Ocean West Catering

We love Mexican food and Horhay's has hit it out ot the park. Awesome authentic mexican taste, large orders and an excellent menu to choose from. We will definitely be back!

We just did take -out food from Horhay Mexican food from White Rock and it was delicious. It was ready fast , nice packed , big potions and priced right .
It taste just like you are in Mexico. I will take out more food from Horhay it is ecellente !

Ocean West Catering by Design – what a fabulous, professional, amazing catering company you are! I cannot thank you enough for such an incredible job so extremely well done - beginning with your informative website and helpful, flexible, dependable contact with Grace helping me to plan a large surprise party for my husband. Head chef Michael and certified chef Robert arrived exactly as planned on the day of the party, and just seamlessly made everything go so well without a hitch at all ... and the food and presentation of the food was FABULOUS - WOW! They had created a “Greek BBQ buffet” with added seafood and fruit platters that were incredible! The wide variety of foods accommodated every dietary wish of every guest! Many of my guests were so impressed that I think Michael and Robert gave away all their business cards! They are such a pleasure to work with and so professional. I have previously personally planned numerous staff events, retirement parties, and personal functions, and am well known among my coworkers, friends and family for very high expectations! Many of my guests were saying what a great way to host a larger party, or cater a wedding, or a business function, agreeing that Ocean West Catering was first class in every way. Michael told me that Ocean West Catering is very flexible, catering in many different styles for small to very large groups of people at a time. I could never have pulled this off without you, and was so happy to host such a successful party for my husband and my family and friends! @www.oceanwestcatering.com

Hellped organize a wedding and used Ocean. Professional, flexible and food was good. Thanks. Helped make our wedding memorable and filled tummies with great food

You will see on ALL review sites, (i.e. trip advisory, N-49, Google, Yelp, Celebrate etc. The only negative review that is posted is coming from the same source! You may also note that it is also kept anonymous.
These people are Vanessa Cope and her sister.
She booked a local Hotel conference room, and the hotel asked me to cater it. I was told weeks later from the hotel that Miss Cope was being unrealistic with her demands.
She insisted on supplying her own alcohol, having only appetizers at midnight, on a $10 per person budget and half price hotel rooms for her guests.
The Hotel was not interested in proceeding with her event based those terms. With no venue for her reception, unfortunately that had to be my position as well. I also withdrew. At this point it was out of my hands.
Planning an event from another Province, on a budget can be extremely difficult and stressful, I understand. I help clients out all the time with the little extras.
This is no different than an actor that reads a script only later to find out that the role is not for them. This was the case with this client. There are no rules saying that a caterer has to accept the job. We deal with hundreds of happy clients a year and unfortunately you sometime get ones that you cannot please.
It is okay to have some flexibility, but when a situation becomes negative and unrealistic, sometimes it’s okay to walk away. I wish them luck in their future dealings.
Merry Christmas

We were extremely impressed with our first experience with Ocean West Catering. Each menu item was delicious and there were no fillers like pasta salad! Fresh, made from scratch, beautifully presented, the three different meats we chose were tender and the salads were fresh and flavorful. The service was top notch and the staff communicated well with us on our party prep. The food was served hot and on time. Great value and portions were generous. It was so good, our guests went back for seconds and thirds and we had several compliments raving on the quality of our buffet. We would highly recommend Ocean West and have already passed their name onto several friends. We look forward to having them cater our next function!

We hired Michael and Ocean West Catering to cater our wedding for 100 guests on July 28, 2012. I'll start with the good stuff:

The food was delicious. We went with Buffet #3, and to be honest the website photos don't do the actual food justice. The displays were beautiful and the food was of the highest quality. We approached Michael on July 19 (which is somewhat short notice) about doing a quiche for 2 vegetarians that would be attending, and he agreed no problem, which we appreciated greatly. The servers were friendly and prompt. More or less everything on the day of went without a hitch. If you had asked me at the end of the night, I would have recommended Ocean West without any hesitation whatsoever.

As you can probably tell, there is a "but..." coming on.

We solidified the details of what we wanted to do with Michael by email on July 9. At 11 am on Thursday July 26, Michael emailed me a "final quote" based on the requirements and timeline that we had discussed. After the deposit, the amount owing on this "final quote" was 3079.88. My father in law met with Michael on Friday July 27 (the day before the wedding) and gave him the credit card information to arrange the payment. At no point between Thursday's "final quote" and Saturday's wedding did we make any changes to our requirements, our plans or our timeline for the food and beverage.

Fast forward to July 31, 3 days after the wedding. Michael forwarded a receipt to my father in law for the payment run on the credit card, which was for 3327.54, a difference of 247.66. When questioned about the difference in price, Michael's response was the following:

"I wrote to explain to George that having the bar and food downstairs, and setting up both locations in under 4 hours required the help of one more body for 5 hours and ultimately the result of a 2 hour overtime for 1 other staff ( At straight time). Had the hall not allowed this location, or in the
event of rain this 7 hours additional labour would not have been required.
When planning for weddings it is easy to request certain services. I am the one responsible for executing it. I am glad the extra staff member was there to assist, and I am sure you will agree that it all went off smoothly and was worth the $140."

In fairness, his explanation would make sense if a) we had changed some details between the final quote on Thursday and our wedding on Saturday, and b) the difference was 140 dollars, but it was in fact 240 dollars. The extra staff member he references for 7 hours, at the agreed upon rate of 20 dollars an hour, would have indeed been 140 dollars, but there is no explanation for the EXTRA 100 dollars we were billed over and above that. At no point in our emails back and forth has he offered to adjust the price to reflect the total contained in the "final quote".

So I'm giving the entire experience 2.5 stars. I highly recommend his food, it is of the highest quality. I also highly recommend keeping a tight eye on the payment process, and I suggest holding back at least a percentage of the final total until after the event when you can see an itemized bill for the services.

OCEAN WEST CATERING SERVICE
Michael was organized, efficient, and very easy to work with. Our friends were all impressed with the presentation and quality of the food. We highly recommend his Ocean West Catering service for your next function.
Anna & Graham Morgan
White Rock
B.C.

Not what I wanted, Not what I expected. Luckily the event was with close friends, if this function had been with business clients it would have been embarrasing.

I take some blame, I was too casual taking Michaels word. Get it in writing.

I have been working with Michael at Ocean West to plan a major catering event and he is great. Great food at a reasonable price and Michael has been extremely flexible in working with us. Highly recommend Ocean West for your next event!