About this vendor
Phil’s Catering is a professional wedding and event catering service based in Atascadero, CA. Gary Vierra, the founder of the company, started this flourishing business in 1986 and named it after his father Philbert “Phil” Vierra. His wife and daughter, who worked alongside him, now operate the business with Chef Mike Carollo, a longtime Central Coast chef, and many other valued team members. Chef Mike has been integral in the formation of many wonderful restaurants on the Central Coast.
Phil’s Catering will make flawless service a priority, allowing clients to avail of delivery, setup, and cleanup. The team will also strive to satisfy the specific dietary requirements of couples and their guests, preparing dairy-free, gluten-free, and nut-free options. Clients also have the opportunity to choose between family-style meals, seated-style meals, and chef stations for their occasion.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Cuisine
- American
- BBQ
- Cajun
- Hawaiian
- Italian
- Seafood
Dietary Options
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Nut Free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Food & Catering
- Buffet
- Catering Clean Up
- Catering Delivery & Setup
- Chef Stations
- Family Style
- Menu Tastings
Awards and Affiliations
2-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2013.2011.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
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Reviews
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4.5
out of 5.035 reviews
This was our second time using Phil’s Catering. They did a wonderful job for our first daughter’s wedding, and once again everything was excellent for our second daughter’s wedding...
. Brittney was incredibly helpful, kept communication easy, and made the planning stress‑free. Great food, great service, and an awesome team! Highly recommended.
Phil’s Catering did an AMAZING job at our wedding!
Brittney from Phil’s is a wonderful person and very great to communicate with. There were some questionable reviews of Phil’s t...
hat I had to ask her about and she very graciously explained what happened and what she’d been doing to improve the business. That spoke volumes to us and made us really trust her. We ALSO LOVED their food! My husband and I went to a food tasting at their restaurant in Atascadero and we LOVED EVERYTHING they served us! We were so excited to hire them immediately and we could not stop raving about how amazing our food was going to be at our wedding!
Fast forward to the wedding, EVERYONE RAVED ABOUT THE FOOD AS WELL! It’s been a couple months since our wedding and every guest that has spoken to me since has talked about how delicious the food was. They specifically called out their appetizers - we did their braised meatballs, arancini risotto cakes, and goat cheese crostini. My friends legit said they were fighting other guests at the entrance of the wine room (where the appetizers were coming out) to grab as many arancini balls they could. And everyone loved the pasta bar!
One other great thing Phil’s did was execute on our vision for a late night ramen bar! They were the only vendor we spoke to that was very excited about the idea and had a great solution and way to get it going! And during our late night ramen bar, we had a power outage. Even with that outage, they delivered and the guests loved the ramen!
There were a couple of mistakes that I think future couples should take note of to avoid these things from happening. First, we thought we were very clear about what services we needed from them months prior to the wedding. However, a week before our wedding, Phil took a look at our details and decided to add additional staff to the invoice. This was a sudden cost since we already budgeted based on what was given to us when we signed the contract. Since we signed, the number of staff and hours hadn’t changed until the last minute which left us stuck paying money we didn’t anticipate. Another issue was we had two Gluten Free guests that we ordered special meals for but Phil’s completely forgot to bring those meals for them. But I do think that Brittney handled both of these well and again speaks to how much she cares for her clients!
Overall I really recommend Phil’s Catering to any couple getting married in the Paso Robles area! They do a great job! I give a lot of credit to Brittney and her team. Their food is truly exceptional. Thank you Phil’s Catering!!! We loved you and so did all of our guests!
Phil's Catering was a pleasure to work with during our planning process. They were quick to respond to our inquiry at first then communication started getting spotty the months lea...
ding up to our wedding regarding menu changes; I think staffing shortages have been a challenge for many industries. However, they were able to accommodate our requests and executed the dinner buffet service for our wedding well. They had many delicious options available to accommodate our guests' numerous dietary restrictions. We felt at peace the weeks leading up to the wedding.
The passed appetizers were delicious! We had 120 guests and sadly the resounding feedback we got about our buffet was that there was not enough food. Still, the staff was very professional and cheerful throughout our event and it felt well worth the price point. I would recommend Phil's Catering for wedding events in Santa Barbara and it might be worth it to add about 10 guests to the count in order to ensure there is enough food.
Prompt, kind, and hardworking - it was such a pleasure to work with Phil's Catering team! And of course, their food was incredible!
Phil's Catering food was great, everyone of my guests told me how much they loved the food. The service was not as good as the food. My event went until 11pm and the workers starte...
d pulling off the centerpieces and linens from the empty tables before dinner even finished. I know they did apologize for cleaning up early especially since a new staff member kept clearing after we asked them to stop. Guests just felt like the event was over because of this. Also, many guests told me they got up to use the bathroom during dinner and when they got back their food was gone. They also couldn't go back for seconds because as soon as they thought everyone was served they closed the buffet area. I paid for 110 people and maybe 80 attended so you would think some could go back for seconds. I wanted all of the food served so I wouldn't have to take any home. Also the bartender didn't stay and serve the whole night, by 9:00 or 9:30 they just left mixed drinks and beer on the table which isn't smart because there were a ton of children running around and mixed drinks look like juice and I wouldn't want to be blamed if one of them happened to drink one. Over all I would recommend the food but not the service. If you can just get food dropped off I would highly recommend that because their food was amazing, I had chicken fettuccine alfredo and it was a very memorable meal.
We truly enjoyed working with Phil’s catering! They were communicative and made us feel like we were a priority throughout the wedding planning process. We loved working with Chef ...
Mike, Brittney, and Sue. The compassion from this company is unmet and we high recommend them!
Phil's Catering did such a great job at our wedding! We hired them for buffet service. The servers were all very attentive and kind, and the food was delicious! So many of our gues...
ts complimented how good the food was and even talked about it weeks later!
Phil's Catering did an amazing job at the wedding we coordinated this weekend. They arrived on time, were beyond professional, served FANTASTIC food, and had a great staff to work ...
with. This was the first time our company (Lace & Bow Events: Wedding Coordinators) had worked with this caterer and man were we impressed. This particular wedding was a plated dinner as well which is hard to do, and do well. Their communication throughout the whole planning process was great also! As another vendor, we would love to work with them again!!!
We hired Phil's Catering for our September 2021 wedding. We had a fine experience to start: menu creation, email communication, even an in person tasting. Then wedding day came and...
it was a COMPLETE disaster and embarrassment.
1. The staff was late so no preceremony drinks were set up like intended. 2. The staff showed complete disrespect to our wedding planner and denied her when she asked for assistance 3. Disorganized serving of our family style dinner where some guests did not receive a complete entree. 4. They served moldy bread that we had to pull from everyone's table. When we addressed this with them, they knew it was because the bread was stored in bags that were sitting in a hot room, yet they still served them at our wedding. 5. Our steak was served completely raw and sitting in blood 6. We ordered Chicken Marsala but they forgot the Marsala sauce at the kitchen so they served dry and bland chicken, which is not what we paid for. 7. The staff was drinking alcohol from our bar, eating our desserts, and giving back massages to each other by our firepits in the reception area. The night went so horribly that our planner pulled her future brides from using this catering company and will no longer work with them. Our venue also will not be allowing them to be a vendor on their property. And the catering coordinator ended up quitting after the staff performed so horribly. We requested and received a partial refund for such poor service, but it does not take away from the horrible memories they provided on our wedding day. If you want good food and good service, look elsewhere.
The food was off the charts!! It was so delicious and was such a big hit!! The servers he provided were so amazing! I'd hire him again for the amazing Food and wonderful Wait Staff...
!
This is my only vendor for my June 2021 wedding who refuses to move my deposit to our new date, which we have to move because of COVID.
We are trying to reschedule our wedding fo...
r April 2022 to be hopefully in the clear of COVID and Gary refuses to work with us. When I asked why he wasn’t being flexible, he made me feel like the pandemic is something I can control and should have known about. We were holding onto hope that June 2021 would be fine in California with the mass vaccine distribution, but I found out 2 months before that my venue doesn’t think we can have the amount of people we were hoping for. Even though it’s still up in the air, we made the painstaking decision to move it to next year and not risk it.
I immediately contacted Gary, and all of my other vendors, to let them know and try to find a new date that would line up with everyone. Every single one of my other vendors showed empathy and compassion and moved our contract and corresponding deposits to our new date without question. Gary said I should have told him sooner as other brides with later dates already had moved theirs.
I just don’t think this is how COVID couples should be treated when their date has to be pushed back.
We had Phil's Catering cater our wedding dinner at the beginning of this month. BBQ Buffet- Tri-tip, chicken, potato salad, baked beans, mixed greens salad and rolls. Gary was gr...
eat to work with, the food was wonderful, and the cost was reasonable. We chose them because my best friend used Phil's to cater her own wedding a couple years ago. Since she had such a great experience with them, and we knew the food was good, it was an easy decision. We also had them make two vegan dishes for our DJ and wedding planner, and we got two thumbs up.
We got SO MANY compliments from guests about Phils! We chose them after having a great experience as guests at another wedding and we are so glad we did! The food was delicious, ev...
en our pickiest eaters complimented everything! Shelly was so sweet and attentive; they brought appetizers and water up a huge hill to our wedding party who were doing pictures and plates with special requests were delivered to me and my groom which allowed us to enjoy everything before the excitement of guests began. Shelly really did make our day so much brighter! This is one of few catering companies our venue allows and we can see why. They were so professional and kind, and left everything spotless! Chris was a joy to work with in the planning process and was helpful when we added vegetarian plates last minute, which we know must be a pain. Overall, we cannot say enough good things about Phil's food and staff! THANK YOU!!!
5 out of 5 on the food and staff day of for Phil’s! Service side/Support before the event 4 out of 5 (more below - nothing terrible!)
The fresh grilled food on site was honestly s...
ome of the best wedding/event food we have ever had. It was just as good as our tasting. Everyone was so pleasant and helpful during the wedding from Setup to Clean Up. If any of the guests had a complaint, we are unaware and only heard good things!
Leading up to the event though, 4 stars. We had some small misunderstandings along the way (were are probably partially to blame) but they came through in the end. We only mention this because if you need someone to help guide you with advice or to really hold you hand the whole way for planning the food/rentals/bar side of things, that is the only shortcoming of Phil’s. Just be careful to be precise and very descriptive in exactly what you want to be safe, and review every detail closely. Like we said, everything went great day of, but don’t rely on them to fill in any gray areas or point out any possible mistakes.
We would recommend Phil’s for catering, and would use them again in the future if we have another event on the Central Coast.
We can't even begin to explain how delicious the food was! Our guests are still raving about how yummy everything was and everyone kept going back for seconds and thirds because it...
was that delicious! Sheila and Cheis were both awesome to work with and were so helpful. We also used Phil's for our tables and linen rentals, which made that part of the wedding planning and clean up process even easier! We will definitely be using Phil's again in the future and will be recommending them to everyone!
The food at our wedding was amazing! All of our guests raved about it. On top of that, the service staff were incredibly sweet and totally on top of it! Such an amazing value for t...
he price! They were also super responsive the year leading up to our wedding, making all of our requested changes and answering my million questions. Highly recommend to use for your wedding!
Phils catering has everything you need! We did our rentals and catering through them. We did a tasting with Phil personally and everything had so much flavor. We were very impre...
ssed. The appetizers we had were bbq sausages, cowboy brie style crostini, and bleu cheese stuffed mushrooms. For dinner we had grilled chicken with a lemon basil cream sauce, roasted red potatoes with a rosmary butter sauce, grilled seasoned vegetables, fresh cut fruit platter, asian pear salad with pear vinaigrette dressing, and focaccia bread with herb garlic butter. Everything tasted great! My favorite was the chicken. They give you one huge breast for yourself and it had so much flavor and was very moist. I was very impressed with the quality you get for a great value. The service was great! The servers continued to bring waters and appetizers for the bridal party and bride and groom while we were taking photos. Then, when we were sitting down for dinner, they continued to assist the bride and groom and made sure we were comfortable and satisfied. I was very impressed and everyone could not stop talking about how much they all loved the food! I highly recommend them as your caterer and rentals!
I used Phil's Catering for my wedding this past August and loved them! The food was delicious and they brought my husband and I appetizers out to us while we were taking pictures s...
o we didn't miss out. They also made us plates and poured our champagne!
They were extremely helpful and very affordable! Our head count was 115 people and it cost us around $2,000.00. If you look around it's a good deal!
Fantastic food! They had many different options for food and worked with us to figure out what we wanted. The servers were also great!
Food was really good. Things went smoothly.
Gary was great to work with, and the food was delicious! We chose BBQ as it was a more rustic wedding (at Flying Caballos Ranch in SLO), and everyone loved it! The service staff...
were all great, too. They even gave us a special "I Do" plate with appetizers, which they set aside for us while we were taking pics (sadly, we have no idea what happened to the plate after the reception :-(
We would HIGHLY recommend Phil's!!
Loved the food!!! The chef, the banquet manager, the banquet servers all did an amazing job!
All of our guess were raving about the food! It was delicious and great for the cost. The staff was amazing and did a fantastic job and was tending to all of our needs and the gues...
t needs. Thanks for an amazing job!!!
Phil's catering was great to work with because their food was wonderful and they set up all our additional reception rentals for us. The cost per head included the dance floor, tab...
le linens and stage for the ceremony. They were affordable and had many types of food choices to work with. I sometimes felt as though my questions were an inconvenience for them but they did always help me with what I needed.
We are so thankful that we hired Phil's Catering for our wedding day! Their staff really went above and beyond to make sure that our day was perfect. Gary, Cathy, Dan, and Becca ...
were amazing from start to finish. They made sure we had a plate of appetizers first thing when we arrived at cocktail hour, and brought us full plates of food as soon as dinner began. I think we are among the few brides and grooms who actually got to eat all of the food at their own wedding! And the food sure was delicious! We personally couldn't get over the mashed potatoes, and the guests are still raving about the food. Set up and clean up went off without a hitch, and the entire staff checked in with us periodically to make sure we were happy, but not in an intrusive way. I especially have to give a big thanks to Becca, who provided us with her dog kennel from her car when it became clear our beagle couldn't handle the party. And we loved Cathy's homemade bride and groom appetizer plate. It's those kinds of attention to detail that made our day perfect. Gary was responsive and easy to work with throughout, and the entire staff handled a great deal of things professionally and exceptionally. We will gladly recommend Phil's to anyone in the future!
My Husband and I are total foodies! We chose Phil's Catering for our wedding because of their abundance of options, and their delicious food! At our wedding we enjoyed tray passe...
d appetizers (stuffed mushrooms, crab cakes, and chicken pinwheels), a stationary table with fruit, veggies, and cheese, and for dinner; New York steak with a mushroom wine sauce, roasted new potatoes, and sauteed carrots, grilled halibut (in a picatta caper sauce) with a parmesan risotto, and sauteed carrots, or vegetarian stuffed shells. We could not keep up with all of the food compliments from our guests. The staff was so kind, and so nice to work with. Every single one of them came up to my Husband and I and complimented us, thanked us for having them be a part of our wedding, or wished us the best. Phil's Catering was an absolute pleasure to work with, and we would highly recommend them!
Gary was wonderful to work with! He helped me plan my menu and was very patient with me when I was asking a million questions. My banquet manager was also wonderful! She really too...
k care of us and made our night easy. Only negative thing to say is that the Barley Pilaf I ordered was a bit bland and disappointing but over I received many many compliments on the food. Nobody left hungry!
When my husband and I were looking to hire a caterer for our wedding, we were looking for something delicious and affordable and Phil’s Catering gave us everything we wanted. We we...
nt food tasting at Phil’s Catering and we fell in love. We went with a buffet style dinner – we thought this would go great with our golf course wedding. It was fantastic and the buffet was beautiful and classy! We ordered the prime rib and the grilled chicken and YUM!!! It was delicious. The event manager and all of the servers were friendly and very courteous. If we had to do it again – we would choose Phil’s Catering every time. Additionally, we were able to get all of our linens through Phil’s Catering, so this helped take the burden off of us. We recommend Phil’s 100%!!!
Great food and selection. Very reasonable pricing. The staff were delightful.
Gary made really good food for the wedding and did a great job with the display (we went with a suckling pig which was a big hit with the wedding guests). He was a bit difficult to...
deal with leading up to the event, as he is not the best at communication. Overall great execution of the food but a bit frustrating to deal with prior, especially when you are stressed when dealing with all the wedding issues. He had a great banquet manager the day of.
By far, one of the best, easiest, most perfect vendors of our wedding experience. Owner Gary is incredibly responsive and accommodating - willing to work with you to make your menu...
meet your budget and vision. From our initial tasting in his kitchen, we knew from the first bite we'd found the perfect match! The food on the wedding day was amazing (the watermelon crab soup got raves from so many guests)... and Gary's wife Cathy was the most professional, sweet banquet manager. She kept everything moving along on track and thought of special little details to take care of our wedding party, like bringing over houre d'oevres during our photo session following the ceremony. Can accommodate extra duties like bartending, chair/table setup, trash removal, etc. Excellent food and service, and the nicest caterers around!
Gary, Cathy and their daughter are reall great people. I probably emailed Gary at least 30 times throughout my planning and he was always polite and informative. Cathy is super s...
weet and very reassuring. I met their daughter at my wedding, super sweet as well. The staff, very confident and really nice. My guests were so impressed! The food was outstanding. All of my guests said the food was awesome especially the chicken. I received great feedback from all my Guests. I had an awesome experience thanks to them!
Working with Phil's Catering was a very positive experience. Gary was easy to communicate throughout the planning and executing of the wedding. The staff was very friendly and pro...
fessional. Everyone enjoyed their food.
I Was vrey happy with Phils catering. The food was good, and the service was great. The only thing that wasn't perfect was some of the food I picked wasn't prepared the way I thoug...
ht it was going to be. So if you use them make sure you ask questions about the dishes! Otherwise it was great and a fair price.
Contact
8030 Santa Rosa Road, Atascadero, CA | CA
Phil's Catering