Menu tasting? Worth it?

I think it's a bit cheeky you have to pay.

OH and I get ours included in the price but we are going to take our mums too who we will have to pay extra for.

The food is one of the most important things for me so I wouldn't risk not having a tasting to be honest.

It's definitely worth going, but agree, it's a bit of a cheek expecting you to pay...........we had ours free @ £60 per guest and we've only got 18 of those!

If we'd not had a tasting, then I'm sure we'd have been a bit disappointed with what we might have chosen.........

I agree it's really cheeky to charge you for the tasting, I'm sure your spending a lot of money so it really should be complimentary in my opinion.

Ours was complimentary and I am so glad we went, we had seen the menu before and OH was dead set he knew what he wanted, after the tasting we had totally changed our mind. Plus the venue also took photographs before sending our food out, so what we saw that day is exactly how it will be served on our wedding day.

I think you should defiantly do it if you can and as for your patents not being able to attend, well if your paying you should be able to bring who you want!

I'm really surprised they're charging you. Ours was included, though they did say that if we didn't go ahead with them as caterers, we'd be charged £70 (£35pp)

It was worth it IMHO, as we got to give them notes on some things. They were only small things like seasoning but they'll matter I think. Also it was really fun!

I would suggest questioning it and saying that you were very surprised to have to pay. They're not going to turn away your business are they?

It's always worth asking if they can offer a discount on the price, esp as you wont be drinking any wine or bubbles...but I would probably say you will have to pay for parents. I would def take them though as they will be a great help in other opinions on food and drinks, we took OHs mum with us, it was much better having an extra opinion, and wrth doing the tasting so we knew the food was nice and didn't need to worry about it.

The things is I'm not very good at negotiating but I'm hoping that they could waive the fee or give a discount. We've already paid for the deposit and worried that we won't have much to bargain with as there's nothing we can do.

Has anyone managed to reduce or waive a menu tasting fee?

We were very lucky. Our caterers allowed a tasting before any deposit or agreeing to use them but that may be because there are 4 we can choose from for the venue so they need to sell themselves. We were allowed to take as many as we wanted but we could only pick a certain number of fishers so had to split it between us.

I think I would just put across how much you are spending with them and reinforce how important you feel the food is and how you want to feel confident with it. If you don't drink I would also make a point of this and request a discount if nothing else.

i would understand if they wanted you to pay for extra people though.

Hi Bamboo, I'm afraid I agree with the others and think it is really P taking that they are expecting you to pay for a tasting.

We had an afternoon dedicated to food and wine tasting (was fab) with 2 guests and didn't pay a penny extra. It should be part of the overall package. I would speak to the wedding manager and say you've done some research and am really surprised and disappointed you are being asked to pay for a tasting, and you want it complimentary. What do you have to lose by asking?

My venue does the tasting for half price but after speaking to people we know who have been to our venue we decided not to bother.

The reviews are amazing. Depends if you can be bothered or not.. I couldn't lol

Our venue doesn't actually offer menu tasting. We spoke to people who had either got married there or been to weddings there to hear what they said about the quality of the food before we booked.

WSS

I would go for the menu tasting, but think its cheeky to charge you for it . We ended up changing our menu that we picked after the menu tasting as some of the dishes were not what we were expecting if you know what I mean .

I am another surprised btb that you are having to pay full price for your menu tasting, that's just cheeky, what if you don't like it - are they going to charge you for another tasting?

We've not got to the point of menu tasting yet, but have tried some of the food at their open day and on our viewing, the chef is amazing and makes the most delicious homemade ice-cream and gave us breakfast!