Personal Touch Dining

Five months later, we’re still thinking about the food from our wedding. Personal Touch Dining was incredible. Incorporating my Korean heritage into our wedding was really important to me. I had always dreamed of serving galbi because Korean short ribs were something my mom made for my birthdays growing up. PTD completely embraced what we wanted to do. Their chefs worked with us to create a Korean-American menu with galbi, gochujang salmon, rice cake skewers (tteokbokki), japchae, galbi sliders, and a galbi bite on a crispy rice cake chip with kimchi aioli. They understood the assignment. After our first tasting, I had some pretty specific feedback on the galbi, and the chefs listened and worked with us to get it right. They absolutely nailed it. Members of my Korean family couldn’t believe the galbi hadn’t been made by a Korean chef. Ellen’s Midwestern family and our friends loved the food too. We heard “best food I’ve had at a wedding” multiple times that night and afterward. We went buffet style, and everything was executed beautifully. PTD was also fantastic about accommodating vegan, gluten-free, and other dietary needs without compromising flavor. They even let us bring our own wedding cake and Korean cream puffs, which helped us carry the Korean-American theme through dessert. Samantha was wonderful throughout the entire process. One of our favorite examples happened the morning of the wedding. Amazon failed to deliver the honey syrup for Ellen’s signature Bee’s Knees cocktail. Samantha and the PTD team stepped in, found it that morning, and made sure the cocktail happened as planned. Having someone simply take care of a problem like that on your wedding morning means a lot. Our tasting was also one of our favorite memories from wedding planning. We went with my family and our planner, Ann, and everyone was so warm and welcoming that it felt more like a great family dinner than an appointment. The day-of staff deserves a shoutout too. Everyone was incredibly kind and attentive. They checked in on us throughout the night, made sure we had what we needed, and genuinely made us feel cared for. We came to PTD with a lot of specific ideas, and they consistently figured out how to make them happen. The chefs, Samantha, and the entire team helped us create food that felt personal to our families while still being something all of our guests could enjoy. We couldn’t have asked for more and would recommend PTD without hesitation.

We had such a great experience with Personal Touch Dining for our wedding! We worked with Samantha, and from the beginning, she and her team were incredibly responsive, flexible, and accommodating throughout the entire planning process. We especially appreciated how customizable everything felt. We had a specific vision for our dinner and guest experience, and they were always willing to work with us on the menu, service, rentals, and all the little details rather than making us fit into a set package. On the wedding day, everything came together beautifully. Their team handled everything behind the scenes, the staff was attentive and professional, and most importantly, the food was delicious! We received so many compliments from our guests and were so happy with how everything turned out. We would absolutely recommend Personal Touch Dining!

I have used Personal Touch Dining as my caterer for the last three year for my kid's school gala and I honestly can't say enough great things about them. I work with Samantha and she is absolutely wonderful to work with. Samantha is kind, knowledgeable, detailed and gets things done quickly. She even follows up after the event to help me start planning the next one, even going so far as to assist me with finding the perfect venue for our events based on feedback from the last one. The day of event staff are all amazing. They know what they are doing, are kind and courteous to the attendees and always have happy faces. The team we've gotten the past few years have been fun and added to the overall success of the event with their jovial personalities and great customer service. They are willing to help with anything we need even if it isn't in their immediate scope. Finally, the food is top notch delicious. We always get compliments on how tasty it is and what a great variety we offer. They do a great job with the presentation as well and always tie into our theme. All in all, I highly recommend Personal Touch. You won't be disappointed.

From start to finish Personal Touch Dining went above and beyond with our wedding! The whole team is awesome. Our planner/coordinator Josie was amazing and our Day of Coordinator Brooke took care of everything for us on our day. We got married at Leo Carrillo Ranch in Carlsbad in August and it was beautiful. Everyone loved the food from the tray passed bites to the entrees and deserts, it was all amazing. Thank you all at PTD for everything. We will definitely recommend you to any friends/family getting married in the future.

Had a fantastic experience with Personal Touch Dining! My husband and I got married earlier this summer in Encinitas and used PTD for our catering needs, bartender services, cutlery, and various tablecloths/napkins. We completely customized our menu to infuse my mom’s Vietnamese recipes as well as my husband’s Chicago roots into our cocktail hour appetizers and main dish. The tasting was so yummy we even added one of the main entrees. We wanted to select our own bar selection so their package for services that came with the bartenders, ice, garnishes, and sodas/waters was perfect for us. They were very quick to respond throughout the whole process from first tasting to contracts to final layout (shoutout to Samantha). Would recommend them for your event needs!

From the beginning, Personal Touch made our experience finding and securing a caterer seamless. Samantha and Ailish were there every step of the way and answered any questions we had. The custom menu was one of our favorite things about Personal Touch, as it helped us create several cultural dishes that were important to our day. The staff during the wedding were professional and accommodating. We loved not having to worry about table and chair rentals, as Personal Touch took care of everything.

Amazing Food + An Incredible Team! We had such an incredible experience with Personal Touch Dining and could not recommend them more highly! From the very beginning, their entire team was incredibly responsive and helpful. Sam was EXCEPTIONAL, and she answered all of my questions so quickly and thoroughly explained everything! When time got closer, we also started working with Ailish to finalize the details and logistics, and she was equally exceptional and gave me so much confidence that PTD staff would think through all of the little details and logistics to make sure our wedding day went off without a hitch. That level of responsiveness and attention to detail made such a huge difference during the planning process, especially for such an important event like our wedding. The entire team on our wedding day was AMAZING. From the venue manager and chefs to the waitstaff, servers, and bartenders, everyone was so kind, attentive, and professional. Our guests were also constantly telling us how wonderful the staff was—how friendly and fun they were, how attentive they were, and how well taken care of they felt throughout the evening. It was clear that the entire team genuinely cared about making our wedding a great experience for us and our guests. And, of course, the FOOD was delectable! We loved that there were so many options and choices, which allowed us to really customize the menu to what we wanted. PTD also had fantastic substitute options for dietary restrictions, which made it easy to make sure all of our guests had plenty of delicious food to enjoy. We did a tasting and got to meet the chef, and it was such a joyous and wonderful experience, and you could tell how much detail and care they put into their food. One of the sweetest things PTD also did was pack up appetizers and meals for us to enjoy later because they knew we might not have much of a chance to eat during the wedding. That was such a thoughtful gesture and something we really appreciated! From the planning process to the food to the incredible service on our wedding day, Personal Touch Dining exceeded our expectations in every way. We are so grateful to their entire team and would absolutely recommend them to anyone planning a wedding!

Wow! The team at PTD is amazing. We worked with Ailish and Samantha. They accommodated last minute switches, 1000 emails from us asking questions about details, rental options, etc. Not to mention the food was so delicious and they had many options and met lots of different dietary restrictions. The cannoli bar! Oh my gosh. It was wonderful. We also got their rentals for our wedding and they were gorgeous and they had lots of options, too. We also got their bartending services which were very good. They were on time, responsive, and very pleasant to work with. Nothing went wrong and we can highly recommend for any couple looking for a stress-free catering experience for their wedding! Thanks again!

This review is long overdue, but we can’t say enough wonderful things about Personal Touch Dining! Choosing them for our wedding was one of the best decisions we made. From our first tasting to our wedding day, Samantha, Ashley, and their team were such a joy to work with and became such a big part of our wedding planning experience. They took the time to really listen to what we wanted and helped bring all of our ideas together, from our menu and dessert options to table design and furniture rentals. They were always so kind, patient, and responsive throughout the process, and helped us create something that felt so special while staying within our budget. On our wedding day, everything came together perfectly. The food was amazing, and our guests could not stop talking about how delicious everything was! We are so thankful to Samantha, Ashley, and the entire Personal Touch Dining team for all of the care and hard work they put into making our wedding day so special. We couldn’t recommend them more!!!

Our caterer was very good. They were able to accommodate a wide ethnic menu across multiple cultures. They were receptive to feedback at the tasting. All of our guests had good things to say about the food, which was important to us. Ailish and Samantha were very clear about what kind of tables, access and parking they needed at the venue and there wasn’t any miscommunication. They were able to accommodate last-minute requests. Overall everything went very smooth and was delicious.