3 days prior to the event). We had originally planned to have over 150 guests and ended up with closer to 100 - the minimum bill is 10K so to meet that we ended up with the platinum plan for food which included 4 hours of open bar (with upgraded alcohol), appetizers, valet parking if needed, wine with dinner, champagne toast and 10 courses. Quite a good value if you consider that many other places would charge 99/person just for the food and add drinks on top.Service - no hiccups. Our wedding coordinator was responsive and helpful (she gave me the name of my hair/makeup stylist who did an AMAZING job). Always available when I needed her.All in all, great job.

We had our wedding at UV Hilton in nov. I have to say, This place is amazing! Food are great! all my guests are enjoy it. I got a great deal on the open bar services. I recommend this place to any one who is looking for good Chinese banquet.

My contact at the hotel changed twice by the time my wedding happened.

This place kind of made me nervous when I first met with their Director of Catering. He made us wait an hour and a half for our appointment. He was also hard to get a hold of. We loved the location and the comparable prices for chinese banquet catering, but the initial service...questionable.The day of was fabulous. They really came through for mostly everything. The banquet captain was the best person out of the whole team. He made me feel comfortable even the day before the wedding. My friends and family told me later, but my supposed "wedding coordinator" one of the Hilton's staff showed up on the day of exceptionally late. I even called her earlier that day on her cell phone and she sounded like she just woke up (and it was close to noon).I loved my wedding, but did not completely love Universal's service.

We liked that it was cheap to rent for the night, but I wish it had a more magical vibe. It is, and feels like, a hotel.

A good place if you require a chinese style wedding. The food is excellent. Service is great.

We were able to book our reception here 6 months prior to our wedding with no problem. Their chinese style banquet dinner was exceptional. Unlike other places, they gave us way too much quality food! Our guests were extremely pleased with the amount of food (were able to go home full for the first time from weddings) and they even took the rest home! The services were excellent! Highly recommended!

Universal Hilton (contacts: Yi Tan and Carol Wang): B- during wedding planning process, A on day of wedding

We had both our ceremony and reception at Universal Hilton, which turned out to both be a headache and a relief. We rented the outdoor Sierra Courtyard for the ceremony and got the package for cocktails and banquet. Yi and the Hilton staff gave us full attention on our wedding day and service was fantastic (well, you are paying a premium for the service). The food (we didn’t get to eat much of it) was yummy according to our guests. BUT I had some trouble dealing with Yi during the wedding planning process. I had signed the contract with Yi’s predecessor that included a guaranteed number of appetizers per person, but Yi reneged on that and said the contract didn’t specifically state that on her end (we had the paperwork on our side, thank goodness – girls, keep EVERYTHING you get from vendors). There were also schedule conflicts that I was told last-minute about the reception and cocktail room usage that prevented us from setting up on time. Both of these were solved eventually, but it took more energy than necessary. Yi was also very, very hard to get a hold of. I would call her and not hear from her for 2 weeks (and our wedding was only weeks away). When she called me back, she would leave a message and say something to the effect of “well, I called you and you’re not there.” That was very frustrating to deal with, especially since her job is not to make your planning process harder than it needs to be. We had a sweetheart table and we were charged for our food even though we had tables that had empty space. If you are thinking about having your ceremony/reception at Hilton, be sure to think ahead of what you need and get everything in writing (exact menu items and price, exactly spell out what your package includes, guaranteed time to set up, consecutive or disjointed open bar hours, etc.). That said, on your wedding day, you will receive excellent service and the décor is pretty darn nice for picture-taking.

My main contact at the Hilton was Yi Tan. She was very professional and always easy to work with. Communication both over phone and email was also easy. The food was great. I had no major problems with them. I would highly recommend Universal Hilton.