My Black and White Affair: The Venue and Caterer - Chow Unlimited (Catering Trio) Review

(Note: I am not paid to do this review nor a paid promotion.  I am just sharing my experiences through this blog. Enjoy reading!)

I am already one month married and I never expected married life to be this fun and challenging. 

I still can’t get over my wedding last month. I really thank God for helping us plan and prepare the wedding in three months. It was a little stressful but again, everything was worth it. 

I just want to share the suppliers that we had for the wedding. I splurge on a lot of stuff but I admit that for our wedding, my husband and I did our best to save. I know some will disagree with me but a wedding does not need to be glamorous nor elaborate. “Minsan lang naman kayo ikakasal, gawin niyo nang bongga.” – I’ve heard this a lot of times during the preparation but my husband and I really wanted a simple wedding – not to spend a lot for a one day event as we are also preparing for our lives AFTER the wedding. 

With the help of the internet and a telephone, I was able to find affordable but good wedding suppliers. :) 


Let me start with our venue and caterer. :) 


Place / Catering 
Chow Unlimited – Catering Trio

Location: 
Roofdeck Prestige Tower
F. Ortigas Jr. Road (formerly Emerald Ave.) 
Ortigas Center, Pasig City,


My husband and I thought that it will be better for the ceremony and the reception to be held in one place since we were going to have a Christian (Baptist) wedding.  I tried looking everywhere near Pasig/Mandaluyong area and I was able to find one. 

We got the services of Chow Unlimited located at Prestige Tower, Ortigas. It was like hitting two birds with one big stone. 

We were expecting around 150-180 visitors for our wedding. 






PROS: 
1. The place is located at the Roofdeck of Prestige Tower – easy to locate. 
Our guests didn’t have a hard time finding the venue. Parking was not also a problem because there are two pay parking areas near the building – one was just beside the building and the other one is just across. 

This was the map that I used for my wedding invitation.

2. Chow Unlimited owns or occupies the whole floor. The kitchen is located in the same floor so the staff was able to provide us that things that we needed during the reception. The function rooms were also spacious and can accommodate up to 250 pesos for the reception.
There are two washrooms and both are clean. :) 


These are some photos of the function room. The first two photos were taken from the Chow Unlimited website and the rest are all photos taken during my wedding. 

from: http://cateringtrio.com/photogallery.html

from: http://cateringtrio.com/photogallery.html

3. Their packages are insanely affordable. 
We were able to avail the free use of the function room for four (4) hours. They have this package that if you avail at least PhP30,000 worth of food catering booking, they will let you use their function room for free! And they will also let you use their sound system and microphones for free. 

Here's a screen capture from their website. You can check it out at: http://cateringtrio.com/chowfunctionrooms.html 

4. They have different menu packages that will suit your budget. 
Their menu starts at PhP 315 / head. They also have ‘kiddie menu’ for as low as PhP 90 / child. You can check out their menu here: http://cateringtrio.com/chowmenu.html

5. Okay, here’s the big question: Does the food TASTE good?

My answer: YES. 
We got the menu package that serves 5 main courses (chicken / pork / beef / fish / pasta / vegetable), 1 soup, and desert. 
We had the taste test a month before the wedding. That time, the food they served us didn't taste that good. I got nervous. I was just wondering what our guests will say. But my gut instinct says that everything will be alright. Right after the taste test, we paid our downpayment (for reservation). 
On our wedding day, my husband and I couldn't eat that much (because of mixed emotions, pure joy, and picture-taking). Eating was the least I could think of that time. 

After the wedding, I got a lot of comments from the guests that the food tasted good and the staff gave big servings. Even our parents loved the food. 

We paid for 200 persons and there were around 220 people during the wedding day. (Expect the unexpected!) Everyone was full but there were still leftovers. My husband and I didn't realize that there were still leftovers until one of the staff called us to say that we can pick up the leftovers (because there were still a lot!)  

These are the actual photos during our wedding. 

We got the menu package with 5 main courses.  We chose Cream of Mushroom for our soup, Salt and Pepper Spareribs for our pork dish, and Mixed Vegetable w/ Quail Eggs for our vegetable dish. 

Here's the lasagna that I wasn't able to taste. During the taste test, the lasagna that they served was 'milky'. 

We chose the Korean Korean Barbequed Beef (Bulgogi) as one of our main courses. 

Here's the fish fillet!

I love this! This is the Garlic Chicken and I ate all the leftovers after the wedding. 

Revel Bars for desert. They also served fresh fruits. 

6. The staff (waiters, manager/s, etc) were all soooo accommodating and kind. 
Our contact person that time was Ma’am Salou (I am not pretty sure with the spelling of her name). I guess she is the owner. She was so kind, jolly and approachable. I didn’t have a hard time talking to her and she even gives suggestions on how you can save for the reception. 
During the wedding, the one who managed the staff was Ma’am Joy (?). She was also very kind. One of our ‘ninangs’ told us that the waiters were very kind and respectful. I have noticed that, too. All the members of the staff were smiling and they already know what to do. 


CONS: 
Well, there's nothing bad I could say :) I am one satisfied customer. 


Will I come get their services again? Yes! I even recommended them so some friends. :) 


We spent on the following: 
a. Catering (food) for 200 people. 
b. 10% Service charge
c. Iced Tea and Coffee 
*Their menu on serves 1 round of iced tea. I asked Ma'am Salou how much should I add to make the iced tea unlimited. She suggested that I just buy powdered iced tea and they'll just serve it. According to her, they will charge PhP 40 per glass of iced tea if we will order from them. This was just amazing! I couldn't believe that I was hearing this from the owner of the caterer. She was actually not after the profit. I love her already. We also bought coffee to be brewed and served to the guests. They have this coffee maker and Ma'am Salou said she will not charge us for the paper cups. Wow. 

d. Kiddie meal for 10 kids 
e. Extension fee (because we had to extend for an hour) 
____________________________________________________________________
TOTAL AMOUNT: more or less PhP 110,000.00

Not bad for 200 people. We saved a lot for the place rental, sound system and others. :)